The Sea Taketh (Alex Singer) (5 page)

             
“Is it another sweet girl from Japan?” I ask, remembering a friend I made as a freshman.

             
She begins laughing. “They just showed up. It’s all everyone can talk about. They’re three cousins from Denmark, and they’re hot!”

             
“Maybe Jackson will bother them instead of me.” I relish the thought.

             
Jen laughs again. “They’re boys, seniors, and eye candy, every one.  Girls have been following them through the halls. Just wait until you see them! ” For someone who doesn’t date, Jen seems too excited.

             
I shake my head. “They’re all yours. I’ll stick with my nerd minions. At least they behave like gentlemen.”

Jen shrugs her shoulder, “Just wait until you see them,” she replies as we take a seat on the floor with the rest of the gym class. Coach Jones takes roll.

              “Marsh, Jenifer,” he says halfway through.

             
“Here,” Jen answers.

             
“Pedersen, Sven.”

             
“Here,” says a voice in a lovely foreign accent.

             
Everyone turns around to see the unfamiliar student. On the bleachers sit three extremely huge and handsome guys, and we’re not talking guy-next-door handsome. I don’t even know if handsome is the right word.  They are so very beautiful that I have to force myself to breathe, and I’m totally not into dating anyone. The one who answered is also the largest. He has dark brown hair and a barrel chest. On the other end of the bench is another brown haired beauty. He isn’t as large as Sven, but he’s bigger than any of the other guys in the school. Regardless of how beautiful the first two are, my eyes go straight to the guy in the middle. He has silvery blond hair and bright blue eyes. His skin glows with a healthy tan. He’s muscular like his cousins and undeniably the most handsome guy I have seen ever … even counting television. All the other girls must think the same thing because the entire class stares at him and his cousins. I barely notice that the three are dressed in old fashioned clothes: long pants and stiff sleeves, and wear white dress gloves on their hands.

             
“Pedersen, Christian,” Coach continues to call roll, and everyone continues to unashamedly stare at the new students.

             
“Here,” says the blond boy with a voice is as silvery as his hair.

             
“Pedersen, Henrik,” Coach calls the last exchange student’s name.

             
“Here,” says the other brown-haired teen.

Hypothesis #5 – Jen’s right, t
he Danes are hot!

I tear my eyes from the exchange students. My life is complicated enough. The other girls can fight over them.

              Coach Jones finishes the roll and pulls out the dodge balls. “Sven, Henrik, Christian, and Alex, I would like to speak with you.  The rest of you, let’s play some dodge ball!” He throws the balls in the air and the game begins. I watch Jen in the mix, smacking butt after butt with balls as I walk to Coach.

             
“Boys, I don’t know why you’re in this class,” he says to the Pedersen cousins. “Your doctor’s notes make it very clear you can’t participate in the activities.”

             
“We’re sorry,” says Sven. “We have severe psoriases. All the other electives were full, so they said to take gym until something opens up.”

             
“I’ll talk to the principal after school to see what we can do about getting you into art. For the time being, you can keep score.” He hands them a clipboard.

             
“Yes, Coach Jones.” They return to the bleachers.

             
He turns to me. “Alex, let’s have a look at the hand.” I lift it, and he shakes his head when he sees the length of the scar. “You were lucky you didn’t cut off any of your fingers.”

             
“Yeah, Gramps is still mad,” I say.

             
“He’s not the only one. As you have a couple more days until you can return to practice, you’re on the bench in gym, also.”

             
“But Coach,” I try to complain.

             
“You heard me, Singer.” He points to the bleachers.

             
I angrily cross my arms and take my seat. I watch the dodge ball game in silence, listening to the exchange students jabbering in Danish.

             
“Excuse me,” Sven speaks to me with his beautiful accent. “How do you score dodge ball?  We don’t play this game where we’re from.”

             
I don’t bother to look at them. There is no use in torturing myself. “Dodge ball’s a pointless game to score because if someone’s hits you, you’re out. If someone catches your ball, you’re out. The team that loses is the one with all their players out.”

             
“That is pretty pointless,” one of them laughs. I know it is Christian from his mesmerizing voice.

             
I nod my head but refuse to engage further. I am so not into dating anyone right now. When the shower bell rings, I sprint to the locker room to get changed for my next class.

             
“They are so hot!” Jen exclaims as she showers. “Maybe I’ll offer to teach them English?”

             
“They speak better English than we do,” I say as I change my clothes.

             
“Yeah and their accents are hot!”

             
“Jen, we’ve only got five minutes until the bell rings. Can we save the Dane worship for later?”

             
We have French together for fourth period. Because we’re running late, we quickly take seats in the front row.

             
“Class, we are so fortunate to have fluent French speakers with us this term!” Old Miss Lafayette excitedly claps her wrinkled hands together at the front of the room. “Sven, Henrik, and Christian Pedersen have spoken French since they were very young, and they have agreed to serve as tutors for this class.”

             
Christian stands up. He rambles off a long stream of words in perfect French. Miss Lafayette squeals and claps her hands, again, in sheer delight. “Please translate for the class,” she tells him.

             
“I said that it has been a pleasure to be in Maine where the people are nice, and the scenery is beautiful,” he translates.

Hypothesis # 5 has been upgraded to Theory #3 – The Danes are hot.

