by Ann Herrick
"You're still shivering." Alex put his arm around me.
I drank in Alex's warm smile. His teeth were gleaming white against his tanned face. His dark brown eyes stared directly into mine. I found myself leaning closer and closer to Alex until finally our heads were only centimeters apart.
"Oh! Look at that," called a voice in the distance.
"Do you see what I see?" said another high-pitched voice.
"Wow!"
"Yoo-hoo. Hi, Alex. Yoo-hoo!"
I pulled away from Alex and whirled around. Climbing over a jetty about fifty feet down the beach were the girls I had seen that afternoon in front of the store where Alex worked. They were all laughing and pointing.
I couldn't even look at Alex. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you. I-I'm not cold anymore. We can leave if you want to."
"I'm not embarrassed." Alex grinned. "Let's really give them something to point at." He pulled me close and kissed me. Waves of excitement raced through my bloodstream. Alex’s lips were so velvety soft and warm on mine.
It was a long kiss. It left me gasping, as much from surprise as from lack of oxygen. Once I caught my breath I noticed that the girls were running away as a unit, like a school of fish.
"There," Alex said, laughing. "That should impress them."
It had certainly impressed me.
"You seem to have a fan club," I croaked.
"They're a pain in the neck. Mr. Little was pretty annoyed when he found them hanging around me at the store, since they haven't been paying customers. I'm afraid if they really become a nuisance, it might cost me my job."
"Alex, you know what you need to keep those girls from bothering you?"
"A bullwhip?"
"I don't think they're that determined." I lowered my voice. "What you need is a girlfriend to scare them off."
"What do you mean?"
"You saw how they ran off when you kissed me."
"Yes ...."
"Well—" I hesitated, then went on. "—I could be your girlfriend." My voice was shaky. I had to fight my doubts about my plan. It was spur of the moment, and I hadn't had time to consider all the pluses and minuses. But if I could make Alex my fake summer boyfriend, maybe at some point it would turn into the real thing. Hastily I added, "Just pretend, of course."
"Oh. Of course." Alex thought for about it for a moment. "I think that's a great idea."
"You—you do?" My jaw dropped.
"Yes." With one hand Alex tipped my chin up. "Maybe we should seal our deal with another kiss."
"But the girls have left already!"
"You mean we should save the show for when we have an audience?" Alex looked at me, one eyebrow raised questioningly.
"Er, uh, I guess so." I wished I'd let Alex kiss me. Even if he'd been only kidding around, I would have enjoyed the feeling of his warm lips on mine, his strong arms holding me tight. But it was too late. I'd blown my chance. It was starting to get dark. We couldn't just sit there all night. "Um, maybe we should head back to the cottage," I said.
"If that's what you want."
It wasn't what I wanted at all. But how could I tell him that what I really wanted was to be his girlfriend for real? However, Nicole Kendall seemed to be first in line for that position, and I was certainly no match for Nicole. "Well, it is getting late ...," I said miserably.
"All right, then." Alex stood up and offered me his hand.
Once I'd pulled myself up I thought for a second that he was going to take me in his arms. But he let me go and stooped to pick up his shirt. He shook the sand out of it. "Let's head back."
The sun was setting in back of us. Two long separate shadows formed in our paths as we walked silently to the cottage. It was just about completely dark when we got there. Everyone was inside. Alex opened the door for me.
"Katie!" Mom sprang up from her chair. "We were just talking about you."
Mrs. Stedman also stood up and approached me. "Yes. We'd like to ask you something."
"Oh?" I smiled nervously.
"Now you don't have to if you don't want to," Mom said.
"But of course we'll both pay you if you agree," said Mrs. Stedman.
"Pay me? For what?" I glanced at Alex.
"To babysit for Jason and Hailey!" Mom exclaimed.
"You see," Mrs. Stedman said, "we've discovered that your folks and Mr. Stedman and I all love to play golf and tennis and bridge."
"We'll each pay you the going rate, plus a little extra for snacks. What we'd like," said Mom, "is for you to baby-sit each weekday from nine until three, so we can have some free time. What do you say?"
