The Weight of the World by Amy Leigh Strickland

to crush a classic car, made out of real metal, then it's not likely some gimmicky soup kitchen sign.”
    “Not
very bright, whoever it was, attacking me. There are easier targets
in the group.”
    “If
I were trying to kill us, I'd attack you.”
    Zach
just looked at her with his eyebrow raised. Minnie read the confusion
in the silence.
    “Any
sensible opponent would cut off our head first and watch us squirm.
In the chaos, without a leader, we'd be easy pickings. The ladle was
likely a warning.”
    “Then
maybe we ought to warn the others,” Zach said.
    Minnie
nodded. “I think so. I'll send out an email blast tonight
explaining the situation.”
    She
turned down Zach's street. He sat in silence, thinking about what she
had said about cutting off the head. He'd have to start being a lot
more careful if someone was really out to get them. It was foolish to
think that Epimetheus and Prometheus were the first and last of their
enemies.
    He
turned his gaze to Minnie. He had always thought of her as the group
encyclopedia. Now he was starting to see her as warrior goddess. It
was a strange lens to view the tiny girl through.
    “This
is you, right?” she asked as she pulled into the driveway of a
yellow house. Zach's mom had a little four-foot garden in the front,
and their narrow strip of lawn had one of those mirror lawn globes on
it.
    “I
know you're mad about the car,” Minnie said, putting the car in
park. “I mean, it was a really nice car.”
    “My
dad gave it to me,” Zach said, “on my sixteenth birthday.”
    Minnie
glanced over at the house. She was sure she had never seen Zach's Dad
at any of the school events, at least the ones she went to. The house
they sat in front of was modest. It didn't look like someone who
could afford to give classic cars as birthday presents lived here.
    “Are
your parents divorced?” Minnie asked. Come to think of it, had Zach
mentioned his Dad at all in these past weeks of spending time
together?
    “Since
I was a baby. Dad lives in Orlando. I see him once or twice a year.”
    “But
that's so close.”
    Zach
shrugged and looked down at his lap. “It was a nice car. It was my
car.”
    “I'm
sorry, Zach.”
    Zach
nodded and unbuckled his seat belt. “Thanks for the ride.” He
hesitated with his hand on the door handle.
    “Everything
okay?” she asked. Zach had spent a lot of time with Minnie over the
last few weeks. She had become his confidant. He felt closer to her
than Lewis these days.
    Zach
turned back and leaned across the center console. He closed his eyes
as he pushed forward. His lips met Minnie's hand.
    “What
are you doing?” she asked.
    “I
just thought...”
    “Zach,”
she groaned. “Ew, no. I mean no offense, but no.”
    Zach
sat up and furrowed his brow. When was the last time he'd been
rejected? Never, perhaps. “I don't get it.”
    “You
and I would be terrible together.”
    “What
are you talking about? We get along great.”
    “Zach,
you're all passion. I'm logic. You're Kirk and I'm Spock. Not to
mention you're still in love with June.”
    Zach
snorted, “Am not.”
    Minnie
just stared at him. Zach looked down at his hands.
    “I'm
not really in to dating, Zach. I have way more important things I
want to spend my time on and-- no offense-- if I was going to be with
someone, I would want an intellectual equal and I just haven't met
one yet.”
    Zach
didn't know what to say. He was humiliated.
    “We're
going to pretend this never happened, okay?” Minnie said. She
pointed to the passenger-side door. “So go inside. Have some
dinner. Shout about what happened to your car. In the morning we'll
pretend you didn't just try to pull a move on me.”
    Zach
nodded, relieved that she had offered him an escape route. He stepped
out of the car, into the pouring rain and ran into his house. His
mother greeted him at the door with a hug and a reheated meal. Zach
Jacobs had just survived his first ever romantic rejection.

    June
Herald's phone chimed.