A few days later, Arti and Blaine came over, and the three of us headed down to the basement, where hopefully, the triplets, Matt, and Viktor would leave us alone except to maybe bring us snacks.

"You know what I like about Friday nights? I don't have to ask to copy Amanda and Eleanor's homework for a whole weekend. It's a good, relaxing feeling," Arti said.

"Speaking of Eleanor," Blaine rose his eyebrows a couple times, "yeah?"

"I don't know what that means, but yeah," Arti said.

"I just mean how's it going? Did you text her today? Yesterday? Tomorrow?"

Arti laughed. "Why does it matter to you? I don't even know how it's going. I want to go to homecoming with her, but I don't think that'll go over well for obvious reasons."

"But the three of us always go together," I said.

"Well, yeah, but that's because we're all too good for everyone else at school. Eleanor's almost at our level, guys. Do you understand how difficult that is to do? I have to capitalize on that shit," Arti said.

That was certainly a discussion that needed to be had, but homecoming wasn't for a few more weeks, and hopefully, Arti would get bored of Eleanor by then. There was no sense in making a fuss if the odds were that they'd shoot themselves in the foot.

"Whatever," I said, and I threw my backpack on the floor and sat down on the couch. "I just don't understand why you felt like you couldn't tell me. We're best friends, Arti. You know nothing could ever change that."

"I know. I know that. I trust you, but sometimes you can't keep your mouth shut, and I was always afraid that you'd say something before I was ready," Arti replied.

My mouth fell open. "I can't keep my mouth shut? Is this another one of your lies?"

Arti laughed. "Uh, no. It's a glaringly obvious truth, clearly."

"Me? Can't keep my mouth shut? That's such bullshit that I don't even know where to begin." I looked over at Blaine. "Remember when I didn't tell anyone when you ki—"

Blaine cut me off. "Okay, Amanda, we're not talking about that."

"We're not talking about what?" Arti asked.

Oh, shit. I still wasn't supposed to talk about the kiss. Shit, fuck, shit, fuck.

"When I accidentally killed a dog on accident. God, Amanda, that traumatized me so much," Blaine said.

Thank you, Blaine.

"Oh, I already knew about that. Amanda made a joke about it that one time, remember?" Arti said. "You know, that one hundred supports her case that she's great at not spilling secrets."

I rolled my eyes. "If you were smarter, you would make a great lawyer."

Arti smiled. "Thanks."

Blaine took a seat right beside me on the couch just as Arti's phone dinged with a notification. I was sure it was Eleanor, considering she refused to text anyone else because it took too long to get her point across. That was a problem with the whole system and not her, of course, though.

She looked at her phone, then set it down on the table next to the couch and sat on the other side of me. "Can I spend the night here? I really don't feel like going all the way back home."

"You live right next door," Blaine said.

"We just moved, you stupid ass. It's a cute little home on Lexington Avenue. We're getting a dog too," she said.

I rolled my eyes. "That's definitely not true."

"Yes, it is. Just let me spend the night or I'll scream," Arti said.

"I'm sure it's fine, but I'll ask my mom when she gets home from work," I said.

Just as I finished speaking, Natalie, Melissa, and Leah all came down the stairs, and unfortunately, they did not bring any snacks for us with them.

"Hey Amanda and Arti, could you guys braid our hair so it'll be wavy in the morning?" Natalie asked.

We weren't actually doing anything at the moment, so I nodded. "Sure. Here, just sit on the floor right in front of us."

"If you girls want, I can braid someone's hair. I'll just need Amanda to explain the steps to me, and I'll figure it out," Blaine said.

"No, you can't. You can't do anything right," Natalie said.

Leah frowned and sat in front of Arti. "That's mean, Nat."

Melissa nodded and took the spot in front of me.

"Come on. I promise I won't pull your hair or anything," Blaine said.

Natalie sighed. "I'll just wait my turn then."

I laughed.

Natalie was going to be a riot when she got older. She already was, in my opinion.

Arti and I braided Leah and Melissa's hair, and since Arti finished first, she was just starting on Natalie's when Mom got home.

"Mom!" Leah cheered, and she rushed up the stairs to say hi. Melissa followed her up.

Natalie crossed her arms. "This is stupid. I had to wait, and now I have to be the last one to hug Mom."

I rested my hand on Blaine's shoulder. "Well, maybe if you would have given Blaine a chance, he actually might have had a secret talent for braiding really fast, and you wouldn't be having this problem."

Blaine shook his head. "Nope. I already have a secret talent."

"What is it?" Arti asked.

Just as Blaine opened his mouth to enlighten us, Mom came down the stairs, and Arti interrupted.

