"Confident, Little Valerie?"
My confidence, which had mostly been competitiveness and bravado, had basically deserted me as soon as Kai had pulled his shirt off to enter the pool. Lizard brain had overridden all rational thought, and the prehistorical and natural urge to pull the rest of his clothes off had reared its traitorous head. Sueing biology itself seemed to be the only solution to my predicament, because dear lord was I attracted to Kai Delaney. Embarrassingly attracted.
There were a lot of games I really wanted to play with them, and none of them involved water dodgeball in a kiddie ball that was most likely ridden with baby pee.
"Girl, get it the fuck together," Aurora said from next to me. She was looking cute in cut-off shorts, a preppy visor and a turquoise bikini top, but despite the casual chic attire, I knew that Aurora was an athletic beast. "I get that your man looks cute or whatever, but I didn't pick you for my team so that you could ogle his abs."
I really wanted to ogle his abs.
"Since when were you competitive?" I asked. Aurora was the kind of lazy-productive that meant she signed up for everything when asked, because she was so good at everything that people begged her to sign up, but seemed so apathetic towards the whole thing that you wanted to punch her a little for being so talented.
"Since Cam told me to share it around," she said, bouncing on the balls of her feet, dodgeball in hand. Cameron Davenport, her best friend, was on Kai's team, and was making faces at Aurora that were probably meant to be intimidating, but were not successfully so. "I want to crush his spirit."
"Atta girl," I said.
Cameron and Aurora were running the novelties, but half the class basically cried at the thought of Cam and Aurora not participating in the novelties, so they'd been (for the first time in their lives, probably) split amongst the two teams and nominated captains.
When Kai and I signed up, Cameron had asked us whether Kai and I wanted to be on the same team, or compete against each other.
"I dunno," Kai had said. "Little V, do you want me to throw dodgeball at you so that you can admire my sexy manly sporting prowess, or do you want me to heroically dive in front of you as someone from the other team piffs it at you so you can admire my sexy manly sacrifice?"
Aurora snorted. "Wow, two great choices. Which font of sexy manliness do you want today, Valerie?"
I picked up the pen and scribbled my name onto one side, and Kai's onto the other. "Sexy manliness my ass, I'm going to crush him."
"If you insist," said Kai, with a sigh. "I'll have you know; I won't be holding back."
I hummed in agreement as I finished the final flourish of the y in Kai's surname. "Good. Then maybe you won't lose by quite so embarrassing a margin."
Aurora grinned. "I want you on my team, Val. I love a little competitive spirit."
"Deal."
Unfortunately, in the face of bare chest and bare abs and the lizard brain successfully assuming a hostile takeover of all my faculties, my competitive spirit was more of a little kitten pitifully meowing with wide hug-me eyes. And like the kitten, I wanted to scratch down Kai's back. You know, in the way that you do with fake boyfriends who have a rockin' bod.
Aurora snapped her fingers in front of my face. "C'mon, Val. Let's go. Kai Delaney's mystical voodoo is not worth your dignity." She looked over to the other end of the pool, where Cameron was deciding which teammates should start with the three dodgeballs based on their general aim and athletic ability. We'd already given two of ours to Aurora, and I was holding the third to pass straight to her once she'd taken their teammates out with her first two. "I mean, not that I don't get it. He's hot shit. And I've seen the intense sexual chemistry y'all got going. But let's focus up."
I shook my shoulders loose and looked momentarily up at the sky, letting blue skies and fluffy clouds resettle the horny brain.
"There you go," said Aurora.
"Why couldn't he be ugly?" I asked the sky.
"Because," said Aurora cheerfully. "It's way more fun to hit a pretty face with a dodgeball."
Cameron, who'd emerged from their team huddle with one dodgeball in hand, touched his cheek with mocking amusement. "Well, I suppose it's a good thing you have shit aim then, Rory. Otherwise, I'd never be safe."
"Eat shit."
Kai, who had also been nominated to hold one of the first dodgeballs, grinned over at me. "Regretting not choosing the sexy manly sacrifice option yet?"
