Eric McGorrill stumbled down the aisle of the crappy old plane with his water bottle in his hand, getting ready. He was gonna totally nail these geeks. Every gag, you had to bait the hook. His old man had told him that. His dad, the famous comedy writer. The only useful advice his old man had ever given him. Set up the gag, son, always set up the gag.

So he made a big face, like he felt all sick. "Oh, man," he said loudly. "I don’t feel so great!"

"Hey, guys, do you have to be so loud?" Nathan McHugh yelled at him. "I’m trying to record something." Nathan. Mr. Perfect. At least that’s what he thought he was. A Mr. Perfect wannabe.

Eric knew that perfection was out. No way he’d ever be perfect. So he was working on funny. Besides, only dorks wanted to be perfect. Perfection was so boring. Funny was cool. Funny also got you out of work, out of jams, out of all kinds of stuff. While people were laughing, they didn’t pay attention to the fact that you were playing them like cheap violins.

"I . . . I think I’m losing it!" Eric yelled. Then he made a real good ralphing noise and squirted water in Taylor’s lap. "Airsick!"

"Ahhhhh! Gross! Gross!" Taylor yelled. She had been looking through InStyle magazine. Now she started whaling on him with the magazine. It was like an inch thick. Man, it was like getting hit with a plank! Taylor—totally hot Taylor—was beating his butt. This wasn’t going according to plan.

He retreated a few steps, laughing loudly, and considered pretending to puke on Lex, the little kid. Nah, boring. Lex was Daley’s younger brother—this little geek, nine or ten years old. He’d probably start talking about the chemical composition of water or something.

Behind Eric, Melissa Wu stood up with her water bottle, made a pathetic puking noise and tried to squirt it on Taylor, too. Melissa was something Asian. Chinese? Japanese? Korean? Eric could never keep it straight. Anyway, how lame, trying to steal his joke! What was up with that?

Taylor grabbed the water bottle from Melissa, heaved it down the aisle. It hit Eric in the head.

"Grow up!" Taylor yelled.