A Proscriptive Relationship (26 page)

Casey was kicking a pebble while expertly getting across crevice after crevice and I was barely managing to stumble from rock to rock without falling. One of the gaps was twice the length of the other so she gave her pebble an extra hard kick, sending it soaring way over past the gap.

I snickered as she flushed in embarrassment.

“
Ow!
”

Casey and I looked at each other in surprise and scrambled across the crevice, looking down the other side of the rock. A pair of teenaged boys stood below us. One of them had shaggy hair and the other had a buzz cut. The one with the buzz cut was holding a hand to his head and holding the pebble in his other hand.

Casey jumped down before I could stop her, and jogged up to the boy with the buzz cut. “I am so sorry!” she apologized.

“
I think I’m bleeding,” he said, pulling his hand away from his head for a second, before quickly replacing it. “Yeah, definitely bleeding.”

I rolled my eyes. Yeah, right.

“
Sorry!” Casey apologized again, sounding flustered. “Let me check it out.”

She reached a hand up to the teen’s head, but before I could protest, the teen grabbed her wrist, a smirk spreading across his face. I immediately tensed up, watching them carefully.

“
Let go,” she demanded, trying to yank her wrist free.

“
Are you alone?”

She shook her head. “I’m here with my boyfriend. Let go of me.”

I scowled, preparing to shout at the guy. Then the guy with the shaggy hair finally made his move, grabbing Casey’s other arm.

“
Hang out with us,” he suggested.

“
Let go!” she repeated, with more force.

I caught my breath and watched nervously. What should I do? Go get someone? No, there wasn’t time for that. They hadn’t noticed me, so I quietly backed away from the edge and started going around it. I could hear Casey’s angry voice and the boys’ joking ones as I slyly came up from behind them

“
Stay still,” the one with the buzz cut said, jerking Casey’s arm hard.

“
Ow!” she cried, being pulled forward.

I dropped behind the pair of boys, trying to make the least amount of noise as possible. To my dismay, I landed with a thud. They heard me and turned. The buzz cut boy smirked. “I see you want in on the fun.”

Without thinking, I punched him in the face, using my full force. He let go of Casey in surprise, stumbling back a few steps.

I silently scolded myself. I needed to stop punching people.

After I got Casey away.

I turned to the shaggy-haired one, holding up my fist threateningly. “Let her go.”

He snorted. “You may have caught him off-guard, but you won’t—”

I sent my fist into his face, cutting him off. Casey managed to free herself, and started sprinting away, grabbing my arm and dragging me with her. The buzz cut boy looked up at me with a scowl and flipped me off.

“
At least I wasn’t beaten by a girl,” I yelled back childishly, rounding the corner with Casey.

We scrambled up the crevice, quickly making our way across the rocks, and back to the beach. I kept throwing cautious glances behind me, although I wasn’t too worried. I had taken on a member of a gang before; I could take on two teenage guys.

We didn’t stop running until one of the chaperones on the trip was in sight. We slowed gradually to a walk, and the finally slumped onto the benches, out of breath. I leaned back, my throat burning. “I hate running,” I panted.

“
Where,” Casey started, taking a deep breath. “Did you learn . . . how to punch . . . like that? I thought you couldn’t even make a fist.”

I gave a noncommittal shrug of the shoulders and she let it go, too tired to pry.  

I rolled my eyes. “This is why I don’t like the beach. There are tons of perverts around, lying in wait to scoop up girls.”

She stuck out her tongue. “Not always.”

I laughed, letting out a sigh of relief with it. At least it wasn’t anything serious. We just had bad luck.

Suddenly I remembered we hadn’t made it out to the last rock on the rock pier. I groaned and Casey looked at me with a worried expression. “What?”

“
We didn’t get to go on the rock pier!”

She shoved me hard. “There’s always tomorrow.”

LESSON EIGHTEEN

I woke in the morning to the twittering of girls. Scowling, I rolled over and pressed my head into my pillow.

“
I can’t believe it!” Danielle cried excitedly.

“
Me either! Holly! Holly, wake up!”

“
No,” I moaned, covering my ears. “I want to sleep.”

