Free 17 First Kisses by Rachael Allen Page A

his every word and gesture for hidden meaning).
    Three weeks into camp, I’m having one of those days where you feel like the luckiest person on the planet. To top it off, I score the game-winning goal at the end of the scrimmage.Could today get any better? I collapse in the warm grass on the sideline and roll around like a puppy. It is the perfect day! I yank off my cleats and grab my flip-flops from my bag.
    Underneath them is a small, folded-up piece of notebook paper that I know wasn’t in there before. Alex smiles at me from across the field, and chill bumps pop up all over my forearms even though I’m still soaked with sweat from the game. I open the note.
    Meet me at your cabin after everyone else goes to dinner.
    I read the words again and again to make sure they’re real. Then I tear off down the path to the girls’ cabins so I can make first shower. Alex Martinez! I have so much to do. The other girls will just die when I tell them. But I’ll have to save the news until after. I can’t risk one of them giving me away.
    I bound up the rickety wooden steps and drag my suitcase out from under my bed. The bottom is littered with all the things I didn’t think I would need until the end-of-camp dance: mascara, a blow-dryer, pear-scented body lotion, the one dress and one skirt I brought. But if I use any of this stuff, my bunkmates will know something is up. Girls’ voices start funneling in through the screen door, so I run to the shower and yank the plastic curtain closed.
    By the time I finish showering, the room is a frenzy of getting ready. No one cares when I pull on soccer shorts and a T-shirt.No one notices when I wad the makeup and lotion into my towel and step outside. I hop the porch railing and tiptoe behind the bushes lining the side of the cabin. The girls inside jabber on about everything from today’s scrimmages to boys to whether we’ll get ice-cream sandwiches at dinner tonight. I crouch underneath the window and apply my lotion and makeup. The tiniest bit of mascara and lip gloss is all I’m brave enough to use without a real mirror and Amberly’s help.
    Even at soccer camp, girls make getting ready a huge ordeal. My muscles ache from being curled up like this. It’s Lindsey who’s taking forever. If I pull a hammy two days before the tournament because she’s taking an hour trying to make her pores look smaller, I’m going to punch her in the face tomorrow. After what seems like an eternity, I hear the last girls leave. I count to one hundred and then hobble around to the front door, rubbing my legs as I go.
    I try on my dress. Then my skirt. Then my cutest pair of shorts. Then the skirt again. The dress. Shorts. Skirt. Shorts. I finally settle on the shorts because I don’t want to seem like I’m trying too hard, even though I am totally trying my absolute hardest. I’m just shoving everything else back in my suitcase when the door creaks. I nudge my suitcase under the bed with my foot.
    Alex stands in my doorway looking cute as ever in a T-shirt and shorts. He’s nice and bronzed from playing soccer in the sun, and his eyes are the color of chocolate.
    â€œHey,” I say.
    â€œHey.”
    He walks over to the bunk bed and settles beside me on my sleeping bag.
    â€œNice shot today.”
    â€œThanks.”
    I think he wants me to do something, but I realize I’ve never had a boy kiss me before, unless you count that time in second grade. I’ve been doing all the kissing. So I sit back and wait to see what Alex will do. He watches me for a little while, his black hair falling into his eyes. He pushes it back over and over again, a move that frequently sends girls at camp into fits. But he doesn’t speak or move any closer. Hey! I think Alex Martinez is nervous about kissing
me!
Finally, he gulps like a cartoon character and says, “You look pretty.”
    â€œThanks.”
    He goes from zero