"Oh, yeah, shut up. Your secret talent is stupid. Hey Mrs. Jayne, can I spend the night?"

"Sure, Arti," Mom said, then she turned to me. "Where are Matt and Viktor?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe Matt's driving Viktor back across the ocean to Sweden."

"There are no gas stations in the middle of the ocean, you idiot," Arti said, and she smiled and shook her head. "They'd run out of gas before they ever got to Stockholm."

"Are you naturally this stupid?" Natalie asked.

"Natalie," Mom scolded, then lowered her voice. "She can't help that."

"Well, maybe they'll run out of gas in the middle of the ocean. I'll settle for that too." I smiled. "No, but I think Matt wanted to take Viktor to a football game so he could see what it's all about. The stupid foreigner's gonna be so confused." I laughed.

As much as I wanted to watch Viktor try to figure out the wonderful game known as American football, which required minimal use of the feet, it was cold and rainy outside. No thanks.

That was part of the reason Minnesotans evolved to like hockey. The weather was much kinder indoors.

"That's right. When does the game start?" Mom asked.

I shrugged again. "I don't pay attention to the football team. If it weren't for Matt and Viktor, I probably wouldn't pay much attention to the hockey team either. I just go to school at Madison High. I don't have to enjoy the culture of it."

"Oh, Amanda, never lose your charming love of life," Mom said, and I smiled. "Well, I'm gonna get started on dinner. Do you guys want anything in particular?"

"Can I help? I want to crack the eggs," Natalie said.

Mom laughed. "Okay, Nat. We'll make something with eggs then."

The two of them headed upstairs, and I let out a sigh.

"What should we do now?" Arti asked.

"I don't know. I have a Spanish test on Monday that I really don't want to study for, so I need you guys to distract me with something stupid," I said.

None of us spoke for a moment, but upstairs, it was slightly less quiet. Natalie was screaming something about eggs, and Leah was crying.

I loved my family, but when I wasn't the loudest one in a given moment, it was slightly uncomfortable for me.

"Oh, I got it." Blaine sat up straight. "So once, when I was about nine, my mom bought me a—"

"Is this a stupid story?" Arti interrupted.

"It's a little stupid, but it's funny. I was really stupid as a kid,"

"As a kid?"

I laughed, and even though I really didn't want to, I fished through my backpack to find my Spanish notebook. I thought for a moment. Mi notelibro.

I was so gonna ace this test.

Another person came down the stairs, and I looked up to see who it was. Viktor.

Oh, look at that. I got distracted by something stupid.

"Weren't you and Matt going to the football game tonight?" I asked.

"I was in the middle of a story, Amanda," Blaine said, but I ignored him.

Viktor nodded. "We were going to go, but it's gross outside."

"Oh. I was hoping you wouldn't be able to find your way back here after the game. Dammit." I frowned.

"Have you ever thought about being nice to me once just to see what it would be like?"

I shook my head. "Nope, but thanks for the suggestion. I'll try to be a little more simpático in the future."

"It's simpática because you're a girl."

Oh my god.

I threw my hands in the air. "Well, if you're such a genius, maybe you should actually make yourself useful for once and help me study so I don't fail my test on Monday."

"Sure, as long as you're nice to me the entire time we're studying."

I laughed. Not possible.

But it was slightly more impossible that I'd pass without someone's help.

"Fine. Now go away before you ruin my Friday any more than you already have," I said.

"What did I do?" Viktor asked.

"I said go away."

"I'm going."

"You know, you could be nicer to him. It wouldn't kill you," Blaine said.

But what did he know? It very well could kill me.

***

The next day, Viktor followed through with his promise to help me study for Spanish.

It must have been the first time he kept his word in his entire life.

"Okay, so we're on Chapter Two. I think the vocab's on page thirty-two if you want to start there." I handed him my Spanish book.

He flipped through the pages.

"I meant to ask you this before, but how do you know so many languages?" I said.

He didn't look up. "I like to learn them. It's one of the few things I like besides hockey."

"So you just learned them?"

"I guess I was just exposed to more than you. My mom is Norwegian, and my dad is Swedish, so I heard both languages my entire life. I took English classes in school, and Spanish wasn't too hard to learn after that because they're similar. And I just liked German, so I took classes in it on my own."

"How can you be smart enough to learn all that, but so stupid?"

He looked up at me. "That was mean."

"I know, but how else was I supposed to put it? I'm not going to choose my words for politeness over clarity."

He closed his eyes and shook his head. "There are just different types of intelligence. My dominant one is communication. Yours is mathematical. Matt's is spatial awareness. Your mother's is emotional. There's not one type of intelligence that's more important than the rest."

