Avalon High - Мэг Кэбот 2 стр.

sure: He wasnt smiling anymore.

who, I noted

maybe because I almost ran into

 Finally, he said something that seemed to placate the blond couple, since they stopped

looking so upset.

 Then the blond boy climbed into a Jeep, while the dark-haired guy slid behind the wheel

of a white Land Cruiser

Which surprised me, since it had looked to me like she and the cute blond guy, not the

dark-haired one, were the couple.

 But having had little experience in the boyfriend department, Im not exactly an expert.

 I was sitting on the hood of our own car reflecting on what I had just witnesseda lovers

quarrel? A drug deal of some kind?when my dad finally came staggering over.

 Water, he croaked, and I gave him the other bottle.

 It wasnt until we were inside the car, the air-conditioning blasting on us at full power,

that my dad asked, So. Have a good run?

 Yeah, I said, kind of surprised by the answer.

 Want to go again tomorrow? my dad wanted to know.

 Sure, I said, looking at the place where the three people Id seenthe two blonds and

the dark-haired boyhad last stood. They were long gone by then.

 Great, my dad said, in a voice totally lacking any sort of enthusiasm.

 You could tell hed been hoping Id say no. But I couldnt do that. Not because Id finally

remembered how much I enjoyed running, or because Id had a good time with my dad.

 But becausefine, Ill admit itI was hoping Id see that cute guyand his smileagain.

CHAPTER THREE

 I didnt. At least, not at the park. Not that next week, anyway. Dad and I went running

every dayat around the same time as that first daybut I didnt see anyone in the ravine

again.

 And I looked. Believe me. I looked hard.

 I thought about themthe three people Id seena lot. Because they were the first people

and the blond girl slipped into the passenger seat beside him.

my own age Id seen in Annapolisoutside of those working at Grauls, the local grocery

store where we bought trash bags and bread, or waiting tables at Red Hot and Blue.

 Was that ravine, I wondered, some kind of local make-out spot?

 But the dark-haired guy hadnt been making out with anybody that I had seen.

 Was it where kids went to do drugs?

 But the guy hadnt seemed high. And he and his friends hadnt looked like headbangers.

Theyd been wearing normal clothes, khaki shorts and T-shirts. I hadnt noticed a single

tattoo or piercing on any of them.

 It didnt appear that I was going to get answers to any of these questions anytime soon.

Our days of running in Anne Arundel Parkand my floating in our poolwere coming to

an end anyway: School was starting.

 It had always been my dream, of course, to start off my junior year as a new student in a

high school in a faraway state where I knew no one.

 Um, not.

 The first day at Avalon High School wasnt a real first day. It was an orientation.

Basically you just got assigned classes and lockers and stuff. Nothing cerebral involved, I

guess to sort of ease us back into the academic routine.

 AHS was smaller than my old school, but had better facilities and more money, so I

wasnt exactly complaining. They even had a student guide they handed out on the first

official (non-orientation) day, with a small photo and bio on each student. I had to pose

for my photo during orientationme and two hundred giggling freshmen. Yippeethen fill

out a form that asked me for my pertinent information: name, e-mail address (if I chose to

share it), and interests, so they could put it in the guide. It was so we could all get to

know one another

 My parents were super excited on my first day ofreal school. They got up early and made

me a big breakfast and a bag lunch. The breakfast was okaywaffles that were only a

little freezer burnedbut the lunch was really sad: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with

Red Hot and Blue potato salad on the side. I didnt have the heart to tell them that the

potato salad would get all warm in my locker before I ever got a chance to eat it. My

parents, being medievalists, just dont think about refrigeration that often.

 I took the bag they offered me all proudly and just went, Thanks, Mom and Dad.

 They drove me to school the first day because I said I was too emotionally fragile to take

the bus. All of us knew this wasnt true, but I really didnt want to deal with the hassle of

not having anybody to sit next to, and people possibly not wanting to share their seats

sort of Image for the student population.

with a total stranger, et cetera.

 My parents didnt seem to mind. They dropped me off on their way to BWI, the local

train station, because they had decided to make a day of it and go into the city to consult

with other medievalists on their booksmy mom about Elaine of Astolat, and my dad

about his sword.

 I told them to play nice with the other professors, and they told me to play nice with the

other high school kids.

 Then I went on into the school.

 It was a typical first dayat least the initial half was. No one spoke to me, and I spoke to

no one. A couple of the teachers made a big deal out of my being new, and from the

exotic land of Minnesota, and had me tell the class a little about myself and my home

state.

