“Hey, Melbourne.”

I turned and found Trey Juarez approaching, a grin on his tanned face. He was a senior like me and had picked up the Melbourne nickname after one of our teachers proved incapable of remembering Melrose. Honestly, with all these names, it was a wonder I knew who I was anymore.

“Hey, Trey,” I said. Trey was a bona fide high school football star—but also pretty brainy, no matter how much he tried to hide it. We got along well as a result, and my help in restoring his athletic status last month had gone a long way to raise my stock in his eyes. A backpack hung on one of his shoulders. “Are you finally going to finish that chem lab write-up?”

“Yup,” he said. “Me and half the cheerleading squad. You want to join us?”

I rolled my eyes. “Somehow I doubt there’ll be much work going on. Besides, I’m meeting Eddie.”

Trey gave an easy shrug and brushed some unruly black hair out of his eyes. “Your loss. See you tomorrow.” He took a couple of steps and then glanced back at me. “Hey, are you dating anyone?”

I immediately started to say no, and then a panicked thought occurred to me. I had a tendency to take things very literally. Friends of mine here, Kristin and Julia, had been trying to train me up in the subtleties of high school social life. One of their chief lessons was that what people said wasn’t always what they meant—particularly in romantic matters.

“Are you… are you asking me out?” I asked, taken aback. This was the last thing I needed right now. How should I respond? Should I say yes? Should I say no? I’d had no idea helping him with chemistry homework would be so alluring. I should’ve made him do it on his own.

Trey looked as startled by the thought as I was. “What? No. Of course not.”

“Thank God,” I said. I liked Trey, but I had no interest in dating him—or figuring out what the appropriate way to say “no” would be.

He shot me a wry look. “You don’t have to look that relieved.”

“Sorry,” I said, trying to mask my embarrassment. “Why’d you ask?”

“Because I know the perfect guy for you. I’m pretty sure he’s your soul mate.”

We were back in familiar territory now: logic vs. lack of logic. “I don’t believe in soul mates,” I said. “It’s statistically unreasonable that there’s only one ideal person for everyone in the world.” And yet, for half a moment, I wished it was kind of possible. It’d be nice to have someone who understood some of the things that went on in my head.

Trey rolled his eyes. “Okay. Not a soul mate. How about just someone you could maybe go out with once in a while and have a nice time with?”

I shook my head. “I don’t have time for anything like that.” And I didn’t. Keeping everything in order with the group, and pretending to be a student, was a full time job as it was.