When I started seventh grade, I was the classic glasses-wearing nerd—plain, quiet, and a little taller than most kids my age. I hated sports, kept to myself, and hung out with the same small cluster of brainy friends every lunch period.
The kid at the desk beside mine, though, was my total opposite. Van Cooper—“Van” to everyone else—was one of the most popular guys in school: good-looking, a varsity-track natural, and somehow still an honor-roll student. Before class or any time the bell ha