I was supposed to be bumping shoulders with the best and brightest in chemistry at a London university. Instead, I'm bumping into the shoulder pads of Tiff U's star football player—and I'm his tutor.

I've never had many friends. The only one I thought I could count on ended up stealing my scholarship—and then my boyfriend. Now, instead of spending my fall semester abroad, I'm stuck here in Iowa, with zero funds and even less hope that I'll get to study abroad at all before I graduate this spring.

Even worse? My mentor asked me to take on the impossible—tutoring arrogant running back Logan Ford and helping him finally pass Chem 101. Apparently, the team needs him, and the governing board is cracking down on letting grades slide for athletes. Normally, I'm all for accountability. Except now getting him to pass is my problem. And everyone on campus is looking to me—Rachel Edwards, chemistry genius, bonafide introvert—to get it done.

I'm about to give up before I start. But then I get a crazy idea. What if I can get Logan to be my date for the winter science ball? The one where the honors students compete in a pool for massive cash for the one who lands the hottest hottie on campus. Tiff U athletes have their fun, and we have ours too. It just doesn't get the same attention. Probably because nobody has ever walked into the ball with someone like Logan Ford.

Last year's pool got all the way up to five grand, enough to pay for my semester abroad. But can I really land the running back? And if I ask him to pretend in exchange for passing his class, can I handle the way he looks at me, touches me, makes my insides incinerate like a chemical reaction?

And what happens if I forget that none of it is real?