Playing the Field

by Janette Rallison

She always told me to sit down, but her smile didn’t seem quite as dour as she said it.

  But the best thing of all was that I felt like Serena and I were becoming friends, and it was a nice comfortable feeling.

  Brian, however, was still in the picture. I knew he was either calling or coming over to see Serena because she kept saying things like, “Brian said the pep assembly yesterday was really lame.” I could never figure out why she mentioned him to me, or what it meant. Did she consider Brian, or me, or both of us as just friends? Did she like one of us as more than a friend? If so, which one? I never tried to find out. To find out meant I had to do something about it, and it was easier to be ignorant and pretend she liked me and was just putting up with Brian.

  After a few more days, Serena’s knee healed enough that she came back to school, at first on crutches and then without them. We said hi to each other when we passed in the halls, and sometimes I walked her to math class. It was nice to have someone to walk with, since Tony was always goofing off with Rachel outside of the door. Once or twice I saw Brian while I was with Serena. He always glared at me.

  I tried not to let it bother me. After all, glaring was not on the list of qualifications for being Mr. Right.

  Sometimes Serena and I went over our algebra homework in the library before school, and if I had a problem with anything she’d help me out. Life had become, for a short moment, a happy peaceful place. Baseball was especially good. We won our last game, which put us in first place in our league. We were ready to take on the other winning teams in our district, and my batting was on fire. Coach Manetti started calling me “The McKay Cannon” because I could smack the ball off in any direction.

  All the tournament games were held in a big sports complex in Mesa. Rachel, Anna, and Serena showed up to watch the first one. They sat in the front row of the bleachers and ate popcorn and drank soda. A few times I casually looked over to where they sat, but they never seemed to be watching the game. Mostly they were bent close to one another talking. Every once in awhile I’d see them laugh. I hoped they weren’t laughing at something we’d done, or at least not something I’d done. Then the game got intense and I forgot the girls were there altogether.

  The Tempe Mavericks were a tough team, and it was touch and go until the last inning. We were only one run ahead, and we had to make sure the score stayed that way. When it was all over, we’d won 9 to 8. I had three hits and five runs batted in, and I felt good about that. I was sure our team had looked great on the field, especially me. We gave the other team the standard cheer, then Tony and I gave each other high fives and our usual after-game routine. “Who the man?” he asked me.

  “You the man.”

  “You the man,” he said back to me.

  We walked toward the bleachers and noticed the girls standing behind the backstop waiting for us.

  “Good game!” Serena called. “You made a great hit, McKay.”

  I was glad she’d seen at least one of them happen.

  “And you were super, too, Tony,” Rachel added.

  “Yeah, Tony,” Anna cooed. “I was very impressed by your moves.”

  They went on for a few more minutes congratulating us, but my mind was stuck on Anna’s first comment. Something about the way she said it bothered me, and as I watched her I became more and more sure I was right. Anna looked at Tony. Anna smiled at Tony. Anna laughed at everything Tony said, even the stupid stuff. It all meant one thing. Anna liked Tony.

  I never mentioned my observation about Anna to anyone. I mean, what would I have said? “Hey, Tony, you’d better tone down that walk. You’re attracting too many girls.”

  Or to Serena: “Hey what is it with your friends? How come they all like Tony so much instead of, say, me?”

  Or to Anna herself: “You might not have ever walked past Mrs. Swenson’s room at math time, but in case you didn’t know, Tony is taken.” Of course Anna knew Tony was taken. It was her friend, Rachel, who took him.

  I didn’t want to get involved in the whole thing. And I wouldn’t have, if everyone didn’t drag me into it.

  It happened the next week at the school dance. I had never been to one of the school dances before, and I hadn’t ever planned on going to one until they did something besides dance at them. I mean, who invented dancing? It wasn’t a guy, that’s for sure. A guy would never voluntarily choose to stand in front of his friends and peers waving his arms around like he’s trying to flag down an invisible boat. Girls invented dancing. I know they did. Back in prehistoric times all of the cavewomen got together and decided to play a huge practical joke on the cavemen.

