Animal Attraction by Jamie Ponti

Author:Jamie Ponti
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse

I’m in my deepest sleep in recent memory. My late-night endurance swim has knocked me out cold, and it feels great. The only problem is that now I’m battling a new nightmare. This time there’s no giant beaver at school. Instead, I’m being tormented by a giant Kendra at my bedside.

“Wake up. It’s the phone.”

I slowly process what she’s saying and realize that it isn’t a dream. It’s the real Kendra.

“What?” I answer. (Actually, I’m sure it comes out more like “whuuu,” but in my head, it started out as “what.”)

“You … have … a … phone … call.”

I wipe some sleep from my eyes and try to focus on her, the clock, anything. It’s useless. Then, just as I’m about to ignore her and go back to sleep, I hear four magic words.

“Some guy named Alex.”

That wakes me up faster than five venti cappuccinos.

“Alex?”

I snatch the cordless right out of her hand and quickly cover the mouthpiece. Still a little disoriented, I try to get my bearings. I have one key question for her.

“Do I look okay?”

“It’s the phone, Einstein. You look like a supermodel.”

“Right,” I say. “Now get out.”

She shakes her head and leaves the room. I take a deep breath and try my best to sound coherent.

“Hello.”

“Jane? This is Alex—Alex Walker—from swim lessons. I hope I didn’t wake you up.”

“Are you kidding?” I say. “I’ve been up for hours.”

Suddenly, I wonder how he got my phone number. I never gave it to him. He had to look it up. Good sign.

“I know we don’t have a lesson scheduled for today, but I wanted to talk to you.”

“Sure,” I say. “What’s up? Is something wrong?”

“About yesterday, with my stepmother … she’s so pathetic. … And that whole ‘dawg’ thing when you drove off … I don’t know where that came from…. I’m just really embarrassed.”

“It was pretty bad,” I answer truthfully. “But you don’t have to apologize for it.”

There’s a long silence on the other end. “The thing is … I wanted to talk to you about something … but I couldn’t do it. Not with her … hanging out by the pool.”

“Sure, what’s up?”

There’s a long pause.

“I was wondering if you’d like to go out … you know … with me … tonight.”

For a second I can’t even breathe. Everything stands still, and there’s total quiet except for a songbird outside my window.

“That’s not against some YMCA rule, is it? For you to go on a date with someone you’re teaching.”

If so, then I’m quitting the Y. Of course, so far, I’ve only taught preschoolers and elementary kids. So it hasn’t really come up.

“No. There’s no rule. That I know of.”

“Great,” he says. “So, would you like to go?”

Suddenly it dawns on me that I haven’t answered him yet. It’s way too early for Bikini Jane cool, so I just blurt it out.

“Are you kidding?! I mean … well, I mean … of course. I’d love to.”

There’s a brief pause on the other side, and I worry that my eagerness has scared him off.

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