Avalon High Part 5

Maybe it was just a quarterback thing.

Or maybe it was something else.

"'S all right," Ted said. Then he and his friend darted away, disappearing into the throng jamming the hallway.

I followed them, more slowly. Will hadn't noticed me in the crowd, and I was glad. I probably wouldn't have known what to say to him if he'd said hi or whatever. The sight of him telling that enormous jock what to do-and the jock actually doing it-had kind of freaked me out.

If you can call realizing you're head over heels in love with someone being freaked out.

This was bad. Really bad. I mean, I did not need to be falling in love with some guy-even a guy who randomly showed up at my house for dinner and was a champion of geeks-who was already taken by one of the prettiest girls in school. This so wasn't going to end happily for me. Not even Nancy, the romantic optimist, would be able to see any possible upside to me falling in love with A. William Wagner.

So I spent the rest of the day resolutely trying not to think about him. Will, I mean.

It wasn't like I didn't have other things to worry about. There was the report for Mr. Morton's cla.s.s, of course. And I'd found out from Liz during lunch that there were more than a few freshman girls who were running the two hundred meter-my event-at varsity times. Unless I could beat them, there was a chance I might not make the Avalon High track team, should I be considering going out for it.

I didn't want to go to the trouble of trying out for the team, only not to make it because some snot-nosed freshman had spent her summer training and not floating in a pool, like me.

So when I got home from school that day, I changed into my running clothes. I figured the run would do double duty-it would help get me back into shape for track try-outs, and also keep my mind off a certain quarterback.

But when I went to look for Mom to give me a ride over to the park, she wasn't in her office. I banged on my dad's office door. He grunted, so I went in.

"Oh, Ellie," he said. "Hi. I didn't hear you come home." Then he noticed what I was wearing, and his face kind of fell.

"Oh," he said, in a different voice. "Not today, Ellie. I'm really swamped here. I think I've made a breakthrough. See this filigree, here? That's-"

"You don't have to come with me," I interrupted, not wanting another lecture on my dad's crazy sword. "I just need a ride to the park. Where's Mom?"

"I dropped her off at the train station. She had some research to do in the city today."

"Fine," I said. "Just give me your keys, then, and I'll drive myself over."

He looked appalled.

"No, Ellie," he said. "You only have a learner's permit. You need someone with a valid driver's license with you."

"Dad," I said. "I'm just going to the park. It's only two miles away. There's one four-way stop and a traffic light before I get there. I'll be okay."

My dad didn't go for it. He let me drive, all right. But with him in the pa.s.senger seat.

When we got there, a T-ball game and a lacrosse game were going on. The parking lot was crowded with minivans and Volvos. My dad said that's because most of the people in Annapolis are ex-military, and they all want to drive the safest car they can find.

I wondered if Will's dad drove a Volvo. You know, since Will had said he was in the navy.

Oops. I hadn't meant to think about Will.

My dad told me to call him from the pay phone over by the restrooms when I got done with my run-G.o.d forbid my parents should get me a cell phone-so he could come back and get me. I said I would, then gathered up my iPod and water and climbed out of the car. There were only a few people on the running path, mostly walking their Jack Russell terriers or Border collies (back home, the most popular dog is the black lab. Here, it's Border collies. My dad says it's because ex-military types want the smartest pet they can find, and that's the Border collie).

Will's dog, Cavalier, is a Border collie. I'm just saying.

It was late afternoon, and still plenty hot. As I broke into a jog, I was instantly covered in a thin sheen of sweat.

But it felt good to work my muscles after a long day of being cramped behind various desks. I sailed past the dog walkers, careful not to make eye contact (my dad would have been appalled), intent on the beat of the music I was listening to. I went around the running path once-dodging a T-ball and nearly running into a kid on a tricycle. It wasn't until my second and final time around that I remembered to glance down into the ravine-out of habit, really, more than that I expected to see anybody in there-and practically tripped over my own feet and fell onto my face.

Because Will was there.

At least, I thought it was Will. My glimpse of him, as I tore by, was fleeting.

Still, after I was done with my second lap, I doubled back, just to make sure. Not because I wanted to go down there and talk to him, or anything. I mean, the guy is clearly taken. I don't go after other people's boyfriends. Not that, you know, if I tried, he'd go for it, or anything. The truth is, I don't go after boys at all. What's the point? I'm not the type of girl they ever think of in that way, anyway.

But what if he was in trouble, or something? What if the reason he was at the bottom of the ravine was because he'd tripped and fallen down it? Hey, it could happen. And maybe he was lying down there, bleeding and unconscious, needing the kiss of life? Administered by me?

Okay, whatever. So I wanted to talk to him some more. So sue me.

I found myself on the part of the running path that overlooks the ravine, and there, down below, was someone who looked a lot like Will. How he'd gotten down there without getting torn up by thorns or tumbling down the steep sides of the ravine, I didn't know.

But I figured I'd give it a try myself. To make sure he was all right, I told myself.

Yeah. That was it. To make sure he was all right.

Whatever.

CHAPTER SIX.

All in the blue unclouded weather

Thick-jewell'd shone the saddle-leather,

The helmet and the helmet-feather

Burn'd like one burning flame together,

As he rode down to Camelot.

It actually wasn't that bad, once I got past the initial wall of brambles. It was even cooler in the deep part of the woods than it was on the running path.