  They said, “We’ve discovered something called dancing. Stand here and wave your arms around while everyone watches you. It will be fun.”

  And men have been stuck dancing ever since.

  So I was firmly against going to the dance, but Tony wanted to go, and he kept insisting I come with him. As we sat on the bench waiting to bat during game two of the tournament, he brought up the subject again.

  “You’ll have a good time.”

  “I don’t want to ask a girl to dance. What if she says no?”

  “Then you ask someone else.”

  “What if they all say no?”

  Tony stretched out his legs and shrugged. “They won’t all say no. In the history of school dances, I don’t think that’s ever happened.”

  But I might be that lucky first one.

  “Besides,” Tony said with a grin, “Serena will say yes.”

  Until that moment I forgot Serena would be going. At least, I hoped she’d go. She and her friends hadn’t come to see us play game two, but how many games could you expect a girl to sit through when she didn’t fully understand the concept of baseball? I was still surprised that she’d shown up for game one. As I got up to take my turn to bat, I said, “Well, all right, I guess I could give the dance a try.”

  We won the game 8 to 6. It was a great afternoon. The McKay Cannon was in action, and I was invincible.

  The dance was that Friday night in the school auditorium. I had thought there would be decorations of some sort, but it was just the auditorium with a sound system on the stage and the bleachers pulled half way across the gym floor to create a dance area. At first when Tony and I walked in, I could barely see anything because it was so dark. But after a few moments I could tell which kids were on the dance floor (mostly couples, because it was a slow dance) and which kids sat on the bleachers (everybody else). A few parents were also perched on the top rows of the bleachers. I guess they were the chaperones.

  We were in front of the speakers, so Tony said to me, in a voice that was close to shouting, “Let’s go over to the bleachers and see if Rachel is here.”

  “Okay!” I yelled back.

  We walked over to the bleachers, and after a few moments of searching, we saw Anna sitting by herself. She waved us over, and Tony and I sat down beside her.

  “Where are Rachel and Serena?” Tony asked her. He didn’t have to yell anymore because we were far enough away from the speakers that we could almost carry on a normal conversation.

  “They’re both out dancing,” Anna said, and I noticed she scooted a little closer to Tony.

  Tony looked surprised. “Rachel is slow dancing with another guy?”

  Anna shrugged and smiled at him. “Loyalty isn’t Rachel’s strong point.”

  Apparently it wasn’t Anna’s strong point either, because she scooted even closer to Tony. “Do you want to dance?” she asked.

  Tony took another look out on the dance floor and then turned back to Anna. “Sure.” The two of them got up and left me without another word.

  So there I was. Alone on the bleachers with a roomful of modern-day cavewomen all just waiting to watch me flail around and make a fool of myself. At least it was dark. I bet guys invented dance-floor lighting. The prehistoric caveman had said, “We’ll dance if we have to, but we won’t do it in the light of day.”

  I moved up the bleachers in
an attempt to be farther away from the dancing. If I was high enough up, nobody would ask me to dance; and I could just spend the night casually observing the rest of my fellow cavemen. Since it was a slow song, nobody was actually flailing around at this point. They just stood there, swaying a little. Swaying didn’t look too hard. I could probably manage to sway as well as anybody else, but if I asked a girl to dance during a slow song what would she think?

  Also, were you supposed to talk to each other while you danced? If so, what were you supposed to talk about? I felt a small bolt of panic run through me as I realized I didn’t know the answer to these questions. I should have asked Tony what exactly one was supposed to do while dancing, but now it was too late. He was out swaying with Anna, and if anyone asked me to dance now, I’d mess up for sure.

  I moved a couple more bleacher steps up. From there I could see Serena dancing with Brian. I wondered whether Serena had asked him to dance, or whether he’d asked her. It was hard to tell whether she was enjoying the dance or not, since it was so dark and I couldn’t see her face clearly.

