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roommate, Jake, was also a lacrosse player. Dex seemed to like him well enough, but I didn’t get the sense that they were close. Dex leaned closer to his computer and, keeping his voice low, he said, “Can I tell you something?”
    “Of course. You can tell me anything. Well, almost anything. Just as long as it doesn’t have anything to do with vomit. Just hearing someone else talk about throwing up always makes me want to hurl,”I said. “I also don’t deal well with body piercings, especially in the nose.”
    “No, this isn’t vomit or piercing related,”Dex said.
    “Then shoot.”
    “I think coming here might have been a mistake,”he said.
    I couldn’t help the surge of hopefulness that bubbled up inside me. Maybe Dex would decide to leave boarding school and come back home to Orange Cove! But almost as soon as this thought popped into my mind, I tried to will it away. “I think it’s totally normal to go through an adjustment period. Give it time. I’m sure it will get better,”I said.
    “I guess,”Dex said, looking unconvinced.
    “I thought you said you liked the guys on your team.”
    “I do. They’re pretty cool for the most part.”Dex shrugged the subject away. “Anyway, let’s talk about something else. Tell me about your day. How was being back at school? Is the brainpower still running at warp speed?”
    I’d always been a little uncomfortable talking about the genius factor at Geek High with anyone who didn’t go there. Even Dex. It seemed braggy, as though I were waving my arms in the air and announcing, “Look at me! I’m a genius!”The truth was that next to some of my classmates, I felt completely ordinary.
    “Pretty much the same as always,”I said. Then, remembering Nora, I added, “Although there is a new girl in my class. I felt so bad for her. She seemed really shy and nervous, and Felicity Glen was being horrible to her.”
    “Yeah, it sucks to be the new kid in school,”Dex said.
    “No one’s being horrible to you, are they?”I asked. It was easy to see why Nora would have a tough time—she was so shy and awkward. Dex was just the opposite. He was so outgoing and funny and laid-back, it was impossible to imagine anyone not liking him.
    “Nah. It’s just harder when you don’t really know anyone. I’ve known most of my Orange Cove friends since kindergarten. We know each other’s families; know the same inside jokes. When you’re the new kid, it’s just completely different. You’re always playing catch-up,”Dex explained.
    I hated the thought of Dex feeling like an outsider, and wondered if Nora felt the same way.
    Probably, I thought. I should make more of an effort to befriend her. Even if she was, as Finn said, a bit odd.
    “How’s Bumblebee?”Dex asked. Bumblebee was his nickname for my car. “Have you gotten rid of the smell yet?”
    It was true. My car did smell. It was an unpleasant odor, a mixture of fast-food grease and body odor. It had been there when my dad first gave it to me a few weeks earlier, and I’d hoped that, over time, it would dissipate. But if anything, rather than going away, the stink just got stronger.
    “No. I sprayed down the interior with two bottles of Lysol, but it didn’t make a dent,”I said.
    “Lysol? That’s not going to cut it with a stink like that. You need some sort of industrial-strength smell cleanser,”Dex said. He laughed, and I was glad to see that his smile was now reaching his eyes.
    “Where would I find something like that?”I asked.
    “I don’t know. Is there a toxic-waste cleaning service in Orange Cove? Maybe they could help,”Dex suggested.
     

    After I got off Skype, I was feeling out of sorts. I missed Dex. And hearing that he was considering leaving school and returning home just made it that much worse. As much as I missed him and wanted him to come back, his scholarship to the Brown Academy really was too good of an opportunity for him to pass up.
    I shut my laptop and headed off to