The Messy Life of Blue

by Shawna Railey

  “Yoo-hoo! Blue? Earth to Blue.”

  I turned to Arnie’s class and saw Kiera waving at me. I sat up straighter. “Yes?”

  “Will you jump in and help me for a few minutes?”

  I dropped my towel and slipped into the pool. It wasn’t deep; the water didn’t even come up to my shoulders. Kiera handed me a green foam kickboard with a smiley-faced starfish on it. She held on to one with an orange octopus.

  “Okay. We’re going to have each kid hold on to the kickboard while we pull them across to the other side of the pool and back again. Do you think you can handle that?”

  I nodded, afraid my voice would squeak if I tried to talk. Kiera the Kool was talking to me. And she wanted my help!

  I started with Delilah, a small girl with braided pigtails. She held on to the board and kicked her legs frantically, splashing water everywhere, including into her eyes. She squeezed them shut and continued to kick like she had absolutely no control over her own legs. When we got to the end of the pool, I turned around to take her back.

  “Are you Arnie’s sister?” she asked me with her eyes still closed.

  “Yep.”

  “Can I tell you a secret?”

  “Um, sure,” I told her.

  “I eat my boogers.”

  I’d been watching Arnie’s swimming lessons for at least a week. That was not a secret.

  “Well, maybe you should eat a bigger breakfast instead.”

  When we got to the end, I helped Delilah hold on to the edge of the pool with the others and pulled the next student over to the kickboard. He was a feisty four-year-old with flaming-red hair and a face full of freckles.

  “Who are you?” he asked.

  “I’m Blue,” I said.

  “No, I mean what’s your name?”

  “Blue.”

  “That’s a color, not a name.”

  “Well, it’s my name,” I told him.

  He paused a moment before saying, “Your name isn’t Blue.”

  “I think I know what my name is,” I said, spinning him around once we got to the far end. “What’s your name?”

  His eyebrows knitted together as he thought about his answer.

  “Orange.”

  The next kid up for a kickboard ride was a girl decked out in a shiny pink bathing suit.

  “I like pink,” she told me while she kicked her teeny-tiny legs.

  “That’s nice. What’s your favorite food?”

  “I like pink,” she said again.

  I giggled under my breath. “Right. Pink.” We got to the end of the pool, and I said, “It’s time to turn around.”

  “I like pink,” she said.

  Shocker.

  By the time I brought “Pink” back to the others, Keira had announced they would each try to put their whole face into the water.

  “No face,” Arnie said. Booger Girl and Pink hugged each other, their eyes full of fear. A couple of the other kids looked like they were ready to cry.

  “It’s okay,” Keira said, waving her hands. “You can still hold on to the wall, I just want you to try and put your face in. So hold your breath and close your eyes. You can do it! Just lean down . . .”

  I left her to deal with the guppies and swam back to the other end of the pool. There was a group of kids tossing a beach ball back and forth, playing some homemade version of volleyball. I passed them quickly and found a quiet corner near one of the pool ladders. I leaned my back against the wall and slowly kicked my legs as my eyes drifted back toward the diving class. I really wished I knew how to dive. It would be almost as good as purplish lipstick.

  I tried to memorize the way they stood at the edge of the pool and the way they tucked their hands together. I was about to practice with my hands when I heard, “Bombs away!” followed by the biggest splash imaginable. It covered my entire head, forcing my hair onto my face and into my eyes. When Seth surfaced in front of me a minute later, I wasn’t surprised. I also splashed him in the face with as much water as I could.

  “What’d you do that for?” I said.

  “Do what?” His grin looked slightly evil.

  “What are you even doing here?”

  “Dad asked me to pick you guys up after Arnie’s class, and since I was coming from the beach, I already had on my bathing suit. Thought I’d swim until Arnie finished.”

  The advanced class was still diving. I was distracted for a split second as I glanced at the next swimmer dive in. It was flawless. I bet mermaids knew how to dive. I bet my mom knew how. I looked back at Seth and found him watching me.

  “What?” I snapped.

  “Do you know how to dive?”

