Free Playing the Field by Janette Rallison Page B

would a girl on crutches be if you asked her if she
wanted to walk to the movies with you? Having your parents drive
you would be almost as bad. It was hard enough to talk to a girl.
It would be impossible to do while your parents listened in from
the front seat of the family car. I could just imagine the comments
I’d get from my parents. As we got out at the movie theater, they’d
say: “You didn’t forget your money, did you, McKay?” or “Remember,
a gentleman always holds the door open for his date,” or worse yet,
“Be sure you go to the bathroom before the movie starts.” It would
be awful. I just knew it.
    Besides, my parents didn’t want me to date
until I was sixteen. And really, that seemed like the best time to
me. At sixteen I’d have my own driver’s license and a summer job.
That would mean I could actually take a girl out to dinner. Right
now, with only my allowance money to depend on, we’d only be able
to go to the nearest vending machine.
    Tony shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I
just thought it would be fun if we all did something together.
Maybe we could go somewhere and hang out.”
    “Serena’s knee is hurt. She can only hang out
on her couch.”
    “Oh, that’s right,” Tony seemed a bit
disappointed. “I guess she won’t be much fun for a while. Maybe
I’ll just ask Rachel to do something.”
    Tony didn’t bring up the subject again after
that, and we both went to our first class. I didn’t usually see him
again until it was time to go to algebra class. I waited for him by
my locker like I always did, but today he didn’t show up. Finally I
walked over to Mrs. Swenson’s room by myself.
    That’s when I saw him outside the math class
talking with Rachel. I don’t know why she was there because she had
English this period, and it was in a different hallway
altogether—well, actually I do know why she was there. It was
obvious she was there to flirt with Tony, and she was doing a good
job of it. She held onto one end of a novel and Tony held onto the
other.
    “It’s my book now,” he said.
    “Oh no it’s not,” she answered back in a
syrupy teasing voice.
    “Oh, yes, it is,” he said in the same tone,
and they went on this way for a few moments fighting over who would
hold the book.
    When Tony looked up and saw me, he let go of
the novel and talked in his normal voice again. “Is it time to go
in already?”
    I nearly said, “Oh yes it is.” But instead I
just said, “The bell will ring any second.”
    “I guess I’d better go or I’ll be late,”
Rachel said. We all knew she didn’t have a chance to make it to her
English class on time, but she didn’t seem to be bothered by this
fact. She gave Tony one last wave before she turned and strolled
down the hallway.
    Tony grinned at me, then walked into math
class. As he sauntered over to his desk, I noticed that he’d
finally perfected his cool walk.
    I sat down at my desk, took out my recorder,
and pressed the on button. Of course, I hadn’t counted on Mrs.
Swenson explaining so much of today’s assignment to us by doing
examples on the board. I quickly realized that if the class was
going to make any sense at all to Serena, she would need to know
what Mrs. Swenson was doing, so I kept picking the recorder up and
whispering comments into it. “Mrs. Swenson just wrote seven x over eight equals x plus three-fourths,” I’d say.
“Now she’s miraculously found the common denominator.” I felt like
a sports announcer, and so I did the rest of my commentary in a
sportscaster’s voice. “She’s stepping up to the plate,” I whispered
breathlessly. “Now she’s moved the x to the left side of the
equation. She’s put those bubble things around the left side, she’s
moving fast now, multiplying by twenty-four and dividing by
negative three, and she’s scored! X equals negative six. The
class goes wild!”
    Tony passed me a note, but I was afraid if I
read it I’d miss something important, so I