by Dave Leys
PARTY FOR THE COOLEST PEOPLE – LOSERS NOT INVITED! His mother noticed it and made him pull it down, but he was sure Nessa had seen it.
All the kids from the suburb came, and it was just fantastic. Louie did mad flips off the end into the deep part, Suzie and Simon were seen kissing by the fence, there were underwater races, diving competitions and Marco Polo games. Kids were coming up to Adam and shaking his hand, telling him he had ‘such an excellent pool’ and that they thought he was a really good swimmer. There was shouting, screaming, water fights, it went on all day. Every so often Adam would peek over the fence and once or twice he noticed Nessa standing at her window looking wistfully at the party. He’d wave to her and do a backwards somersault into the pool.
When the party ended and everyone started to move off home, Adam could be heard telling them all in a very loud voice that drifted over the fence they were all welcome back any time.
It quickly became a weekend ritual. Adam would put out the word around the suburb that there was going to be a mad pool party at his place, and kids would come by on bikes, scooters, roller blades, bringing pool ponies and bags of chips and sunglasses as big as their heads.
One day after school Adam was sunning himself on the deck next to the pool, just dipping his hand in to feel the chill of the water, when he heard what sounded like drilling from next door. Curious, he walked to the fence and put his head over. There were two men with jackhammers pounding away at rocks in the backyard. The earth had been dug up and heaped into piles. Nessa was standing wearing an Ipod watching them from the back door.
Now, normally Adam had a policy of never talking to Nessa, and he usually did his best not to even look at her, but he had a bad feeling somehow. He walked around the side passage into her backyard and stood next to her, staring at the workmen.
‘What’s going on?’ he asked casually, as if he was talking about the weather.
Nessa glanced at him and just kept bopping her head up and down, listening to her music. He was forced to tap her on the shoulder. She turned and looked at him in surprise, and slowly she took her headphones off and smiled.
‘Hey,’ she said.
‘What are they doing?’ he asked, pointing at the scene of activity in front of them.
‘Them?’ she said. ‘Oh, they’re putting in a pool.’
‘A pool?’ Adam sneered. ‘What, like mine?’
Nessa laughed. ‘Oh no, bigger than yours. Deeper, longer, with pebblecrete on the bottom, and diving boards.’
Adam gulped. It felt like all the air had left his body. He mumbled something and started to walk back to his house.
Nessa laughed some more. ‘Did I mention we’re putting in a slippery dip as well, on wheels, so you can place it anywhere around the edge of the pool? There’ll also be umbrellas on our deck. Made in Mexico.’
When it was finished Adam noticed a sign in the front yard of Nessa’s house. It said: POPULAR POOL