  What if Serena spent every dance with him, and I had absolutely no one I wanted to dance with? I wondered if Tony would mind if I left without him, or whether my parents would mind coming to get me ten minutes after they’d dropped me off. Then the song ended, and Tony, Anna, Rachel, and Serena came back to the bleachers. Brian, happily, was nowhere to be seen. I went down and stood with them. I didn’t hear the first part of their conversation, but when I got there it was clear Tony and Rachel weren’t happy with each other. Rachel had her arms crossed. “Well, if you hadn’t come late, you could have asked me to dance instead.”

  Tony let out a scoffing noise. “What? You couldn’t wait a few minutes for me?”

  “Why are you so upset?” Rachel asked, lifting her chin. “It’s not that big a deal.”

  “Fine,” Tony said. “Then it won’t be a big deal when I ask someone else to dance the next slow dance.”

  “That’s fine with me,” Rachel said crisply.

  “Fine,” Tony repeated. They both looked out at the dance floor and not at each other.

  Serena’s gaze bounced back and forth between Tony and Rachel. “Come on, you guys, stop fighting. Let’s all go out and dance.”

  “Yeah, let’s,” Anna said. She was glancing at Tony.

  Serena grabbed my hand and pulled me out onto the floor. Tony and Rachel grudgingly followed us, and Anna followed them. Serena walked to an empty spot on the floor, then began dancing. She looked smooth and self-confident, but of course, she would have looked that way doing anything. I probably looked like I was trying to stomp out a fire. I still wasn’t sure if I was supposed to say anything while I was dancing. Tony wasn’t saying anything, although that may have been because he was mad. I hoped Serena didn’t think I was rude because I wasn’t talking.

  The song ended and another one started. No one made any moves to leave the floor, so I kept dancing too. I tried to be more creative with my dance moves. I most likely looked like a guy who was not only trying to stomp out a fire, but also trying to punch someone out in the process.

  Then a slow song came on. I looked over at Serena. She looked back at me. I cleared my throat and took a step toward her. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tony take Anna’s hand. “Come on,” he told her, “let’s dance.”

  Rachel’s lips pressed together into an angry frown. She grabbed my hand and pulled me to her. “Let’s dance, McKay.”

  What could I do? Rachel had already put her hand on my shoulder and was getting into “sway” position. I glanced at Serena to see what her reaction was. She’d already turned and was walking toward the bleachers. Before she got there, Brian intercepted her. They talked for a moment. She smiled up at him, and then he led her back onto the floor. They went up toward the front of the room and melted into the rest of the crowd. I swayed slowly back and forth with Rachel and hoped Brian broke something during the next football game.

  I still wasn’t sure whether or not I was supposed to say anything while I danced, so I leaned closer to Rachel and said, “It’s a nice song, huh?”

  She grunted out something which sounded like, “Huwuff,” and I figured she wasn’t in the mood for conversation. I didn’t say anything else. Besides, it was for the best that we were quiet. If she had said anything, it most likely would have been something bad about Tony. Maybe he deserved it, but Tony was my best friend, and you’ve got to stand by your best friend even when he acts like a jerk.

  Ahh, that old Manetti charm.

  Tony and Anna were dancing really close and talking. Anna’s face was tipped up toward him and she was laughing at something he said. Probably something stupid.

  When the song ended, Rachel didn’t say anything to me. She just turned and walked toward the gym door. I looked over at Tony to see if he’d go and get her. He watched her for a second and then turned back to Anna. Rachel was almost to the door before I saw Serena break away from the crowd and go after her.

  Tony and Anna stayed out on the floor to dance the next song. I went back to the bleachers and sat down. After a few minutes a girl from my social studies class asked me to dance. Then after that a girl from my church found me, and I danced a couple of dances with her. All in all, quite a sample of the girls in my grade got to see me do my stomp-fire, punch-someone routine. Somewhere in heaven I’m sure a bunch of cavewomen got a good laugh.

  I kept an eye out for Serena but didn’t see her again until about an hour later. She walked back into the gym alone. I had been sitting on the bleachers talking to a couple of guys, but I got up when I saw her.

