It was already the middle of January, and we still hadn’t even chosen what science-fair project we were going to work on. I guess I kept putting it off because I just didn’t want to do it. Finally, August was like, “Dude, we have to do this.” So we went to his house after school. I was really nervous because I didn’t know if August had ever told his parents about what we now called the Halloween Incident. Turns out the dad wasn’t even home and the mom was out running errands. I’m pretty sure from the two seconds I’d spent talking to her that Auggie had never mentioned a thing about it. She was super cool and
friendly toward me.
When I first walked into Auggie’s room, I was like, “Whoa, Auggie, you have got a serious Star Wars addiction.”
He had ledges full of Star Wars miniatures, and a huge The Empire Strikes Back poster on his wall.
“I know, right?” he laughed.
He sat down on a rolling chair next to his desk and I plopped down on a beanbag chair in the corner. That’s when his dog waddled into the room right up to me.
“He was on your holiday card!” I said, letting the dog sniff my hand.
“She,” he corrected me. “Daisy. You can pet her. She doesn’t bite.”
When I started petting her, she basically just rolled over onto her back.
“She wants you to rub her tummy,” said August.
“Okay, this is the cutest dog I’ve ever seen,” I said, rubbing her stomach.
“I know, right? She’s the best dog in the world. Aren’t you, girlie?”
As soon as she heard Auggie’s voice say that, the dog started wagging her tail and went over to him.
“Who’s my little girlie? Who’s my little girlie?” Auggie was saying as she licked him all over the face.
“I wish I had a dog,” I said. “My parents think our apartment’s too
small.” I started looking around at the stuff in his room while he turned on the computer. “Hey, you’ve got an Xbox 360? Can we play?”
“Dude, we’re here to work on the science-fair project.” “Do you have Halo?”
“Of course I have Halo.” “Please can we play?”
He had logged on to the Beecher website and was now scrolling down Ms. Rubin’s teacher page through the list of science-fair projects. “Can you see from there?” he said.
I sighed and went to sit on a little stool that was right next to him. “Cool iMac,” I said.
“What kind of computer do you have?”
“Dude, I don’t even have my own room, much less my own computer. My parents have this ancient Dell that’s practically dead.”
“Okay, how about this one?” he said, turning the screen in my direction so I would look. I made a quick scan of the screen and my eyes literally started blurring.
“Making a sun clock,” he said. “That sounds kind of cool.” I leaned back. “Can’t we just make a volcano?”
“Everyone makes volcanoes.”
“Duh, because it’s easy,” I said, petting Daisy again.
“What about: How to make crystal spikes out of Epsom salt?” “Sounds boring,” I answered. “So why’d you call her Daisy?”
He didn’t look up from the screen. “My sister named her. I wanted to call her Darth. Actually, technically speaking, her full name is Darth Daisy, but we never really called her that.”
“Darth Daisy! That’s funny! Hi, Darth Daisy!” I said to the dog, who rolled onto her back again for me to rub her tummy.
“Okay, this one is the one,” said August, pointing to a picture on the screen of a bunch of potatoes with wires poking out of them. “How to build an organic battery made of potatoes. Now, that’s cool. It says here you could power a lamp with it. We could call it the Spud Lamp or something. What do you think?”
“Dude, that sounds way too hard. You know I suck at science.” “Shut up, you do not.”
“Yeah I do! I got a fifty-four on my last test. I suck at science!”
“No you don’t! And that was only because we were still fighting and I wasn’t helping you. I can help you now. This is a good project, Jack. We’ve got to do it.”
“Fine, whatever.” I shrugged.
Just then there was a knock on the door. A teenage girl with long dark wavy hair poked her head inside the door. She wasn’t expecting to see me.
“Oh, hey,” she said to both of us.
“Hey, Via,” said August, looking back at the computer screen. “Via, this is Jack. Jack, that’s Via.”
“Hey,” I said, nodding hello.
“Hey,” she said, looking at me carefully. I knew the second Auggie said my name that he had told her about the stuff I had said about him. I could tell from the way she looked at me. In fact, the way she looked at me made me think she remembered me from that day at Carvel on Amesfort Avenue all those years ago.
“Auggie, I have a friend I want you to meet, okay?” she said. “He’s coming over in a few minutes.”
“Is he your new boyfriend?” August teased.
Via kicked the bottom of his chair. “Just be nice,” she said, and left the room.
“Dude, your sister’s hot,” I said. “I know.”
“She hates me, right? You told her about the Halloween Incident?” “Yeah.”
“Yeah, she hates me or yeah, you told her about Halloween?” “Both.”
