Мэг Кэбот - Avalon High стр 5.

looks best on them, not girls like megangling brunettes who arent afraid to pull snakes

out of the pool filter.

 The sun was starting to slide behind the house, and there was more shade than light on

the surface of the water when my mom came back out onto the deck and announced that

shed ordered some Thai food, and asked if Will wanted to stay for dinner.

 To which Will replied that hed love to.

 Will was the perfect guest, helping me set the table, then clear it afterwards. He finished

everything on his plate. And when my parents and I declared that we were stuffed, he ate

everything that was left over in the cartonsto my dads very obvious admiration.

 He was nice to Tig, too, when she came over and sniffed the back of one of his shoes. He

bent down and put his finger out so she could smell it before she decided whether or not

to let him pet her. Only people whove actually spent time around cats know that this is

accepted cat etiquette.

 He didnt laugh when I told him Tigs name, either. Its kind of embarrassing to have a

pet that you named when you were eight. Back then, Id thought Tigger was the most

original, creative name you could give a cat.

 But when I mentioned this to Will, he grinned and said Tigger wasnt as bad as the name

hed given his Border collie when he was twelveCavalier. Which is a pretty weird name

for a dog, if you think about it. Especially a naval familys dog.

 During dinner, Will told funny stories about Cavalier and about the pranks the middies

down at the academy sometimes played on one another, as well as on their instructors. He

didnt look bored when my dad told him all about the sword, or when my mom quoted a

few more verses ofThe Lady of Shalott , as she is embarrassingly prone to do after a glass

of wine with dinner.

 He even laughed at my impressions of the Grauls bag boys, and also at my reenactment

of the Great Snake Rescue.

 Nancy has always frowned on my joking around with boys. She says boys dont develop

romantic feelings for girls who goof around like stand-up comics. How can he fall in love

with you, Nancy always wanted to know, if hes too busy laughing?

 And while she may have a pointcertainly no boys have fallen in love with me, with the

exception of Tommy Meadows in the fifth grade, but his family moved to Milwaukee

right after he declared his undying devotion

what spurred the declaration in the first placemy dad says he fell in love at first sight

with my mom because at the faculty party where they met, she had writtenDemoiselle

dAstolat on her Hello, My Name Is

 Which they all had got a terrific yuk out of. Its actually a really lame joke, but what do

medievalists know?

 Not that I was trying to make A. William Wagner fall in love with me, of course.

Because Im perfectly aware that hes taken.

 Its just that, remembering the way that shadow had seemed to pass across his face down

at the pool, I thought maybe he could use a laugh. Thats all.

 Will left after dinner. He thanked my parents, calling my mommaam and my dadsir

which made me crack upand then he said, See you tomorrow, Elle, to me.

 Then he was gone, melting into the twilight exactly the way hed appeared at the side of

my pool. As if from nowhere.

 But I actually waited outside until I heard his car door slam, and saw his cars taillights

as he headed down our long driveway, proving he wasnt a specter orwhat had Mr.

Morton been talking about in World Lit today? Oh yeahabocan , the Gaelic word for

a fact which may, now that I think of it, be

lapel sticker.

ghost. See, I had been paying attention in class. Sort of.

 Elle. Hed called me Elle. As in

 No ones ever called me Elle before. No one. Just Elliewhich, if you ask me, is sort of a

babyish name. Or Elaine, which is sort of old-ladyish.

 But not Elle. Never Elle. Im so not the Elle type.

 Except, apparently, to A. William Wagner.

 Well, my dad said, when I came back into the house, after watching Will leave, he

seems like a nice guy.

 Will Wagner, my mom said, as she turned onJeopardy! I like that name. Its a very

regal-sounding sort of name.

 Oh, God. I could so see where all of this was heading. They thought Will liked me. They

thought Will was going to be my new boyfriend, or something. They had no ideano

ideawhat was really going on.

 But then again, neither did I, really. I mean, the truth is, if somebody had asked me to

explain what that all had been about back therehim showing up at the side of my pool,

then staying for dinnerI wouldnt have knownwhat to say. I had never had a boy do any

of those things before

 I was trying not to make a big deal out of the whole thing, though. Will was nice, but he

had a girlfriend. A pretty, cheerleader girlfriend.

 Who he apparently didnt want to talk about.

 Which, when I thought about it, was pretty weird.

 But the weirdest part of all was that while it had been happeningonce Id gotten used to

the idea, I mean, of this hot guy hanging out with meit hadnt actually seemed that weird

at all. It was like that smile Will had given me that day in the park, the one I hadnt been

able to keep from returning. It had just seemed natural, even right, to smile back, just like

it had seemed totally naturalnatural and, yes, rightto have Will there, joking around

with the silverware as we set the table, laughing at my Grauls bag boy imitation.

 Thatwas what was weird. That it hadnt actuallybeen weird.

 Still, when Nancy called later that evening, and my dad answered first, and said, Ah,

Nancy. She has a lot to tell you, I didnt try to play the whole thing down as much as I

should have. Because I knew Nancy would tell everyone back home. About my having

had a boy over for dinner my very first day at my new school. I made sure to mention that

El. Short for Ellie.

let alone laugh at all my jokes.

he was on the football team, sailed, and was president of the senior class, too.

 Oh, and that he looked very, very good in a swimsuit.

 Nancy practically had kittens right there on the phone.

 Oh my God, is he taller than you? she wanted to know. This had always been a

problem, because for most of my life, Ive been taller than the vast majority of boys in

our school, with the exception of Tommy Meadows.

 Hes six two, I said.

 Nancy cooed appreciatively. At five ten, Id still be able to get away with heels if we

went out, she said.

