Refraction Read Online Free PDF Page A

now.
     
     
    “OH MY God,” Max groaned as Crush dropped into the desk behind him. “Did you switch your schedule to do this? There is no way you were in this many of my classes before.”
    Crush frowned at him. “Of course I was.”
    Max groaned again and buried his face in his textbook. He’d really been hoping Crush would give it a rest today and give him some time to process. This was a situation that required consideration! Of course, Crush didn’t know there was a situation.
    There were a lot of things Max should probably do here, and none of them were “form an emotionally significant relationship with your archnemesis.” He should probably inform his mom— his boss —for one. He should probably gain Crush’s trust and try to pry trade secrets out of him. He should probably try to gain access to the Goodmans’ headquarters. He should probably learn personal secrets about Crush and use them for blackmail. He should probably kidnap Crush and hold him for ransom.
    Crush leaned forward while their teacher called the class to order, his presence warm next to Max’s shoulder. His breath feathered along Max’s neck when he whispered, “Just because I sat in the back doesn’t mean I wasn’t here.”
    Max swallowed. “I think that’s a double negative,” he rasped.
    Because, the thing about it, the thing was, Max had always known who Crush was—everyone did. But Crush had seemed happy to let their social circles never cross at school. Crush was around, and Max was around, but they weren’t around together . And Max had been okay with that. His mother had warned him early on to keep his distance for fear of being found out, and while some of the other League teens liked to brush the hero crowds to dance with fire, Max agreed with his mom—both because college admissions frowned on public records of supervillainy, and out of a personal distaste for the frankly uninspired personality required to be a superhero. They were just so… bland. And complacent.
    So Crush going around being all interesting at Max—that threw a wrench in his world view, and he couldn’t quite convince himself to let it go yet. He resigned himself to being Crush’s partner when Crush volunteered them for English jeopardy, and he boggled at how excited Crush was when they won. He gathered up his books quickly afterward, before Crush could do something crazy like offer to carry them, but he didn’t object when Crush followed him out of the classroom anyway.
    Didn’t object much .
    “Aren’t you going to be late if you follow me all the way to the lab?” he huffed. “Don’t tell me you have AP Physics too.”
    Crush looked wounded.
    Max sighed. “Of course you do.”
    “Physics is a valuable theoretical and practical field,” Crush recited in the tone of someone who didn’t necessarily see the point himself but figured it must be true. He probably got this stuff straight from the hero handbook.
    Max scoffed, annoyed at the thought. “Yeah, or maybe it’s just fun . Do you know how much awesome stuff you can make once you understand how electrical circuits work?”
    Crush’s step faltered, and Max abruptly panicked—was that too obvious? Was that something a supervillain would say?—but then Crush smiled, somehow wide and uncertain at the same time.
    “Maybe you can show me sometime,” he suggested.
    “Uh.” Max coughed. His fingers clenched around the strap of his bag.
    “I mean, it can’t be any worse than the assignments Brady comes up with.”
    “Oh my God,” Max exclaimed. “ Thank you .” Their student teacher for physics was the absolute worst. “His experiments would bore a fifth grader to tears!”
    Crush laughed, and he looked like he felt guilty about it, but he still said, “I think we really did do the bouncing ball experiment in fifth grade, though.”
    “With Mrs. Draper!” Max agreed, oddly transfixed by the way insulting a teacher drew a light blush across Crush’s cheekbones.
    “So,”