I hummed thoughtfully. "Um, well. Actually. Eat shit."
"Harsh."
Aurora and Cameron looked to Sophie Kincaid, who had offered her adjudication services, and was holding a whistle in one hand and a timer in another. She was looking down at her phone, mostly bored.
"Soph?" Aurora prompted.
Sophie looked up from her phone, frowning. "Oh, were you all done flirting now? Do you want to start?"
"Eat shit, Soph," Cam said.
Sophie grinned. "Okay, ten seconds to start. 9... 8..."
I steadied myself, readying to throw the ball to Aurora for distribution. Even though novelties were a bit of a lark—the event thrown in so that the kids who weren't any good at swimming could still participate—the natural urge to not embarrass yourself at sport had kicked my nerves into overdrive. There was also the fun bonus of my promise to kick Kai's ass, which may have been a tad premature. In actual fact, Aurora was going to kick Kai's ass.
Kai, for his part, didn't seem too nervous. He was languidly throwing his ball from hand to hand, flashing those stupid abs every time the ball crested near his face. I was going to have to bake him brownies every day to fatten him up for the sake of my emotional health.
"4... 3... 2... 1!" Sophie yelled, and chaos erupted.
Cameron's and Kai's balls both went wide, Kai's narrowly missing my hip due to a timely arch of my side, while Aurora quickly picked off one of the participatory stragglers and Andrew Levett, one of the athletic-types, with two well placed throws.
I passed her the extra ball, and bent down to pick Kai's missed shot. "Are you even human? Here, take this."
"Nah," said Aurora, pushing the ball back into my hand. "Shot is all yours. Hit Kai in his stupid sexy face for me."
I took stock of the opposition. There were only two balls on their side. Cameron was diving for one of them, but I didn't mind; he would only try to hit Aurora, anyway. I was safe from him. The other had sailed over the pool area, and Kit Hanson was climbing to fence to retrieve it. Kai was defenceless.
Tentatively, I approached the line dividing the two sides. Kai, standing a cautious distance back, wiggled his fingers in a taunting wave. The stupid grin on his face made me want to smash it in with a ball, not smash him. I wanted to watch him lick his wounds, instead of offering to lick his abs. Aurora would be so proud of me.
"You're really cute when you're mad," Kai told me.
"And you're really cute when you watch parade around with a gold ribbon."
Kai raised an eyebrow. "The evil thing is sexy."
"The losing thing is sexier."
"You're right," said Kai. "And you have all the sex appeal in the world right now."
"Cute," I said. "But I'm the one holding a ball right now."
Kai crooked a finger at me, challenging. His gaze said, try me.
I looked down at his knees, noting the angle of them. Tilted slightly left, as if he were going to jump that way when I threw. I looked at the arrogant lift of his smile. I lifted my arm to throw it just slightly to his left, and his eyes sparkled.
And then, I threw it just slightly right.
The ball clipped his shoulder as he jumped backwards into the line of my throw.
The smile that bloomed across my face was triumphant. "Ha! Take that, Delaney. I will never die!"
"Yeah, okay, Little Valerie. Good one." Kai was smiling a little too, even as he looked disbelievingly at the waterlogged red dodgeball at his feet. "You got me."
"Hell yeah, I did."
Then, at that very moment, Cameron plucked one of Aurora's quick balls from the air; a two-handed catch that made Aurora swear loudly.
Kai looked to the sideline while I revelled in my victory, and I noticed, a few moment too late, that there was no one to come in from the reserves in exchange for Cameron's catch.
Kai was back in the game.
Before I could make a hasty and strategic retreat, Kai had already fished the ball from around his feet and closed the distance between us. I was only just looking back from the sideline toward to game, when the only thing I could see was dark hair and light eyes, too close, dangerously close.
Kai grabbed me around the waist and hoisted me, squirming and breathless, into his arms and over the boundary between the two teams, and I couldn't help the gasp of laughter that erupted from my throat. "Kai!" I squealed.
