Playing With Fire by Francine Pascal

Author:Francine Pascal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Eight

EYES AND EARS

The halls are buzzing with the news of a hot and heavy thing going on between Lila F. and a certain blond football player. Chalk up one more for Lila.… Three cheers for Lois W.! John P. showed up at her party. Guess sometimes dreams do come true.… Bill C.’s found another surf bunny.… Enid R.’s packing up her suitcases for another weekend visit with G.W.—fourth in a row, but who’s counting? … Cara W. has her eye on a basketball-playing senior. Maybe she can get him interested in something besides dribbling!… Danger: Toni J.’s now on the roads. Pedestrians beware.…

Elizabeth sighed with despair after giving her latest column for The Oracle a final read. It seemed to her that it lacked its usual punch. Had her writing gone stale? she wondered. No, the breezy copy was as fast-paced and readable as always. There were plenty of tidbits on all the leading couples in school. All but one. And that, she realized, was where the trouble lay.

Elizabeth had left out the most talked-about duo in school, Jessica and Bruce. Not that there hadn’t been anything to write about, she admitted grudgingly to herself. In the two weeks they had been dating, the two had been nearly inseparable around campus, sharing lunches and study periods, frequently cutting classes to sneak some loving moments in the alley behind the school cafeteria: Jessica devotedly went to every single one of Bruce’s tennis practices, watching his every shot with adoring eyes. She even ran after his tennis balls as if performing a sacred duty. She spent almost every night with him as well, and when she didn’t she kept a vigil by the phone, just in case he had a sudden change in plans.

During dinner the night before, Jessica had given everyone a replay of a practice game between Bruce and another player on the team. “He sounds quite good, Jessica,” her father had commented. “But has he been able to beat you, yet?”

“Oh, we don’t play against each other.”

Ned and Alice Wakefield exchanged puzzled looks. “You mean you play doubles together?” Mr. Wakefield had asked.

“No.”

“Then what?”

“I just watch,” she’d declared matter-of-factly—as if it were perfectly normal for the Wakefield family’s best tennis player to sit on the sidelines voluntarily.

Her father had stared at her incredulously. “But why, Jess? You love to play.”

With that now familiar dreamlike look in her eyes, Jessica had said, “I’d rather watch him, Daddy. He looks so beautiful on the courts.”

Mr. Wakefield had smiled at his daughter’s romantic vision, while his wife had given Elizabeth a worried look.

“Didn’t you two play a few sets when you first started going out?” Elizabeth had asked pointedly. “I seem to remember you were looking forward to showing him how good you are.”

Jessica had snorted. “That was so juvenile of me. Besides, I could never beat him—he’s very, very good.”

Now, staring at her column, Elizabeth realized that if she had ever complained about the old Jessica, she’d gladly take it all back now.

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