I looked at the floor. "I don't think that's true. Where is emotional intelligence, which is a paradox as far as I'm concerned, where is it going to get you in life?"

"It depends on how you use it."

"That's a terrible answer."

"Just because it's your weakness doesn't make it worthless. Think about everything you've missed out on because you can't understand what other people feel, and even what you feel."

I lowered my eyebrows. "What about all the stuff you've missed out on because you have no practical intelligence?"

"Exactly. We all have some form of intelligence that's weak, and I think the world would be a better place if we all understood that and worked to improve it."

7. I'll debate you any day. We don't even have to argue.

"That's great in theory, but unless I do well on this test, I'll be too dead to have any type of intelligence." I changed the subject back to my test.

"Let's get started."

"Just tell me the word in Spanish, and I'll tell you what it means."

He looked at me. "Is that how you've done your Spanish?"

"Yep. So go. Read me a word."

"You're thinking about it wrong."

My mouth fell open just a bit. "What? I'm not wrong."

"Your thinking is. How did you learn English?"

"I just... I learned it."

"You can't just use English as the basis of Spanish."

I crossed my arms. "And why not?"

"Languages are independent of each other. It's not like math, where algebra and geometry have the same foundation."

"You said earlier that English and Spanish are similar."

"It's true, but you can't use just your foundation in English to learn another language."

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

He smiled. "Close your eyes. What do you see when I say the word beach?"

"I see black, because my eyes are shut."

"Cooperate with me, Candy Cane."

"Okay. I'm sitting on the sand, which burns my skin. I'm the only one there, and I have a book in my lap and a drink in my hand. But suddenly the ocean recedes, and before I can figure out what's happening, a tsunami hits the beach, killing me so I don't have to take my Spanish test."

"That's wrong. Try again."

"You don't know my thoughts about the beach."

"Do it again, with less death."

"Can there be a dead bird?"

He sighed. "Sure."

"Okay. So I'm on the beach again. There's no one else around, except for the dead bird by my side. The sky is blue, the waves are gentle, and the sand is warm." I opened my eyes.

"Better. Now close your eyes again, and tell me what you think of when I say la playa."

"Okay. The sky–"

He interrupted. "In Spanish."

I inhaled. "Estoy sola. Tengo un libro. El agua es azul." I opened my eyes to see Viktor smiling.

"That was good," he said.

"But I didn't even say that much."

"That doesn't matter. Now you know what playa is in your mind. You have other words and concepts you can associate with it."

I looked down at the ground. "I don't understand."

"You have to learn Spanish the same way you learned English. Through your senses."

"Why are you helping me like this?" I stood up, and I had to turn away before a tear snuck out.

"Because that was our deal. You helped me with math and hockey in the same way."

"No, I didn't. I just went through your work and pointed out what was wrong."

"And you taught me how to fix it."

I felt like I was stealing from him. This information, this new way of thinking changed everything for me, and I essentially did nothing in return.

Why didn't I see how easy this could be before? What other answers did he have?

Viktor wasn't good for me. Whatever information I lacked, he had, and it frustrated me. My eyes burned to match my face, and I took in a breath.

"Why are you getting upset?" he asked.

"Because everything is different now. Call it my lack of emotional intelligence, but I can't stand you!"

"What's different?"

"Everything. You know everything. You're holding the key to the world just above my fingertips."

"What?"

"You know exactly what I mean."

He rubbed his eyes with his hand. "If I'm doing that, it's only because I'm giving it to you. I'm not against you, and I don't know why you think I am. This was supposed to be a peace offering."

"I don't want peace. I just–" I couldn't hold back my tears any longer. "I just want everything to go back to the way it was."

"Before me?"

I nodded.

He sighed. "I don't know why I make you so upset. What do I do?"

"You make me think. You make me feel. You're an obsession to me."

His eyes didn't leave my face, but he didn't say anything.

"I'm such an emotionless person, and you do this to me. I hate you for it. You came into my life, and for some reason, you thought you can just change whatever the hell you wanted. That's not how this works. I have a perfect life, and I'm not going to let you ruin it."

He still didn't reply.

"Is that all you're going to do? You're gonna sit there and keep changing everything?"

He finally responded. "There's a little emotional intelligence. I knew you had some."

I didn't say anything after that. I just let him watch me cry.

----------------------------------------------

Hello, you lovely person! Thank you so much for reading!

So it seems we've struck a nerve with Miss Amanda. Do you think that the problem has been diagnosed? Will Amanda and Viktor be able to fix this?