Love Storm (49 page)

He held his hands up in a sign of surrender, saying cautiously, "Now Winter, don't get mad yet –"

"Too late," I cut him off icily, tensing up and stepping away.

"Oh, come
on
," Zack said, "Look, this isn't the best place to discuss –"

"You're right, we should be back in class," I said quietly, interrupting him again. And I turned around and headed back to Calculus class.

Chapter 31: Two Encounters

-Winter-

It's disgusting how shallow some people are.

Really.

And it's even more amazing how a sudden reappearance of a hot guy makes some sluts go absolutely crazy.

I caught glimpses of Zack for the rest of the day, though he wasn't in any more of my classes, and every single time, there was someone talking to him – either one of the "popular kids" or, even worse, some random ditzy girl who hung onto his every word and giggled like what he said was the funniest thing
ever
. Right.

Needless to say, by the time sixth period rolled around, I was
not
a proverbial happy camper.

"What's got you so down?" Rebecca asked me as we headed into the gym together. For the first day of school, all sixth period athletes were to report to the foyer to meet with their coaches. Practices would begin the following day.

"Nothing," I mumbled.

"Oh, come on," she said gently. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong, Becca," I said firmly as I held open the door for her. Come to think of it, why
was
I so in a funk? It wasn't like I should care at all who was hitting on Zack or who wanted to become new friends with him. He was free to associate himself with whoever he wanted to. Therefore my answer of "nothing is wrong" was completely correct.

"Okay…" she trailed off.

I guess I wasn't the only one who didn't believe it.

We made our way to the bleachers and sat with Coach Burling. The gym slowly filled up as Rebecca chatted with our teammates. I sat silently, giving half-hearted smiles to people when it was required. I glanced around the gym at the rest of the fall sports teams. Martin, a senior this year, was on the other side of the basketball courts with the rest of the football team, and his coach's booming voice was already making announcements and the typical start of the season speech. Water-polo was off in another corner, as were volleyball and cross country. Hey, come to think of it, Gavin was doing cross country this year.

I started and took another look at the team. There was someone very familiar sitting among their ranks, listening to Coach Tuft speaking, and it wasn't Gavin.

God, he just couldn't stop popping up everywhere, could he? Why was it that we had been in the close vicinity of each other the
whole fricking day
?

Off on another tangent: Zack? Doing cross country?

…Okay, so maybe it wasn't that unbelievable. But still, he had never struck me as the type to be up for team sports. He was more an individual kind of person. Maybe running was essentially an individual sport anyway.

"Alright ladies," Coach Burling said, clapping his hands. Rebecca and I shared a look, and when she rolled her eyes just slightly I grinned.

Coach Burling looked at her severely. Apparently our little childish exchange had not escaped him. "I can already tell that our team this year is going to be one of the best Branner High has ever had. We have some very talented returning players –" He made a general hand gesture in the direction of Rebecca, me, and a few of our other older players, "– and some promising new players as well. I want us all to make some introductions before we start. Becoming a team is the first step to having a successful season. Tennis may be an individual sport at times, like when you enter a tournament, but here at the high school level we are playing
together
– we can't win as a team unless everyone works hard and does their part. It isn't fair to make some players haul the whole load, winning their own matches, while others just say, 'Well it's okay, they have us covered; I don't
have
to win.' You know? So, let's start with some introductions."

He looked at me very pointedly. I gave him a saccharine smile, pretending that I didn't know what he wanted.

"Winter, let's start with you," he said flatly after realizing I wasn't going to start talking. "Name, grade, years on the team, singles or doubles."

Ugh, I hate making group introductions. I cleared my throat slightly. "Okay, uh…my name is Winter Bruin," I addressed the freshmen and the one or two new sophomores that had joined this year. "I'm a junior this year, and I've played since freshman year. Last year I played varsity doubles, and sometimes dropped down to play singles for the JV team when they needed an extra player. I prefer playing doubles, but I guess a singles game here and there doesn't hurt. And…Rebecca over there is my partner." I pointed at said partner, who shook her head slightly, chuckling. "You next, my dear."

"Okay,
we-ell
," Rebecca said, drawing out the syllable to annoy Coach Burling, who liked fast introductions. "My name's Rebecca, as Winter has already mentioned. I'm also a junior, I've also played since freshman year, and Winter and I have nearly always been partners. Like she said, we played varsity doubles. I guess playing doubles isn't too bad, especially when you have the almighty, totally awesome Winter Bruin as your partner." She fluttered her lashes at me, and I hit her on the shoulder good-naturedly. "See what torture I have to go through every year?" Rebecca complained to Coach Burling, who scowled at our antics. "Okay, okay, I'll hurry up, jeez," she muttered. "Yeah, and that's about it. Do I get to pick the next person? Mariko, you're up."

As Mariko, a short Japanese girl on our team, started talking, I found my attention wandering. Against my own will my eyes strayed to the cross country team over and over again.

Damn, Zack looked good. It was so hard to be mad at him when he was looking that attractive. How did he
do
it? He looked nice simply
sitting
there quietly as his coach talked. Once, he turned his head just slightly and our gazes locked. Embarrassed to be discovered staring, I looked down and refocused my attention on the other girls as they made their introductions, ranting inside my head. Stupid, stupid,
stupid
. I could feel my cheeks growing warm.

"Winter," Rebecca hissed a few minutes later, when Burling was preaching his no-pants-shorts-and-skirts-only-or-else-you-will-be-punished-with-liners-and-all-sorts-of-other-nasty-drills doctrine.

"Huh?" I mumbled.

"There's a guy staring at you," she whispered in a sing-song voice.

