This Is My Brain on Boys Read Free Page A

thesis. At that point, the headmaster and I decide whether to endorse this project.”
    The trial presentation was scheduled for that afternoon, and the truth was, they weren’t even close to finished. They still had one more experiment to run, the make-or-break test that would determine whether they could duplicate the results of previous experiments. It was totally nail biting.
    Dex had been at the Academy all summer refining the project, but Addie had been allowed to return now onlybecause her father and his new wife, Jillian, were taking the twins on a one-month tour of Europe. Not that they’d even considered asking her to come along—even as a free au pair.
    â€œAt least your parents are involved in your life,” she told 11B. “If I didn’t take care of my twin sisters, my father probably wouldn’t notice if I fell off the face of the earth. Not that such a thing would be possible, seeing as how the earth doesn’t have a face and, of course, because of gravity.”
    He laughed again. “You’re pretty funny, you know that?” He took advantage of his position to tie his sneaker laces. “Wish I met you last semester instead of . . .”
    She waited.
    He said nothing, just switched to the other shoe to redo those laces, too.
    â€œInstead of what?” she asked.
    He sat up and looked around. “Instead of . . .” He paused. “I didn’t know anyone and I was a junior-year transfer student. . . .”
    â€œYou should resume the crash position,” Addie said, as the smoke grew thicker. “We’re about to make contact.”
    He lowered his head, his dark curls falling over his face and obscuring his features so she couldn’t see his expression. Not that this was an obstacle. When it came to reading body language, Addie was the first to admit that she sucked.
    â€œAnyway,” he said, “I ended up doing things I shouldn’t have done, so I’m going back for summer school. To atone for past sins.”
    Sin was such an odd word. Academy 355 was strictly secular, not Catholic like Gonzaga or Episcopalian like St. Paul’s. Those “things he shouldn’t have done” must have been really, really bad. “Did you kill someone?”
    He turned to her and furrowed his brows. “No.”
    â€œSteal an item valued at over three thousand dollars, such as a late-model car?”
    â€œGrand theft auto? Yeah, I don’t think so.”
    â€œTorture an animal?”
    â€œ Me? I’d be the last person to hurt an animal. That’s why I gave away that key chain.”
    He opened his brown eyes wide. Addie noted that his lashes were freakishly long and curled up at the edges.
    â€œThen,” she said, “I hardly see why you have to make amends.”
    â€œLet’s put it this way: if I don’t, there’s a place reserved for me at a certain all-boys military school in Colorado.” He exhaled. “All. Boys. How frightening is that?”
    â€œDepends on who’s going. My best friend, Tess, would love it.”
    For some reason, that, too, made him laugh. Though it was true. Despite—or perhaps because of—her vegan actor liberal parents, Tess was instantly attracted to boys with an overabundance of militarized patriotism and apenchant for buzz cuts. Case in point, her ROTC boyfriend, Ed.
    â€œHow about you?” 11B said. “Ever have an existential crisis?”
    â€œNot per se,” she said slowly, playing with the strap on her sandal. “But that’s because I realized that existence was overrated. Like reality, it is nothing more than the result of our brain’s ability to process stimuli.”
    â€œIn other words, you think existence is only what you perceive?” He had to shout to be heard above the flaps that were being lowered with a loud groan.
    There was no way to answer this without launching into a long and detailed