 I did.

 No one listened. Or if they did, they didnt seem to care.

 Which was all right, because truthfully, I didnt care very much either.

 Lunch is always the scariest part of any kids first day at a new school. Im kind of used

to it, from previous sabbaticals, though. Like, I knew enough from my experience in

Germany that taking my paper bag and going to sit in the library by myself would peg me

as a huge loser for the rest of the year.

 So instead I took a deep breath and looked around for a table where tall, geeky-looking

girls like myself were sitting. After I found some, I went over to introduce myself.

Because, basically, thats what you have to do. Feeling like a complete and total dork, I

told them I was new and asked if I could sit with them. Thank God they scooted down

and made room for me. That is, after all, the accepted code of conduct for tall, geeky-

looking girls everywhere.

 Granted, they could have told me to get lost. But they didnt. Avalon High, I was starting

to think, might not be so bad after all.

 I was especially convinced of this right after lunch, which is when I finally saw him. The

guy from the ravine, I mean.

 I was looking down at my schedule, trying to remember where Room 209 was from my

orientation tour, when he came hurtling around the corner, and practically smacked into

me. I recognized him at oncenot just because he was so tall, and there arent a lot of

guys who are taller than me, but also because he had such a distinctive face. Not

handsome, really. But attractive. And nice. And strong-looking.

 The weirdest part was, he seemed to recognize me, too, even though he could only have

seen me for, like, five seconds that day in the park.

 Hey, he said, smiling, not just with his lips, but with his sky blue eyes, too.

 JustHey . Thats all.Hey.

 But it was aHey that made my heart flop over inside my chest.

 And, okay, whatever. Maybe it was the eyes, and not theHey so much. Or maybe it was

just, you know, a familiar face in this sea of people Id never seen before.

 Except

well, Id seen the girl standing next to himit was the blond girl, the same one

Id seen him drive away withbefore, and my heart hadnt flopped over at the sight of her.

 But maybe thats because she was plucking on his sleeve and going, But I told Lance

wed meet him at the DQ after practice.

 To which he replied by putting his arm around her and going, Sure, that sounds great.

 Then the two of them went by me, and were swallowed up in the hordes flooding the

hallway.

 The whole thing had taken maybe two seconds. Okay, three.

 But it left me feeling like someone had kicked me in the chest. Which justwell, it isnt

like me. I amnot that way. You know, theOh my God, he lookedat me, I can barely

breathe type. Nancys the romantic optimist. Im the practical one.

 Which is why it made no sense at all that the minute I got to my next class, I was

whipping out my copy of the student guide and frantically thumbing through it until I

found him, paying not the slightest bit of attention to the reading syllabus my new World

Lit teacher was trying to go over with us.

 He was a year ahead of me, a senior. His name was A. William Wagner, but he was

known as just plain Will.

 I thought that suited him. He looked like a Will.

 Not that I know how a Will should look, really. But whatever.

 According to the book, A. William Wagner was quite a star. He was on the school

football team, as well as a National Merit Finalist and president of the senior class. His

interests included reading and sailing.

 It didnt say anything about Wills dating status, but Id seen him twice now, both times

with the same stunningly pretty blonde. And the second time hed put his arm around her,

and shed talked to him about meeting someone at the Dairy Queen after practice. She

had to be his girlfriend.

 Guys like A. William Wagner always have girlfriends. You dont have to be the practical

type, like I am, to know that.

 Since I had nothing better to doMr. Morton, my World Lit instructor, was trying to

interest us in Gaelic legend, which I probably would have found interesting if I didnt eat,

drink, and breathe Gaelic legend whenever I was in the presence of my parentsI looked

the girlfriend up in the guide, too. I found her picturein my classand saw that her name

was Jennifer Gold, and that her interests included shopping and, what a surprise, A.

William Wagner.

 Her extracurricular was cheerleading.

 It so figured.

 I flipped through the student guide, looking for the blond boy Id seen with Will and

Jennifer that day in the park, I found him, eventually. Lance Reynolds. He was in Wills

class, a senior. He was listed as a guardwhatever that wason the football team, as well

as having an interest in sailing.

 As first days of school went, this one hadnt been all that bad. Id even made some new

friends. Some of the girls Id sat down next to at lunch turned out to be on the track team.

One of themLizlived on the same road as me. She said shed see me on the bus in the

morning.

