At lunch Nate sat alone again. Just once, he looked over at the table where Larry and a bunch of his other old friends— Tom and Travis and Pete—were trading sandwiches, laughing about something or other. For a second there, he thought he saw Larry look back at him, with an expression that could have been regret.

Nate knew he’d have to talk to Naomi, of course, now that they were forced into being partners. He just wasn’t in any rush. Only there she was, standing over his table, holding tight to her tray, with an orange rolling around on it. “Okay if I sit down?” she asked.

“It’s a free country.”

“So it looks like we’re going to be partners on the science project, huh?” She tried to steady her tray while she pulled a chair out.

“Seems that way.” He was making a point of studying his milk carton. How was a person ever going to be any good at constructing a science fair project when she couldn’t even figure out that a round object on a flat cafeteria tray was likely to roll onto the floor? Which it did.

Naomi got down on her hands and knees to retrieve her orange. One table over, Pauline Calhoun and a bunch of her cheerleader friends giggled.

“So maybe we should talk about ideas,” she said, finally seating herself across from him and fumbling to fix the garter on her stocking. “I was thinking we could get together at the library or something after school.”

“I’m busy after school.”

She wasn’t giving up. “The thing is, I guess we’re supposed to have our proposal ready real soon. I get the feeling we might be in big trouble if we don’t.”

Big trouble. Like not getting your science fair proposal in on time was trouble. He knew what real trouble was, and from the looks of things, Naomi probably did too.

“I just don’t want to get some really bad grade,” she said. “My dad gives me a hard enough time as it is.”

Whatever her story was, Nate didn’t feel like asking. He wished she’d just leave him alone. Already, he could tell, kids were looking at the two of them. Next thing you knew, they’d be saying she was his girlfriend.

As Naomi peeled her orange he could see that she must bite her fingernails. The skin around the tips of her fingers was red, and the nails were really short.

“I know you don’t want to work with me,” she told him. “And you probably think I’m a jerk. But you might be surprised. I could end up being a better partner than you think.”

That stopped him. When a person put themselves on the line like that, he figured they had a right to an answer.