Page 44 of Places We've Never Been

“Me and Norah,” Ezra said.

As I reached for the paddle Ezra was holding out, I said, “Oh, by the way, everyone, this is Ty. He basically saved me on the river today.”

“I thoughtIsaved you on the river today,” Skyler said.

“You didn’t,” I assured him as I swiped the paddle and took my place at the Ping-Pong table.

My mom stood and turned toward Ty. “Hi! Welcome. You saved my daughter? What does that even mean?”

“She lost her tube.”

“Really?” Mom looked at me like I should’ve told her this story earlier. I hadn’t thought I needed to.

“Technically, you flipped me and then I lost my tube.”

Ty looked down as though embarrassed and smiled. “That’s true. I’m sorry again.”

“Is that how you pick up on people?” Austin asked. “I need to take notes.”

“Not sure it worked,” Ty said.

Then suddenly all eyes were on me like I needed to verify right then if Ty’s flirting (which I knew had not actually been flirting at the time) worked. Instead, I hit the Ping-Pong ball over the net and Ezra missed the return shot. “One to zero.”

“I wasn’t ready!”

“Are you ready now?”

I ended up beating Ezra pretty handily. But the noise level in our corner of the room had dropped considerably since Skyler stopped playing. It didn’t stop me from turning toward the group and bowing at my win.

Mom clapped and Ezra pointed his paddle at me like a sword. “I demand a rematch.”

“Too bad. I’m going out on top.”

I rejoined Ty by the couch and he said, “Are you some sort of Ping-Pong hustler? Pretend you’re no good and then crush the unsuspecting competition?”

“You caught me. I should have made you bet money on the game.”

“Yes, you need to work on your skills.” He nodded toward the door. “Do you want to go for a walk?”

I hesitated, not sure if I did. Ty was cute and seemed nice (though his opinions about girls and video games needed to come into this decade), but it also sounded exhausting. Small talk was not my specialty.

I didn’t know if Paisley sensed something in my bodylanguage or she was just incredibly perceptive but she said, “Norah, you promised to help me draw some of the local plants.”

I cringed in Ty’s direction. “I’m sorry, I totally did.”

“Can we exchange info or something? Maybe we can meet up tomorrow.”

“Sure, my Snap is NoWaySims.”

“That sounds like a fake account,” Ty said.

“It’s not.”

Someone from Ty’s group called out his name and he gave me a head nod. “I’ll catch up with you tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

He left and I hooked my arm in Paisley’s. “Thank you,” I said.