Bevan vs. Evan

by Zoe Evans

  Super exhausted. Looking forward to maxin’ and relaxin’ the rest of this weekend. And for the first time in weeks, I can actually see my floor again! I had forgotten how my design projects can end up taking over my whole room.

  Monday, March 14

  Evening, dishin’ in my kitchen

  Song Level:

  (Not so) Little Lies

  At practice today, everyone was still talking about the dance. Tabitha Sue told everyone that Ricky had asked to join her family at the Pancake House the day before. “He was so adorable with my brother,” she gushed. “He helped him cut his pancakes into the shape of a boat. Sooo cute!”

  Even Jacqui, who doesn’t usually talk about guys with anyone, had ended up flirting with one of Ian and Matt’s football friends after our big routine. “Ooh, someone’s in loooove!” teased Ian. Matt looked a little beat up about it, but I doubted the love would last very long.

  It took me a few minutes to notice that Jared hadn’t said anything at all—which was weird, because if anyone had a reason to gloat today, it was him. The dance was his idea, and it was a humongous hit. Finally, he spoke up.

  “I cannot hold this inside a moment longer,” he declared. “But I found this outside Coach Whipley’s office.” He was holding up a piece of paper. My hand flew to my mouth as I realized it wasn’t just any piece of paper. It was the results of Titan tryouts. And my name was there for everyone to see! I thought for sure she’d have taken it down by now. But clearly she hadn’t.

  Jared passed the paper around.

  Tabitha Sue looked at it, and then at me. She looked really hurt. “Maddy? Is this true? Are you leaving us?”

  She passed it to Katarina. “You trying to be Titan?” she asked angrily.

  Then she passed the paper to Matt.

  “No—I mean, yes,” I said clumsily. “I mean, yes, I did try out, but—”

  “Okay, give Maddy a break, you guys,” said Jacqui. “She tried out because she needed to do it for herself. You guys know what it’s like when you just have to show yourself you can do something, right?”

  Everyone nodded.

  “But Maddy, why didn’t you tell us you were leaving?” said Jared.

  “Because I’m not leaving,” I said sternly. “You guys, my heart is with you. With the Grizzlies. I don’t want to be a Titan. I want to be a Grizzly. But I understand if you’re still mad.”

  “We’re not mad,” said Tabitha Sue. “We were just surprised.”

  “Speaking for yourselves,” Katarina huffed.

  “Hey, wait a minute,” said Ian, just noticing something. “Where’s Diane?”

  Jared pointed across the room to where some Titans had shown up early for their practice. Diane was sitting next to some other newcomers, hanging on to every word Hilary was saying. Jared shook his head in disgust. “She’s here, but she’s not with us. And to think that I was the one who brought her onto this team!”

  “Diane was chosen as an alternate for the Titans, so when I decided not to join, she got my spot,” I explained.

  “Oh well,” said Jared, a little calmer now. “I’ll just have to yell at her for keeping secrets from me.”

  Tabitha Sue came up to me and gave me a hug. “I’m glad you decided to stay. We need you. How else are we gonna rock the Get Up and Cheer! competition coming up?”

  Katarina nodded in agreement.

  “Awww, you guys. I need you, too!”

  “Group hug!” shouted Jared.

  Ian and Matt shook their heads, but we pulled them in anyway.

  When I left practice, Evan was sitting on the floor of the hallway, his sketchbook in hand. I didn’t know he was going to wait for me. We’d talked a little bit over the weekend, but it was just our usual kind of talking. Friendly stuff. Neither of us mentioned our moment at the dance, or anything else that’s happened recently.

  “Hey, what are you working on?” I asked.

  “Oh, still this same issue of SuperBoy. I have some changes I’m making to the story. I think Cupid’s been shooting the wrong guys.”

  I smiled.

  “Want to walk home together?” he asked sheepishly.

  “Yeah.”

  I told him all about what’s been going on with the Titan tryouts, since I hadn’t really filled him in on any of it—all the way up to what happened today at practice and how the team reacted when they thought I was leaving them for the Titans.

