the excuse of not being able to get together with teammates was pathetic bc it doesn’t justify how they didn’t communicate. I was a bit harsh on her at first but towards the end of the book she gained my respect and I do understand her perspective. I wish I could say more, but I don't even remember anything he did, which is saying something about the impact he had on me.

Okay, so my husband completely disagrees with me on this one as we had an in-depth discussion over this while drinking wine.

it was more like a friends to lovers because of the way they so easily warmed up to one another afterwards. There’s no direct reckoning with any of this but by the end of the book he admits to Bel that he’s learned a lot from her and we can hope he’s a more self-aware (and consequently better) teacher in the future. As a result of a teacher witnessing Bel's potential in engineering, she is transferred into the AP Physics course and eventually joins the school's robotics team (per her teacher/Ms. it was like their progress of becoming friends was just erased because they refused to acknowledge their feelings.

And I think what impresses me the most is how robotics or engineering is not my type of nerd and my least favorite field in STEM but there was not one time where I feel bored or clueless.

Teenage Bel was equal to anxious Bel because of the constant need to figure out her future because everyone around her in school or in home had plans for their future and all she could do is just listen to them telling her "You should do that", "You should try this thing or that thing". I love how their relationship played out, and how the spark of the yearning period doesn't disappear after the relationship started. Bel changed Teo and his habbit of always being a fixer and she loved herself the most when she was with Teo—which was both a good thing and a bad thing. I wish I could say it mattered even a little bit what his question was, but it really never crossed my mind to choose anything but him. My career (literature) is plagued by girls, there's a lot of us and like 11 boys (in my classes) but teachers (mostly men, ugh) only ask for their opinions to the boys, what about us?