Don't Bet On Love Read Online Free Page A

think how long it might have been there.
    “ Yuck! No wonder he keeps the door closed, ” I said, wrinkling my nose in disgust. “ If the health department knew about this place, they’d condemn it! ”
    “ Are you sure there’s a basketball hiding in h ere? ” Gary asked, peering at the mess.
    I shru gged. “ There’s only one way to find out. I’ll check the closet, and you look under the bed. ”
    As Gary knelt on the floor beside the bed, I gingerly picked my way across the room and opened the closet door. A tennis racket and a baseball mitt tumbled down from an upper shelf, narrowly missing my head. I was just about to push back the row of shirts hanging from the rod, when a sharp cry of pain came from beneath the bed.
    “ Owww! ”
    “ Gary! ” I cried, whirling about in alarm. “ What happened? ”
    A moment later Gary’s head emerged, dusty but intact. “ I think something bit me, ” he said, grinning wickedly.
    I snatched up the baseball mitt and threw it at him. “ You scared me half to death! ” I scolded, laughing.
    “ I did find the ball, though, ” he said, reaching under the bed and drawing it out.
    “ Great! Let’s leave this pigsty and get started! ”
    Gary followed me back down the stairs and out the door to the basketball hoop mounted on the front of the garage, where he'd often played with Mark and their friends.
    “ I still don’t see what basketball has to do with talking to Colette, ” he said.
    “ They’re not so different, really, ” I told him. “ A conversation is like throwing a ball back and forth. You say something to her, she says something back to you, and so on and so forth. ”
    “ Like a passing drill? ” Gary nodded in un derstanding. “ I think I'm beginning to catch on. ”
    “ All right, ” I said, bouncing the ball once or twice. “ Think back to what happened this morning. What was your biggest mistake? ”
    “ Making a first-class fool of myself, ” Gary replied without hesitation.
    I shook my head.
    Gary looked seriously alarmed. “ You mean I did some thing wo rse ? ”
    “Well, yes, i n a way. Your biggest mistake was asking a yes-or-no question. ”
    “ That’s bad? ”
    “ It i s when you want to start a conversation. You ask the question. Colette says yes or no, and then she leaves. You have to ask her something that requires more than a one-word answer. Make her talk to you! ”
    “ Or else she'll take her ball and go home, ” Gary said with a grin.
    “ Exactly! Now, let’s t r y it, ” I said, tossing him the basketball, “ I ’ll be Colette, and you start a conversation with me. ”
    “ Okay. ” Gary dribbled the ball a couple of times, then tossed it back to me. “ What do you think of Mrs. Adamson’s history class? ”
    “ It's okay, I guess. Her lectures are kind of boring, though, ” I answered, throwing the ball to him.
    “ Yeah, but she’s easier than Mr. Overton—at least, that's what I’ve heard. ” He threw the ball to me.
    “ I've heard that, too, but I find it hard to believe. What are you going to do your term paper on? ” I asked, heaving the ball at him.
    “ I haven't decided yet. What about you? ”
    “ Me neither, ” I answered, catching the basketball as it came back.
    As we kept tossing the ball back and forth, the questions and answers got sillier and sil lier, but I could tell Gary was feeling more at ease with the whole idea.
    “ Want to go to the prom with me, Colette? ” Gary asked at last, firing the ball in my direction.
    “ Love to, ” I answered, and hurled the ball back to him.
    “ Great! Pick you up at seven, ” he said, and shot the ball over my head at the goal behind me. It bounced once on the rim, then fell in.
    “ You did it! ” I shouted triumphantly.
    Gary paused to push his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. “ Yeah, I did, didn’t I? ” he said with a grin, and we both knew he wasn’t talking about making the basket.
    “ See? All you needed was a little