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
His broad clear brow in sunlight glowd;
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.
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