The Crushes by Pamela Wells

right foot on the front of the board, her weight propelling her forward, down the ramp. She made it to the bottom, and several people cheered. For her? She didn’t know, but she could hear Blake behind her hollering.
    “Wooohoo!” he yelled. “You did it, Rave.”
    Rave? Blake had given her his own nickname. Had he done that on purpose? And did she even like it? Yes, she decided, yes she did.
    She flung her arms up victoriously, but lost her balance. The board scooted out from under her and shot forward. The world went up as Raven fell down, landing on her hip. Pain shot down her leg and up her rib cage.
    “Raven!”
    “Are you okay?” Blake said.
    She laughed, rolling over on her back. She was going to be so bruised tomorrow. “I’m fine,” she said. Maybe even better than fine.

SIXTEEN
Rule 16: Be interested in things that interest him!
    Rule 37: Learn to listen! Do not just talk about yourself!
    “Hey, Sydney?” Quin said from the doorway to the media room. “Can you grab me”—he looked at a sheet of paper in his hands—“ Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers, Peter Pan , and anything Care Bears?”
    “Sure,” she said and went to the movies lined up neatly on the shelves. She scanned the spines of the movie cases and found the Scooby-Doo one quickly. Peter Pan was a harder find—it was all the way on the bottom shelf next to the Bob the Builder movies. What was it doing there? Maybe someone needed to alphabetize so the movies were easier to go through.
    A project for another day? She’d have to talk to Quin about it. He might think she was a huge dork for enjoying something so methodical, but if it’d help the West Wing, who cared?
    Movies in hand, Sydney went to West Two and found Quin in room 412 with the new patient staying overnight after surgery.
    “Boo Brothers right here,” Quin said, turning on the TV.
    The little boy, Seth, clenched his hands into fists and waved them about in the air excitedly. “I love this movie,” he said. “It’s my favorite,” he said to Sydney.
    “Oh yeah?” She handed the case to Quin, and he put the disk in the DVD player.
    Seth hit the button on the bed to bring his head up. “Yeah. This is the funniest Scooby-Doo one. Probably. Well…I like Zombie Island , too.”
    “Cool,” Sydney said.
    Quin hit the PLAY button and a movie preview came on. “My favorite Scooby-Doo,” he said, “is the one with Johnny Bravo.”
    Seth laughed. “Oh yeah! Johnny is such a dork.”
    Quin nodded emphatically. “Right on, dude.” He dimmed the overhead lights. “Enjoy your movie. If you need anything else, let us know.”
    “Okay,” Seth said, snuggling into his blankets.
    In the hallway, Sydney turned to Quin. “You watch Scooby-Doo?”
    He cleared his throat. “Well…you know…Scooby is pretty cool.”
    Sydney grinned.
    They passed out the other two movies and officially ended their shift.
    “Want to grab something to eat with me in the cafeteria?” Quin asked after they’d punched out.
    “Um…”
    She was rather hungry. And she’d been planning on getting something fast-foodish anyway. Her mom was in Hartford for the night, and her dad was going to some dinner for work, leaving Sydney to fend for herself. She’d talked to Drew earlier on her break in hope of making dinner plans with him, but he had already agreed to go to the movies with Todd.
    “Sure,” she said to Quin. “I’m starving.”
    The cafeteria at Children’s Hospital had the best salad bar ever. Sydney hadn’t checked it out before, instead going with something quicker like a pre-made sandwich, but was she going to change that.
    She’d gotten a Styrofoam container full of lettuce, grilled chicken pieces, bacon, hard-boiled eggs, sunflower seeds, and croutons. And they had their own brand of ranch dressing that—as Kelly might put it—made it awesome.
    Quin had gotten a club sandwich and now sat across from Sydney in one of the booths along the huge floor-to-ceiling windows on the