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“Mmm hm,” Ryan answers, cereal in his mouth.
But why is his father asking? To test him about how a forensic team travels? Or are his parents going to drive by the high school parking lot while he’s away?
He’s been planning to take his truck to meet Avery. Now he feels he can’t. Just in case.
—
Once again, heis waiting for Mr. Castor when he arrives at his office before the morning bell.
“Is there a bus?” Ryan asks his teacher. “If there is, I think I need to come.”
Mr. Castor looks amused. “Is this your way of officially joining the team?”
“I guess it is,” Ryan says. “As long as I can sneak away.”
—
Neither Ryan norAvery has ever been to Bluff Lake, where the tournament is being held. It’s actually closer to Avery than Kindling, but still more than halfway.
I did some research,Avery texts Ryan over lunch.There’s a donut shop.
—
Before he boardsthe bus, Ryan lets Alicia know what he’s doing.
“You realize I could have just driven you, right?” she points out.
But Ryan doesn’t want her to have to be his waiting chauffeur. He knows she’d be willing. But he also wants this relationship with Avery to be something that doesn’t depend on everyone else. He wants to do at least part of it himself.
He tries to explain this to Alicia. She, in turn, tries to understand.
—
Ryan has noidea if he knows anyone on the forensics team. It’s not something he’s ever paid any attention to.
They’re taking a bus like all the other buses in front of the school; Ryan would have been confused if Mr. Castor hadn’t been standing by the correct bus’s door.
“Remember,” Mr. Castor says when he walks over, “if anyone asks, you’re coming for a trial run, to see how it works before starting next week.”
Ryan nods. “Got it.”
“And then you start next week.”
Ryan nods again and gets on the bus.
There aren’t that many kids inside, and most of the faces are familiar. These are the honors track kids, and a lot of them are what Alicia would call “not bad.” (As in: “Callie’s a bitch, but Rebecca’s not bad.”) With a slight heart pound, he sees that Kim Davis is on the bus; her mom is friendly with his mom, and it is entirely possible that this bus ride could come up in their conversation at some point. Base, covered.
Ryan sees that Ben Samuels has taken a seat a little farther back than the rest of the team, but still a few rows from the actual end of the bus. Ryan takes the seat across from him.
Ben looks up from his phone for a second and asks, “Are you on the right bus?” It isn’t sarcastic. He genuinely thinks Ryan has walked onto the wrong bus.
Ryan repeats the explanation that Mr. Castor providedhim.
“Oh. Okay,” Ben Samuels says. Then he goes back to his phone, and Ryan is invisible again.
It doesn’t even occur to Ryan to wish there were someoneon the bus he could turn to and say,Hey, I’m here because I’m heading on a sixth date with this boy who may or may not be my boyfriend.These are his classmates, but they know him about as well as a random group of people on a bus would. And they are even less curious than strangers on a bus.
—
