Riley’s eyebrows rose. “Oh, sorry.” Slowly, he put Snow down.
Did he notice anything?
Damn.
Snow hung the backpack in front of his crotch. “Hello.”
Best defense is a good offense.
“We’d best get started.” He walked briskly into the big, bright room full of comfy-looking, if a little worn, furniture.
“Oh, sure. Sure.”
Snow stopped. The room was even kind of neat. “What a nice place.”
“Thank you.”
“Why don’t you live in your fraternity house? Aren’t you the king of the Zetas?” Snow frowned when he said it.
A little cloud floated over Riley’s face. “No. I like having my own place.”
“Oh. Can I ask why?”
“I don’t really feel at home at the frat house.”
Words spilled out before he could grab them. “Seemed to me you fit right in.” Snow sucked in his breath. “I’m sorry. I didn’t intend to be as mean as your fraternity brothers.”
“I deserve it. I should have told them they were wrong. Sometimes peer pressure sucks.”
“At least you kept them from killing us. That’s something, I guess.”
“Honestly, a lot of them are good guys. Roget has issues. He’s kind of pretty, you know? And he got taken for gay a lot when he was a kid. In his neighborhood, it’s more than hard to be gay. So he takes it out on the world. I really am sorry. I’ll report him to the administration if you want me to.”
Snow felt his lips tighten. “It’s hard to be gay in any neighborhood.”
“I can imagine.”
“No, you can’t.”
“But you told the coach you’d tutor me anyway, and I’m so grateful.” He cracked a half smile. “I really am sorry. For their behavior and my own.”
Snow crossed his arms and hugged himself. He needed it. “Yes, well, for some reason I feel like I’d be letting down the school if I don’t try to help.”
“I’ll take whatever reason you’ve got.”
Snow stared up at the handsome face. Was there any way to say no to Riley Prince? “Okay, let’s get started.” He’d been pretty mean when Riley really had saved them. “This honestly is a nice place.”
Riley’s dimples flashed. “My landlady lives downstairs. She furnished it and everything.”
“Mrs. Wishus.”
“Oh, you met her. Wild, isn’t she?”
“Yes, amazing. You’re lucky. My apartment’s owned by a foundation. Not much personality.”
Riley gave Snow kind of a long look. “You see that, do you?”
“See what?”
“How special she is.”
“I’m sure anyone would.”
“Not really.”
“She invited me to drop by anytime.”
His eyebrows shot up. “No kidding? Man, she doesn’t warm up to everyone. She really doesn’t suffer fools gladly, as the saying goes. She must get how special you are too.”
Heart. Stop.
For a second, he didn’t breathe at all. Sucked into a vortex of Riley Prince’s dimples.
Riley clapped his hands, and it effectively woke Snow up. “I’m so excited about this. Never thought I’d look forward to physics. We can work at the table by the window. I love the light there.”
The guy never seemed to say anything that sounded like a football player or a frat boy. Well, not since the night of the party. “Okay.” Snow hauled the backpack to the table and pulled out a notebook. Riley sat opposite him with the aforementioned light shining off his perfect cheekbones.
Sigh. Try to work in this state.
Snow took a breath. “Let’s get oriented. What do you know versus what you need to know?”
Riley sighed. “I know all the proofs and stuff. I’ve memorized laws and theorems until I’m blue. But then I stare those formulas in the face, and they make no sense. It’s like gibberish floating in a sea of confusion.”
“You’re just not looking at it in the right light.”
“Clearly, but truth is, I’m not really the brightest bulb in the chandelier.”
“Who the hell told you that?” Snow’s frown actually hurt, it was so deep.
Riley shrugged. “Nobody. Everybody.” His breath hissed out in a long arc. “My physics professor. Hell, I think Winston wanted to say it too.”
“Nonsense. Who’s your professor?”
“Jenkins.”
“Why didn’t you ask for Kingsley?”
“Stupidity. I thought he’d be harder, so I changed my schedule to take Jenkins.”
Snow crossed his arms. “Jenkins is a pretentious snob who doesn’t know anything about physics you can’t memorize from a book.” He caught his breath. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be so critical.”
“Where were you when I was wrecking my own life by taking Jenkins?” Riley laughed.
