Robyn (8 page)

“I really can’t remember.”

Sean leaned over and said something to Tanner, who shook his head and smiled. They were probably ready to barf with all the shoe talk. I knew I was. Caitlin and Whitney bonding over shoes. I just didn’t get it.

Caitlin nudged my arm. “Don’t you love those shoes?”

Okay, I really didn’t. My sandals were plain brown leather — like my eyes. Boring, but so comfortable.

“They don’t look very comfortable,” I admitted.

“What’s comfort got to do with it?” Whitney asked. “It’s all about style.”

Which I also questioned. Jeweled shoes on a grassy knoll in a baseball park to watch fireworks?

“Hey, I thought it was the Splash team,” a voice said from behind me.

I twisted my head around and looked up. It was Nick. He was holding a girl’s hand. She had dark hair and a nice smile.

Sean invited them to join us, so everyone shifted around to make room for them. The girl’s name was Nicole and she was Nick’s girlfriend. Which meant he was now off my list of possibles.

“Nick and Nic?” Whitney asked. “Too funny.”

It
was
kinda funny, but they seemed okay with it.

“Hey, we don’t get to choose our names or who we like,” Nick said.

“So do you work at the park?” I asked Nicole.

“No. I’ve got three sisters, way younger than me, so I have to babysit them during the summer while my parents are at work.” She leaned against Nick. “I wish I could work there. I hear it’s awesome.”

“It can be,” Whitney said. “Depends on your supervisor.”

This from the girl who thought working at a water park meant
working
on her tan? Although maybe she was just trying to earn points with her supervisor. She smiled at Sean, he grinned back. No wonder he never got mad at her. They were in like. Disgusting.

And why was I so bothered by it?

“It also depends who else you’re working with,” Caitlin said, smiling at Tanner, who was grinning at her.

Who did I have to smile at? No one. It was totally unfair. Why didn’t they cut the lights and start the fireworks already?

I glanced around. A guy was standing at the top of the knoll, looking right at us. I could feel his gaze. Was it possible that I might not be the only odd one out?

“Is that Jake?” I asked.

Everyone in our little group turned their head to look where I was looking. It was like I’d asked, “Is that Superman?” I almost burst out laughing, but held it back and snorted instead — which was way more embarrassing.

Sean seemed to be the only one who noticed. He grinned at me. Not exactly the way I wanted to get a guy to notice me — - and Sean wasn’t really a guy I was interested in. Still, I couldn’t help but feel that we’d shared some sort of secret moment.

Then he shoved himself up so he was standing. He waved at Jake. Weren’t we all friendly tonight?

“Who’s Jake?” Caitlin asked, watching as he made his way across the grass to us.

“The ice-cream guy,” Whitney said. “So is everyone from Paradise Falls here tonight?”

“A lot of them are,” Caitlin said. “Makes sense, since a lot of the employees go to school here.”

It didn’t take Jake long to reach us. Sean made the introductions, then we played a sort of musical chairs while people shifted around trying to make more room on the quilt. Somehow Sean ended up sitting between me and Whitney. Jake sat on the other side of her. Even though I figured both Sean and Jake were interested in Whitney, it no longer looked like I didn’t have anyone interested in me. Thank goodness.

But the quilt was really crowded. Still, it was nice, too. Sitting so close to a guy. I could smell the spicy soap that Sean used. When I looked at him, I could really see the blue of his eyes.

I cast a quick glance at Jake. His eyes were brown. And so not boring.

I wondered if maybe my eyes looked boring only to me. And maybe brown eyes were boring to Whitney. It was difficult to tell how she felt about Jake sitting beside her. It was pretty obvious that he liked her — why else would he have made sure to sit by her?

He still seemed kinda shy. Not talking to her or anything. Just being with her.

Maybe he was trying to figure out Sean’s interest in her. She had two guys who liked her, and I had none.

The lights suddenly went out. Thank goodness. Maybe I’d stop obsessing about how hard it was to find a guy who was interested in me.

A burst of fireworks filled the black sky. The entire stadium seemed to release a collective gasp. I could see the silhouettes of everyone in our little group. Caitlin and Tanner, Nick and Nic, Jake and Whitney, Sean and —

Me?

There was just enough light to see that he was looking at me. Which made no sense since it was Whitney that he cared so much about us being nice to, Whitney he included in everything, Whitney, Whitney, Whitney …

Was I jealous? I thought I was. Which made no sense because he was Caitlin’s brother, had always been around in my life, had irritated us both, only now I was irritated in a completely different way. Irritated that he wasn’t noticing me.