 Wait until I tell Shelley, Nancy said. Oh my God, Ellie. You did it. You were able to

start over at a whole new school and give yourself a total personality makeover.

Everythings going to be different for you now. Everything! And all you had to do was

move to a totally new state and start going to a completely new school.

 Yeah. Things were definitely starting to look up.

 Thats really what I thought.

 Then.

CHAPTER FIVE

  I took the bus to school the next day. It wasnt as bad as I thought it would be. Liz, the

girl from the track team who lived nearby, was waiting at the stop, so we started talking,

then ended up sitting next to each other.

 Liz is a high jumper. She let me know right away that she doesnt have a boyfriend or a

drivers license yet.

 I knew we had solid groundwork for friendship based on the latter two facts alone.

 I didnt mention to Liz that A. William Wagner had visited me after school the day

before, then stayed for dinner. For one thing, I didnt want to seem like I was bragging.

And for another, well, Liz seemed to really like talking about people in school, and I

wasnt entirely convinced it was a good thing to have spread around. That Will had come

over to my house, I mean.

 I got a pretty good idea, in fact, that it was a bad thing when I closed my locker a few

periods later and found Jennifer Gold standing on the other side of it, not looking too

happy.

 I hear Will came over to your house for dinner last night, Jennifer said, in a distinctly

unfriendly voice.

 Since I hadnt told anyone that Will had been over, I knew the spillage was courtesy of

him. Unless Jennifer had spies in my neighborhood, or something, which seemed

unlikely.

 So I just said, wondering why tiny girls like Jennifer always get the tallest boyfriends,

leaving all the pip-squeaks for giraffes like me, Yes. He did.

 But Jennifer didnt say what I expected her to say. She didnt go, Well, hes my

boyfriend, so hands off, or If you so much as look at him again, youre a dead woman.

 Instead she asked me a question: Did he say anything about me?

 I looked down at Jennifer wondering if she, like her boyfriend, was also suffering from

some kind of mild form of psychosisonly in her case, not on account of liking me.

 She looked sane enough in her pale pink cotton sweater set and capris. But its hard to

tell if someones crazy just by how they dress. The cheerleaders at my old school dressed

totally regular, but a couple of them were certifiable.

 Um, I said. No.

 Or Lance? Jennifers perfectly made-up eyes narrowed. Did he say anything about

Lance?

 Only, I said, that the two of them sailed up the coast this summer. Why?

 But Jennifer didnt answer my question. She just went, Good, looking relieved. Then

she walked away.

 But Jennifer Gold wasnt the only person who asked me about Will that day.

 Mr. Morton, my World Lit teacher, announced that for our first nine-week project, he

was assigning us each a poem to study and then deliver an oral report about. In front of

the whole class. The report would count toward twenty percent of our semester grade,

and had to include critical, secondary, and source materials.

 As if that werent bad enough, he was also assigning us partners to work with.

 Gee, thanks, Mr. Morton.

 He handed out our partners names first. When I got mine, I raised my eyebrows.

 Because my partners name was Lance Reynolds.

 Which didnt seem possible, since Id been certain yesterday that I didnt have any

classes with the guy. I mean, after all, he was a year older than me, like Will.

 But sure enough, when I turned around, there he was in the back of the room. He was

looking down at the slip of paper Mr. Morton had handed him, his golden brow furrowed

as he tried to figure out who Elaine Harrison was. When he glanced up and saw me

staring at him, I raised my own slip and mouthed, Lucky you.

 He didnt react the way Id have expected a jock whod been assigned to do a project

with the too-tall new girl would. Instead of sniggering or even just nodding, he turned a

deep, dark shade of umber. It was kind of interesting to watch, really.

 Then Mr. Morton gave us each our poem. Ours wasBeowulf.

 My heart sank when I saw it. I hateBeowulf almost as much as I hateJeopardy!

 Right, everyone, Mr. Morton said, in his clipped British accent. Find your partner and

discuss how youd like to approach your topic. Id like your outlines on my desk by

Friday.

 I got up and went back to where Lance was sitting, since it didnt seem likely he was

going to come up to me. He was pretending that he didnt see me coming, messing

around with his books and everything, when I slid into the empty desk in front of his.

 Hi, I said, in a phony voice, like on a commercial. Im Ellie, and Ill be your project

partner this semester.

 He messed up, though. Hed been trying to pretend like he didnt know who I was. But

somehow, I know, slipped from between his lips, and he turned an even darker shade of

red.

 This was pretty interesting. I couldnt remember ever having made a guy blush before. I

wondered what Lance had heard about me, to make him react that way.

I saw you that day, he stammered, by way of explanation. He didnt look like the

 I

kind of guy who stammered often. That day in the park.

 Oh yeah, I said, like I had only just remembered the incident myself. Right.

 Will had dinner at your house last night, Lance said. Carefully. Too carefully, I

thought. Like he was fishing for information.

 Yeah, I said. I wondered if he, like Jennifer, was going to ask if Will had talked about

him.

 But he didnt.

 So, Lance said. Beowulf, huh?

 Yeah, I said. I hateBeowulf .

 Lance looked kind of surprised. Youve already read it?

 I realized what kind of dweeb I must have sounded like. I mean, it was bad enough I was

even taking World Literature. Its an elective, open to anyone in any grade whos

interestedor who needs an extra humanities credit, as Lance evidently did. It was even

worse that Id already read most of the books on the syllabus. On my own. Because

theyre all the same books that have been sitting on my parents bookshelves forever, and

its not like I ever had much of a social life, so

 Not wanting to admit this, however, I just said hastily, Well, yeah. My parents are

professors. Medieval studies.Beowulf is kind of their thing.