Sentence:  Again among those jubilantly reunited bunkmates , I <WSD>was</WSD> shy with Jessie and acted as I had during those early Saturday mornings when we all seemed to be playing for effect , to be detached and unconcerned with the girls who were properly our dates but about whom , later , in the privacy of our bunks , we would think in terms of the most elaborate romance . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)