The Summer I Became a Nerd

#24

The sun is shining today, and I mean really shining, like burn-your-eyelashes-off shining. This is going to be one of those summer

days where no one steps away from the air conditioner unless it’s a life or death situation. I hope everyone will take this into

consideration later when I run around searching for people to help me in my quest. But first, I have to start with step one of the

“Make Logan Not Hate Me” plan.

I sit down on my bed and flip through the phone book until I find The Phoenix.

“Thanks for calling The Phoenix, what can I do for you?” Logan’s smooth voice makes my breath hitch in my throat.

I have to control the urge to ramble on with apologies and confessions. I put on my fake guy voice. “Could I speak to Martha

Scott, please?”

“She’s not in today. Can I take a message?” he says.

“No, I’ll just try another day.” I hang up. I picture him put the phone down and hunch back over the comic he’s reading, just

like he was the first day I walked into the shop. Except, this time there’s an evil, dark fairy sitting next to him, talking

smack about a certain cheerleader.

“Whatcha doing?” Mom asks from my bedroom door, bringing me back to Earth.

“Nothing. Actually, I was thinking of going over to Logan’s, if that’s okay.”

“Could you define ‘grounded’ for me because I do not think it means what you think it means.” She waves around a clean pair of

my socks to emphasize her point.

“But, Mom, I have to fix this. I’m not going to have fun, believe me. You said, ‘It’s all about how you treat people,’ right?

Well, I have a plan to at least apologize to Logan, but you have to let me out of the house.”

She looks at me for a minute. I can almost feel her mom-brain-tentacles digging through my thoughts, looking for a lie, but she’s

not going to find one because one isn’t there.

Finally, she comes over to me and puts her hands on my shoulders. She squeezes. Hard. “All right, but you go there and nowhere

else, understand?”

“Um, I might need to stop at a couple of other places, too.”

She hits me square on top of the head with the socks and sighs.

…

Vera’s face drops when she sees me at the door. She crosses her arms. “Logan’s not here.”

“Is your Mom?” I ask.

Martha comes around the corner and into the front entrance way of their house. “Vera, what have I told you about answering the

door.” She stops when she sees me, and I wonder if she’s going to tell me to stay the hell away from her son. Did he tell her

what happened? Did Eric actually follow through on his promise to “fix things” and come by to apologize?

A huge smile lights up her face, and I breathe a sigh of relief. “Hi, Maddie. Vera, go watch your show.”

Reluctantly, Vera goes into the living room, making sure to cast a scornful glance at me behind her mother’s back.

Martha holds the door open for me. “Come on in.”

I follow her into the kitchen. She sits at the dining table and shoves her husband’s paperwork to the end of it. I sit down

across from her. Now to begin the groveling.

“I just want to say I’m so sorry about what happened to Logan. I so did not intend for—”

She holds up a staying hand. “It’s all right, hon. You didn’t hit Logan. Besides, Eric apologized and explained the whole

thing. These kinds of things happen with men.”

“So, you know about the Eric debacle?”

She nods.

“And so does Logan?”

She nods, again.

“But he still thinks I’m ashamed of him.”

“You’re right. That’s exactly what he thinks.”

I close my eyes and bite my lip.

“But that’s not what’s going on now, is it?” When I open my eyes, she’s smiling that familiar smile. My heart leaps into my

throat.

“No, no, absolutely not. I mean, at first I was worried about my friends finding out about things, but then Logan made me realize

that—”

She reaches across the table to put a soft hand on mine, halting my rambling. “I understand, hon.”

I sigh out the words, “Thank you.”

“But as much as I understand what’s going on, Logan does not. Do you want him to?”

“Very much so. I was wondering if you could help me?” I straighten my back like I’m about to discuss a business agreement, a

merger of Guy’s Mom Inc. and The Potential Heartbreaker Company.

“What do you need?” I get the feeling she understands the seriousness of the situation, too, because she steeples her fingers

together and props her chin on them.

“Do you have copies of the books for LARP of Ages? I need to read up on it before the next game.”

Her eyes widen. “You plan on being involved in the next game?”

“Yep,” I say, then check myself. “Yes, ma’am. I want… I don’t know… I want to feel completely free to be me for once. I

want to get used to that feeling, too, because there’s no going back for me now. I don’t want to go back. Logan helped me see

that, and I want him to know it.”

She smiles. “Then just reading those books isn’t going to help much. You need someone to explain it all, to give you pointers.”

“But I kind of want to surprise Logan.”