“The truth is, Professor Jenkins doesn’t like jocks and doesn’t like anyone who’s better looking than he is. That means he’s likely to count you out before you even start. I’ll bet you’re not doing any worse than other people he’s passing, but he’s patting himself on the back for making a football star ineligible.”
Riley shook his hanging head. “But what can I do about it now? It’s too late in the semester to drop the class. I need it to graduate.”
Snow patted the notebook in front of him. “Exactly what we planned. You study like crazy, and we’ll blow him away so he has to pass you. I just want you to know that his opinion of your intellect is skewed. You’re very smart.”
Riley pursed his mouth in a half grin. “How would you know that?”
“Because anyone who can anticipate my moves in chess has to be brilliant.” Snow flashed his teeth.
“I don’t know how I do that.”
“How do you know where to throw the ball so that one of your fast runners can catch it?”
“We have plays. We practice them.”
“Do you ever vary from the play?”
“All the time.”
“Why?”
“I see what’s happening on the field, sense what will probably happen next, and do what feels right.”
“And that, my friend, is physics.”
“What?”
“Physics simply explains the natural world. Well, ‘explains’ is probably the wrong word. It embraces the realities of the natural world. Particles and waves, the absolute of probability, the delineation of measurement.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“When you throw the ball, do you try for a spiral or end over end?”
“Spiral.”
“Why?”
“It goes farther.”
“Why?”
Riley shrugged.
“You know the answer.”
“Air drag?”
“Yes, good. What determines the speed of a punt?”
“How hard he kicks it.”
“What principle is that?”
“Force.”
“Which determines…?”
“Uh, acceleration.”
“Yes, good. Let’s plot horizontal and vertical velocity of the football.” Snow began to write in the notebook, and Riley stared with wide eyes. “The parabolic path of a football can be described by these two equations.” Snow wrote:
y = V
y
t—0.5gt
2
y = V
y
t—0.5gt
2
x =V
x
x =V
x
t
“y is the height at any time. V
y
is the vertical component of the football’s initial velocity. g is acceleration due to Earth’s gravity, 9.8 m/s
2
. x is the horizontal distance of the ball at any time. V
x
is the horizontal component of the football’s initial velocity. Does that make sense?”
Riley nodded and never took his eyes away from the page.
“To calculate the hang time, peak height, and maximum range of a punt, you must know the initial velocity of the ball off the kicker’s foot and the angle of the kick. The velocity must be broken into horizontal and vertical components.” Snow wrote them out.
Riley opened his mouth, closed it, and tried again. “Holy shit, I could use this to find out a lot of important stuff.”
“Yes, like how far a pass will go given a certain amount of force. You know that instinctively, but this could prove it.” Snow smiled. “And proving it could help you pass your course.”
Riley scooted even closer to Snow’s chair, which made goose bumps travel up his arm. “Show me some more.”
Snow smiled.
Got him.
“Okay, so let’s calculate maximum range. I’ll bet that would be good to know.”
“Man, it sure would.” Riley picked up a pencil and started doodling numbers beside the formulas Snow notated. A half hour later, he was solving the problems himself, his broad forehead lined with concentration. “If we change the angle of the kick to 60 degrees, we get a hang time of 4.84 seconds, a maximum range of 72 yards, and a peak height of 179 feet.” He looked up. “Is that right?”
Snow nodded. “Now, this is pretty basic, but we can get a lot more sophisticated.” He scratched out a slightly more complex set of calculations, and Riley seemed absorbed.
“Man, this is so dope.”
“Glad you like it.”
“Wish Jenkins could make physics so interesting.”
“You have to create the excitement for yourself. See the potential.”
Riley looked up. “You make it exciting.” He smiled slowly. “You make everything exciting.”
“M-me?” Snow’s brain froze.
“Yeah. Why do you think I come see you play all the time? It’s like plugging into the solar system and catching the stars in my hand.”
“S-stars are gas.”
“The planets, then. I’ve wanted to tell you this for a while. I think you’re—”
The sound of a key in the lock brought both their heads up.
Nooooooo.
