For a minute, Ethan looked like he might try to disagree with me, then thought the better of it. “Alright. Did you have a first location in mind?”
“I googled unusual attractions, and the Stonereel is super close to this aquarium with a shark tunnel.”
Ethan snorted. “You sure are prepared.”
A goofy grin crossed my face, and I tried to hide it. These kinds of compliments were dangerous. This was a boy who snorted because of me. The sound alone should have been the least appealing thing in the world. Instead, my brain was really out here thinking it was adorable. I blamed the tank top. I gave my head another shake and caught sight of Gabby and Nittha headed our way. We needed to wrap this up quickly.
“I try. Speaking of preparation, our grandmothers cannot find out,” I said, putting extra emphasis on the syllablenotincannot, just to make myself clear.
“It can be our secret, for now.” Ethan leaned toward me conspiratorially. I hadn’t noticed his height before. He was a fullhead taller than me. When we stood like this, I could see his eyes more clearly. In this light, they appeared darker, more like chestnut with flecks of amber than honey brown.
I took a slight step to the side to put some distance between myself and his eyes. “Do you think you could get away from your grandma this afternoon?”
“Yes.” Ethan straightened up again. “When we get back, I could probably tell her I’m having lunch with friends. Would that work for you?”
“Yeah. I’ll tell Mini the same thing.”
“Cool. Meet you outside of the main hall once the TrendCon lunch starts?” Ethan smiled and leaned off the railing as he spotted my friends headed our way.
“We should both try and take establishing shots of the con until then.”
He nodded.
“Hey, friends,” Nittha said, a massive grin working its way across her face as her eyes went back and forth between me and Ethan. “What ya talkin’ ’bout?”
“Nothing much.” Ethan shrugged, half a smile playing with the corners of his mouth as he fibbed. “Just working out our grandma-based differences.”
“Oh.” Nittha sounded as if that was the least interesting thing she’d heard in a week. Turning toward me, she held a drink out and said, “I know you said you didn’t want anything, but they have a Beginners Luck over there. So here. Blueberry matcha latte with extra whipped cream and chocolate drizzle, iced.”
“Thank you,” I said, trying not to smirk. I suspected that she’d picked up my favorite not-coffee so that she and Gabbyhad a reason to walk over and find out what Ethan and I were talking about.
I closed my eyes and inhaled a deep whiff of sweet, earthy goodness then grinned up at Ethan, who was watching me with complete surprise.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he said, pushing his hair out of his eyes. “I didn’t have you pegged for a ten-dollar-coffee drinker.”
“First, matcha is a tea, and second, it’s eight fifty, and it tastes like gold,” I said, trying not to feel judged by my drink order. “What did you think I’d drink?”
“Black coffee. Isn’t that what all artists drink?”
“Only the ones who are sad on the inside,” Gabby said, waving her lemon-berry iced latte at him.
Ethan snort-laughed. “I guess I’ll be sad on the inside and rich on the outside, then.”
“You don’t even have plain coffee, so really you’re neither right now,” Nittha said, pointing her usual technically-coffee raspberry whipped-oat-milk decaf mocha at him.
Ethan opened his mouth to say something, when an exhausted-looking person with a clipboard, wearing a purple Kart World shirt whose better days had been sometime in 2017, cupped a hand over their mouth. “TrendCon group, we are ready for you. If you can step this way and grab your wristbands.”
The four of us turned and joined the crowd of teens shuffling toward the wristband line as the employee began listing the rules in a way that sounded like their battery was low.
“You’ll be racing in teams of four. Fastest team wins bragging rights and free food from our snack bar.” The employeeglanced up for a fraction of a second. “Helmets and seat belts must be worn while driving. And remember, if you post on social media, use the hashtags”—the employee looked down at the clipboard—“TrendConLV and KartWorld…also with an LV. Okay, go pick your teams, and we’ll get started soon.”
“Cool. So…” Ethan drew the wordsoout. “Can I be on your team? I’m a great driver.”
“I don’t drive, but you all should be on a team together.” Nitthasmiled up at me and batted her eyelashes as if she was creating some kind of romantic moment for us instead of dooming me to a high-pressure driving situation with a boy who loved cars and had only recently agreed to work with me. Not that Nittha knew that part.
“I actually wasn’t planning on—” I started, when Gabby cut me off.
