"I wonder who invented the meatball," Chase says, aloud, and we all turn to him. It's lunchtime and we're eating, completely normal conversations happening, and then Chase and his meatball.

"What do you mean 'invented it'?" Zoey asks.

"I mean, think about it. Some guy, like back in the 1500s must've said," he begins doing a strange voice, "yes, meat is good, but it would be even better in ball form!" I laugh, but no one else does. "And this, the meatball was born," he concludes.

Zoey raises her cup, "a toast to the meatball."

"To the meatball!" We all cheer and take drinks, and I cough as I accidentally swallow too much.

"You had too much enthusiasm for the meatball!" Chase laughs, patting my back.

I thank him and we eat in silence for a couple of seconds. "You know, one day a Quinvention may become the world's next meatball," I tell them, thinking about the large range of ideas Quinn tries out weekly. They all grimace at the thought, and I think about the dissolving meat incident. "Or maybe not."

The girl in question comes over, taking a seat at our table with nothing on her tray except for lemons, soy sauce, and two empty pudding cups. "Hello, people, look what I figured out!" She picks up the jar and empty cup, and begins walking us through a strange recipe, "if you take some soy sauce, add some lemon juice, and just a couple drops of cayenne extract..." She pulls out a little bottle, from behind the bowl, which I hadn't noticed. "Then stir it up!"

"Um, is this gonna explode?" Nicole asks, and we all wait fearfully for the answer.

"Nope, watch," she reassures us, then offer the stirred liquid to Chase. "Chase, here, sniff this." He does as he's told and promptly falls unconscious, hitting the floor in seconds. "How cool is that?" She laughs, while we stare, stunned.

"Uh, sure," I tell her, kneeling down to Chase, who I'm closest too. "Jim?" I try shaking him but he doesn't wake up, so I just put my bag under his head as a pillow, and sit back at the table.

"Relax," Quinn tells us, "he'll wake up in a few minutes."

"Quinn, how do you figure this stuff out?" Zoey asks, and I nod along, wondering why she would mix those ingredients, sniff them, and then come here to harass Chase. We don't get an answer, with Quinn ignoring us completely in favour of staring at something behind us. I know from my time around Logan that her stare is one of infatuation. I'd seen it before on a hundred girls, but I never expected to see it on Quinn.

"Quinn?" I ask, gently.

"Quinn," Zoey drags out, but she still doesn't respond.

"I think we lost her," Nicole says.

I watch where Quinn appears to be looking, and see our classmate, Mark. "We lost her to a boy," I sigh.

"Oh!" The girls exclaim, and turn to see the boy in question.

"Quinn, who you looking at?" Dana asks, wanting to know.

"No one!" She denies.

"Yeah, you were," Zoey tells her.

Nicole grins, "you were totally checking out that guy!"

"Who is he?" Dana asks, properly interested in Quinn for the first time.

I watch Quinn, trying to not put pressure on her, and not wanting to explain who Mark is, because this is her thing. I think she's nervous, but she quickly begins telling us, happy as a clam, "his name is Mark, he's in my biology class!"

"Oh, so you met over science," I comment, "that's sweet!" She smiles at me.

"I know! Is he cute or what?" She asks, and we all look at Mark, who is not necessarily our ideas of cute. But if Quinn finds him cute, I'm not gonna tell her what I really think.

"Yeah!" I say, somewhat convincingly.

"Uhuh."

"Sure."

"So, why don't you go talk to him?" Nicole asks her, and we all watch as Quinn begins to grow nervous.

"Oh, I'm not very good at talking to boys."

"It's easy," Zoey says, helpfully, "it's just like talking to girls, but you gotta use smaller words."

"Yeah?" She asks.

"Yeah, go talk to him!" Nicole encourages her.

"All you have to do is say 'hello', and then it'll be so easy for you," I tell her, smiling kindly.

"Okay, why not? Cover me." She goes over to Mark, and stands by his table, while we watch from our seats.

"I love this," Nicole says, the drama and romance are all she has asked for since coming to PCA.

Zoey shushes the brunette, "she's starting to talk."

Quinn takes a seat, then suddenly seems to change her mind and stands back up, walking over to our table. "And now she's not."

"I wonder what happened," I say, as we all turn back as if we weren't spying.

"That was quick," Zoey says, hoping for more details.

"What'd you do?" Dana asks the scientist.

Quinn explains, "I just said hello, like Harper said. Then I asked if I could have one of his nose hairs." I freeze up, feeling embarrassment crawling up my spine.

"You asked him... huh?" I ask, slumping in my seat.

"Why?" Zoey asks, incredulously.

"To compare it to one of mine under a microscope," she tells us, and somehow I start finding it sweet, "to see if we're molecularly compatible. Is that so weird?"

"I don't hate it as much as you'd think," I say, confused by myself.

The other girls disagree, all telling her, "yes." The poor girls isn't sure what to make of it, and is interrupted by Chase waking up.

