f o r e v e r | lab rats | *EDITING*

c h a p t e r 4 ; leo's jam

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I'll be the first to admit I've never been to a school dance before, and I'm not ashamed of it. Dances are not my thing, men in general are not my thing. My thing is Dylan O'Brien and nothing ever has or will change my mind about that fact. And yet, here I am at school with the boys, forced to endure the general embarrassment of watching Leo fail absolutely every simple thing in existence.

"Guys, with the dance coming up, I thought you could use a lesson on how to ask a lady out," Leo says.

"Oh, great," replies Adam. "Do you know a guy who can teach us?"

Yeah, that gets a laugh out of Chase and I.

"Me!" Leo exclaims. "You're gonna watch me ask out the girl of my dreams: Danielle."

As the aforementioned girl struts past us with her friends, he makes his usual cringy heart eyes.

"Danielle?"

"Isn't she the girl who uses you as a footstool in math class?" I ask.

"Where else is she supposed to put her feet—on the floor?!"

"That's generally what the floor is used for, yes."

"Whatever. Open your notebooks, boys, 'cause class is in session."

As he walks over to where the tall blonde has sat down, I lean against the lockers. "I bet you both ten bucks she forgets his name," I proclaim to the remaining boys.

"You're on," Chase agrees.

"Hello, Danielle. Do you know how much a polar bear weighs? Enough to break the ice. I'm Leo Dooley."

"Didn't you send me 87 emails?" she asks.

"Yeah. That was a slow day."

"Okay, well, see you later, Lenny."

She offers him a smile, places her back over her shoulder, and walks away, leaving him staring after her helplessly. "It's Leo, by the way," he calls.

"Pay up," I command the boys, holding a hand out. They both groan, Chase handing me a ten dollar bill.

"Uh, I only have a twenty," Adam says. "Can you break that?"

"Nope." I pluck the money out of his hand and pocket it as Leo marches back over.

"So, Leo...What should I write down in my notebook?" Chase mocks. "I mean, other than 'denied'."

"No, no, no, you can cheat off of me. I have, 'she's not going to the dance with Lenny.'," Adam responds, showing his brothers and I his notebook.

As if she could detect my reluctance to continue this conversation, Bree eventually joins us. "Are you guys talking about the dance too?" she asks in annoyance. "Why is everybody making such a big deal out of this stupid dance?"

"Nobody's asked you yet, have they?"

"No! I really wanna go with that guy. His name is Ethan. We sit next to each other in chemistry. Coincidence? I think not. Chemistry! What should I do?"

"I got this."

At his own words, Chase moves a bit closer to Ethan and his friend, enough to avoid being noticed, and presses two fingers to his temple. "He's talking about a girl he thinks is cute," he tells us, then pauses to continue listening. "Ooh! He's talking about you! He's coming over here right now to ask you to the dance."

Bree looks to me for help, panic overtaking her. "What?! No! Now? Why? Really?"

"Calm down," I say gently.