  I didn’t want to lie, but I was embarrassed to tell him the truth. “Everyone knows how.”

  “I’m not asking everyone. I’m asking you.”

  I shrugged. “Probably. I’ve just never done it before.”

  Seth started paddling toward the ladder. “Come on, I’ll teach you.”

  Butterflies swarmed in my stomach, but I was too excited to care. If anyone could teach me to dive, it was Seth. He practically lived at the beach, and he was always winning surf competitions. I followed him out of the pool and stood next to him at the edge. He put my hands together and stretched them up over my head. Then he pulled my arms down toward the pool.

  “Now tuck your chin against your chest like this.” I did as he showed me. “Next, I want you to lead with your hands. Push them toward the water and let everything else follow. Try it.”

  I looked at the blueness of the water, wavy with reflections. Before I could even think about what I was about to do, I pushed off the edge toward the waiting water.

  I did a perfect—but painful—belly flop.

  When I broke the surface of the water, Seth was smiling. “You were so close. Try it again.”

  I shook my head. I was humiliated. Who knew how many of the students in the diving class had seen me? They were probably laughing at me right that second. I refused to look in their direction and find out.

  “Come on, Blue. Nobody gets it right on their first try.” I shook my head again and swam toward the ladder. I was done. The impromptu diving lesson was over.

  “Where are you going?” I heard Keira ask. I turned around and found her swimming toward me. “Your brother’s right, you know. It just takes practice.”

  Seth stood up straighter and ran his hand through his hair. I looked back at Keira, and she was smiling at him, a little twinkle in her eye. I glanced toward Arnie’s class and saw that they were all finished. Arnie was out of the pool and sitting on my chair, wrapped in both his towel and mine.

  “Come on, Blue,” Seth said. “I’ll show you one more time.”

  I didn’t want to try again, but now that Keira was watching, I didn’t want her to think I was a scaredy-cat. I slowly pulled myself out of the pool and stood next to my brother. Keira got out and stood on the other side of me. They took turns giving me pointers.

  “Don’t look at the water.”

  “Pull your shoulders back.”

  “Lean more forward.”

  “Push from your toes.”

  I did an actual dive on my fifth attempt. It felt incredible. My hands sliced through the water and then the cold liquid rushed against my face. In that moment, I was a real-life mermaid. I’d never felt so close to my mom. I was just like her.

  As I swam up toward the surface, I felt a crazy rush of energy. I did it! I really did it! Seth and Keira were going to be so proud of me. I pulled myself out of the pool, expecting congratulations, but they were gone. I scanned the deck and found them walking together toward the diving boards. I couldn’t believe they’d stopped watching me. I suddenly felt alone. Well, until I heard Arnie yell “Splish splash!” at the top of his lungs.

  I watched Seth climb up the tallest diving board and puff out his chest. It was obvious he was trying to impress Keira. And it was also obvious that it was working. She gazed up at him with her hands clasped together. Dancin
g hearts were practically floating above her head.

  I couldn’t believe I ever thought she was cool.

  Seth stood on the edge of the board and gave it a little bounce. I held my breath. He closed his eyes, reached his arms into the air, and after the briefest pause, he jumped. His body rocketed into the air and then, in one fluid motion, he flipped three times. Right before he hit the water, he twisted his entire body like a pretzel. There was barely a splash when he hit the water headfirst.

  It was a phenomenal dive.

  When Keira and Seth finished showing off for each other, Seth was finally ready to take us home. He exchanged phone numbers with Keira before they said goodbye and then whistled on the way to his car. Maybe I just imagined it, but it seemed like he suddenly had a bounce in his step.

  Love is so weird. It seems like it should take you a long time to love someone, and I think, sometimes, it does. But I also think love can hit you all at once, like a lightning bolt that explodes in your chest.

  “Don’t worry, Blue. You’ll learn how to dive someday. You just need to practice more.”

  I sat down in the front seat and didn’t say anything. Seth hadn’t seen me do it, just as I suspected. All it took was one girl in an amazing shade of purplish lipstick for him to forget all about me. It didn’t feel very good at all. I stared out the window on the way home in silence.

