MOMENT TWO NIGHTS LATER I GOT TO meet Professor Halsey in person. It was Saturday night, and I dressed up like I was going on a date: new sweater, hair blown dry, lip gloss. Insane, I know. Danny had come to visit for the weekend but had a shockingly low amount of interest in nanoscience. The official reason for his visit was to check out Boston University, where my parents hoped he’d be accepted for the fall. But in the thirty-six hours since he arrived, he’d made no move to see the campus. I’d invited him to the lecture, but he’d declined, instead holding court with a bunch of girls on the main quad, roasting marshmallows on a hibachi and strumming his ukulele. All in a grass skirt and snow boots, of course. The girls thought he was adorable, and the setting sun and freezing temperatures didn’t seem to bother them a bit. I had a feeling Danny was going to like college. Professor Halsey was speaking at Building 4 about his hopes for expanding the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research by publishing his recent studies on nanotechnology.