“
Holly, it’s noon. Half the class is already at the beach!” Casey responded, nearly shouting. “Plus, there is something I want you to see!”

“
Trust me, you’ll want to see it!” Danielle added.

“
Come on, get up and get ready!”

I felt the covers being ripped off of me and I clung to them for dear life. I heard Casey grunt and she yanked harder.

“
No,” I groaned, keeping a firm grasp. “Just a little longer . . .”

“
No!”

With tremendous force, she was able to pull the comforter off me. I sat up straight, glaring at her. Danielle’s hands were also on the blanket. She dropped them immediately, a sheepish grin on her face.

“
Sorry, but we should go to the beach,” she said, and Casey nodded.

“
Fine,” I said, sighing. “Let me change into some clothes.”

Casey rolled her eyes. “Fine, but hurry up! And do something with your hair.”

I gave her a quizzical look. Fix my hair? Why? The wind would just mess it up anyway. I climbed out of my bed and walked over to my backpack, grabbing a fresh pair of jeans and a plaid shirt before disappearing into the bathroom.

When I reappeared five minutes later Casey gave me an impatient look. I rolled my eyes at her, slipping into a pair of flip-flops. “I’m ready, I’m ready.”

“
Let’s go,” she urged, ushering Danielle and myself out of the room.

The door locked behind us and I prayed Casey or Danielle had the hotel key. We made our way to the lobby, where a few kids from our class were hanging out in the very comfortable looking recliners. They seemed to be playing catch with a Hacky Sack. Ms. Nichols, the math teacher, was there too, probably keeping an eye on them. She waved at us as we walked by and I returned the wave.

I yawned as we stepped outside the hotel. A cool breeze nipped at me immediately and I looked at the sky with a frown. It definitely looked like it was going to rain. However, it was still warm enough to be comfortable without a sweatshirt. We trudged across the street that led to the beach and climbed up the boardwalk that went over the dunes. At the top, the ocean suddenly spread out in front of me, stretching out for what looked like forever. I smiled at the sight of it; it was so refreshing.

A sizable group of people was playing beach volleyball off to the right a little. I caught Casey looking at the group of people with a grin. She looked at me, and nodded toward the group. “Want to go play?”

I raised an eyebrow. “No?”

“
Are you positive?” she said, grinning even wider. “Do you not see?”

“
Let’s go closer,” Danielle suggested, pushing my back and leading me down the other side of the dune, to the beach.

I stumbled for a minute, but managed to maintain my balance as she pushed me down the boardwalk. Casey trailed behind us, humming happily. For some reason, I felt weary with their giddiness. I hoped they weren’t planning on a surprise attack on me with water guns or something.

The closer we got to the group playing beach volleyball, the louder they became. A few people on the sidelines were cheering and the girls playing were making loud, unnecessary squeals and shouts. I scanned over them, wondering why they were so animated.

That’s when my eyes caught sight of him.

Were my eyes playing tricks on me? I glanced at Casey, who grinned back at me.

“Now are you glad you came?” she asked in a smug tone.

I turned back the group playing volleyball, putting a hand over my eyes to shade them against the small bit of sunlight that was peeking out from the many clouds. There was no way I was imagining things.

There stood Mr. Heywood in all his casual-clothing glory. He looked super cute in his gray sweater (yes, sweater) and dark-washed jeans.

But then a girl falling into him blocked his body from view. I narrowed my eyes slightly. Was that an accidental trip, or was it on purpose? Casey’s smile slowly disappeared and she turned to me sheepishly.

“
Okay, well, there may be girls all over him, but he’s here!”

“
I don’t care if there are girls all over him,” I stated stubbornly, crossing my arms.

“
I do,” Danielle interjected, scowling at the girls who stood at a two feet radius around Mr. Heywood. “I mean, you’re supposed to have positions in volleyball! Why are they all standing so close to him?”

“
You jealous?” Casey asked, jabbing her in the side.

“
Yeah,” Danielle admitted without hesitation. “It’s annoying.”

Something in my gut twisted, and I stared at the ground, biting my lip. It was funny. I was feeling jealous of someone being jealous. I almost laughed out loud at the idea.