And once you were in among the trees and headed down the ravine, you couldn't see the running path at all, much less hear the cars from the highway. It was like a primeval forest, where the trees all grew really close together and practically no sunlight at all reached the forest floor, making it a damp, mulchy mess beneath your feet.

It was the kind of place you'd expect to meet a monster like Grendel.

Or possibly the Unabomber.

It was Will, I saw, when the trees thinned out enough to allow me to see to the bottom of the ravine. He wasn't unconscious, though. He was sitting on one of the big boulders that jutted up from the creek bed below. He didn't appear to be doing anything. He was just sitting, staring down at the burbling water in the creek.

Probably someone who'd chosen such an out-of-the-way and hard-to-get-to-I had scratches from the brambles all over my ankles-place to sit and think really wanted to be alone.

Probably I should have just left him there without disturbing him.

Probably I should have turned around and gone back the way I came.

But I didn't. Because I am a total m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t.

I had to pick my way along the stones that stuck out of the burbling little creek to get to the boulder he was sitting on. The water wasn't deep, but I didn't want to get my running shoes wet. I called his name when I was only a few feet away from him and he still didn't seem to notice me.

Then I noticed why. He had headphones on. It wasn't until I jostled one of his feet, dangling above my head, that he started and glanced sharply down at me.

But when he saw it was me, he smiled and turned off his iPod.

"Oh," he said. "Hey, Elle. How was your run?"

Elle. He'd called me Elle. Again.

Was it wrong that my heart did some more flopping around inside my chest?

I examined the boulder he was sitting on, saw how he'd climbed it, and joined him. I didn't ask if it was okay first, either. I knew it was okay from his smile.

The smile that was making my heart sort of hurt. But in a good way.

"My run was okay," I said, sitting down next to him. But not too close, you know, because I figured I smelled a bit gamy from my run. Not to mention the fact that I'd sprayed myself with about a pound and a half of DEET before I'd left the house, since East Coast mosquitoes seem to love me very much. And DEET isn't exactly the eau d'amour, if you know what I mean.

Will didn't appear to notice, though.

"Listen," he said, holding up a single hand as a signal for me not to talk.

I listened. For a minute I thought he wanted me to be quiet so he could say something. Like, you know, how much he loved me. Even though he'd only seen me a few times. And had dinner with me once.

Hey, stranger things have happened. All Tommy Meadows and I had had in common was a deep appreciation for Spider-Man comic books.

But it turned out Will didn't want me to be quiet so he could declare his love for me. He actually wanted me to listen.

So I did. All I could hear, besides the babbling of the water, was the chirping of birds and the hum of cicadas in the trees. No cars. No planes. You couldn't even hear the shrieks of encouragement I knew the parents of the lacrosse players and T-ballers had to be letting out. It was like we were in a different world, a sun-dappled oasis away from it all. Though, really, we were only two or three hundred yards away from the Dairy Queen off the highway.

After a minute of this, feeling stupid, I said, "Uh, Will? I don't hear anything."

He glanced my way with the tiniest of smiles.

"I know," he said. "Isn't it great? This is one of the few places around here that people have left alone. You know? No power lines. No Gap. No Starbucks."

He had, I noticed, eyes that were the same color blue as my pool, when I got the chlorine and pH balance exactly right. Except that my pool is only eight feet at the deepest end, and Will's eyes seemed fathomless...like if I dove into them, I'd never get to the bottom.

"It's pretty," I said, about the ravine, looking away from him. Because it isn't a good idea to think about how blue some guy's eyes are, if he's already taken, the way Will is.

"You think so?" Will said, looking around the ravine. Clearly, he hadn't ever thought of it that way before. As pretty, I mean. "I suppose. Mostly...it's quiet."

Except...he hadn't been sitting there enjoying the quiet.

"So what were you listening to?" I asked, picking up the iPod he'd turned off and laid aside as I'd joined him on top of his boulder.

"Uh," he said, looking faintly worried as I clicked it back on. "Nothing, really."

"Come on," I said teasingly. "I've got Eminem in mine. Yours can't be that bad-"

Except that it was. Because it turned out to be a collection of troubadour love ballads. From medieval times.

"Oh my G.o.d," I couldn't help blurting out in horror, as I stared down at the words scrolling across the screen.

Then immediately wished I could die.

But, instead of being offended, Will just laughed. Really laughed. Like threw back his head and laughed.

"I'm sorry," I said, mortified. "I didn't mean-It's okay. I mean, lots of people like cla.s.sical...stuff."

But when he finally caught his breath, instead of telling me where to get off for being so horrified by his musical taste, he said, shaking his head, "Oh, G.o.d. If you could have seen your face. I bet that's exactly how you looked when you opened up that filter basket and found that snake...."

Feeling a little irritated-mainly because his laughter reminded me of Nancy's warning, about being too funny around guys-I said, "Sorry. You just didn't strike me as the type to sit by yourself in the woods listening to"-I looked down at the iPod screen-"Courtiers, Kings, and Troubadours."

"Yeah, well," Will said, growing suddenly sober and reaching out to gently tug his iPod from my hands, "I never thought I was, either."

As he said it, I saw the shadow I'd noticed that day at my pool pa.s.s across his face again. And I knew I'd said exactly the wrong thing.

But since I wasn't sure what the right thing to say was-except that I was pretty certain he wouldn't appreciate my speech about how everyone in the Middle Ages had lice and bad teeth-I just kind of sat there.