He squished the dodgeball into the side of my face, the soft material moulding to the curve of my cheek. I wriggled against him, my laugh unbidden, and even though that wide-split smile meant that I could taste the chlorine clinging to the ball, I couldn't help the body-wracking laughter.
"How does victory taste now, huh?" Kai crowed as he rubbed the ball into the wet clumps of hair at the crown of my head.
"You're... a dick..." I was still trying to escape, to allow myself a respite so that I could breathe, when Kai—who was laughing as well, too hard to maintain his balance—toppled into the water, dragging me down with him.
I felt Kai's hands on me, slippery beneath the water, and batted them away as I pushed back to the surface with a gasp. Kai was already floating on his back, rubbing water from his eyes but still laughing, and I splashed him in the face as I staggered to my feet.
"Help me up, Little V?" Kai asked, lazily.
I grinned, picked up the floating dodgeball, and piffed it at his head. It bounced off with a satisfactory thunk. Then I offered him my hand, and when he took it and allowed me to hold just enough of his weight, I dropped it so that he would fall back on his ass. I hadn't noticed the knowing tilt to his smile, and before I knew it, he'd grabbed my wrist. "Kai! Fuck yo—" was all I managed before I was landing atop him with another surprised giggle.
"I told you I'd beat you," said Kai, and there was only a tiny sliver of pool water between us. He pushed waterlogged strands of my hair behind my ear, and I shivered, even though the water wasn't cold.
I held my breath.
Sophie blew her whistle. "Cam's team loses 3 points because Kai and Valerie made me watch their foreplay and I have a moral objection to that."
"Yo, Delaney!" called Cameron. "Are you still playing dodgeball, or was flirting one of the events on the programme today?"
Kai blew out a frustrated breath as I—reluctantly—rolled off him. "I was going for gold, actually, Davenport; I hope you know that you really cost me the medal there."
"Yeah, well, fuck you, dude. I want an actual gold. Rory already has 7, she needs humbling."
Aurora, as if to punctuate his point, threw a well-timed ball at Nate Lever's head that he never had any hope of stopping, and stuck her tongue out at Cameron in crowing victory. This was doubly nice, because Nate Lever was a dick.
Kai huffed out a sigh that was equal parts acquiescence and frustration, and I hoisted myself from the water and trudged to the losers' side, reserved for losers. It was mostly comprised of the kids who were fans of participation, but not particularly athletically gifted. With easy grace, Kai clambered back to his feet and joined Cameron again.
Five minutes later, Cameron, Kai and Alec Bretton teamed up against Aurora; saving all six balls on their side so that she had nothing to defend herself with. It seemed unfair to me, but too their credit, our team was nothing without Aurora. The trio each threw a ball simultaneously, Cam's hitting her squarely in the chest.
I sighed, still on the sideline, as Aurora blew a hair from her face, gave Cam the finger, and trudged from the water to stand beside me.
"Bummer," I said. "You disappointed?"
"Nah," Aurora said, her eyes sparkling. "It was a good bit of fun, right?"
"It was," I agreed.
"Please," she said. "You had fun for a whole different reason."
I grinned. "Yeah, alright." I watched as Cam and Kai deftly took out two of the stragglers that only Aurora's superior dodgeball skills had managed to spare until now. "You sad about losing?"
"I'll just steal Cam's ribbon and put it up in my room, probably." She watched as Cam took out another hoverer. "He'd let me."
"I wish," I said. "Kai will lord his over me forever. He'd never let me take it."
Aurora laughed, a sound that was somehow tinkling, despite her slightly deeper baritone. "Val, that boy will let you do anything," she said. "Did you see yourselves in the water? It was like... you never had that kind of tension with Tommy. You were never... like this."
I frowned. "Like what?"
"You're flirty, in ways that are both adorable and also make me want to punch you a little because I'm so jealous. You're funnier. Happier. You were always nice, but with Kai, you're radiant."
I thought about my loud, easy laughs and the easy way he flirted with me, and I flirted back. Happier, smiling.
Radiant. Yeah.