"You have a goofy look on your face, Carlos."

Suzie stood over Carlos, who sat on the grass. He touched his cheek gingerly.

"You caught me off guard with that kiss," If he were still in middle school, he would have run home and vigorously washed his cheek until the cooties were gone. If he were in middle school, he wouldn't have let any girl near enough to kiss him.

"Oh, that." Suzie laughed. "Research."

"Come again?" Carlos reached for his skateboard and stood up.

"Research." Suzie shrugged her shoulders. "I've never kissed a boy before, and I was curious. So I kissed you." She stared at him. "You're not mad, are you?"

"No. I don't know how I feel. I guess I'm confused."

"I can fix that." Suzie pulled Carlos toward her and they embraced. "If you don't like it, you are free to run away."

Carlos did like it, even though his mind was screaming for him to run away and don't look back. After all, this was Suzie Harriman. He didn't like the creepy way Suzie stared at him or her lofty attitude about skateboarding. Imagine calling him an amateur! Well, he'd show her.

He kissed Suzie a second time, right smack on the lips. Yeah, he'd show her alright – if he could only stop kissing her.

"What do we do now?" Suzie asked when the two of them came up for air.

"I dunno. Skateboard, I guess, on the condition you stop calling me an amateur."

"No, Dummy. Ask her to prom!"

James Diamond stood on the driveway, looking down at them with his Cheshire cat grin.

"James!" Carlos ran after him. He caught up with James half way up the driveway. "What're you doing here?"

"I came to apologize. I was kind of rude at Kendall's house."

"Kind of?"

"Okay. A lot rude." He glanced down at Suzie, who was still standing in the grass with a dopey look on her face. "But I see you've rebounded rather nicely."

"We're making a pact right now," Carlos said. "You tell no one about Suzie kissing me." He grabbed James' tee shirt for emphasis. "You got me? No one."

"Okay! Okay!" James removed Carlos' hand from his tee shirt. "Do you mind? It's my favorite tee."

"Sorry."

"You could do a lot worse than Suzie for a prom date."

"I guess," Carlos said. "But I gotta get used to Suzie being a girl, you know? When I woke up this morning she was still 'Old Suzie,' the pest in my history class."

James put his arm around Carlos' shoulder. "Dude, that's how the whole mess starts. When the pest you've hated since middle school becomes a girl, you're sunk."

"You hooked Logan up with Camille," Carlos said. "You think you can help me find a way to ask Suzie to prom?"

"Just ask her: 'Suzie, will you do me the honor of going to prom with me?'"

"That's all?" Carlos asked. "Prom is special. I figured I'd have to buy a whole bunch of flowers or rent a prop plane and spell out the invitation in the air."

"You're not marrying her, Dude," James said. "In your case, however, maybe we can work a skateboarding maneuver into a prom invitation."