  I slammed his car door and marched up the driveway as soon as we got to the house. All I wanted was to be alone. I stomped into the house and was already heading toward the stairs when Jackson came tearing out of the kitchen like a crazy person. He waved a crumpled envelope above his head.

  “You won! Blue, you won!”

  I had no idea what he was talking about, and frankly, I didn’t care.

  “The contest! You won the grand prize! You get to visit the set of Family Tree and meet London Malloy!”

  I froze. My heart stopped. Time stood still. Everything went black. Life ceased to exist.

  “Did you hear me?” Jackson asked when I didn’t say anything. “You won!”

  “I heard you.” I could barely breathe.

  And then something crazy happened. Something I never in a million gazillion years thought would ever happen. We ran to each other and hugged. Like an arms-around-each-other-without-trying-to-cut-off-oxygen-supply kind of a hug.

  It felt kind of weird, actually. Kind of like hugging a monkey, I’d imagine.

  11

  Kevin and I walked to school slowly, chatting away about winning the Family Tree contest. He was almost as excited as I was. It made me sad that he couldn’t go with me, but I promised to take lots and lots of pictures.

  We had always been two peas in a crazy little pod, and we shared almost everything. There was the time we pooled our money together until we had enough for one ice cream cone. (He let me choose the flavor.) Or the time we had only one pencil, so I would write a spelling word and then he would write a spelling word, and so on.

  We do not, however, share a fifth-grade classroom.

  I would’ve liked to share a classroom with him. It would’ve made school so much easier. It’s hard navigating friendships and homework and teachers and bullies. And, of course, the reason we all go to school in the first place: the never-ending popularity contest.

  Kevin and I were somewhere in the middle, which was fine by me. I wasn’t as hated as Crybaby-Jared, but I wasn’t as cool as Shane Butts, the star athlete, either. There was a pecking order to fifth grade, and we were all aware of where we stood. I was happy with my place in the pack.

  I waved goodbye to Kevin once we got to school and headed for Mrs. Wood’s dungeon—I mean, classroom. It’s not that I think my fifth-grade teacher is an ogre or some kind of crypt keeper or anything. She’s nice enough. It’s just, she keeps all the blinds shut and all the lights off. She thinks it keeps the classroom from getting too hot. Let me just say, she’s wrong. The only thing it does is make me want to take a nap. And I don’t even like naps.

  As I got settled at my desk, I couldn’t help but notice a strange buzz circulating around the room. To the left and right of me, everyone was bent over, whispering and chattering. I tapped my desk neighbor, Logan, on the shoulder, and he turned to face me.

  “What’s going on?”

  “New meat,” he answered.

  “New meat? In the cafeteria? What kind is it?”

  He gave me a look and turned around.

  “What’d I say?” I mumbled. I pulled out my math book and focused on the front of the classroom. That’s when I saw the new meat.

  “I’d like for you all to use your voices and help me welcome our new student. This is Marley Montgomery.”

  I heard snickers. I heard giggling. I heard a chair screech across the linoleum floor. I even heard a fart, which was quite unfortunate, because that meant it was close by. What I did not hear was a single “Welcome, Marley.”

  I stared at the newbie standing before us. She was quite possibly the coolest fifth grader I’d ever seen, and that’s saying a lot, because I do have a mirror. She had long, wavy black hair and smooth, dark brown skin. She rocked tall black combat boots with a purple baby doll dress. Layers of silver necklaces dangled from her neck. She could have stepped out of a fashion magazine.

  We were going to be best friends. She just didn’t know it yet.

  Mrs. Wood guided her to a seat near the front, and my mind pondered this sudden interest in a new friend. Kevin was my best friend. Kevin had always been my best friend. Why did I feel the need to have another? I pushed the nagging question to the back of my mind and did something I don’t do very often: I paid attention to the math lesson.

