Rules of Attraction

Chapter 12

The next day was even stranger than Anna had expected, mainly because there was a surprise newcomer to her tennis class. He was leaning against the fence of the tennis courts as she walked up, swinging a racket in one hand.

"Hey, Anna!" Riley said enthusiastically. "Where's your boyfriend?"

Anna nearly said, "Who?" but remembered in time. "He's In the Advanced class," she said. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, you made these tennis lessons sound so fun," he said with his crooked smile. "I figured I'd sign up and join in."

"I did?" Anna tried to remember anything she had said that might possibly have been misunderstood as "tennis is fun."

"Sure," Riley said. "And maybe if you're as bad as I am, we can be partners."

"I'll be prertty impressed if you're as bad as I am," Anna said.

Sally was on the court already, bouncing a ball off her racket into the air. Anna wasn't sure, but she got the feeling Sally was watching her and Riley.

"Don't you need to change?" Anna said as Riley started to follow her through the fence. He was wearing jeans again, although at least he'd switched to a T-shirt.

"I already got the lecture from Sergeant Shorts over there," Riley said, jerking his thumb at Mr. Giambi, the instructor. "But what's he going to do? This is how I am."

"There's a lot of running around," Anna said worriedly. "Especially when you play with me."

"Don't worry," Riley said, smiling again. "I'll be fine."

He wasn't fine. By 10:00A.M., when they switched from drills to practice matches, he was sweating so much that his shirt stuck to his back, and he looked exhausted. Anna felt bad for him, so when they were paired up, she tried to be the one to run after the ball as much as possible. Each time she did, he would collapse down on the court and lie there until Mr. Giambi yelled at him to get up.

 He was right about one thing, though: He was really bad at tennis too. He had trouble even getting it over the net, so he hardly ever got to try volleying it back.

Finally, for the last hour, Mr. Giambi switched the partners and she was paired with Sally. At least with a good partner she had a better chance to practice, but Riley seemed dissapointed that they were split up. She glanced over at his court a couple of times and caught him watching her instead of the tennis ball he was supposed to be watching.

"Hey," Sally said during a break for water. "I've been meaning to talk to you."

It was funny how a simple sentence like that could make a person so nervous. Anna screwed the cap back on her water bottle, trying to look calm.

"This Friday," Sally went on, "would you and Jake want to go on a double date with me and Ian?"

"Really?" Anna said. That was about the furthest thing from what she'd expected Sally to say. A double date? A real date? With Stacey's best friend? Maybe that's why, the voice in he head whispered. Stacey's assigned her to spy on us. To see if Jake and I still act like a couple away from Camp. So I have to say ues, don't I? 

"Um," She said, hedging. "Let me ask Jake. But thanks, that sounds like fun."

"It would be fun," Sally said. "I was thinking we could just walk downtown to the movie theater on Main Street- I think they have a new movie there. Meet The Millers, which Ian is kinda being a Jerk about seeing, but I'll get him to go. And then we could have dinner at the diner across the street afterward."

Anna nodded. Sally added, "Unless you want to do something else. My mom could drive us to the mall, but I thought we'd have more fun if we could go somewhere without any parents yakking at us the whole way there. Ian's not a big fan of my mom."