 When I came outside after school and saw Mom and Dad sitting there in our car, I didnt

melt with relief or anything. I just got into the car and said, Home, Jeeves, in a jokey

way. On our way back to the house, they asked me about my day, and I told them it had

been fine. Then I asked them about theirs. Mom went on about some new text shed

found that actually mentions Elainenot me,her Elainein Arthurian legend, unconnected

to the famous Tennyson poem about her. Which, you know, is so exciting. Not.

 And Dad talked about his sword until my eyes started to cross.

 But I listened politely, because thats what you do.

 Then, when we got home, I went up to my room, put on my bikini, came back

downstairs, and got onto my raft.

 My mom came out onto the deck a little while later and looked down at me as I floated.

 Youre kidding me with this, right? she said. I thought we were through with this,

now that school has started.

 Come on, Mom, I said. Summerll be over soon, and well have to close up the pool.

Cant I just enjoy it for the short time I have left?

 My mom went back inside, shaking her head.

 I leaned back against my raft and closed my eyes. The sun was still hot, even though it

was after three. I had homeworkhomework, on the first day! Id been right about that

Mr. Morton, the World Lit teacher

essay assignmentsbut that could wait until after dinner. There were e-mails, too, from

my friends back home, that needed to be answered. Nancy was begging to come visit.

Shed never been to the East Coast, let alone stayed in a house with its own pool before.

But she had to come soon, or it would be too cool to swim.

 I had established a very strict floating regimen. I floated on my back, in the center of the

pool. If the raft drifted too close to any of the kidney-shaped pools sides, I shoved off

with my foot. The guy who owns the house had put all these big rocks around the edges

of the pool, to make it look more like a naturally occurring pond, or something (except

you dont see that many ponds with chlorine and filters in them. But whatever).

 Anyway, you had to be careful how you shoved off from the rocks, because there was

this one really big rock that had a hugeas big as my fistspider that lived on it. A couple

of times when I hadnt looked where I put my foot, Id almost squashed the spider. I

didnt want to upset the delicate ecosystem of the pool, so, like with the snake, I was

trying hard not to kill this spider. Also, of course, I didnt exactly want him to bite me and

send me to the emergency room.

 So I always opened my eyes whenever my raft floated to the edge of the pool, just to

make sure I didnt step on the spider when I shoved off again.

 That afternoonon the first official day of schoolwhen my raft bumped into the side of

the pool, and I opened my eyes before shoving off, I got the shock of my life.

 Because A. William Wagner was standing on top of Spider Rock, looking down at me.

CHAPTER FOUR

 I screamed and almost fell off the raft.

he was a bad public speakerand a tyrant with the

 Oh, sorry, Will said. Hed been smiling. After I screamed, he stopped. I didnt mean to

scare you.

 Wh-what are you doing here? I stammered, staring up at him. I couldnt believe he was

just

well, standing there. Beside my pool. In my yard. On Spider Rock.

 Uh, Will said, starting to look a little self-conscious. I knocked. Your dad said you

were out here, and let me in. Is this a bad time? I can come back, if it is.

 I stared at him, completely dumbfounded. I couldnt believe this was happening. I had

lived for sixteen years without any boy ever having paid the slightest bit of attention to

me, and then one day, without any warning at all, the cutest guy I had ever seenand I do

mean everjust shows up at my house. Having come, apparently, to see me.

 I mean, why else would he be here?

 Howhow do you know where I live? I asked him. How do you even know who I

am?

 Student guide, he said. Then, seeming to realize that I was more than a little freaked,

he added, Look, Im sorry if I startled you. I didnt mean to. I just thought

mind. You know what? I was wrong.

 Wrong about what? I asked. My heart was still thumping really hard inside my bikini.

He had startled me much more than that spider that lived on Spider Rock ever had.

 But it wasnt just that hed startled me that was making my heart hammer. I have to

admit, a lot of it was because of how good he looked, up there on that rock, with the late-

afternoon sun glinting off his dark head.

 Nothing, he said. I justI mean, you smiled at me that day in the park like

 Like what? I sounded casual, but inwardly, I was freaking out on multiple levels: one,

that he remembered mehe really remembered me!from that day at the park, and two,

that it hadnt just been me. The smile thing, I mean. Hed felt it, too!

 Or maybe not.

 Look, never mind, Will said. Its stupid. When I saw youfirst in the park, and then

again today, it just seemed like

we havent, obviously. I mean, I can see that now. Im Will, by the way. Will Wagner.

 I didnt let on that I already knew this, from having looked him up the same way hed

looked me up. Because I didnt want him to think that I had a crush on him, or anything.