"What?" He asks, as I help him up. "Quinn, you, did you?" We explain that he got knocked out for a few minutes and is fine, and he finishes his lunch, quietly, while we all watch Quinn.

I follow Chase when we leave, offering to carry his bag but him insisting he's fine. Zoey also joins us, and we meet Michael. Zoey decided to tell them about Mark, and I watch them learn the news.

"So, Quinn has a crush on Mark?" Chase asks.

"A big crush!" She confirms.

"That makes no sense," Michael says, and I'm confused.

"Why not?" I ask.

Zoey points out, in my defence, "they're both kind of weird."

"Yeah, good point," Chase agrees, "Quinn, Mark, perfect match, really."

I sigh. "I feel bad," I mumble. "What if he would've said yes if she'd asked him out, and she didn't?" Zoey becomes thoughtful when I say this, but hasn't got the chance to say anything before Dustin comes screaming around the corner, and I watch as he stops by us.

"Help! It tried to kill me!" I look back at where he came from, not sure what he thinks tried to kill him, but knowing the campus is pretty safe.

"Whoa, what tried to kill you?" Zoey asks, becoming protective.

"A big, crazy, freakish frog!" He cries, and I almost laugh, but don't want to upset him any more than he already is.

"Oh, Dustin," she says, as he hugs her tightly. Michael laughs openly.

"That dude's scared of a frog."

"We don't know how big it was," I scold Michael, knowing that we all had stupid fears when we were younger.

"It could have rabies!" Dustin tells him, and I smile at the terrified boy, who still clutches onto his sister.

"Dustin's always been afraid of animals," she says.

"I have not," he denies, sweetly. She stares at him, not believing him, and reminds him of an incident where a goldfish bit his finger. I laugh, not able to stop myself, this time. "Well, I'm not scared of animals anymore! Unless they attack me, like that frog."

She rolls her eyes, "right."

"Well, if it attacked you," I shrug, adjusting my bag.

"You know, Dustin, since you're not afraid of animals anymore, uh, would you mind looking after Elvis for a few days?" Chase asks him, and I pity Dustin, who's now caught in his lie.

"Your dog?"

"Yeah, see Chase and I have study group all week," Michael explains.

"And Logan's got surf team practice."

"Tell me about it," I groan, missing my friend.

"Aw," Zoey says, "poor little Elvis, and Harper, are gonna be all by themselves." She grins at me as I send her a warning glare, breaking into a smile even as I try to act mad.

"Yeah, poor Elvis," I say, pointedly.

"Maybe he likes his privacy," Dustin argues.

"Nah, he loves company," Michael tells him.

"So, yeah, it'd be really cool if you could stop in and feed him a couple times a day. You know, unless you're scared," Chase challenges.

"No, I'm not scared," Dustin says, a little too loud.

"Cool," Michael says. "Hey, what's that?" While Dustin is looking where Michael points, the older boy makes a deep frog sound, and Dustin runs off, screaming.

Michael laughs, and we all look at him in annoyance. "Why'd you do that?" I ask, exasperated.

"Oh, come on, I had to do it," he says, still laughing.

The next few days consist of Zoey trying to help Quinn with Mark things. I hear about attempts to study romantic relationships, which means Quinn basically spied on some poor couple trying to enjoy their date, and am also aware that Zoey asked Mark out for Quinn, and lied about him saying yes. Quinn still has no idea that Mark isn't going on a date with her, and I'm trying to stay out of it.

On Friday, the day before the date, after class, I receive a text from Zoey as I'm leaving the room. I pull myself into a little alcove in the hall, while I fiddle with my books, and Logan follows me, not sure what I'm doing.

"Harp, why are we-" I put my hand over his mouth and read the texts, most of which are my name, each one having a different spelling. Still, more messages are coming through.

Z: I NEED YOUR HELP

Z: I have a plan

"Oh no," I say, knowing this has to be about Quinn. I take my hand off Logan's mouth. He looks at me, silently asking what's wrong, and I nearly tell him, but another text comes through, and I'm stunned.

Z: We have to go on a triple date!

Z: Mark will think he's hanging out with Chase, then we show up, and he'll see how great Quinn is!

Z: Quinn won't have to know it's not a date and all YOU have to do is tell Logan to meet you on Saturday to help us set them up!

I read the thread for a second time, and realise that it could work. If Quinn believes it's a date, and Mark attends not thinking it's a date, he'll either see her differently, or she'll think it went badly and not be interested anymore. With us there, we can help keep it from coming out that it's a setup, and make Quinn look really good in front of Mark.

H: I'm in.

"Logan we have to go on a fake triple date," I tell him, and he frowns at me.

"What?" He thinks about it again. "What!"

I groan, picking up my stuff, "relax, just meet me at the girls' dorm tomorrow, and be nice to Quinn and her date." I brush past him and go back to the dorm, hoping to catch Zoey.

As I turn the corner, I hear him shouting, "what?"