“Diarrhea?” I challenged. “You thinkdiarrheais cute?”
Cooper shrugged like he knew better than to answer.
“It’s like they want me to fail,” I said.
“They don’t even know you’re trying,” Cooper said.
“Are you defending them?”
“I’m just saying it’s not malicious.”
“You don’t know that,” I said.
“Mr. Dunn wasn’t sabotaging you. He’s just clueless.”
“That’s the point. Everybody’s clueless. This isn’t working.”
“It’s only day two,” Cooper pointed out.
But I was shaking my head. “Something has to change. These old neighbors need to stop seeing me as a nose-picking little kid with poopy pants.” My brain scanned its options frantically, and then, in a eureka moment of pure brilliance, it landed on something.
I stopped sprint-walking and turned to face Cooper—the wind whipping my loose hair all around.
“What?” Cooper asked warily.
“I’ve got it,” I said.
Why was Cooper so good at predicting my shenanigans? “I don’t like that look on your face,” he said.
“Yes,” I conceded. “Itwillrequire a small favor from you. But it’s absolutely no biggie in the grand scheme of things.”
Cooper narrowed his eyes. “What’s the favor?”
I pinched my fingers together to give him a visual of something tinier than tiny. “I just need sixty seconds of your time.”
“Sixty seconds of my time,” Cooper repeated, “doing what?”
But now I wasn’t sure how to frame it.
“Doing… something that’ll help me change my image.”
Cooper was already shaking his head.
I pushed on. “Something that’ll make it clear to the whole ship that I am a grown-ass adult.”
He closed his eyes and kept shaking.
“Something that could turn Operation Conquest around.”
At that, Cooper let out a long sigh, like he knew he was already doomed.
“What is it?” he asked, opening those ocean-blue eyes. “What do I have to do?”
I took both of his hands and clasped them in mine, stepping closer and angling underneath him so I could look pleading and puppyish.
And then I said, “I’m gonna need you… to give me one of Harmony’s love bites.”
AT THE TERMHarmony’s love bites, Cooper froze—like he could not have heard what he thought he’d just heard.