  “I think you did the right thing,” said Evan. “There was no point in telling them once you’d already decided to stay with the Grizzlies.”

  “I still feel a little guilty,” I said.

  “You always feel a little guilty,” he joked. But it was true. Evan knew me so well.

  “Hey, how come you didn’t tell me you were trying out?” Evan asked nonchalantly.

  “Honestly? Partly because I guess deep down, I thought the fewer people who knew, the less embarrassing it would be if I didn’t make it—again. And partly because I knew that telling you would lead to me talking about Katie training me, and I just really didn’t want to talk about Katie with you.”

  “What do you mean? How come?” He tried to look sincere, but he had this smirk on his face that he couldn’t hide, and I knew he knew EXACTLY why and he just wanted to hear me say it. BOYS!

  “Maybe SuperBoy can help you figure it out,” I replied mischievously.

  Evan just laughed. Then he told me that Katie said she and Bevan were “talking” again.

  “Guess everyone’s making up, huh?” I said.

  “I don’t really care about everyone else,” said Evan. “I’m glad we’re ‘us’ again. I’ve missed you.”

  And then, the almost impossible/incredible happened. Evan took hold of my hand. And he didn’t let it go. I thought he might, like, pretend it was some kind of accident or that he was going to pull one of those “Oh, I just wanted to see something” moves, which is so LAME. But he didn’t. He just kept holding my hand. We walked hand in hand the whole way home, not saying anything. And when I looked at him from the corner of my eye, he was smiling ear to ear.

  I guess Cupid finally hit the right guy after all.

  chapter one

  Before she could chicken out, Grace took three quick steps forward and jumped.

  Her arms flew over her head as she drove her left knee up. She hit the board, then propelled her body up, up, up into the air. As she bent forward, her hips rose above her head and her arms reached for her toes. For a fraction of a second, her body was completely weightless, high above the water at the top of her dive. Then whoosh—she unfolded her legs, straightened her body, and reached for the water that was rushing up to meet her. Down she plunged, deep into the sapphire-blue water. Under here it was another place, a Blue World, muffled, safe, her own private domain.

  She swam underwater all the way to the wall. Then she popped to the surface, shook the water from her eyes, and pulled herself out of the pool. She headed over to her chair, where her friend Jaci, wearing huge sunglasses, was reclining and reading a book. Grace glanced down at the book as she grabbed her towel. “You’re reading our Spanish text-book over Memorial Day weekend?”

  Jaci shrugged, set down the book, and shimmied up to a sitting position. “We have a vocab quiz tomorrow, remember?”

  “Well, I choose to forget, just for a couple of days, how bad I am at Spanish. Every time I ask Ms. Pereira to explain something to me, she answers me in Spanish.”

  “Yeah, I stink at it, too. That’s why I’m brushing up. I really need to improve my grade. Plus I have to get ahead because I have a big clarinet recital coming up.”

  Grace didn’t know Jaci super well, but in the one class they had together (the first class they’d ever had together), she’d quickly realized that Jaci was “That Person”—the kind that walks out of a test moaning about how she’s failed it for sure, but then aces it and makes everyone else feel bad about themselves.

  “This Thursday I’m allowed to bring a buddy here again,”
said Jaci. “You want to come with me after school?”

  “Sure!” Grace said. Did she sound too eager?

  “Do you think your parents will let you join RSC for the summer?” asked Jaci. “I mean, it’s nice to have you as my guest, but they only let you do that four times a month. It would be cool if you could become a member. I wouldn’t mind hanging out with someone with a brain in her head.”

  “I’m working on it big-time with my mom and dad,” said Grace. “I’m doing my chores before they need doing, cranking on my homework before they start nagging, even practicing piano before they ask.”

  “They’ll cave,” said Jaci. “Keep up the pressure.”

  “It would be great to join this place.” Grace sat down on the edge of her chair and looked around Riverside Swim Club and its huge, T-shaped swimming pool. The diving boards and platforms were just begging to be used. On the other side was another lane pool, filled with splashing kids in one section and serious lane swimmers in the rest. Around the corner was the little-kid pool.

