Rules of Attraction

Chapter 11

The girl's changing room by the pool had separate stall doors, much to Anna's relief. She didn't like getting undressed in front of people, plus she was sure Stacey and Sally would be staring at her the whole time.

As she waited for a stall, Anna saw that most of the Beginners tennis class had signed up for pool volleyball, too, including Sally. Stacey kept talking loudly about her lifeguard training, like she wanted everyone to know she wasn’t a tennis camper like the others. Her sixteenth birthday had been two months before, so she was old enough, and the pool gave special classes for it in the mornings.

Jake would be turning 17 in a week and a half, more than four months before Andy and Anna. Anna wondered suddenly if she was supposed to get him a present. Normally she’d help Andy pick out something funny from the both of them, like the Extreme Worst-Case Scenario Survival Guide. But as his pretend girlfriend, was she supposed to give him something that Stacey would notice, that shouted, “Look, my totally-for-real girlfriend gave me this”?

She’d have to save panicking about that for later. Maybe Andy could help her figure it out. Not for the first time, she wished he was at Camp too, and she wondered what he was doing all day. Probably beating all her high scores on their games.

She adjusted the straps on her black one-piece and stepped into her flip-flops, tucking the rest of her stuff into her shoulder bag. Her red bead necklace from Jake went carefully into the side zipper pocket, where she was sure it would be sade. The minute she unlatched the door, Stacey pulled it open.

“Oh, Anna,” Stacey said. “What a darling bathing suit. I used to have one just like it. When I was nine.”

Stacey of course, was wearing one of her twelve different white bikinis. This one had thin barely-there straps holding up the top, and the bottom was a pair of tiny short-shorts that showed off her long legs. Anna could not imagine ever, ever, ever wearing something like that in public.

Sally was wearing a two-piece, too, but it was more of a tankini, where the top came all the wall down to cover her stomach like a tank top. She kept tugging at it as if trying to make it cover more. It was a deep emerald green with darker green waves across it, and she wore matching emerald-green-flip-flops.

“Towels are over there,” Sally said, pointing to a folded pile by the door.

“Unless you brought your own,” Stacey said, “because you don’t care for other people’s germs.”

“I don’t need one.” I complied quietly.

Stacey wound her lavender beach towel around her waist while Sally took one of the plain white ones from the pile. Then she led the way out into the pool area.

Anna was glad she was wearing waterproof sunscreen, even if her mom was crazy. It was really hot around the pool, like the sun was magnified by the chiseled, fake-looking stones. Up in the two lifeguard stations, two older guys were sitting, looking like Secret Service agents behind their sunglasses. A volleyball net had been set up, stretching across the middle of the pool. Jake was standing with a couple of freshmen, talking and pointing to the net, but when he spotted Anna, he broke off and came over to her.

“Hey,” he said with a smile. “Long time no see.” But Anna could tell that he was worried about her being alone with Stacey in the changing room, and that he was really asking if she was okay.

Before Anna could say anything, a curly-haired woman in bright yellow culottes blew a whistle around her neck and made them all gather at the wall farthest away from the pool. Then she spent 45 minutes explaining all the rules of the pool as well as how to play the game. She must have said, “No running on the edge of the pool” five gazillion times. Anna wasn’t sure how she was supposed to take anyone in bright yellow culottes seriously.