The Dangerous Days of Daniel X Read Online Free Page B

plumbing, how overrated are they?”
    I smiled back, my mouth suddenly dry.
    What can I say about Dana? She’s tall, with pin-straight blond hair that flows like a waterfall of flame down her back. She’s probably the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen—just my opinion, of course—but the neat part is that hands down, Dana’s the most genuine person I’ve met. No ego, no big head, no agenda.
    I have a crush on Dana so bad that it makes me physically shake sometimes. It’s embarrassing! Like when I look into her eyes, which are in the blue family, somewhere between chambray and shaved ice.
    I stared at her in the firelight across from me and felt my wet, cold carcass instantly warm up.
    “Way to go, Daniel!” Joe said, his cheeks bloated with Chex Mix, wincing as he sat on a hard root. “Sweet spot you picked here, buddy. I mean, I love the cold by itself, but
wet,
too? And lousy grub.”
    “Joe’s actually right for once,” Willy said, whittling a stick into an arrow with my pocketknife. “This place is a dump.”
    “A dump?” Emma said, outraged. “The Pacific Northwest is like one of the biologically richest areas in North America. Maybe in all the temperate areas of the world. Besides all of the coniferous growth, it’s home to the mourning dove and the western fence lizard.”
    “Hey, you’re right, Emma. This eco-biosystem thingy is really starting to grow on me,” Joe said. “In fact . . .”
    Joe got down on one knee in front of the Douglas fir beside him and mimicked opening a jewelry box. “Will you marry me?” he said to the tree. “Seriously. I love you, tree.”
    “Enough, clown boy,” Dana said to Joe. “I call Trivial Pursuit.”
    Chapter 13
    WHAT CAN I SAY? We like to play board games. All right, so we’re a little nerdy. And since this whole scene was my creation, we could bend the rules any way we wanted.
    “First question, Dana,” Emma said, drawing a card. “Category is entertainment. Who played the role of George Bailey in Frank Capra’s Christmas classic,
It’s a Wonderful Life
? I know you know it, girl.”
    Joe finished my Gatorade and gave a deafening burp. “Samuel L. Jackson,” he said. “No, wait. It was Mini-Me.”
    “Jimmy Stewart,” Dana said.
    “You go, girl,” said Emma. “Next question—Joe. Category is theoretical physics. In quantum electrodynamics, what is the full scattering amplitude the sum of?”
    “Theoretical physics!” Joe said, outraged. “E equals MC squared. How should I know? Let me see that card!”
    “Incorrect,” Emma said. “Daniel, your turn. Science and nature. What does
elephant
mean in Latin?”
    “An
elephant
question!” Joe said, rolling his eyes. “I get the thermo whatzit and Daniel,
the elephant nerd,
gets an elephant question? Besides, he knows Latin.”
    “And about a hundred other languages,” said Dana.
    “Huge arch,” I said, ignoring them. “
Ele
means arch and
phant
means huge.”
    After we played Trivial Pursuit for about an hour more, I finally said, “You know what, guys? I think I’m gonna hit the sack. I’ve had a long, hard one today.”
    “Where we headed this time?” Will said.
    “LA,” I said. “On the trail of Number 6. He’s nasty, and I think he’s getting ready to make a big strike at Terra Firma. He already sent a henchman to warn me off.”
    “LA, cool!” Joe said. “Number 6, cooler. The scarier the better. The few, the proud,
us.
”
    “You got my back tonight?” I said to Willy as I stood up and stretched my arms toward the moon.
    “Anything gets close to this campfire that Joe can’t eat,” Willy said, punching my leg as I stepped past him, “you’re going to be the first to know.”
    Dana poked her head down close as I slid into my sleeping bag. She looked incredible in the pitch-black—but in the firelight,
wow!
    “Hey, you,” I said.
    “Just wanted to say good night,” she whispered, leaning in. “You handsome devil, you. You are gorgeous, you know? Good