  A slow song started to play. It was perfect timing. I walked toward Serena, and when she saw me she waved for me to come over. “There you are,” she said. “I have something to ask you.”

  “I have something to ask you too.” It’s funny, at that moment I wasn’t worried about asking Serena to dance at all. I was just relieved she hadn’t left.

  She motioned for me to walk with her toward the door. I followed her out of the gymnasium into the hallway.

  Once we got away from the blare of the music, Serena leaned against the wall and sighed. “Rachel is really upset.”

  “Oh, sorry to hear that.”

  Serena looked at me like she expected me to say more, although I wasn’t sure what. I mean, what could I do about Rachel being upset?

  “What has Tony said to you?” Serena asked.

  “Nothing.”

  She tilted her head in question, so I added, “I haven’t talked to him. He’s been busy dancing.”

  “Oh.” She seemed surprised by this, like she’d thought that after their fight, Tony and I had immediately gotten together and discussed our feelings about relationships and life. Maybe that’s what she and Rachel had just done.

  Serena took a folded piece of paper out of her pocket along with the bracelet Tony had given Rachel. “Can you give these to Tony? Rachel isn’t breaking up with Tony. She’s just, you know, upset.”

  “Okay.” I put the note and bracelet in my pocket.

  Serena surveyed me. “So if you didn’t want to talk to me about Tony, what was it you wanted to ask me?”

  Suddenly I felt awkward. I was out in the hallway where the lights were bright, and we were all alone. “Um, I was going to ask you to dance.”

  “Oh.” She smiled, and somehow that smile made me feel completely transparent, like she could look into my mind and see what I was thinking. “Sure,” she said, “let’s dance.”

  We walked back into the gymnasium and I took her hand in mine. As we danced, I took small steps to make absolutely certain I didn’t step on her feet. I was standing so close I could tell her hair smelled like strawberries, and I wondered why it was that girls always smelled so good. The song was almost over when we’d come in, so we only danced for about forty-five seconds. It was a nice forty-five seconds though. Then Serena stepped away from me. “I need to get back to Rachel. She called her mom, and I’m riding h
ome with her.”

  I nodded. “I guess I’ll see you at math class.”

  She hesitated. “You want to get together after school on Monday to do our homework?”

  “Yeah, that would be great.”

  “All right. I’ll meet you after school by the front door, and we’ll walk over to my house.”

  I watched her leave, then turned back to the dance floor. An upbeat song was playing, and I sung along under my breath. Dances, I thought, were not so bad after all.

  I danced a few more dances; then after the last song was over, Tony came and found me so we could ride home together. He was still with Anna. I knew they hadn’t been together the whole time because I’d seen him dancing with other girls, but she was with him now. “See you at school, Tony,” she said, dragging out the word “Tony” until it sounded like she was saying, “Toe-neeee.”

  Tony gave her a smile. “See you later, Anna.”

  I waited until she’d walked out the door and then said, “That reminds me. Serena gave me this to give to you. They’re from Rachel.” I took the note and bracelet out of my pocket and handed them to him.

  “It’s too dark in here to read,” he said, so we went into the hallway. He took a minute to read the note, then folded it back up and put it in his pocket.

  “She’s mad at me, and she’s not sure if we should go out anymore.” He shook his head. “Does she think she deserves some big apology or something? It’s not my fault she ran out of the gym. I was going to ask her to dance the next slow dance, but she took off. After all, she’s the one who said it was no big deal to slow-dance with someone else.” He looked at me as though he expected me to chime in and agree with him.

  “Uh, yeah,” I said. “She did say that.”

  “I wanted her to know how it feels to see your date with someone else.”

  We walked slowly down the hallway and out toward the parking lot. I kept my voice low so no one would overhear us. “You danced with Anna a lot.”

  “Yeah,” Tony said, “She’s really cute, and I think she likes me. She kind of, you know, looks at me a lot.” He was silent for a moment and then said, “Anna seems nicer than Rachel. Do you think I should break up with Rachel and ask Anna to go out with me?”