The Libby Garrett Intervention (Science Squad #2) (5 page)

Libby

The Science Squad—the nickname
Grayson used for the kids in science club last year had stuck—was still not speaking to me. They’d gone so far as to kick me out of science club in the coffee shop Saturday. Considering the state of my mussed hair, smeared lipstick, and rumpled clothing, they easily figured out that I’d forgotten the science fair because of Owen. They weren’t happy. Really,
really
weren’t happy.

I’d tried several times to talk to all of them yesterday and today, but they were giving me the cold shoulder. I understood that they were pissed off, but they may as well have forgotten science and joined the drama club. Their theatrics were worthy of Broadway.

They were serious about kicking me out of science club. I went to the meeting after school today, and there was a barely legible note taped to the door that said, “Science club moved today. The new location was texted to all members. If you didn’t get the message, TAKE THE HINT!”

“Nice.”

“They’re very upset, Libby.”

Startled by the unexpected voice, I whirled around to see Mr. Walden, the science club advisor, standing behind me with a stack of papers in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. He nodded toward his classroom. “Why don’t you come on in and have a talk with me.”

He looked genuinely concerned, but he didn’t hide his disappointment in me. A weight settled on my chest and a lump formed in my throat. Mr. Walden was my favorite teacher, and I hated that I’d let him down so badly. I followed him into his classroom, and a heavy silence threatened to choke me to death. Mr. Walden didn’t speak until he’d settled himself at his desk. Then he patted to the chair next to it and told me to have a seat. He waited for me to speak, but I had no idea what to say.

“What happened?”

I swallowed the lump and forced myself to explain. “I don’t have a good excuse. I just forgot. I made a mistake. I feel terrible, Mr. Walden. We worked so hard on our project—
Tara
worked so hard. She deserved better.”

“Yes, she did.”

Good old Mr. Walden and his no-nonsense approach really didn’t help the overwhelming shame I felt. “But it was an accident!” I crumpled the paper in my hand and shook it at Mr. Walden. “Kicking me out of science club for the rest of the year? Holding secret meetings? They’re being so immature. I didn’t
mean
to flake on Tara. I feel awful about it, but everyone is so mad at me, they won’t even let me apologize.”

Mr. Walden studied me from over the rim of his cup as he sipped his coffee. After a minute, he put the mug down. “Do you sincerely want to apologize to them?”

“How can you even ask me that? Of course I do.”

“To all of them, or just Tara?”

My indignation started to rise. Even Mr. Walden was siding against me. “I owe Tara an apology, but why should I apologize to the rest of them? I didn’t do anything to them. They’re the ones being jerks right now.”

Mr. Walden gave me a look. “Are you sure about that?”

I was about to say yes, but Mr. Walden wouldn’t challenge me if he didn’t think I needed it. He made me question the whole situation. When I hesitated, Mr. Walden said, “Do you remember how you felt last year when Aiden dropped out of the science club and found a new group of friends?”

Of course I did. I’d wanted to kill him.

“Do you remember how his actions affected all of you, and not just Avery?”

It was true. He’d hurt Avery the most, but all of us felt the sting of his actions. We were a team, after all. More than that, we were sort of a family. I sighed, seeing his point. “Okay, maybe I owe all of them an apology.”

Mr. Walden nodded. “I agree.”

Ugh. Again with the guilt trip. And he was so calm about it. He sure knew how to drive the nail in. “Fine. But I still don’t know how I’m going to do that when they won’t talk to me.”

Mr. Walden considered my predicament. “If I tell you where they’re meeting today, do you promise me you will go there and sincerely apologize to each and every one of them?”

“Done.”

“And promise me you will do whatever is necessary to make things right with Tara. With Avery, too. As your club president and your best friend, she felt this blow nearly as hard as Tara did.”

My chest tightened. “I will.”

“Whatever it takes,”
Mr. Walden emphasized. “You
really
messed up this time, Libby. It’s going to take more than an apology to fix it.”

I swallowed again. “I promise.”

Mr. Walden debated another minute, and then gave up the top-secret location. “They’re going to meet at Avery’s work place tonight at 8:00 p.m. when the shop closes.”

Great. Humble pie with a big fat side of Uptight Coffee Jerk—yes, the nickname had morphed after our last encounter, brilliant smile or not. This was going to be fun.

“Is there a problem?” Mr. Walden asked.

I shrugged. “Depends on if you consider being banned from Jo’s for life with the threat of arrest if I ever return a problem.”

For a moment Mr. Walden looked surprised, but then he shook his head and laughed. “I don’t want to know, Miss Garrett.”

I happened to agree with him on that.

“You’re a good kid, Libby, with a bright head on your shoulders…usually,” he teased. “I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”

Yeah. I already had something figured out. I was going to that science club meeting. Mr. Coffee Jerk was just going to have to remove that stick from his butt and let me in, or I’d remove it for him. Actually, that sounded like a really good plan. “Thanks, Mr. Walden. I think I’m feeling better already.”

“Just remember your promise, Libby. Do whatever you need to do to make it right.”

Nodding, I got up to leave Mr. Walden to his paper grading. As I walked out of the room, I looked back just in time to see him pick up his ever-present cup of coffee. For some reason, that made me smile. He was the worst coffee junkie I’d ever met, but he was always sucking down the sludge—his word—from the teacher’s lounge. I’d have to pick up some real coffee for him tonight.

“Hey, Mr. Walden?”

He glanced up curiously.

“I owe you an apology, too. I’m sorry I let you down.”

“Me too, Libby,” he answered. “I appreciate the apology.”

I waved at the mound of papers on his desk and said, “If you ever need help grading, or whatever, I could come in. I have second period free.”

