She looked my way with a disheveled face, almost as if she had just noticed that I was still there. But then, without a word, she sauntered off into the hallway. I watched her disappear behind the glass-paned doors, and then I quickly reached for the volleyball and scooped it up. I turned it over. It was her ball all right. Her name was etched in its stretched material in black, permanent marker, right above her volleyball number. I spun it around in my hands as my eyes darted toward the glass-paned doors again. Then, my mind in auto pilot, I scanned the room, thinking. I saw bleachers, some exercise machines and a couple of wooden blocks — none of which would work. I let my head fall back in desperation. And then I saw it — the rafters high above me. There was already a ball stuck up there, and this one would give it some company. I took the volleyball in one hand and arched it behind my head. Then, I lobbed it up into the air. It hit a beam in the rafters and came colliding back to the hardwood floor. The ball bounced only once before I scurried over to it, scooped it up and glanced again toward the doors. There was still no sign of her. I retook my place and tried it once more. This time, the ball hit the inside of one of the beams, slightly knocked the other ball and then wedged itself in between the ball already there and the beam. Success.
“Will,” a voice suddenly called out from behind me, causing my body to stiffen.
I turned quickly on my heels to Rachel standing there, staring at me. She had a questioning look plastered across her face, and I couldn’t tell what she was questioning exactly — why I was throwing a ball into the rafters or why I was standing there alone staring at the rafters. What had she seen?
“Hi, Rach,” I stuttered.
She squinted her eyes, as if she were shaking off a thought.
“Have you seen Julia?” she eventually asked.
I thought about her question for a second. If Rachel were to find Julia, she might tell Jules what I had just done — if she had, in fact, seen what I had just done — and then I’d be busted. Or she could end up chauffeuring Jules off somewhere to look at shoes or a furry caterpillar or something until Julia forgot about her ball and had to go see Jeff. And then I would have thrown that dumb ball up in the rafters for nothing.
“Uh-uh, nope, haven’t seen her,” I said, being careful not to look her in the eyes until after I was done lying.
She stared at me with a suspicious glare.
“O-kay,” she said, her eyes burning a hole straight through my forehead. “Well, if you do, tell her I’m looking for her.”
“Will do,” I said.
Then, I smiled at her and casually strolled back toward the stage.
When I reached the base of the stage, I turned and glanced back at the doorway that Rachel had just been standing in, staring at me with her cat eyes. She was gone. I let out a sigh of relief.
“It’s not out there either,” I heard Julia say.
I quickly turned my attention to the other side of the gym.
“Here,” I said, holding out my phone. “Call Jeff. Tell him that you can’t help him tonight, and we’ll search the whole school for your ball. The first forty-eight hours are the most critical.”
She gave me a wary look. Then, she glanced at the phone and then back up at me. She was clearly agitated. But I couldn’t tell if it was because of me or because of the fact that she couldn’t find her ball. She had better not be upset that she couldn’t help Jeff. That little…
She snatched the phone out of my hand.
“Number four,” I said.
“What?” she asked.
“He’s number four on speed dial,” I said.
She pressed a key and then brought the phone to her ear. After a couple of rings, I heard Jeff pick up. He loudly called her a toolbag, and I cringed.
Julia glanced up at me and rolled her eyes.
“Jeff,” she said. “This is Julia.”
I heard Jeff verbally recoil and apologetically take back his greeting.
“It’s fine,” she said, smiling. “Jeff, I’m calling because I can’t make it tonight. The test isn’t for a couple of weeks. Can we maybe get together sometime later this week?”
I heard his voice through the phone’s speakers when she finished talking, but I couldn’t quite make out what he was saying.
“No, I’m up at school,” she said. “I borrowed Will’s phone.”
Her explanation made me smile. I quickly cleared my throat and wiped the smirk off my face.
She ended the call a moment later and handed the phone back to me.
“Thanks,” she said. “You’ll help me look for it?”
Ugh, her eyes were doing this soft pleading thing, and it was taking everything in me not to pull her close.
“Of course,” I managed to say without sounding too eager. “It would be my pleasure.”
“It’s not back here,” I heard her say.
I could hear the frustration in her voice.
“No one would take it, right?” she asked.
“No, no one would take it,” I said. “It’s here somewhere. Let’s go look down the hall. Maybe it rolled down there or something.”
I watched her take a deep breath and then sigh.
“Okay,” she eventually agreed.
I smiled and waited until she was by my side to start toward the hallway and to ask her my question.
She eventually caught up, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to ask.
“So, what’s your answer?” I blurted out.
My words had come out kind of sheepish. I cleared my throat and concentrated on producing something in a lower octave and a little less Bo Peep.
“What answer?” she quipped back.
“The note I gave you before history class,” I said, hoping it would jog her memory.
“Aah,” she said, smiling. “That answer.”
I watched her peek under a table near the office and then keep walking.
“Well?” I asked again.
She stopped and squared up to me. She looked as if she were really thinking hard about it.
“No,” she finally said and then started walking again.
I hesitated for a second but then caught back up to her.
“Now, have you really thought this through?” I asked her. “You can take some time if you need it. Tell me tomorrow or the next day or the next day or any day when the answer is yes.”
“I don’t need time,” she said.
I stopped and smiled.
“You do realize it’s only a date?” I asked. “If you said yes, you wouldn’t be locked into anything.”
She turned her face up at me and smiled.
“It’s not so easy hearing no, is it?” she asked.
I paused and tried to hold back my grin.
“Julia, Jules,” I said, as if I were a used-car salesman. “Jules, look, no rocks this time,” I said, showing her my open palms and then the inside of my jeans pockets. “No big, rubber balls. I’ll even let you drive my truck.”
I held out my keys.
She looked at me sideways and sympathetically smiled, as if I were the weird kid who was completely oblivious to his social status.
My own smile grew, and I took her silent cue, as I watched her sympathetic grin fade into her new smile — the one that I already loved. I remembered it being that cute, girly kind of smile — that smile that made you wonder why you despised girls so much just the year before. But now, it was sexy too. It was girly and sexy, all at the same time. Damn it, she was too darn cute not to smile back at her, even when she was saying no. And maybe it wouldn’t be now, but I would eventually wear her down. Everyone has a breaking point. Retreat. Replenish. Conquer. I smiled wider.
“So, Ben’s having a bonfire next weekend,” I said.
“So I’ve heard,” she said.