Free This Is My Brain on Boys by Sarah Strohmeyer

disconcerting even for the most rational of us.”
    â€œAhem.” Dex cleared his throat, impatiently. “Shall we begin? We’re already behind.”
    â€œIf you’re prepared, then yes.” Dr. Brooks perched at the edge of her desk. “I’m very eager to see how you’veprogressed. This is your introduction to the committee, remember, and it bears repeating that first impressions count.”
    Addie hooked up her computer, opened the pertinent file, and clicked to the first slide. All business.
    Dex said, “I thought it might be valuable to begin with a quick overview of our thesis.”
    Dr. Brooks nodded. “Proceed.”
    â€œAddie and I have developed the Brain Adrenaline, Dopamine, and Amine Synthesis System—aka B.A.D.A.S.S.—based on observations that the human brain releases the same series of neurochemicals during high levels of stress as it does in the initial stages of love, i.e., infatuation. Therefore, we posit that it is possible to trick the brain, if you will, into believing it is in love by subjecting a person to trauma.”
    Addie wanted to point out that, actually, she’d been the one to develop B.A.D.A.S.S. after researching cases where mere acquaintances “fell in love” after surviving tragedies—shipwrecks, the sudden deaths of friends, floods, fire, and war.
    Perhaps the most striking example she found online of this phenomenon involved the supermodel Christie Brinkley, who survived a helicopter crash on a Colorado mountain in 1994 while she was married to singer Billy Joel. The helicopter dropped out of the sky and rolleddown the mountain more than 200 feet. One of the passengers was Richard Taubman, who, though being just a friend of a friend before the crash, asked Christie to marry him within two months. She accepted. They even held their wedding near the crash site where they “fell in love.” When they divorced a year later, she explained that she had mistaken post-traumatic stress syndrome for love.
    That’s what started Addie thinking: Maybe it didn’t take a helicopter crash to trigger a flood of dopamine and epinephrine. Maybe all you needed was a roller coaster. Or a rock wall. Or being trapped on a barren island in a violent electrical storm.
    Dexter clicked to the first slide. A pair of gerbils appeared on the screen, each clutching small gerbil treats. “Here we have Will and Kate, two gerbils named not by me, of opposite gender of sufficient maturity. Previously Will showed no interest in Kate and vice versa.”
    Addie clicked to the next slide and took over the narration: “On the theory that the perception of extreme danger triggers the brain’s response by releasing stimulants such as phenylethylamine (PEA), adrenaline, and norepinephrine—the exact same hormones the brain produces in creating instant physical attraction”—she cleared her throat—“Dex and I placed Will and Kate in precarious, though ultimately safe, situations, with thegoal of inducing said attraction.”
    Next slide. Will and Kate in a clear plastic exercise ball. Addie held her breath.
    This was the experiment that had caused all the trouble.
    Somehow, word had gotten out that she and Dex were traumatizing mice—though they weren’t. Without even bothering to get her facts right, a fellow class member and die-hard animal-rights activist, Kara Wilkes, had embarked on a ruthless smear campaign against the lab.
    The administration tried to make her stop, but Kara and her lawyer parents counterclaimed that she had a First Amendment right to free speech. It wasn’t until Kara and her friends went too far by breaking into the lab, trashing the equipment, and spray-painting all over the walls, that they were finally booted off campus.
    Addie still had nightmares about that period and she was still furious. Not Kara, not anyone in her self-righteous clique, had ever bothered to visit the