Observations – They are tall, muscular, handsome, have sexy accents,
and
speak French.

             
I look up and find him staring at me. His spellbinding blue eyes are locked to mine as the class claps. I quickly turn my head and pull the elastic out of my hair, covering my face with my long locks.

Hypothesis # 6 – I
must avoid the Danes. Refer to Theory #1 – Boys are insane.

             
“Wonderful, absolutely wonderful,” exclaims Miss Lafayette.

             
“Merci, Susana,” Christian says, and everyone would be totally shocked that he just called our teacher by her first name if she weren’t fanning herself with a stack of papers while smiling dreamily at him. She doesn’t bother to correct him.

I endure a torturous class of Miss Lafayette reviewing French with the class, all the while worshiping the French-speaking Danes. When the bell rings, I grab Jen’s arm and escape to lunch, hoping to avoid Jackson, Vanessa, and the Danes.

              “They’re so hot!” Jen gazes over her shoulder as I pull her along. “Maybe I’ll ask Sven out?  Big, handsome Danes are totally my type. ”

             
“You’ll have to get in line,” I put a salad, carton of milk, and apple on my tray. “They probably already have had other offers.”

             
“Do you think so?” she asks.

I prod her shoulder and point to the Pedersens at the end of the lunch line. Vanessa is batting her eyes at them.

              “That vixen!” says Jen as she piles food on her tray. “Just the thought of her touching one of them makes me lose my appetite!”

             
We make our way to our usual table. Our friends are already there.

             
“Alex, Jen, we saved places for you.” Kyle pulls out our chairs for us.

             
“Kyle, you’re a lifesaver.” Jen pats his pocket protector as she sits.

             
“What have you been doing all summer?” Dan asks us.

             
“Swimming,” I answer, picking at my salad. “How was space camp?”

             
“Awesome! It was worth all the lawns I mowed. I’m saving up my money to go again next year with Kyle. You’ll have to get online to see our slideshow.”

             
“We’ll have to,” Jen says before stuffing her face with cheeseburger.

             
“When’s your first meet?” Kyle asks.

             
“Next week,” I open my milk. “I hope we can count on you guys to be our cheering section?”

             
“We’ve never missed a meet, and we’re not going to start now.” Dan pushes his glasses up his nose as he smiles.

             
“I hope you guys don’t mind, but I’d like to speak with Alex…privately.” Jackson sneaks up on me.

             
“Go jump in the ocean,” Jen says, spitting some of her burger. “We’re eating lunch here.”

             
“Just for a moment,” Jackson sits at the table, not giving anyone the choice.

             
“Sure, Jackson,” Kyle and Dan pick up their trays. They’re used to being bossed around by him.

             
“No, you guys stay and eat your lunch, I’ll leave.” I stand up. “I’m not very hungry anyway.”

             
I follow Jackson into the hallway.

             
“Alex, about yesterday,” Jackson begins. “I’m sorry if it looked as though I was being nosy. I’m just worried about your welfare.”

             
“My welfare? I don’t appreciate you coming to my home and yelling at my grandpa.” I cross my arms.

             
“I made a mistake. Let me make it up to you. My family is having some friends for dinner on Friday. Come join us.”

             
“I can’t. I have to train for the meet, and I’ve been assigned a ton of homework for Monday.”

             
“It will only be for a couple hours.”

“I’m sorry. I’ve got a lot going on right now.” I try to walk past him, but he bars my way.

              “Then you’ll go to dinner with my family after the meet,” he says. “We always go out to celebrate afterward. I’m not going to take ‘no’ for an answer.”

             
“It’s not going to happen.  We’re going to college next year, and I can’t afford any distractions.” I duck under his arm and return to the lunchroom just as the bell rings. Jen hands me my milk and apple.

             
“What did Jackson want?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.

             
“He asked me out for Friday.” I quickly drink some milk. “I told him that I was too busy.”

             
She gives me an understanding nod.

“I’m on my way to English. Since we don’t have any more classes together, I’ll see you after school.” I wipe my mouth with a napkin.

“I’ll meet you at Merlin,” she calls over her shoulder.

Dan and Kyle have saved me a desk in English, and I am happy to sit with them. We talk about the homework in our other classes until the Pedersen cousins walk into the classroom. Christian smiles when he sees me. Sven and Henrik frown. I flip my hair over my face and ignore all three, continuing my conversation with Dan and Kyle.

Mr. White walks into the room and immediately begins handing out the required reading list. I look over it and find I haven’t read any of the books. Any free time I thought I had disappears.

“Have you guys read these?” I whisper to Kyle and Dan.

“Most of them,” Kyle says. “The list was posted on the school website.”

I mentally scold myself for not thinking to check the website. Gramps and I don’t have the internet at home, and I haven’t used the computer at the library all summer. I will have to remedy this. I decide to force Jen to stop on the way home to get a stack of books.

“Let’s go over point of view,” Mr. White says at the front of the class. “We’re going to spend a lot of time discussing the different artistic elements in the literature we read.”

The remainder of class, I struggle to keep up.
Because I haven’t read any of the required books, I didn’t know what Mr. White is talking about when he uses them to exemplify the terms he’s teaching. My shoulders are slumped by the time the bell rings.