Another Stupid Boy

Chapter Four

"Bevis, what do you call that?" Coach Dumas yelled while holding her whistle between her teeth.

Survival. Not that I'd say that out loud to her. It was only my third day of volleyball practice, and I'd learned pretty quickly that Coach didn't have a sense of humor.

"Um, blocking?" I mean, what else could you call protecting your head with your arms while a fast-moving object is aimed at your face?

Coach gave me that look. The one that questioned what she'd done to the universe to deserve someone like me on her team.

"We don't block in volleyball. We hit, we spike, we save. We don't block."

"No blocking!" I gave her a thumbs up. "Gotcha!"

Somehow I heard a soft snort over the sounds of girly voices and volleyball drills.

Glancing past Nikki's disapproving stare-down, I noticed Seth Rollins sitting on the bleachers. His smirk told me he'd heard the whole thing. He had his thumb up, and I ignored his taunting, placing all my energy in hitting, not blocking, the ball.

The ball, however, hit me back. No matter what I did, my hands would not connect with the ball.

My face, my chest, and even my elbow. Never my hands. And as one-by-one my teammates noticed the hottie in our audience, they upped their game. Each one trying to impress him with their skills. I had no volleyball skills, but even if I did, I wouldn't waste them showing off for Seth.

My favorite part of practice finally arrived, when Coach Dumas dismissed us to the locker room. Seth stood as the team walked by him and smiled or nodded to every single girl.

Nikki and I somehow managed to be at the end of the line, and as we passed him, he said, "Really impressive, Nikki. You owned the court today."

He fell in step with us and walked to the door of the girls locker room.

She gave him a confident smile and said, "Really? I wasn't even trying."

"Can't wait to see you try," he winked. "What about you, Bevis? Were you trying? I hope my presence didn't throw you off."

"Best practice of my life." I held my head high. "Didn't even notice you were there."

His arm snaked out and stopped me from following Nikki into the locker room. "Oh you noticed me," he lowered his voice, "just like I noticed you."

I'm sure I was supposed to go all girly and mushy at the suggestive words and his deep, breathy voice. Instead, I cracked up. A full belly-laugh that made him narrow his eyes and back away.

"Kind of like watching a train wreck, huh?"

He blinked a couple of times then slowly smiled, "Are you really that bad?"

"Are you kidding me?" I gave him a buddy punch on the arm. "That really was my best practice yet, I'm improving."

"Man, I feel sorry for your coach."

"You really should." I ducked under his arm and joined Nikki in the locker room. If Seth watched me walk into the locker room, I'd never know. No way would I give him the satisfaction of me looking back at him.

Nikki pulled me close to her side and whispered in my ear, "I think Seth was flirting with me. Don't you think so?"

"Yeah." He was flirting with everyone. "Why are we whispering?"

Her look said that was probably the dumbest question she'd ever heard. "Because I don't want these beyotches to catch a clue, they'll try to keep us apart."