Running the Numbers
836 Views · Ongoing · nelsongati3
Description: Wren Ashford has spent Larkwood High School being useful instead of known the girl teachers wheel out for academic decathlon and nobody invites to anything else. Dashiell "Dash" Bellinger is the opposite problem: everyone knows him, nobody looks past the letterman jacket, and that suits him fine, because what's underneath is a secret he's protected since freshman year words that swim and scramble on the page no matter how hard he studies, hidden behind charm, memorized plays, and teammates' borrowed notes. When Dash's failing AP Chemistry grade threatens his recruiting eligibility and Wren's stalled fellowship application flags her as "brilliant but unrelatable," their guidance counselor brokers an unlikely trade: Wren tutors Dash through chemistry, and Dash coaches Wren through the social fluency her fellowship interview demands. What starts as a transaction in an empty tutoring room becomes the only place either of them stops managing an image. As Dash's grades improve and Wren's guarded edges soften, they're pulled toward each other until a misread cheating accusation forces Dash's hidden struggle into the open, and Wren has to decide whether the poise she's borrowed from him is worth losing the version of herself he actually fell for. Set against small-town football fever and college-admissions pressure, Running the Numbers is about two people learning that being known is riskier, and better, than being impressive.


















