Only he
was
looking at me. It was a really strange moment. An odd kind of electricity was in the air. I couldn’t believe it. I was sitting there thinking about what it would be like if Sean Morgan — Caitlin’s irritating brother — kissed me.

Then there was another burst of fireworks and he turned his attention back to watching the sky.

Which was a good thing. A very good thing.

Tuesday I was at Splash, trying not to think about Sean. I’d had this really weird dream. Sean and I were swimming, never coming up to the surface for air, like we were sea creatures or something. Every now and then a dolphin would wander by and we’d grab a fin and go zipping through the water. Laughing, laughing underwater. I’m not sure why all these images were bombarding me. It was bad enough to think about him. I didn’t really want to dream about him.

“So what’s up with you and Sean?” Whitney asked.

She was doing her usual thing of making sure the far side of Splash wouldn’t collapse if someone sat on it. I was irritated with her for being so adorable that two guys wanted to sit by her. I was annoyed that she didn’t even pretend to work.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“You kept looking at each other last night. Do you like each other?”

“Nooo.” A toddler slipped. I picked her up, helped her get situated on the slide, and gave her a little push. She laughed going down the slick slide.

“What do you think of Jake?” she asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You know, Robyn, these questions aren’t that hard. They shouldn’t need a translator.”

“It’s just that I’m distracted here trying to keep an eye on the kids. That’s what we’re being paid to do. Remember?”

“How can I forget when you’re constantly reminding me?” She glanced around, gave one of her bored sighs.

I really couldn’t figure her out. It was like she was working really hard to give the impression that everything bored her. Like last night. She’d appeared to be so excited when she arrived at the ballpark — - and then she’d shifted into this-is-really-beneath-me gear. I just didn’t get it. What was her story?

I heard loud, deep laughter. It wasn’t unusual at a water park to hear people having fun, but near Splash, it was unusual to hear deep laughter. Deep, guy laughter.

I turned around. Three guys, grinning broadly and laughing, were swaggering toward us. They had trouble tattooed and pierced all over them. They looked way older than us, seniors in high school maybe.

The guy leading the way had a pierced eyebrow, braided leather around his neck and wrist, and a tattoo of a shark on his chest, right above his heart. I relaxed a little because I recognized the tattoo. The park had a tattoo booth near the food court. The tattoo wasn’t
real, just painted on, but it was waterproof — for a while anyway.

These guys had apparently stopped by the booth. For fun maybe. Or maybe they wanted to look tough.

We had four little kids at the top. I heard them screech as each one took his or her turn to go down the slide, but my attention was focused on the three guys. The attractions in Mini Falls had height restrictions. People playing here couldn’t be taller than forty-eight inches.

No one else was waiting in line, which I guess made our slide a target. The guys started walking up the steps to the slide. I moved to block their way.

“Sorry, guys. This ride is for kids only.”

“Whatever, loser,” the lead guy said, holding up his hand, using his fingers to make a
W
, an
E
, then an
L
.

“Come on, babe, we just want to have some fun,” one of the guys beside him said.

My heart was pounding. I was afraid they could hear it. “Sorry. You’ll have to move on.”

I heard some splashing, then Nick was standing at the side of the slide, near the top.

“Hey, guys, get out of here,” Nick said.

“That’s discrimination,” one of the guys said. His red hair was buzzed short on the sides, but stuck up like three inches down the middle. Maybe he wanted to go down the kiddie slide because he was afraid going down a larger slide would mess up his hair. “If you don’t let us go down the slide, we’re gonna sue.”

Why were they doing this? What was the fun in arguing? And poor Nick. It was hard for him to appear tough when he was down beside the slide. He’d have to walk around the pool to get to the steps to stand even with the guys — or he’d have to hoist himself up, which probably wouldn’t look very manly.

“We’re going down the slide,” Shark Guy said. “So step aside.”

Part of me thought,
What’s the harm? Let them do it
. But rules were rules. And hadn’t I, personally, gotten chewed out for not following rules? So I stood my ground, even though my stomach was starting to quiver. “No. You’re not going down the slide.”

I was surprised that my voice didn’t shake. And where was Sean?

Suddenly a shrill whistle sounded. I jerked my head around. Whitney removed her whistle from her mouth. She was standing and grinning. “Chill, guys.”

