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Chapter 6
Max
Icouldn’t believemy good luck.
The only vacant seat was the one next to Taylor Frank. It had to be an omen of some sort, right? First, finding out she was being coached by my brother now gave me an almost direct line to her, and here we were in the van, squished so close our elbows and knees were touching. And better still, Bianca was far away in the back row.
I hadn’t wanted to come on the trip in the first place, but Mr. Dyer, the boys tennis coach, had convinced me that it would be a good idea. You see, I wasn’t even sure I was going to play this year. Phoenix wasn’t back at school yet, and it was 99% certain he wouldn’t play tennis again. I hated that. This year was supposed to have been our year. He’d be number one, I’d be number two, we’d carve up the competition. But now...well, I just didn’t know. Without him, the team wouldn’t be the same.
But now, sitting next to Taylor, I was glad I’d come.
“You excited for this trip?” I asked Taylor, overlooking the fact that she hadn’t returned my greeting, or even acknowledged my presence.
She nodded with tightly pressed lips and seemed to be holding her breath. I discreetly turned my head toward my armpit, wondering if I didn’t smell the best. Before coming here, I’d dashed around to Fox Avenue to do the planting, afraid that the shrubs and flower pots were going to die in the back of the truck. I’d knocked on the door to wash my hands afterward, but nobody had been home, and consequently my fingernails were full of dirt. From Taylor’s reaction, I feared the smell of compost had seeped into my skin. Obviously dousing myself in deodorant spray had failed to do its job. My only hope now was that we were indeed going on a river trip as Mr. Dyer had hinted. I might have to conveniently fall in the river.
Mrs. Stephens switched on the microphone and did the welcoming spiel. Yes, we were driving up river over on the River Valley side. We would be hiring kayaks and paddling to Landers Point to have a picnic lunch and do a few activities. She said the word ‘exciting’ about twenty times. In the meantime, she wanted us to think about our first team bonding activity which would be Two Truths and A Lie, and for a twist at least one thing had to be related to tennis. There was a collective groan, but Mrs. Stephens wasn’t rattled and reiterated how exciting it would be.
“Sounds fun, huh?” I joked, nudging Taylor.
“I hate these kinds of things,” she mumbled, her frown fixed. “I can never think of anything.”
“Well, you kind of have an advantage because you’re new.”
“How is that an advantage?” She seemed annoyed by my comment.
“Uh, well, you know, no one knows you, so it should be easy. You could say anything.” She rolled her eyes as if there was no logic to what I’d said. But I was unfazed. “I know, tell me a few things about yourself, for practice.”
Taylor’s sideways glance signaled that she thought it was weird, but I kept my cool. “Go on. Fun fact number one?”
“Only if you reciprocate,” was her terse reply, but I detected a glint of softening in her eyes. Either that, or the sun was shining directly through the window.
“I’ll reciprocate,” I said with a confident grin.
“I play tennis,” she said dryly.
“Ha ha. I play tennis, too. Have since I was seven.”
“I was six.”
“Uh, I broke my arm once, when I fell down from the umpire’s chair,” I said.
“You were umpiring?” She seemed impressed.
“No, I was watching my brother play. I was nine. Or ten.”
