Everybody Bugs Out by Leslie Margolis Page A

with. Everyone knows you want to.”
    â€œShut up!” Oliver punched Tobias in the arm.
    Then Tobias hit him in the thigh. “Yo—I’m doing you a favor! If you’d just stop being such a—”
    Tobias didn’t get to finish his sentence because Oliver pounced on him, and the two of them went rolling across the lawn.
    â€œCut it out!” I screamed.
    But Tobias had Oliver in a headlock and was yelling at him to say uncle, which Oliver finally did.
    After Tobias let him go, Oliver stood up and brushed himself off. “That’s so stupid!” he said. “Why uncle?”
    â€œI don’t know. That’s just what you say,” said Tobias.
    â€œOh, that’s a good reason,” Oliver said, all sarcastic.
    â€œYou guys are so immature!” I yelled.
    â€œWhat?” asked Tobias. “We didn’t mess up the project this time.”
    He was right. They’d wrestled in the opposite direction of the construction paper. But that still didn’t make up for the fact that Tobias interrupted my very important question. And I couldn’t bring it up again—not without humiliating myself. The moment was gone, forever. I checked my watch. “Our time is up, anyway,” I said.
    We recorded all the data and packed up to go home.
    Except I didn’t want to leave. Not when I wasn’t sure about what Oliver had meant when he asked me if I wanted to go to the dance. Did he mean did I want to go with him? Or did I want to go to the dance, in general?
    I hoped Oliver would invite me to stick around and watch the Lakers game with him, since we’d talked about maybe doing that in class, but now I was too embarrassed to ask—especially in front of Tobias—so I just went home.
    I reported this to Claire on the phone that night. Not about how it seemed like, just possibly, Oliver might have been asking me to the dance. Just the part about how I tried to find out if Oliver was going and he didn’t really answer because Tobias started teasing us.
    â€œWhat do you mean, he teased you?” Claire asked.
    â€œI think he thought Oliver wanted to go to the dance with me, which is so dumb.” I forced a laugh. “I mean there’s no way …”
    I expected Claire to laugh along with me, but instead she stayed silent. I couldn’t even hear her breathing on the other end of the line.
    â€œYou still there?” I asked.
    â€œYeah,” said Claire. “Um, can I ask you something? I know this is going to sound crazy, but I was just wondering … you don’t like Oliver, do you?”
    â€œNo way!” I shouted quickly. “Of course not. I mean I like him as a friend but that’s all. Seriously. There’s no way I could like him. He’s way too …” I paused, trying to think of an excuse to give Claire. But I couldn’t think of one bad thing to say about Oliver. Truth is, he wasn’t too anything. “I just don’t.”
    â€œPhew!” said Claire. “I’m really glad.”
    â€œMe too,” I said, feeling lousy.
    â€œSo you’ll try again tomorrow?”
    â€œOh, I won’t be at his house tomorrow.”
    â€œBut you have class with him,” Claire said.
    â€œRight, but obviously I can’t ask him in front of Tobias again. And we’re never alone together, so I just don’t know how I would. Okay?”
    I felt kind of bad for letting Claire down, but at the same time good that I had a reasonable excuse.
    Maybe Claire would decide that asking Oliver was too complicated.
    That’s what I was hoping, and that’s what it seemed like for a while. I didn’t bring up Oliver, and Claire didn’t ask me about him.
    Rachel, Yumi, and I hit the mall after school a few days later to look for outfits for the dance, and Claire was supposed to come but canceled at the last minute. This I took as a good sign. Like maybe she’d decided not