(2) New Possibilities

So it's the last day of our freshmen year and we're ending it by chilling at Kiki's pool. Literally all of the class is there which isn't hard because it's not very big. No one feels like swimming ironically because it's an overcast day. The chlorinated water is as still as glass and I wait for at least one annoying guy to be pushed in. It doesn't happen.

I sit in my favorite khaki capri pants and hot pink flip flops on a white pool chair smiling as Sophie, the girl sitting next to me talks on and on about her plans for the summer. I'm only half listening as she chatters about biking in France, twisting her brunette hair. I gaze over at the guy I had liked ever since he had shared his animal crackers with me in kindergarten, Lawrence W. Snow.

Lawrence is drunk out of his mind as usual, falling all over the place as he attempts to walk towards where the chips are. Watching him, I get this amazing urge to go spit in his face with disgust - he wouldn't remember it - or push him in the pool and watch him struggle to get out. After ten years, I realize that I'm just not attracted to him anymore and suddenly I have no guy to pine for. It's a miracle.

I glance back at Sophie, who I guess is onto a whole new topic about her brother corning home from college. I nod and smile but then look back to the crowd. Two girls with blonde hair race in front of me on the grass, followed by Andrew Peters carrying with a giant squirt gun. He squirts me but I hardly notice because I'm too bored to care. And then...he hits me. I am searching the crowd for my friends and I notice a guy and girl laughing on the mechanical porch swing. The girl is Tina Daniels, the grade's biggest flirt and the guy is one surprisingly I don’t know. I hadn’t had any classes with him that year and I had been so busy melting over Lawrence, I hardly had looked at him. I watch them now completely entranced, Tina doing her routinely brush of blonde hair to the side.

As the guy said something, Tina burst out laughing and leaned into him even closer. I began to be jealous of my mind for no apparent reason.

Then something unexpected happened. The guy looked straight at me! I sat there staring at him like a lovesick puppy, and for a brief second we made eye contact.

There was this energy I felt coming from him and my heart was hammering and my face got hot, and I made the awful mistake of quickly looking away. I immediately regretted it, and watched as he walked over to the soda table.

For the first time, I could really get a good look at him. His hair was dirty blond, short but long enough so that it hung in his eyes in an adorable way. I instantly loved how he shoved it boyishly out of his face when he talked to someone. He was wearing a shell necklace under his navy polo shirt with crisp khaki shorts.

Immediately, Lawrence was completely forgotten.

Interrupting Sophie, I asked quickly, "Soph, you see that guy in the navy polo shirt with blond hair?"

She stopped talking and peered closely over by the soda bottles, adjusting her baby blue tank top.

"Oh yeah, that's Jeff Waters. He moved here this year from California."

Oh." I replied, "Sorry I interrupted." I couldn't stop watching him.

Before Sophie could continue about the latest fashion tip she had learned from Cosmopolitan magazine, my friends came over.

"Daria, come start the around-the-world ping pong game with us!" I looked up at Britney and Charlotte who were, of course, both wearing the same blue flowered shorts from J. Crew. I smiled followed them to the ping pong table. As it begins to drizzle, Sophie tells everyone else to come follow and play with us. Britney, Charlotte, Patsy, and I start the game and a line begins to snake around us. A huge game forms and I am mostly at the top of it. Hitting the ball here and there and dashing between sides, I am unstoppable. I can't concentrate on anything but the oncoming war.

After a while the line fades as people strike out on their turns and start to cheer us on instead. I'm one of the last people left and as my turn comes up I grab the paddle and look up to see Jeff Waters himself facing me on the opposing court. The guys are patting Jeff on the back and all the girls are screaming for me. I can't make myself look Jeff in the eye. We are the last people left which means I have to play one on one with him. I try not to let the fact that he is Perfectboy intimidate me, but I know if I look just once into his eyes I’ll be taken and lose the whole game. I am a very competitive person, so I can’t lose a game just because of some cute guy. I concentrate on the ball and hit it back at him with everything I’ve got. It seems like hours until finally I watch the ball spike into his court. He misses it.

I hear a thud as his head hits the table and he pounds his fist in agony. The whole grade must be around us because I hear guys yelling and girls screaming at me.

Even Lawrence Snow is there, laughing like an idiot.

Jeff gets up and with a smile from his pearly whites, he looks at me and hands me the ping pong ball.

I can’t help but gaze into those brown eyes, and I think, as my heart beats and the rain pours outside, as I touch his hand to take the ball, that just about anything could happen that summer.