  “It’s kind of a scene here, though,” Jaci continued. “I thought about joining the girls’ swim team, but it looks pretty cliquey. Plus I stink at competitive swimming.”

  “Me too,” said Grace.

  “The nice thing is, my mom has a zillion friends who belong, and they all take turns being the ‘responsible adult,’” said Jaci, putting air quotes around the last two words. “Middle school kids like us have to be here with an adult, but my mom and her friends let us do our own thing. It’s great.”

  “That is great,” Grace agreed.

  “The boys’ team is supercompetitive, but they’re all annoying jocks, especially their studly star, Mike Morris. They’re all about how they look, strutting around in their jammers.”

  “Jammers?”

  “Those tight swim trunks they wear. Speaking of studly—have you checked out Gorgeous Jordan up there? Drool!” She gestured with her chin toward the lifeguard chair at the far end of the other pool, where Jordan Lee, a high school junior, sat surveying the pool like a god looking down from Mount Olympus.

  Grace glanced at him. “He’s okay.” Then she turned back to the water. “I love the diving boards here. I’m going back in. Want to come?”

  “Nah, I’m good. I’ll be here, studying my irregular verbs.” She grinned at Grace.

  “Gee, sounds like a laugh a minute,” said Grace. She headed back to the diving board.

  Step-step-step–drive the knee–JUMP!

  This time she got really high off the board, high enough that she had time to touch her toes, unfold, and stre-e-e-tch her fingers toward the water. Whoosh! The bubbles roared in her ears down in the Blue World. She knew it had been a good dive.

  As her head emerged from the water, she was startled to see another head not far away from her, near the other springboard. A boy was hanging on to the edge of the pool, wearing tinted goggles, which gave him a froglike look. Where had he come from?

  “Nice front pike,” he called. He had an unexpectedly deep voice, dark brown and velvety.

  Grace resisted the urge to dive back down into the Blue World and wait for him to go away. Good thing she was in the cool water, because she felt the usual hot flush rising up to her hairline. “Thanks,” she said, and propelled herself to the side of the pool. All she’d done was dive. She had no idea it was called a front spike or whatever he’d said. She pulled herself out of the water and clambered clumsily to her feet, willing herself not to pluck at her wet suit, which was clinging to her in all kinds of embarrassing ways.

  The boy swiveled up and out of the pool in one smooth movement, and a moment later was standing a few feet away from her. He pulled up his goggles, drained out the water, and snapped them on top of his head. Then he began flinging excess water off his arms. His hair was slicked-back and smooth like a seal’s. He looked about her age, or a year older, and was several inches taller, with powerful shoulder muscles. Grace was tall for her age, and usually towered over boys.

  She darted a second glance at him, which was time enough to take in the huge green eyes spiked with long eyelashes. He was take-your-breath-away gorgeous. Her paralyzing shyness flooded in like a wave swirling and eddying around rocks.

  “You swim too?” he asked. He didn’t even look her way, but now bent over to brush the water off his legs.

  “Um. Not actually.” Not actually? Inward groan. “I stink at swimming.” Great. Tell him all your other faults while you’re at it, she thought. Maybe you can work in what a disaster you are at Spanish. She prayed her feet wouldn’t spontaneously slip out from under her or something.

  The boy straightened up and turned to go. “Well, see ya.”

  “Um, see ya.” She turned her body toward Jaci and her chair, but out of the corner of her eye she followed him as he walked away.

  “Want to get a snack at the snack bar?” said a voice next to her.

  Grace jumped—literally—out of her stare.

  “I didn’t mean to startle you!” the voice continued. It was Jaci.

  “Yeah, sure,” said Grace. “So who’s that guy over there?” She tried to get her voice back down an octave as she gestured with her chin toward the boy. He had stopped to talk to an older guy with a whistle around his neck.

  Jaci snorted. “Oh. Him. That’s Mike Morris.”