She walked up to me, so now we were a barrier of two. I felt like we were united, until she said, “Let them go down the slide.”

I know my eyes did that whole widening thing —

“It’s obvious they’re babies,” she said sweetly. “They’re too chicken to do the real slides.”

“Whatever, loser,” Shark Guy said, doing the hand signals again.

I wondered if it was something he’d just learned, something that he thought made him cool.

“We’re not afraid,” one of the other guys said.

Whitney laughed. “Then why are you here? Us?” — she wiggled her finger to include me, Nick, and herself — “If we didn’t have to be here, we’d be hurtling down Screaming Falls this very second. We sure wouldn’t be wasting our time trying to get permission to go down a four-foot slide.”

“Whatever —”

“I know.
Whatever, loser
,” she said, interrupting Shark Guy and moving her hand so fast that it almost blurred. “How many times did you have to watch the video on MTV to learn that? Which you’re doing wrong, by the way.”

“What do you know?” Shark Guy demanded.

“I know you’re about to get kicked out of the park.”

“Hey, guys.” It was Sean. To the rescue at last. I felt my heart slowing to a normal beat. He was waving his hand like a traffic cop telling people to come through the intersection.

Jake was standing beside him. For someone who scooped ice cream, he suddenly looked like someone you didn’t want to mess with.

“Come on,” Sean said. “Management wants to see you.”

“Dude, we were just playing,” Shark Guy said like he was three years old.

“Playing is limited to kids in this area. You know the rules. Let’s go,” Sean said, sounding so in charge. I wondered if his stomach was quivering like mine had been.

Sulking, the three guys headed down the steps. Sean said something to them and then made them follow him.

“You guys all right?” Jake called out.

“We’re fine,” I told him. At least now we were.

“What losers,” Whitney said, imitating Shark Guy’s hand movements.

“You handled them great,” I told her.

“You weren’t too bad yourself. You just forgot rule number one: Always blow your whistle when there’s trouble in the area.”

She actually knew the rules? Who would have thought?

“Well, I felt pretty useless,” Nick said.

“Don’t be silly,” Whitney said. “But next time, flex those muscles.”

Nick laughed. “Think I’ll just blow my whistle.”

*  *  *  

“I don’t understand what people are thinking when they do stuff like that,” Caitlin said.

We were at lunch, sitting at a table beneath an umbrella. It’s easier to talk when you can see each other. And quite honestly, lounging on the deck just made me sleepy.

Whitney and I had told her about the tough guys. I’d been as surprised by their
reaction to Sean’s arrival as I’d been by Whitney’s confronting them. I’d pretty much figured she was useless, so now I needed to reconsider my opinion of her. Sean, well, I’d been thinking about my opinion of him way too much lately.

“They didn’t give Sean a hard time at all,” I told Caitlin.

“Sometimes he can look tough,” she said.

Maybe he
was
tough. I remembered last night when he told us he was leaving. No room for compromise. Caitlin and I had almost tripped over ourselves to get to the car. I guess some people just have that born-to-lead gene. I thought maybe Sean was one of them.

It was weird how much I was coming to respect him. How much I was starting to like him. He made me feel good about myself, called me his go-to girl. He counted on me. And maybe I was starting to count on him.

But all these feelings were related to work. They couldn’t move beyond our work environment, because the truth was that he
liked Whitney. He cared about whether she was happy.

Or could it be that he cared about everyone being happy?

“Earth to Robyn. Earth to Robyn.”

Fingers snapped in front of my face — - and I know my eyes widened. Caitlin was snapping at me.

“What?” I asked, irritated because I wanted to examine my feelings about Sean.

“I’ve been trying to talk with you about tomorrow. You know? Our day off.”

“Oh, right. So what did you want to do? Go shopping?”

“Actually, I’m coming here.”

“You’re working?”

“No, playing. Well, sorta. Mostly I want to hang around here, so Tanner can take his breaks and lunch with me. Do you want to come?”

I wouldn’t mind coming to the park to play — but I’d be doing it alone.

“No, I’ve got some stuff I need to do.”

“Like what?”

“Just stuff.”

“Miss Mysterious. Okay. Whatever.”

Whitney and I were walking back to Splash when she said, “You don’t really have stuff to do tomorrow, do you?”

“So what gave me away? My eyes turned purple?”

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing. But yes, you’re right. I don’t have anything to do tomorrow. I just didn’t want to be a third wheel — again.”

Which meant I’d be a lone wheel. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be that either, but what choice did I have?