Like some cosmic joke, the apartment door opened and beautiful, perky, perfect Courtney Taylor walked in. “Oh, hi. Are you two still studying? Oh my gosh, Snow, you must be magic or something. No one could ever get him to study physics before. I told him, ‘You have to do it, baby. The team can’t do without you. Find a way to learn this shit.’ And what do you know? He found you. Amazing.” She walked over, pushed Riley’s head back, kissed him on the lips, and plopped down in his lap. “Did you learn a lot, baby?”
Her knee bumped Snow’s thigh, and he leaped up like he’d been shot. “Oh gosh, look at the time. Better get back to work myself. Have to study for the tournament and all.” Sweet God, he had to get out of there.
Riley stood Courtney on her feet and stepped over beside Snow. “When can you help me again? I’ve only got two weeks. I made so much progress today. I know you’re busy, and I hate to ask, but could you please—”
“Yes, of course. Just text me, okay?” He ripped out the pages they’d been working on, shoved the notebooks into his backpack, and headed for the door. He seemed to be running from everyone these days. “Bye. Bye, uh, Courtney.”
Outside the door, he clambered down the steep staircase and stopped at the bottom just to breathe.
What were you thinking, you idiot? That somehow his girlfriend had magically transformed into a teapot?
He started to tell me something. He said he’s wanted to tell me for a long time.
What are you dreaming? That he suddenly quit being straight and is attracted to a wimpy little queen like you? Spare me.
Okay. Okay.
The door to Eudora’s apartment flew open, and a hand emerged, holding a glass. “Hey, cutie. Have some water.”
Like it was perfectly normal to accept water while standing in hallways, he grasped the glass and drank the liquid down. Amazing how much better he felt.
She took the empty glass. “Lessons for the day. Don’t sell yourself short. And don’t believe everything you see. Got it?”
“I… I guess so.”
“Good.” She patted his cheek, and then the door closed behind her. If a caterpillar suddenly appeared saying “Who are you?”, he wouldn’t be even slightly surprised.
CHAPTER 5
SNOW STARED
at the board with a frown.
The professor walked back from the cabinet where he kept the chess supplies. “Let’s not use the Kasparov/Topolov Netherlands game. You know that one by heart. I’m going to set up another one of their games, and you see if you can intuit Kasparov’s moves, knowing what you do about his play.”
“You want me to play like Kasparov?”
“Yes. It will increase your ability to anticipate an opponent’s moves.”
“All right.”
The professor arranged the pieces. “I’ll make your first move for you to launch the game, and you can proceed from there.” He moved Snow’s pawn to d4.
Snow grinned. “Since that’s Kasparov’s favorite opening, it doesn’t tell me much.”
“Ah, true.” The professor moved his black knight to f6.
Snow breathed out.
I’m Kasparov.
He slid his pawn to c4, Kasparov’s most likely follow-on. “Let’s see what game you’re playing.”
E6. The professor moved the black pawn beside the knight.
Knight to f3.
There.
That white knight looks harmless enough.
The professor nodded. “Good. So how did your tutoring session go?” He moved to b6.
Snow caught his breath.
Hope he didn’t hear that.
“It went well. I used some formulas he’d relate to. By the end of the time, he was doing the work on his own.” Snow responded with a3. Petrosian Variation.
“Excellent. I’m sure the coach will be eternally grateful.” Bishop to b7.
The giant elephant in the room sat on his lap. Was he going to ask? “Uh, Professor?” He tapped the knight to c3.
“Well done. Yes?” The professor stared at the board.
“Why didn’t you tell me about your engagement?”
A slight pause in his hand was all that showed Kingsley’s reaction. Knight to e4. “I must confess, it all happened so fast.”
“How
did
it happen?”
Try not to frown.
Knight takes e4.
He cleared his throat. “I went to that conference of educators, remember? Anitra was there as well and introduced herself. She told me she’d applied for the assistant dean’s position largely because she wanted to be on the same campus as me. Call me an old fool, but I was flattered.” His bishop snatched up the knight at e4.
“I imagine.”
The professor kind of giggled. “One thing led to another, and we found ourselves with much in common. I hadn’t felt that way in—well, a long time. By the end of the week, we were both smitten.”
Smitten. Interesting choice of words. “Fast work.” Knight to d2.