The Boy In My Head

10

The girl with the red hair smiles as the other four girls shift their gaze toward me. "That's fine with us. You're Rachel, right?" I nod as I sink to the ground. "I'm Kaya," she says with a big smile. "This is Em, Anya, Callie, and Patrice." "Hi," I greet everyone. They seem nice enough as they all smile back. I inch a little closer to their group, and they don't seem to mind. "We were just guy watching," Kaya explains. "Who do you think is the hottest one?" Kaya gestures toward the court. "Um . . ." I say as I eye the boys on either side of the net. They're all pretty muscular, and they all have their shirts off. One guy with blonde hair dives into the grass to bump up the ball, and my eyes lock on him. Will. Heat rises to my cheeks. It's not like he would go for me or anything, but my goodness, he is gorgeous. "Oh, I see," Kaya says teasingly. "Say no more." Then she turns toward her other friends. "Rachel votes for Will, so that puts him in the lead." "What?" I practically squeak. "I never even answered."

Kaya shrugs. "You didn't have to." They all laugh, and for a moment, it feels like they're laughing at me. I sit with them a while longer, but all they do is talk about guys I don't know, and I feel a little left out. When the guys on the court decide to take a break, I also stand up and leave. The girls next to me hardly even notice. I spot Aline by the pool as I head back inside. She hasn't seemed to notice yet that I'm here, and I'm grateful for that. We haven't hardly spoken in years, but I don't know what she'd think if she knew a loser was attending her pool party. I'm comforted by the thought that she's working on schmoozing all her pool mates to win the spot on homecoming court. She probably doesn't have the time to worry about me. Because I don't know what else to do, I decide to refill my punch glass. I just have it filled when I turn around and smack into something hard. The punch splashes in the cup, which sends red juice all over the front of my white dress. I look down at it in horror. The good news is that the Wright's white floor didn't take any of the damage, but that means I'm soaked. "I am so sorry," the figure says.

I look up to see who I bumped into, and I find myself staring into Will Dylan's blue eyes.