Don’t Drink The Gene Juice

"And then," Zoey said, "we came into the main chamber of the cave. I can't remember what they called it. But it was super awesome, like, light was streaming down through gaps in the ceiling... it was so awesome."

"I wish my family was as well traveled as you," Seth said as he nibbled on a french fry. My family's been to South America a few times, and we went to Europe once when I was really little, but other than that, my family isn't really well traveled."

"I'd say I'm about average," Wyatt said, holding the hand of his girlfriend Crystal. "My family's been to all the continents, except Antarctica of course."

Crystal laughed. "You guys haven't even been to space though have you?"

"Once," Zoey said. "My Mom's works in some trading negotiation stuff between Earth and the Mars colonies. But she really hates having to spend months at a time up there, so whenever she is able to get home, she wants to go to do everything she can that doesn't remind her of space. Then she crashes at home for a couple of weeks."

"Augh," Wyatt groaned. "I would too. So you're Mom's been to Mars then."

"Yeah," Zoey said. "She says that if you want to see a cool looking red place, go to Arizona, or Utah or Nevada. I've only been on one trip to the Southwest, and I can agree that it looks pretty. As long as you stay in the car."

"I lived in Arizona for a bit," Crystal laughed. "Way too hot for me too."

"Hey," Zoey said, "speaking of heat, with springbreak coming up, I wanted to have a party at my place."

"You mean," Wyatt's eyes widened, "at your indoor pool?"

Zoey rolled her eyes. "Moocher much? Sometimes you act a bit like a dog."

Wyatt laughed. "Yeah."

Seth noticed a look of sadness in Wyatt's eyes. Ever since their little "fun," last month, Seth and Skylar had caught Wyatt doing things like panting a few times. Wyatt clearly was having a hard time getting the dog instincts out.

"Well anyway," Zoey said, "yeah, I want to do just a fun pool party. I haven't thought about how big I want it to be yet, but you guys for sure can come."

"Thanks Zoey," Seth smiled. "Yeah, I'm totally up for it. Next week right?"

"Yeah," Zoey said, "Saturday."

"Sounds great," Seth said.

Not only have I managed to get on a date with one of the school's popular girls, Seth thought, but now she's inviting me to a party at her house.

This year had been going great for him. Now, if only he could actually find some way to pass his coding class.

The rest of the date went by well. Seth had managed to get Zoey to hold his hand. She seemed hesitant. Hopefully she didn't think that he was some kind of a**hole.

True, Seth had gotten around a lot on his journey here. Some breakups... could've gone better. But it wasn't like he was trying to go for the most popular person in school. He wasn't just trying, like Wyatt, to mooch off her fancy stuff.

No, Seth had always just had a crush on Zoey. Unfortunately, she'd always been surrounded by an army of less popular people, who with their elitist attitudes would turn him away.

Well he'd gotten passed all that. And now, he was going to struggle the best he could to make a good impression on Zoey.

Finishing his date with a walk up to Zoey's door - of their obviously large, nice looking mid-century home, Seth gave her as sincere of a hug as he could manage. He wasn't going to try to overwhelm her with a kiss.

It thankfully went less awkwardly than he'd hoped. What went worse than he'd thought, was coming back home - which was weird, because he hadn't even considered that would be bad.

"Seth's got a boyfriend," Lily said as she saw Seth come through their front door.

"Heck yeah I do," Seth said. "And why are you taunting me? What are you, in second grade?"

He stopped. And realized what Lily had said.

"No, I... I mean I have a girl - friend," he tried to recover.

"I knew it," she said, "you aren't actually dating a girl. You're just smoochin' with your boyfriend Wyatt."

"Wyatt is not my boyfriend," Seth said. "If anything, I'd go for Skylar."

Seth had not thought about things like that a whole lot. He knew he was bi, but girls had always worked just fine for him. Besides, it felt weird to think about his friends like that."

"Skylar's gross," Lily said.

"Seriously," Seth said, "are you sure you're in middle school? You act like you're in 1st grade."

Lily looked like she was a bit hurt by that.

"Seth," Mom called from the living room, "you two be nice."

"I was just teasing her Mom," Seth rationalized.

"So was I twerp," Lily replied.

She went upstairs to her room, and Seth threw himself down on the living room couch.

"So," Dad asked, "did you have fun?"

"Yeah," Seth grinned, "it went great. Zoey invited us to a pool party at her house next week."

"Hey," Dad smiled. "You did it Seth! Guess you aren't out of her league after all."

"Yeah," Seth smiled. "I'll be honest though... she kind of intimidates me."

Mom chuckled. "She doesn't sound very intimidating."

"I mean like," Seth said, "like in how her family's... well off. She's gone to so many places all over the world, and that's like, the norm for her. We tried to come up with a country she hadn't been to, and we could only come up with a couple - it also didn't help that my geography's pretty bad."

"Well," Dad said, "I feel like you've seen a lot of the world."

"Haven't seen the world from space though," Seth said.

"Well," Dad said, "you have your whole life for that. Never too late to get out into the world. Your great grandma climbed up to Machu Pichu in her nineties."

"Yeah," Seth said. "I guess I just feel inferior to her, and that kind of makes me feel uncomfortable."

"Just have fun Seth," Dad said. "Just because she's been places doesn't mean she can't be just as fun and easy-going as other people you know."

"I guess."

"Are you going to get your coding done for class?" Mom asked.

Seth tried not to groan.

"I know you don't like it," Dad said, "but we've all had to do a required coding class. When we did school. And you have it way easier than me and Mom did."

"What's your grade in the class?" Mom asked as Seth was deliberately making an exit.

"Passing," he lied, going down the hall to his room.

He heard Mom sigh, then escaped to his room.

There, he fell on his bed, and just imagined what awaited him.

And a wonderful realization struck him. He was one of the popular kids now.