Excerpt from Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"Don't touch people that don't like being touched," I told him. He held up his hands in surrender, looking shy all of a sudden. Who touches a girl's elbow and then gets shy?

"Sorry," he said. "I'm sorry. I'm new. I just moved here. I don't know anybody. I've been watching you. It looks like you don't know anybody, either."

"I know everyone," I said, gesturing to the entire congregation of poolgoers. "I know them all. I just don't like them."

He nodded. He understood. "Will you help me get this watermelon?" he asked.

"Me?" I asked, confused.

"You and me," he said. "I think we can do it."

"Okay, sure," I said, nodding, smiling.

"All right," he said, his face brightening. "What's your name?" he asked me.

"Frankie," I told him.

"Cool. I like girls who have boys' names," he told me, like he was the most open-minded boy who had ever lived.

"Frankie isn't a boy's name. It's unisex."

"My name is Zeke," he told me.

"Zeke?" I said.

"Ezekiel," he explained. "It's biblical. But it's my middle name. I'm trying it out this summer. Just to see how it sounds."

I was looking at him. He wasn't handsome; all of his features were too big, cartoonish. But I wasn't pretty, either. I had a really plain face. I convinced myself, at the right angle, that even though I was plain, it was temporary and soon I'd be pretty. I told myself that I definitely wasn't ugly. My brothers, however, said I was ugly. Whatever. I cared so much, but I put a lot of effort into not caring. I was punk rock. Maybe it was better to be ugly if the alternative was to be plain.

The whistle blew, and we were just staring at each other, but then he said, "C'mon. We can do this!" and he jumped right into the pool. I did not jump into the pool. I just stood there. I smirked, watched him bob in the water. And he looked so hurt. It made me feel real shitty. Finally, he shrugged and started splashing toward the commotion, toward that roiling mass of teenage boys, all fighting over something so stupid, for fun.

Zeke tried two or three times, but he kept getting roughly tossed aside, dunked under the water, and he'd come up gasping, coughing, looking so lost out there on his own. But he kept climbing over people, trying to get his hands on the watermelon, which was so slippery that no one could really control it. And then somebody kicked him accidentally in the mouth and I saw that his lip was busted. It was bleeding, dripping into the pool, but the lifeguards did not give a shit. I don't think they were even watching. And Zeke just jumped back into the crowd, and I started to get worried. I knew something bad would happen to someone this clueless.

Before I could think about it, I was running over to my brother Andrew, who had, like, seven bags of snack-size Doritos, and I told him that I needed his help. Right then, Brian came over, a wad of damp dollar bills in his fist. "C'mon, Andrew," he said, completely ignoring me. "We don't have all day."

"I need help," I said, and by this point, Charlie had come over, wondering what was going on. "I need you to help this boy get the watermelon," I told all three of them.

"Fuck no," Charlie said. "No way."

"Please?" I asked them.

"Sorry, Frankie," Andrew told me, and they started to run off, but I shouted, "I'll give you twenty dollars!"

"Twenty bucks?" Brian asked. "No shit?"

"Twenty bucks," I said.

"And what do we do now?"

"See that nerdy kid in the water? With the busted lip?" I told them. They all nodded. "Help him get the watermelon," I said. It was pretty simple, but they kept staring at the watermelon.

"You in love with him?" Charlie asked me, grinning.

"I don't know," I said. "I think I feel sorry for him."

"Yikes," Andrew said, grimacing, like I was cursed. "Fine. We'll do it." And my brothers dropped all the stuff they were carrying and ran to the edge of the pool, cannonballing into the water. Andrew grabbed Zeke like a rag doll and basically carried him toward the watermelon while Brian and Charlie cleared a path using their elbows, the ferocity of their actions overwhelming the other kids, who had been wrestling over the watermelon for long enough that they were starting to tire out. When they got possession of the watermelon, a sorry-looking sight, Andrew threw Zeke onto it, and the triplets pushed him to the edge of the water, Zeke's mouth dripping blood onto the Vaseline. And then it was over. Zeke had won.

Excerpted from Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson. Copyright © 2022 by Kevin Wilson. Excerpted by permission of Ecco. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.