She's Too Naive

Chapter 3

Rosen was a liar.

He was definitley not underpracticed.

The girls and I found a shady spot under a tree to drink the rest of our slushies and watch the boys play. At first I was chewing on my lip because I was afraid that the guys would just try to beat him and embarrass him, but they played fair. I don't know why I was so worried about Rosen hanging out with my friends considering I barely knew the guy and wasn't trying to impress anyone, but I think a part of me really wanted him to get along with everyone. The guys started off going easy, but eventually got more competitive as the game went on.

"He's really cute," Ara said and I found myself blushing. I guess I hadn't noticed his looks the first time I met him. As he played with the guys I realized just how attractive he was; his brown and rusty colored hair was starting to curl at the ends from the humidity and sweat. I pondered if he had played basketball at his old school, because he was certainly too good to have not played it. His height gave him a perfect advantage and he was a natural. Rosen easily had a few inches on me, and I'm only an average height of 5'5"

"Mmhm," I found myself murmuring in Reply to Ara.

"You guys should totally date," Lynn grinned and I hit her shoulder playfully with a disapproving glance.

"He's only here for the summer. Plus, I barely know him," I replied as I thought about my encounter with the gun last week, but my worry over it was almost nonexistent. He didn't seem like the type of bad boy you read about in books who wore leather jackets and drove motorcycles. He genuinely seemed like a nice guy with a bit of a cocky attitude, but what guy wasn't at least a little bit arrogant.

"So? Just date him for the summer and if you guys are really close then work it out. If not, then so what," I gave Lynn a look that said she should know better.

"I only want to date if I know it will matter. Long distance never turns out well anyway," I said casually. Abby rolled her eyes at us and continued watching the game. She was like me in the sense that she didn't date very often, and she was indifferent to boy troubles.

"We should go play with them," Ara said and jumped up, looking excited. I've played basketball before but the thought of playing it in a dress in this heat wasn't appealing, even if I did have on shorts underneath.

"Uh no way," I said as the other girls started getting up, looking more excited as they thought about it.

"Aw come on El," Lynn whined. "Here, I have an extra shirt," She dug around in her bag until she pulled out a tank top. I sighed and then motioned for them to cover me while I put the top on over my dress and struggled to take off the dress underneath. One of the guys whistled even though it wasn't like they could see anything. Abby flipped him the finger.

"Shut up," I said jokingly and looked up to find all the guys staring at us, including Rosen. I felt my cheeks redden and not from the heat. I managed to get off the dress so I was just wearing the tank top and shorts. Well the shorts were actually spandex shorts, but it didn't matter because volleyball players wear just that all the time.

We all joined the guys on the court and split up into teams. I was on the opposite team as Rosen.

My team started out with the ball and we played around for a while. At one point Tristan ran up to me and grabbed my waist to lift me so I could touch the rim of the hoop easily. We've done it before so I knew he wouldn't drop me as, with his help, I sat on his shoulders. Ara passed him the ball which he passed up to me and I easily put it in the hoop.

"We win!" I cried, throwing my hands up into the air in victory. Tristan hooted in triumph, glad to have something to rub into the other boys faces.