Revenge of the Geek by Piper Banks

though it was a lie, my dad’s bright smile made me think it was worth it. And who knew? Maybe five hours stuck in a car with Peyton would bring us closer together. It certainly wouldn’t kill me.
    I glanced over at my stepmother. She was pretending to nibble on the stalk of asparagus without actually letting it pass over her lips. Peyton felt the weight of my stare and she turned her cold, pale eyes on me. They narrowed with dislike.
    Yeesh , I thought, as a shiver passed over me. Or maybe five hours in the car together wouldn’t bring us closer. Maybe it would kill me.
    Chapter Nine

    “I ’m not coming to lunch,”Charlie announced.
    We were standing at our lockers. I’d just stuffed my backpack into my locker and slammed the door shut behind it before any of the random stuff inside—books, notebooks, a spare sweater, a Frisbee that Finn had tossed to me in the hallway last year and I kept forgetting to give back to him—could fall out.
    “What do you mean, you’re not coming to lunch?”I asked, turning to her in surprise. Charlie’s cheeks were flushed, and she was rocking back and forth from her toes to her heels. Charlie was manic-depressive, and this sort of nervous energy was always a sign that she was entering into a manic phase. “You have to eat.”
    “I’m not hungry,”Charlie said. “And I want to paint.”
    “You have an art period after lunch. Paint then,”I said.
    “No, I want to work straight through.”
    “Why?”I asked.
    “Because I had an epiphany last night,”Charlie announced. “At Grounded.”
    “You had an epiphany at the coffee shop?”
    “Yes, why?”
    “It just doesn’t seem like the sort of place you’d go to have a spiritual realization,”I said.
    “I didn’t go there in order to have a spiritual realization. I went there to have a decaf latte and do my physics homework,”Charlie said. “But then I ran into Finn.”
    “Really? He must have gone there straight from my house,”I said. “Funny he didn’t mention it. But, then, he was probably too busy scarfing down pizza. He had a large pepperoni pizza delivered to the beach house, and ate the whole thing himself.”
    Charlie looked at me. “Wait. Why was Finn ordering pizza to your house yesterday?”
    “He was there helping Hannah set up a Web site for her new matchmaking business. Don’t ask.”
    “No, I think I’m going to need more details about that,”Charlie said.
    “We’ll get back to it. First, tell me about your epiphany. And hurry. I’m starving,”I said.
    “Okay. So Finn came in and sat at my table, and we actually had a really good talk.”
    I gave a disbelieving snort. When Finn and Charlie were together, he tormented her and she insulted him. It was probably the main reason they’d never gotten together.
    “No, really. We actually talked. A real conversation. It was nice for a change,”Charlie said.
    I leaned against my locker. “What did you talk about? Did you tell him how you feel about him?”
    “Of course not,”Charlie said, dismissively waving one hand. “Finn was telling me about a book he’s been reading called The Art of War . It was written by some military genius two thousand years ago, and is apparently still the definitive treatise on battlefield strategies.”
    “I don’t think Finn should be allowed to read books on strategic warfare. It can’t lead to anything good,”I said.
    “I would normally agree, but it was actually really interesting. And Finn was so normal when he was talking to me about it. And I don’t even mean normal for him. I mean he was acting like a normal person in general. He even bought me a coffee, which he never does. It was almost like we were—”Charlie stopped abruptly and pressed her lips together.
    “It was almost like you were on a date?”I asked sympathetically.
    Charlie gave a half nod and a shrug, which I took as a big yes.
    “So, what happened?”
    “Phoebe showed up. She and Finn had plans, which he had, of course,