"Well ...," I said hesitantly. I could always use the money and, since I wasn't sixteen yet, my prospects for finding anything better weren't very good. Also, I'd be working the same hours as Alex and have the same hours free. That would be convenient. I put up with Jason all year long, anyway. Why not get paid for it? "I'll take the job," I said finally. I liked the sound of the word "job." It sounded more important than "babysitting," which was not my favorite occupation.
"Oh, good!" Mrs. Stedman exclaimed.
"You will?" Mom sounded as though she couldn't quite believe what she was hearing. She knew, of course, that I didn't care much for babysitting, that I thought children—especially Jason—were essentially boring and useless.
"I can start tomorrow," I volunteered. "I'll pick up Hailey at 8:50." I figured that was about when Alex would leave for work.
"We can drop her off," Mrs. Stedman said.
"I don't mind," I said. "It will give you more time for golf or whatever you plan to do." I wouldn't have an excuse to see Alex if they dropped off Hailey!
"Fine," said Mrs. Stedman. She looked at her watch. "See you tomorrow morning. It's late. We'd better be getting back to our cottage. Come on, everyone. We can't stay all night."
As Mr. Stedman and Hailey said their good-byes and thank-yous, Alex drew me outside. He took my hand and led me back down by the water. He slipped his arms around my waist.
I looked up at him. There wasn't enough moonlight to see the expression on his face.
"Wh-what are you doing?" I asked nervously.
"There are six people who are closely related to us standing just a few yards away. At least one of them is bound to be watching us. If you're supposed to be my girlfriend, I really should kiss you good-night."
"But—but we're only trying to fool those girls."
"If we're going to pull off a realistic act, I think we should try to convince everyone."
"Oh. Of course." My knees trembled. I was beginning to wonder if it was wise to have gotten myself involved in such a scheme, even if I was the one who originally suggested it. I cared too much for Alex to have to pretend all the time that I was only pretending to like him!
Alex leaned down, pressed his lips on mine and crushed himself against me. I locked myself into his embrace. His arms around me melted any doubts about having him as a pretend boyfriend. But a minute later I pushed him away. "That's enough," I whispered. "This … this is only supposed to be a good-night kiss."
I felt light-headed and short of breath. I'd only been kissed seven times since eighth-grade graduation, and none of those kisses had left me feeling the way Alex's had.
"I keep forgetting," Alex said, "that I'm seventeen and you're a mere child of fifteen. I'll try to keep myself in check from now on."
I couldn't see Alex's face well enough to tell if he was teasing, but even if he was, I didn't need to be reminded of how young and inexperienced I was. Undoubtedly Nicole Kendall had no trouble handling Alex's kisses.
"Alex," Mrs. Stedman called out. "We're leaving now."
"Be right there." Alex draped one arm around my shoulders and walked me back to the cottage. "See you tomorrow, Katie." He squeezed my shoulder, then turned to leave.
"Good night." I watched until I couldn't see Alex any longer, then went inside. Before I dashed upstairs, Mom shot me a funny look. I wondered if she'd seen Alex kiss me.
In my room I sat in front of the mirror, thinking. I'd tried to put my best foot forward and wound up tripping over it. Maybe if I looked older Alex would take me more seriously. If only I could do something to measure up to Nicole Kendall! There wasn't much I could do about my figure, but maybe there was something I could do about my drab hair. I fingered a lock and curled it around my thumb.
Chapter Four
"Jason, will you stop picking the raisins out of your toast and just eat?" I paced around the table. "If you don't hurry, we'll be late!"
"Relax, Katie." Mom spooned sugar into her coffee. "It's just past eight-thirty. It'll take only a couple minutes to walk to the Stedmans', and our golf date isn't until nine-thirty, so there's no need to rush, anyway."
"I don't want to be late on the first day," I said. "Jason, I'm going upstairs to comb my hair. You'd better finish eating and brush your teeth before I'm ready to leave."
When I reached my room I took a few dollars out of the painted tin box on top of my dresser and stuffed it into my pocket. I figured that would be enough for some hair color to brighten my drab locks.
