“We’re state-capital experts,” Mia assures him.

Coach Pearlman twirls his pen between his fingers. “Good, because I don’t want another Birmingham-Montgomery mix-up.”

Owen’s face flushes. That was his mistake at our first meet of the year, but it just as easily could’ve been mine.

“We’re on it,” I say, and give Owen a reassuring smile.

There are seven members on the Quiz Bowl team. We’re a small but mighty bunch. A team, yeah, but we’re also competitive with one another because only three of us get to play at a time.

“Coach is just teasing you because you’re a good player and he knows you can take it,” I tell Owen.

“That and you royally messed up,” Mia teases. She tugs at the sleeves of her T-shirt. It’s made from this recyclable material that looks scratchy, but she keeps insisting it isn’t. Her squirming tells another story, though. Mia’s new thing this school year is she is only going to wear clothes that are sustainable. She also announced that she’s only going to wear natural deodorant, which, okay, cool, but I really didn’t need to know that. There’s only so much time you want to spend thinking about your friend’s armpits.

“Owen’s still the best there is at remembering the election year for all the presidents,” I say.

Mia gives me a funny look, her sharp blue eyes narrowing in a way that makes me think she knows my secret. The secret being that sometimes when I’m around Owen these days my stomach feels like a soda can that someone shook up. That’s another thing that’s new since summer.

“You’re right,” Mia finally says, and I let out a shallow breath of relief. If she knows at least she didn’t say anything in front of him.

“So how was your birthday?” Owen asks. He taps his new red Converse sneakers. Owen’s really into indie rock bands whose lead singers all wear Converse sneakers. His record collection is growing. Who even has a record player? Well, Owen does. He bought one at a garage sale last year.

The record collecting is a hobby that I don’t understand, but I wish I did. I even asked Grams to buy me a T-shirt of one of the bands he likes. It came in the mail a few weeks ago, but I haven’t worn it yet. I’m worried he’ll notice if I do. Or I’m worried he won’t notice. I don’t know.

Owen’s cool in a way that Mia and I definitely aren’t. He’s never mean about it, but people just like Owen. Mia and me are more of what Grams calls “an acquired taste.”

We’ve all been friends since second grade, when we got grouped together for a project about caterpillars. We made an awesome papier-mâché cocoon. Over the past couple of years, Mia and I have stayed hopelessly nerdy, and Owen has gotten, well, cooler. He has all these new friends that he talks about concerts and music blogs with. I was actually nervous he wouldn’t do Quiz Bowl, but I was glad when he proved he’s still got a lot of nerd left in him, too.