Because how could I have a crush on him? I had only seen him twice before. This made it

three times. You cant get a crush on someone youve seen only three times. I mean, if

well, never

I dont know. That wed met before, or something. But

youre Nancy, you can. But not if youre practical, like me.

 Im Ellie, I said. Ellie Harrison. But then

 The blue-eyed gaze was back on mine, but this time, it didnt seem as intense. Plus, Will

was grinning.

 Pretty much, he said.

 He really was very good-looking. It wasnt often that good-looking guys so much as

looked my way, let alone showed up at my house to see me. Im not ugly, or anything, but

Im no Jennifer Gold. I mean, shes one of thoseOh, Im so little and helpless, please

rescue me, you big strong man types of girls. You know, the kind all the cute guys in

school fall in love with? Im more the kind of girl little old ladies come up to in grocery

stores and ask,Can you get that can of cat food down off that really high grocery store

shelf for me, dear?

 Which basically translates to Invisible to Boys.

 I just moved here, I said. From St. Paul. Ive never been to the East Coast before. So I

dont know how we could have met before

been to St. Paul?

 Which was nuts, because if he had, Id have remembered.

 You better believe Id have remembered.

 No, he said, grinning. Never been there. Look, really, forget I said anything. Things

have been really weird lately, and I guess I just

 His expression darkened, just for a split second, almost as if a shadow had passed across

it.

 Except that that was impossible, since there was nothing standing between him and the

sun.

 Then he seemed to shrug off whatever dark thought had occurred to him, and said

brightly, Seriously, dont worry about it. Ill see you in school.

 He turned like he was going to jump off Spider Rock and go away. I could almost hear

my best friend Nancys voice screaming in my head,Dont let him get away, you idiot!

Hes hot! Make him stay!

 Wait, I said.

 Then, when he turned expectantly, I found myself frantically trying to think of something

I guess you knew that.

. UnlessI eyed him uncertainlyyouve

witty and brilliant to say

 But before I could think of anything, I heard the sliding glass door being thrown back. A

second later, my mom called down from the deck, Ellie, would your friend like to

borrow a suit and go for a swim, too? Im sure one of Geoffs would fit him.

 Oh my God.My friend . I was sure I was going to die. Besides which,go for a swim ?

Withme ? She had no idea she was talking to one of the most popular guys at Avalon

High, or that he was dating one of the prettiest girls there.

 But still. Thats no excuse.

 Uh, no, Mom, I called to her, giving Will an apologetic eye roll that he grinned at.

Were okay.

 Actually, Will said, looking up at my mom.I have to go now.

 Thats what I thought he was going to say.I have to go now , orI made a huge mistake ,

or even,Sorry, wrong house.

 Because guys like Will do not hang around girls like me. It just doesnt happen. Clearly,

Will had thought I was some other girlmaybe someone hed met at camp and had a

crush on when he was eight, or whateverand now that hed realized his error, hed be

leaving.

 Because that is how things are supposed to go in an ordered universe.

 But I guess the universe had tilted on its axis without anyone mentioning it to me, or

something, because Will went on to say, A swim might be nice.

 And not three minutes later, against all laws of probability, Will was emerging from my

house in a pair of Geoffs baggy swim trunks, with a towel around his neck. He was also

holding glasses of lemonade that my mom had scrounged up from somewhere, one of

which he knelt down at the side of the pool to hand to me.

 Free, fast delivery, he said, with a wink, as I took the plastic glass from him. If he felt,

as I did, a jolt of electricity race up his arm as our fingers accidentally brushed, he didnt

let on.

 Oh my God, I said, holding the already-sweating glass and staring at him. He had, I

was not at all surprised to see, a terrific body. His skin was tanned bronzefrom sailing,

no doubtand he was gorgeously well-muscledbut not in a crazy steroid sort of way.

 And he was in my pool.

 He was in my pool.

something that would make him want to stay.

 Did she I was in too much shock to think of anything else. Did shetalk to you?

 Who? Will asked, draping himself over Geoffs raft. Your mom? Yeah. Shes nice.

What is she, a writer or something?

 Professor, I said, through lips that had gone numb. But not from the ice cubes in my

drink. From the thought of Will Wagner, alone in my house with my parents, while I, too

transfixed with horror to move from my raft, had lain in the pool, doing nothing to rescue

him. Both of them.

 Oh, well, that would explain it, Will said lightly.

 My blood went as cold as the ice in my drink. What had they done? What had they said

to him? It was too early forJeopardy! so it couldnt have been that. Explain what?