On my way back downstairs I heard Jason gargling in the bathroom. I winced. Probably the neighbors could hear him, too. "Come on, Jason. One. More. Minute."
"Okay." Jason gurgled and spit.
I went downstairs to wait.
"Katie, there's plenty of food to fix for your lunches." Mom was peering into the refrigerator. "Hot dogs, milk, juice, carrot sticks, celery." She closed the refrigerator door and opened a cabinet door. "Bread, peanut butter, raisins—"
"I can find the food, Mom," I said. "We won't starve."
"Yes, I know. I just—"
"I'm ready!" Jason jumped down the last three stairs, triumphantly raising his arms over his head as he landed on the floor.
"Good!" I grabbed his hand and led him out the door before there could be any more delays. When we got a few steps away from the cottage, I stopped and grasped Jason by the shoulders. "Jason, I want you to be on your best behavior. Understand?"
"Of course," Jason said, wide-eyed. Innocent.
"Fine." I took a step, then stopped again. I realized I didn't even know where Alex's cottage was.
"Let's go." Jason tugged at my hand and led me off to the left. "Number seventy-six is this way."
"Duh," I said, as if I'd known all along.
Dan’s cottage looked pretty much like ours, except it had a trellis by the door where a tangle of roses grew. I knocked twice.
The door opened. Hailey peeped out from behind it. "Won't you come in?"
"Hi," I said cheerily. "Are you all ready?"
"Oh, yes," Hailey answered. Her formality still un-nerved me a bit, but I was sort of getting used to it.
"Katie," Mrs. Stedman said, "here's the key to the cottage, in case Hailey needs anything. Hailey, don't forget your snack." She handed Hailey a small plastic bag containing cheese cubes and green olives.
"Thanks." Hailey kissed her mother good-bye.
"Oh," said Mrs. Stedman. "Here's your bathing suit, too."
"I'll take it," I said. I lingered in the doorway, waiting for Alex to appear. I wanted to walk to the store with him.
Suddenly he bounded down the stairs. "Ah. Is this my escort service?"
"Ready and waiting," I answered briskly.
"Let's go, then," said Alex.
The four of us filed out the door.
"You two walk ahead of us," I said to Jason and Hailey. "This road's too narrow for us to walk four across."
Jason and Hailey paired off, whispering solemnly. Occasionally Jason peeked over his shoulder at Alex and me and giggled.
It was a short walk, and soon we had to cross the street to the store. "Let's all hold hands," I said to Jason and Hailey. I hoped Alex would take the hint. He did.
As soon as we'd crossed the street I spotted the cluster of girls down the road on their way to the store. "See you later, Alex," I said in an extra loud voice. Then I stood on my toes and gave him a quick kiss. "That was for their benefit," I whispered, motioning toward the girls.
"See you back here at three o'clock," Alex said, as soon as the girls got a little closer. He blew me a kiss before he stepped inside the store. I blushed, even though I knew the kiss was only for the sake of the giggling girls.
"Okay, you two," I said to Jason and Hailey. "We're going for a walk." I tried not to smile as I walked past the girls, who were now giving me a thorough once-over.
"Where are we going?" Jason walked between me and Hailey, holding our hands and swinging his arms.
"To Bob's Beach Store," I said. "I thought it would be fun to see what they have there." I didn't mention that I hoped they had a good selection of hair coloring.
The walk to Bob's Beach Store was longer than I had thought it would be—nearly a mile. But once we reached the section that had the trees and big houses the cool shade provided a pleasant change of atmosphere, which silenced the gripes Jason had just started making about having to walk so far. In the driveways of the houses I saw expensive cars. Some of the houses had tennis courts, and one even had a swimming pool. Then the trees thinned out and the houses looked a bit more rustic as we neared Bob's. There also appeared to be a knot of kids about my age. So far in my section of the beach I had seen families with small children or older couples. Alex and I seemed to be the only two between the ages of ten and twenty-five.
"Well, here we are," I said, as we arrived at Bob's. I led Jason and Hailey through the open door of the store.