  When the bell rang for lunch, I hurried to where Marley stood rifling through her backpack. I decided to nudge her a little so she would notice me, but at the same time, one of my classmates, a short kid named Bobby, knocked into my arm. I smacked Marley in the ear and her head bounced around like one of those bobblehead toys.

  “Hey! Watch where you’re going,” she said. “Do you not see me?”

  She didn’t wait for an answer before walking away, which was probably a good thing. I sighed and followed the crowd into the lunchroom. Kevin waved me over to our usual spot. I played Dodge the Lunch Trays as I weaved and bobbed like a pro.

  “I heard your class got a new student,” he said with a mouthful of applesauce.

  “I heard that when you talk with food in your mouth, it lets brain cells escape.” He shut his mouth. “Too late.”

  I was busy taking out my lunch and didn’t notice Marley until she bumped into me when she sat down.

  “Now we’re even.” She smiled. “Mind if I sit here?”

  I shrugged like I didn’t care, but my insides were jumping for joy. “Sure.”

  “Who’s this cool guy?” she asked, gesturing toward Kevin. I looked around like I was confused.

  “A cool guy? There’s no one here that fits that description,” I joked.

  Marley laughed, but Kevin looked annoyed.

  “Ha ha.” Kevin shot me a piercing glance. “I’m Kevin. And I am totally cool. Thanks for noticing.”

  “Hi, Kevin. I’m Marley. And you’re Beulah, right?”

  It was a good thing Kevin had just swallowed his mouthful of applesauce, because otherwise his burst of laughter would have sprayed it all over us.

  “Actually, I go by Blue.”

  She nodded. “Yeah, if my name was Beulah, I’d go by Blue, too. Or Red. Or Yellow. Even Turquoise would be better than Beulah.”

  Kevin said, “I think I’m going to start calling you Turquoise.”

  When I said what I was going to start calling him, he changed his mind about the Turquoise thing.

  “Where are you from?” I asked Marley. Before she had a chance to respond, Shane Butts came up to our table.

  “Hey, Blue.”

  “Hey, Shane.” I looked down. Not because I was shy, but because I happened to have a sudden interest in my apple slices.


  “Are you going to the football game on Friday night?”

  “Oh. I . . . uh . . . I can’t.”

  Marley linked her arm with mine. “Are you playing?”

  “Shane is the quarterback,” Kevin mumbled.

  “Well, see you later, Blue,” Shane said. He ran his hands through his hair before he left our table and made his way to the other side of the cafeteria.

  “He is so cute,” Marley giggled. I just smiled.

  “If I had his last name, I would never live it down,” Kevin said. “But for some reason everyone thinks Shane is so cool that he never gets teased for it. It’s not fair.”

  “What is his last name?”

  I sighed. “Butts.”

  “Huh?”

  “His name is Shane Butts,” I told her, trying not to smile. The look on her face pretty much made that impossible.

  “You’re not joking, are you?”

  “With a name like Beulah, that’s not something I’d ever joke about.”

  Kevin snorted. “If you got married, you’d be Beulah Butts!” I threw my string cheese at him.

  “Or Blue Butts,” Marley chimed in. We all laughed.

  “Like I’d ever marry Shane Butts anyway. Ew.”

  “Well, if you change your mind, maybe keep your last name.” Marley winked.

  I shrugged and started eating my sandwich. I didn’t even know if he had a girlfriend. I knew he went out with Sarah Butterfield, but she broke up with him because Anthony Chevski gave her a bigger Valentine card, and then he went out with Jenny Avila, but they broke up when her brother knocked over his bike, and then before that it was Charlotte Kennedy.

  I think. I mean, I hardly pay attention to those kinds of things.

  I changed the subject, and we finished the rest of our lunch without any more Shane talk. The afternoon flew by until it was time to walk home.

  Marley found me in my usual spot under a tree. I was waiting for my slowpoke brother Jackson.

  “Where’s Kevin?” Marley asked. “Is he mad about Shane?”

  “Shane? Why would he be mad about Shane?” The thought was so absurd it made me giggle.

  Jackson walked up, being nosy, as usual. “Shane Butts? The most popular guy in school? What about him?”