 Your mom quoted some poem after I introduced myself, Will said, leaning his head

back and peering up at the sky through his Ray-Bans. Whatever Mom had said, he clearly

wasnt bothered by it. Something about a broad, clear brow.

 My stomach lurched. His broad clear brow in sunlight glowd? I asked nervously.

 Yeah, Will said. Thats it. What was that about?

 Nothing, I said, vowing silently to kill my mom at a later date. Its a line from a poem

she likesThe Lady of Shalott. Tennyson. Shes taking the year off from teaching to write

a book on Elaine of Astolat. Its making her a little crazier than usual.

 That must be cool, Will said, his raft heading perilously close to Spider Rock, though

he wasnt, of course, aware of the potential spider-related danger he was in. To have

parents who talk about poetry and books and stuff.

 Oh, you have no idea, I said, in the flattest voice I could.

 Hows the rest of it go? Will wanted to know.

 The rest of what?

 The poem.

 She was so very, very dead. His broad clear brow in sunlight glowd, I quoted from

memory. Its not as if I hadnt heard it seventy times this week alone. On burnishd

hooves his war-horse trode;/From underneath his helmet flowd/His coal-black curls as

on he rode,/As he rode down to Camelot. Its a very lame poem. She dies at the end,

floating in a boat. Werent you supposed to meet some people at Dairy Queen after

practice today?

 Will glanced over at me, as the question had startled him. I didnt blame him. It had

startled me, too. I have no idea where it had come from.

 Still. It needed to be asked.

 I guess so, Will said. Howd you know about that?

 Because I heard Jennifer ask you about it when I saw you today in the hallway at

school, I said. Nancy, I knew, would freak out if shed heard me say this. Shed be all,Oh

my God! Dont let on that you know about Jennifer! Because then hell know you went to

the trouble to look her up, and then hell think you like him!

 But not mentioning Jennifer just didnt seem very practical to me.

 Nancy wouldnt have liked the next words that came out of my mouth, either.

 Shes your girlfriend, right? I asked, looking at him as he floated past.

 He didnt look at me. He lifted his head up to take a sip of his lemonade, then dropped it

back down to the air cushion on his raft.

 Yeah, he said. Going on two years.

 I opened my mouth to ask what seemed to me to be the next natural questionthe one

Nancydefinitely would have forbidden me from asking. But before I could get a word

out, Will lifted up his head, looked right at me, and said, Dont.

 I blinked at him from behind the lenses of my sunglasses. Dont what? I asked, because

how was I to knowthenthat he could read my mind?

 Dont ask me what Im doing in your pool instead of hers, he said. Because I honestly

dont know. Lets talk about something else, okay?

 I could hardly believe what was happening. What was this totally great-looking guy

doing in my pool? Not to mention, reading my mind?

 It didnt make any sense.

 But then, Im not sure it made sense to him, either.

 So instead of asking him about it, I asked him something else that had been bothering

me: just what, exactly, hed been doing in the ravine that first day Id seen him.

 Oh, Will said, sounding surprised Id even ask. I dont know. I just end up there

sometimes.

 Which pretty much answered my question about what he was doing in my pool instead

of his girlfriends: He was clearly mentally unstable.

 Except thatthe being-in-my-pool-instead-of-Jennifers thing asidehe seemed totally

normal. He was able to make perfectly lucid conversation. He asked me why wed moved

from St. Paul, and when I told him about the sabbatical, he said he knew what that was

likehaving to move around a lot, I mean. His dad, he said, was in the navy, and had been

stationed lots of different placesforcing Will to change schools every other year or so

when he was youngerbefore finally taking a teaching position at the Naval Academy.

 He talked about Avalon High, and the teachers he liked, and the ones I should try to stay

away fromMr. Morton he declared, much to my surprise, a good guy. He talked about

Lancehe described the month off he and Lance had taken over the summer to sail up and

down the coast, just the two of them.

 The only thing Will didnt bring up again was Jennifer. Not even once.

 Not that I was counting.

 I didnt have any trouble figuring out what Nancy would have made of that. Clearly all

was not happiness and joy inthat relationship. Why else was he floating in my pool, and

not hers?

 Not, of course, that I imagined his interest in me was at all romantic. Because whod

want hamburger when they could have filet mignon? Which isntdespite what Nancy

would sayputting myself down. Its just being realistic. Guys like Will go for girls like

Jennifer: perky little blondes who seem to know instinctively what color eyeshadow