Jason immediately hopped up on one of the stools at the counter and spun himself around. "Whee!"
"Why don't you two have a soda. You must be thirsty after that walk." I saw a sign advertising root beer in frosted mugs. "How about a mug of root beer?" I wasn't so concerned about their thirst. I wanted to keep them busy for a few minutes.
"Yeah! Root beer!" Jason bounced on his stool.
"Yes, thank you." Hailey climbed up on to the stool next to Jason and folded her hands on the counter.
A cute blond guy working behind the counter turned around and asked, "Three root beers?"
"Just two." I pointed to Jason and Hailey. "I, uh, have to look for something." I didn't want an audience while I shopped, especially not a cute guy.
"Maybe I could tell you where to find it." The blond guy took two frosty mugs from the freezer. "What are you looking for?"
"I'll, er, just look for it." I could feel the red creeping up my face. "I want to browse anyway."
"Let me know if you need any help." The blond guy filled the mugs with root beer from a tap and set them on the counter in front of Jason and Hailey. "It's no trouble." He flashed me a big smile.
"All right." I ducked my head to hide my blushing cheeks and scurried to the other side of the store to look around. I hunted through the shelves until I finally found a section with a limited selection of shampoos and conditioners. I searched through all the bottles twice but couldn't find any hair color. I tried to think. Maybe I could use something else.
I moved over to the food aisle and checked the baking supplies. In the midst of flour, sugar and birthday candles I finally found some food coloring. If it would color food, why not hair? The worst that could happen would be that it wouldn't work. It didn't cost much and, actually, it would be less embarrassing—and incriminating—than buying hair coloring. I could probably attribute a few red highlights to the sun. I took the bottle to the cash register and paid for it and the two root beers.
The blond guy counted out my change and handed it to me. "Come again."
"Bye." I smiled at him. I wondered if I should mention that I had a boyfriend, but decided against it. It would be kind of presumptuous, and I could be misinterpreting his friendliness. Besides, I wasn't sure if Alex wanted publicity of our "romance" to extend the length of the entire beach or if he only wanted to influence the girls at Little's.
While Jason, Hailey and I walked back to our cottage, I thought about the arrangeme
nt I had made with Alex. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. But now I wondered if it might not backfire. If I didn't turn my fictional romance with Alex into a genuine one, I might miss an opportunity to at least have a summer fling. But then, a summer fling would end anyway, and Alex was going to be in Hartford when I got back. It would be best, I decided, to stick with my original plan to get Alex's attention for real.
Meanwhile, I had my work cut out for me. I had Jason and Hailey to worry about. It was no ordinary babysitting job. It was six hours a day, five days a week. I couldn't just sit around and watch the kids, counting the hours until their parents got home, as I usually did when I babysat. I figured I'd better overcome my dislike for this sort of work and try to make it fun for the kids and worthwhile for myself. I wanted to be creative as well as reliable. I would start as soon as we got back to the cottage.
By the time we reached the cottage door, Jason was clamoring for a snack. I was about to remind him that he'd just had a root beer, when Hailey announced that she was thirsty.
"All right," I said. "We'll take a lemonade break."
Jason and Hailey sat at the table while I poured their lemonade. Hailey placed her bag of cheese cubes and green olives in front of her. "Jason, would you like some cheese and olives?" She turned to me. "You may have some too, if you'd like."
"Thanks, but I'm not hungry." I put the glasses of lemonade in front of Jason and Hailey and sat down with them.
"I'll have some cheese and olives," Jason announced, "if Hailey will have some of my snack." He looked imploringly at me.
"Oh." I stood up. It was obvious that Jason wanted to have something to share with Hailey. "Oh. Of course. How could I forget? Would you like some ... raisins?"
"Yes, please." Hailey smiled eagerly.
Jason looked relieved.
I hunted around in the cabinets, looking for the raisins that Mom had mentioned this morning. I found them on an upper shelf. After I poured some into a bowl, I ceremoniously place them on the table.
"Have some?" Jason proudly offered Hailey the bowl first.