The Bermudez Triangle // On the Count of Three — Maureen Johnson

The Bermudez Triangle is:

Nina Bermudez, who TiVos every episode of Trading Spaces because watching people rip down bad decorations soothes her.

Avery Dekker, who worships Jack Black but has learned to play Billy Joel's "Piano Man" by heart just so that she can hate it in detail.

Melanie Forrest (a.k.a. Mel), who inspires guys to develop instantaneous, epic crushes -- the kind that cause them to want to iron their clothes and listen to the lyrics of slow songs.

Lifelong best friends Nina, Avery, and Mel face their first separation the summer before their senior year, when Nina attends a ten-week program at Stanford. But how much can happen in ten weeks?

Plenty, it seems. Nina finds herself blindsided by Steve, the adorable ecowarrior down the hall. Too bad he lives in Oregon and she's from upstate New York. When the Stanford program ends, she has to wait 8,736 hours before she can see him again.

At least she'll soon be reunited with Mel and Avery. But Nina isn't the only one whose life was turned upside down in ten weeks. While Nina was gone, Mel had her first real kiss. With Avery.