Rules of Attraction

Chapter 7

"Hey Stacey." Sally said as she came up.

"Sally," Stacey said with a note of scandalized disapproval in her voice. "You're wearing white."

"Well, yeah," Sally said. "They're tennis whites. That's the idea."

"White is my color." Stacey seethed.

Sally giggled. "Don't worry, your highness. My bathing suit is green. By the time I get to the pool, no one will ever know that I was so out of line."

Stacey sniffed. "Sally, you remember Jake," she said meaningfully. "This is his girlfriend."

Sally squinted at Anna. "No way. I didn't know you guys were dating."

Anna suddenly had the horrible realization that if Sally knew, Mrs. Kim would know, and that meant Anna's mom would hear the news before Anna even had time to get home. But it was too late to do anything about that now.

"um, yeah," Anna said. "it's new."

"Really?" Stacey said, holding out the R. "When did you guys get together?"

"Last Wednesday," Jake said as Anna said "Friday."

"I asked her on Wednesday," Jake said quickly, "but she didn't say yes til friday."

"Oh, how cute," Stacey said in a tone that sounded more like, 'Oh, how repulsive.'

"How did he ask you?" Sally said. She sounded more interested than Stacey. "Was it adorable? Or was it weird?"

mm let's see. I think I'd have to go with weird.

"You know," Jake said, perhabs sensing Anna's panic. "I just asked her. No big deal. We should go on in, shouldn't we?" He started foward and Stacey stopped him with one hand on his chest. Looking straight at Anna, she draped herself over his shoulder.

"Oh, boys," she said in a teasing, aren't-we-all-friends-here way. "They never care about the details. To get the real story, you have to ask the girl. Right, Anna? So tell us the details. I want to hear every single thing."

"It's totally boring," Jake said. "And we're going to be late."

"We have a few minutes," Stacey said, resting her other hand on his arm so both hands were holding him in place. "Unless there's some reason you don't want to tell this story, Jakey."

Jake and Anna exchanged glances. Hers said, She totally knows we're lying. His said. Help! What do we do?!

Anna took a deep breath. Well, she had imagined Jake asking her out a thousand times. She could describe the perfect scene pretty easily.

"Um," she said. "It was Wednesday night. I decided to walk Thorn and Alanna- those are our dogs- to the park on the corner. When I came out the door, Jake was there, on the porch. He looked like he'd been waiting for a while, thinking about ringing the doorbell. I thought that was weird, I told him Andy was inside, but he asked if he could come to the park, and I said sure. I gave him Alanna's leash because she doesn't tug on it as much as Thorn does."

"Your dogs are named Alanna and Thorn?" Sally interrupted. Stacey glared at her, but she didn't notice. "Seriosuly?"

"It's from this series of books I like," Anna said, slightly blushing. "Alanna and Thorn are twins, like me and Andy, so that's why we picked those names." She hadn't ever thought about her dogs names being embarassing before.

"Go on," Stacey said. "So you and Jake walked up to the park."

"Yeah," Anna said. "And we let the dogs off their leashes in the fenced area, and then we sat on this bench by the fountain."

"I know that fountain!" Sally said. "Wow, that's so romantic."

"Sally," Stacey warned. "Stop interrupting."

"And then he put something in my hand," Anna said. She had imagined it so many times, it was like it was real in her head. She could practically see the expression on his face in the moonlight. "I looked down, and it was this little origami whale. On one side it said, 'Anna...' And when I turned it over, the other side said, '... will you be my girlfriend?"

"Oh my God!" Sally exclaimed. "That is the cutest thing I've ever heard."

"How could you read it in the moonlight?" Stacey said suspiciously.

"There are, um, lights in the park," Anna said, jolted back to reality. She glanced nervously at Jake, but she couldn't figure out the look on his face. Was he freaked out? Did he think it was weird that she had come up with that whole story off the top of her head?

"Oh," Stacey said. "Well. That's sweet." She shoved Jake away from her. "I don't know why you didn't want to tell us that story, Jakey."

"Guys don't like girls to know how romantic they can be," Anna said, trying to sound like she had any idea what she was talking about.

"But you waited untill Friday to say yes?" Stacey asked. Anna felt like she was being interrogated. The bright lights and water torture couldn't be far off.

"Um. I guess I was nervous," she said. "I haven't- I mean, Jake's my first-" She faltered. She couldn't do it. She couldn't say, "Jake's my boyfriend."

"The important thing is she did say yes," Jake said smoothly. He put one arm around Anna's shoulders and used his other hand to wrap her arm around his waist, while she stood there numbly. "Now that you have all the details you need for an in-depth encyclopdia on the subject, - Ladies?" He said pointing to the entrance. "May we please get to camp, Miss Turner?"

Stacey lifted her chin so her wings of hair swung back from her face. "Of course," she said, linking her arm through Sally's. "Come on, Sally." They swept on ahead, down the path leading to the check-in booth.

Anna's heart was racing. Jake's whole side was pressed against hers, his bare arm was resting lightly on her shoulders, and her arm could feel the muscles in his back through his shirt, and it didn't seem possible that she could be so confused and scared and thrilled at the same time.

"Wait," he whispered, curling his hand around her shoulder until Stacey and Sally were out of ear shot. As soon as they were, he nudges her foward, keeping his arm in place. "Anna, that was amazing."

"Oh," she said, turning pink. "It wasn;t anything special."

"Seriously?" he said. "i couldn't believe it. I wish I were that cool. You should have been a guy. You'd knock the socks off any girl with a move like that."

Anna started giggling. She couldn't help it. "Knock the socks off?" she said. "How old are you, fifty?"

"Nice," Jake said. "I give you a compliment, and you make fun of me."

"Sorry," Anna said. She didn't know if he meant for it to be sarcasm or not, but if she knew Jake well enough, then It was sarcasm. "I forgot for a moment that that's really what every girl wants to hear- that she'd make a great boy."

"I mean," said Jake, "that you're much smarter than any boy I've ever heard of."

"I am a girl," Anna pointed out. "So that's true by definition."

"Dweeb," he said affectionately.

"Loser," she said.

"Smart aleck."

She started giggling again. "Oldest person ever trapped inside a 16-year-old."

He pressed the back on his hand to his forehead dramaticly, "Alas, how my girlfriend abuses me."

We both started laughing then.

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Ok yall! ;) I'm taking like a week break from writing this book so i can update my others, and I don't really know what to write next. :/ But I will update in less than 2 weeks! :) So vote, comment, share my book, follow me? And I'll update faster! :)