I scoffed. "Right," I said, rubbing my thumb along the edge of the metal bleacher. This was so boring. I rapped a rhythm on the bleacher with my knuckles.

"I'm not joking," she replied. "It's a guy on the other side of the gym. He's kinda cute. Actually, he's more than kinda cute. He's pretty darn hot."

"What sport is he in?" I whispered back, the rhythm of my taps growing faster.

"Uh…" In a very conspicuous manner, she looked over her shoulder. "Cross country, methinks."

"Right," I muttered again, a funny feeling making itself known in my stomach.

"I told you, I'm not joking," Rebecca repeated, "He's got dark curly hair and the coolest eyes. They're like…I dunno, they're kind of metallic, almost. Gosh, Nate's the hottest guy I've ever met, but I wouldn't mind having a boyfriend with
those
kinds of looks either."

I grinned; I couldn't help it. "Becks, you'd go out with anyone who had a pretty face."

"Hey," she said, obviously offended. "Anyway…" She was still looking over her. "You know…" I glanced at her – she was frowning slightly. "He looks kind of familiar. Hey," she said, suddenly enlightened. "
Dude
."

"What?" I faked disinterest.

"Oh my god.
Dude
, it's...what's his name!
Crowne
! Zackary Crowne! Do you remember him, Winter?!" she asked excitedly. "He left last year during second semester. Moved, or something, remember that, Win? He was in my Spanish class! Just take a look at him. He's
still
staring at you. Oh my god, it's Zack Crowne. What the heck? Winter,
look
."

"I'll pass, thanks," I muttered. Hell no. I wasn't going to look again and give Zack the satisfaction of knowing I had turned to look at
him
.

-Zack-

As soon as Coach Tuft dismissed us, I bolted. I had to get out of that gym as soon as possible – the girls tennis team had dispersed only a minute before.

My backpack swinging crazily from one shoulder, I clattered down the bleachers and raced into the hall, looking both ways –
there
. There she was, at the end of the hall, looking at the trophies and pictures in the Branner High Athletics Hall of Fame glass display case; she hadn't changed a bit, still wearing those cute jeans with that old green t-shirt that I liked. Her name was on the tip of my tongue, but someone beat me to it.

"Winter!" a masculine voice from behind me called out.

She turned at the sound of her name, eyes connecting with mine first. It was probably only for a second, but to me it felt like time had stopped in that one instant. We were frozen in a moment that would have been perfect if I had called out her name first, if she would just smile at me and tell me it was good to see me again, if I could touch her hand lightly with mine and ask her if she wanted to hang out just because – when really the reason was because I felt like I would explode with impatience at being this close to her, yet still so far away. Sadly, it's very rare that anything is
that
perfect.

Her gaze shifted to someone behind me, and I turned as well. A guy I recognized as one of my new teammates on the cross country team was making his way past me and towards Winter. Instantly, jealousy flamed up inside me.

"Gavin, what are you doing here?" The words seemed to slip automatically out of her lips as he approached her. She shifted her weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other, glancing back at me.

Alright. Now I could put a name with that face. Better watch your back
Gavin
, cross country is just about to get a whole lot more competitive for ya.

"Cross country. Remember I told you I was running cross country this year because we had so much fun last spring on track?" he said. "Whatcha lookin' at?"

She raised her chin a fraction and jerked her head in the direction of the display case in a motion that I recognized and knew as one that was distinctly hers. "Just the hall of fame thing," she said softly. "Tristan got a whole bunch of awards last year. I like seeing his name on the trophies." Once again her eyes strayed back to mine. All I could do was stand there, rooted to the spot, mind racing along at a pace that I could barely keep up with. Were they friends?
More
than friends? Not possible; she would have written about him if they were. But wait, maybe she had met him after we had stopped exchanging letters. A dangerous mix of guilt, anger, and envy ripped through me, and gave me a sudden energy boost that allowed me to walk down the hall towards them.

Winter's eyes were already on me before I even started walking, and a second later Gavin realized she wasn't paying attention to what he was saying, and also turned to look at me.

"Hey," I said nonchalantly.

"Hi Zack," Winter said. I had to give her mad, mad props for looking so cool and collected. This girl had it together. "Have you two met? You're both doing cross country, right? Zack, this giraffe of a clown –" she punched him on the arm, "– is Gavin. Gav, this is Zack. He's my…old friend. He just moved back from Italy."

Gavin nodded at me with a pleasant grin. "Nice to meet you."

"Yeah," I said, trying very hard not to glare at him.

"Italy, huh? Really? That's pretty cool. Were you attending school there or something?" he asked interestedly. "Hey, I think I remember you. You were in my biology class freshmen year, weren't you?"

"Yeah, I think so," I said, just for the sake of agreeing, because I really didn't remember nor care to remember. "Yeah, I was attending a school over there. Didn't like it, so I came back." I glanced at Winter and held her gaze for a second before looking back up to Gavin, who was at least five or six inches taller than my 5'11". Winter wasn't kidding. He really was a giraffe.

"I see," Gavin said with a cheerful smile. "Well I'm glad we've been introduced. Ready for the cross country season?"

"Definitely," I smirked.

He looked confused for a second, then said, "Okay. Well look, I gotta go, but it was cool meeting you, Zack. I'll probably see you tomorrow at practice."

I nodded. Yes. Bring it on, Gavin. I'm ready to
burn
you.

"And you," he said, turning to Winter, resting a hand on her arm. I was bristling inside – hands to yourself, asshole. "I'll see you tomorrow. I will call you tonight – I have a favor to ask of you."