“
Let’s go join in then,” Casey suggested, nodding her head towards the game.

“
I’m in,” Danielle said, grabbing Casey and dragging her towards Mr. Heywood.

“
Coming, Holly?”

I opened my mouth, about to say no, but decided against it. A smirk made its way onto my face. “Yeah, I’ll play.”

Casey beamed at me; happy I was actually going to play. Volleyball wasn’t my sport. Or anything, really. We trooped over to Mr. Heywood, and he glanced at us briefly but then did a double take. I pretended to be interested in the sand as we got closer. He called for a time out and a resounding chorus of “okay!” came from the girls. Casey stopped suddenly and I nearly ran into her.

“
Hey, Mr. Heywood,” she started and I had to resist the urge to look up. “Got room for three more players?”

“
Of course,” he responded without hesitation. “It’ll make it even, but one of you will have to go on the other team.”

I looked up now, raising my hand. “I’ll go on the other team.”

“
You sure?” Casey asked, turning around in surprise. “I don’t mind—”

“
No, I want to,” I assured her.

My gaze met Mr. Heywood’s for a brief moment before I turned away, ducking under the net and joining the opposing team. Luckily, they were all people I was sort of friends with. Also, Sadie was on this team. She grinned at me, and pointed to the spot next to her. I walked over to her and took it.

“
You’re serving,” she informed me, handing me the volleyball.  

“
Um,” I hesitated, looking at the white ball in my hands. “I actually don’t think—”

Someone blew a whistle and I jumped, nearly dropping the volleyball. I glanced at Mr. Heywood as the whistled bounced against his chest as he dropped it. He smiled in amusement. “Serve at will, Ms. Evers.”

I took a deep breath, staring nervously at the ball in my hand. I didn’t even remember how to serve! Why had I decided to play again?

Oh yeah. To try to show up Mr. Heywood.

But how could I do that when I didn’t even know how to serve? I groaned internally, letting out my breath.
Here goes nothing
. I balanced the ball on top of my left palm, and curled the fingers on my right hand. As fast as I could, I brought up my right hand, and slammed the heel of my hand into the volleyball.

Suddenly there was pain in my face and people laughing. My cheeks flamed as the volleyball dropped to the ground after bouncing off my face. I rubbed my nose, avoiding eye contact with everyone. How I managed to hit myself in the face with a volleyball I would never know.

Scowling, I bent down and readjusted the volleyball onto the flat of my left palm again. This time, instead of looking at the volleyball, I looked straight at Mr. Heywood, who was smirking. I stepped forward with my right foot, exerting my pressure to the swing of my arm. The heel of my hand connected with the volleyball, and this time it went sailing across the net.

All the way out of bounds.

Both teams erupted in laughter again, and I heard the sound of a whistle. I hung my head in embarrassment. Discreetly as possible, I stole a glance at Mr. Heywood. He was just about laughing his head off. My face burned again as the other team rotated. Sadie caught my attention and mimicked my motion of hitting the volleyball and then pretending to get hit in the face. Then she mimicked me again, hitting the pretend volleyball, and then looking into the sky, with her eyes shaded by her hand.

“
Where’d it go?” she shouted, looking around in the sky.

I scowled at her as my team broke out into fresh laughter. “It’s not that funny!”

“
Guys, come on, let’s continue the game,” I heard Casey call from the other side, but I could tell she was trying not to laugh as well.

The game continued, and luckily, the ball never came to me. Sadie landed a point for our team, and we rotated. This time I was in the middle. My team gave me nervous looks and I returned them.

“
Good luck,” one of the girls, Anna, said.

“
I’ll need it,” I responded glumly.

Sadie was serving now. She hit a clean serve to the other side of the court, which was returned by Casey. The volleying continued until Mr. Heywood made a hard spike, which landed just at Anna’s feet.

I glared at him as his team cheered, the girls rushing to give him high fives. I rotated out of the center and now he was serving. For five straight serves in a row, he got a point for his team. If someone had been walking by, they probably would have thought there was a celebrity sighting or something from all the screaming.