“I wasn’t talking about him. I know more about this game than he’ll know after another ten years.” She grins mischievously. “

Go up to Logan’s room and get all the Ages books you see. There are about ten or fifteen. Bring them back down here, and we’ll

get started.” She claps her hands together, rattling the multitude of bracelets on her wrists. Like mother, like daughter.

“Thank you so much, Mrs. Scott.”

“Call me Martha.”

My smile stays on the whole way up the stairs and down the hall until I’m standing in front of Logan’s door. I push it open

slowly and take a look around like he might jump out of a corner. When I’m convinced he isn’t here, I try to take everything in

as thoroughly as possible. His posters, his computer desk, his collection of Star Wars bobble heads. I try to burn it all onto my

memory just in case this plan of mine doesn’t work.

I’m almost at the bookshelf when I glance at his bedside table. There’s my notebook. On top of it is a green pen. Has he been

writing in my book? That has to be a good sign, right? I run over to it, but a voice from the open door stops me from snatching it

up.

“Logan is mad at you,” Vera says, arms still crossed.

“I know, but I want to say I’m sorry.” I attempt a small smile.

“Then, why don’t you just tell him?”

“Because I don’t think he’ll talk to me. And I want to do something that might be even better than saying sorry.”

“Do you really like him?” She puts her hands on her hips.

“I really, really like him.”

“Wow, that’s a lot. Okay, I’ll help, but only because Logan still really, really likes you, too.”

“Really? Did he say that?” I know I’m asking a seven-year-old to confirm Logan’s feelings are still there, but I don’t know

of anyone more brutally honest than a little kid.

“Yep.”

“Those exact words?”

“Gah, yes! ‘I really, really like her.’ That’s what he said when him and Dan were over here and Logan was being all mopey and

Dan asked him why he was even still thinking about you. Now I know what Dan is talking about all the time. High school girls are

seriously crazy.”

Happiness seems to rise from my toes, seeping into every cell of my body, all the way up to my brain. “Yep. We’re all bonkers.”

As Vera and I carry the books downstairs, I regret not looking to see what Logan wrote in my book, but I’m not going to push my

luck. I got Vera to at least be okay with me. I’m not going to risk that by rifling through her brother’s belongings even if

said belonging is technically mine.

We drop the stacks of books on the dining room table. Vera and I sit down and each pick out a book to flip through. I try to read

from the beginning of one, but it turns out to be just a story about a fairy and a vampire who are in love. I turn a few more

pages to get to the rules and stuff, but there are only descriptions of powers and how they relate to other powers. After only a

couple of minutes, I’m just plain confused.

As Martha sets a pitcher of lemonade and some glasses on the table, Vera leans toward me to whisper, “This stuff is weird.”

“I know, totally weird,” I whisper back.

“It won’t be weird when I’m done,” Martha says. “You just have to look at it like an interactive movie or play. The basic

plot points are already made up by the game master, and you get to figure things out. Which reminds me, what happened at the last

game?”

I tell her everything about the bad things going on in town and that my character’s special knowledge about other races or

whatever it’s called told me it’s probably a dark fairy doing all of it.

When I’m finished, she stares at the ceiling for a moment before picking up the phone that’s been resting on the table between

us. She dials a number.

“Is Tommy there? Hello, Tommy, this is Martha. I have a player here that needs to know how many experience points she got for

participating in the first game.”

Tommy’s answer does not make her happy. “No, two points can’t be right. She’s the one who found out that juicy tidbit about it

being a dark fairy. I doubt anyone else had the Race Knowledge skill set.” She pauses, then, “Three? Need I remind you I only

order the Grimore and the Infinites comic because you can’t live without it? I think five would be the correct reward for such a

studious action.”

Another pause. “Low blow or not, I still hold the ordering form. Besides, do you want this next game to be mind-blowing or not?”

I know he’s given in when she bounces in her seat and smiles. “You won’t be sorry, Tommy. And expect more calls from me. I’ll

be needing some plot specifics if I need to run a scene.” She pours some lemonade as Tommy responds. “Yes, I know I haven’t

done the game master thing in a while, but my membership is still valid. Don’t worry, I’ll be very conservative with the

experience points.” She winks at me then says good-bye to Tommy.

“Did you just blackmail the game master?”

She shrugs. “A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.”

She opens the thickest book out of both stacks and thumbs through the pages, quickly finding the spot she’s looking for. She

turns it around and the words “Dark Fae” stare back at me in big, bold gothic letters.

“By the way, there was something else I wanted to talk to you about.” I hope she’s going to like the rest of my plan.