Mr. Walden’s eyes lit up. “I will definitely take you up on that. Stop by tomorrow?”

“You got it.”

I was feeling pretty confident after I’d patched things up with Mr. Walden so easily. He was a super cool guy, but he was still a
teacher
. He should have been a lot harder on me than he was. If he could understand and forgive my mistake, then the rest of the crew would be fine as soon as I groveled a little. And maybe, just maybe, if I was really lucky, Adam wouldn’t be working tonight and I wouldn’t get Avery fired or end up in the slammer.

. . . . .

Apparently, Lady Luck was as pissed at me as the Science Squad. I got to Jo’s just as Mr. Uptight himself slid the deadbolt locked on the front door and flipped the window sign to read
CLOSED
.

When he realized I was standing at the door, he stared at me for a long moment. I rolled my eyes. “Banned for life…you’ll call the cops...yadda, yadda…I get it,” I yelled through the glass. “But I really need to talk to Avery,
capisce,
Coffee Man?”

He opened the door but stood in my way and continued to stare at me with his intense gaze, as if he was searching for the right way to say whatever he was thinking. He needn’t bother saying anything. His “Get the hell out, and don’t come back” had been perfectly clear the other day.

With a brief look skyward, I put my hands on my hips and scowled at him. “Do you see my boyfriend standing next to me? Does it look like I’m here to fornicate?”

Surprise flickered across his face for a second, but then he dragged his dark brown eyes down the length of my body and up again. The action was so surprisingly slow and
heated
that I felt that gaze as if it were his hands moving up my body. I would have spontaneously combusted if he hadn’t raised an eyebrow—just one, the one with the hoop pierced through it—into a perfect challenging arch when our gazes met again. He was basically saying that I looked skanky with that look. Curse him for looking so dangerously hot while insulting me.

Wait. When did Coffee Jerk get sexy?

I wanted to get pissed, but then I looked down at my skirt that
was
a little too tight and a little too short, and realized he was kind of right. I groaned. “Whatever. Just let me in.
Please?
”

Adam made me sweat it out a second longer, then reluctantly stepped aside to let me in. I could have hugged him. “Thank you.”

He didn’t look impressed as he nodded toward the corner. “Go have a seat. They’re expecting you.”

I stumbled to a stop in the doorway. “Expecting me? How can they be expecting me?”

Shrugging, Adam ignored my question and locked the door behind me as I headed toward my friends. They weren’t hard to find. They were the only people still in the store.

Brandon, Levi, Tara, and Aiden had claimed the couches in the corner nook. Avery was still behind the counter, but when she saw me she held up a steaming mug and walked in my direction. “You’re right on time.”

The mug was filled with caramel apple cider. I brought it to my nose and took a deep whiff—cinnamon and nutmeg. They really had been expecting me. “I don’t understand.”

Avery smiled and steered me toward the rest of the gang. Tara sat between Brandon and Levi on one couch, and Avery sat down on the other next to Aiden, leaving the spot on her right open for me.

Everyone was staring at me with a bunch of weirdo looks. “Did you guys use science to rob a bank or something?” I asked, squirming in the awkward tension that filled the air. “Because you all look really guilty for some reason, and to be honest, I expected you to be angrier.”

Nobody answered my question. They all looked to Avery, who smiled at me too big and too bright. “Thank you for coming tonight.”

Was she kidding? “What do you mean, ‘thank you’? You do remember that I wasn’t exactly invited to this little shindig, right? That you actually kicked me out of science club and set up this secret meeting so that I wouldn’t be here?”

Aiden laughed bitterly. “We had to. If we’d asked you to come, you’d have blown us off.”

Um, okay, brilliant, but also totally rude. And untrue. “I would not.”

“Oh yeah?” Levi asked. “When’s the last time you
didn’t
blow us off?”

Brandon nodded, his face a grimace. “It is what you do now.”

My mind reeled at the unexpected attack. I looked to Tara for support, because she would never exaggerate. Unfortunately that plan backfired, because Tara cringed and said, “I stopped inviting you to do things a couple months ago because you would never show up anyway. You didn’t notice that we stopped hanging out.”

My jaw fell open at the betrayal. Even Tara, Miss More Afraid of Confrontation than George McFly, was ganging up on me. “What is this, a metaphorical blanket party? You’re all just going to circle up and start taking turns beating me? Are you really
that
mad?”

A low voice that radiated calm interrupted my rant. “Nobody is angry with you, Libby.” My head whipped around to where Coffee Man was now standing. “Your friends are all here because they love you.”

Adam surprised me when he sat down in a chair next to the couches, as if he were part of our group. And even weirder, everyone looked to him as if he was in charge. He glanced around the circle once, and then met my gaze unflinchingly. “Hi, Libby. I’m Adam Koepp.”

I snorted. As if I’d forgotten the guy who called me a selfish slut. “I remember your name, Coffee Man. What the heck is going on here?”

The guy’s confidence never wavered. Not a single flinch. His resolve was like freaking titanium alloy. “Your friends have asked me to help them talk to you tonight. They’re concerned for you, and because they care about you, they want to help you.”

W. T. F?

The Coffee Man took a breath and sat up straighter in his chair. He never looked away from me. “You have a problem, Libby.”

“Oh, whoa, hold up and stop right there! Are you
intervening
with me right now? Is this supposed to be an
intervention?
” Coffee Man’s stare wasn’t going to break, so I looked around the group at everyone else. None of them would meet my eyes. “Did someone cook up something special in the chem lab or something? You’ve all officially gone mental. I’m not on drugs.”

Avery finally looked at me. She shook her head. “Of course you aren’t on drugs, but your relationship with Owen is just as destructive.”