Before I knew it, Wes was taking me home, him pretending not to notice that I was staining his leather seat with my sweaty bum, me pretending not to notice that he wasn’t taking any notes and probably wasn’t going to remember much of what he learned today biology-wise, and that the writing of the paper was going to land on me probably, mostly. But it was fine! The arrangement seemed to have worked for both of us. Nobody was complaining. And we did make progress, after all—with both studies and sports.

“Same time tomorrow?” he asked when he stopped his car in my driveway.

I looked at him, catching myself thinking that I really enjoyed hanging out with him and that I didn't want to part. He wasn’t at all what I expected. He was cute, fun, and considerate. And even though his obsession with sports was entirely too much, he was still a great guy. I would have asked him to come in, but he had the thing with his parents to go to. And I didn't want to be a barnacle, so I said instead, “Mind if we ditch the car and just go on our bikes tomorrow? You'll get the same amount of cardio, but we'll get to the reservoir faster. More time to observe and take notes.”

“Is it, the same amount of cardio?” he asked, surprised.

I raised my eyebrows. “Do you want me to do the math for you, too, as well as biology?”

He chuckled. “All right, we'll go on our bikes. And I'm gonna take my notebook with me, I promise. I'm not a slacker, despite what you might think. I'm ready to do my part.”

I opened the door and got out. “I'll believe it when I see it.”

“Hey, Torrence?” he stopped me.

I bent down to look at him. He stretched his fist toward me over the passenger seat, offering me to fist-bump him. I don’t think I fist-bumped anyone in my life. I guess there’s a first time for everything. I did fist-bump him, much slower, I think, and a lot softer than his teammates would have. It was the most non-fist-bumpy fist-bump I've ever seen—but he didn’t seem to mind, his eyes glued to mine.

“I didn’t think I was gonna enjoy a biology class assignment as much as I did,” he said. “But it was really fun. See you tomorrow!”