The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth - Alexandra Robbins [70]
“Well, you’re just going to have to bust your ass next quarter then,” Ms. Pierce answered.
Blue paused. Something wasn’t adding up. “Wait . . . what? Wouldn’t I be missing a half credit?”
“No, you get the credits at the end of the year. We average your two semester grades.”
Blue’s mind was blown. The panic that had swirled his thoughts, immobilizing him for weeks, was based on a fallacy. As he digested the counselor’s words, he breathed, “I thought my whole life would be determined by this one stupid quarter. My mom’s been telling me that this entire time.”
“You thought that the whole time?!” Ms. Pierce asked, astounded.
That night, Blue decided to buy himself a blank keyboard. He could use a clean slate, a fresh motivation for productivity. A blank keyboard would force him to improve his typing because even if he looked down, the keys would be empty. As Ms. Collins told him so often, he could be disciplined when he wanted to be.
ONE AFTERNOON, BLUE DROVE Ty and Stewart to the beach. Midday it was too crowded, hot, and overrun with tourists, but by late afternoon, the beach emptied and the air cooled. Ty and Stewart grumbled as Blue led them on a half-mile walk to his favorite spot, a stretch of ocean that was mostly sandbar and shallow for dozens of yards in. The boys floated on their backs in the water, listening to a local band playing on shore.
When the sun began to set, Blue tapped Ty on the shoulder. “Look out to the horizon.”
“Wha? Why?”
“Shut up and look.”
Exasperated, Ty turned and looked. “Holyyy wowww.”
“That’s why we walked out this far,” Blue said. The sky faded into blended bands of orange and purple. The water, stilled as if it were watching too, reflected a warm amaranth red. Swimmers in the distance turned to shadow.
“Blue, I think I’m going to stop making fun of you,” Ty said.
On the way back to town, as Stewart plodded behind them, complaining about the walk, out of nowhere Ty called out, “So what do we do now, best friend?”
Did he really just say that? Blue thought, beaming. Nobody’s ever called me that before. He said later, “For so long nobody knew I existed. I felt relieved, like maybe I don’t need to keep thinking of excuses for being subpar anymore.”
The following week, Ty broke up with a girlfriend who had caused too much drama. He told Blue he wanted to start his life over, beginning with the purchase of an Xbox.
Blue scanned Ty’s room. It was disgusting. Whenever Blue made a major purchase, he liked to clean his already pristine room so that he could display his new gear in a suitably reverent setting. As Blue surveyed the piles of garbage on the floor and the moldy plates hanging out of desk drawers, he thought he could help his new best friend start with a clean slate, too.
He turned to Ty. “Can I clean your room?”
“What? Seriously?”
“Yeah. I mean, when was the last time you slept in your bed?” Mounds of trash, including petrified food, hid whatever linens lay beneath.
“Three years ago.”
“WHAT?!”
Ty explained that he slept on the living room floor.
Blue began with cable management, using cable ties to neaten the wires around the computer that he had built for Ty last year. Ty watched Blue, reminiscing about the items that Blue pulled off the desk. After six hours and three giant trash bags, Blue wiped down the desk and shelves with tile cleaner, the only solvent he could find in the house. Now that I’ve finally found someone willing to listen, I can’t wait to teach him stuff, Blue thought. Really, he had already begun. Earlier that week, he had taught Ty how to speedboard—bombing hills and making turns as quickly as possible on a low longboard. Speedboarding was difficult; it involved careful footwork and weight shifting. Ty hoped that accomplishing something scary would boost his confidence with girls.
Blue rearranged the remaining items on Ty’s desk and set up the Xbox. When he returned the next day to tackle the rest of the room, Ty was inspired to help. Blue swept the carpet, filled six more trash bags with piles from the bed