by R. J. Ross
“Oh, please, like you weren’t thinking it,” she drawls as I catch up to her and punch her in the arm. “Look how red she is, Aub! So funny!”
“You’re a flirt,” I tell her.
“So? He’s our boyfriend, I can flirt if I want!”
I roll my eyes and promptly jump on her back as soon as she looks back to Aubrey. She lets out a yelp, but grabs my legs and carries me piggy-back to the large group of kids from the school. They’re waiting for Nico to come and get them in. Most of them are zoo kids, but there’s a few new faces mingling--Jimmi, who I met in Texas a little while back, and Rocco, who showed up this weekend in a ratty set of clothes and nothing else to his name.
So far, I don’t know anything about him except his name. Maybe I can use this pool party thing to find out more! I blink as Trent pulls to a stop next to us, putting the bags down for a moment. Nico walks past us, looking perfectly comfortable with a massive group of kids turning to watch him silently. I wonder if we’ve already blown our “norm” cover with that. Normal kids don’t wait silently for a teacher before they bellow for silence a few times, right?
Nico stops in front of all of us, looking at us for a long moment. “Ace, go get Jack--and no Jackie this time, got it?” he says as his eyes land on the Goth boy.
“Yeah, okay, but--”
“No buts, either. As for the rest of you--try not to break anything, no running near the pool, and if you get called out by a lifeguard, do what you’re told to, got it?”
“You’re staying, right?” Zoe asks him.
“Yeah, I’m staying. Honestly a few others plan on stopping by, as well,” Nico says, looking up at the sign of the place. It reads “Central Hall Water Park.” He shrugs as he looks back at us. “Try and pick out the ones you don’t already know and you’ll get extra credit for one class of your choice.” He turns, going up to the front gate and handing over some paperwork as we look at each other curiously.
“Is Jeanie coming?” I ask Trent. “Liz can’t come, which really sucks. She’d be a lot of fun!”
“Don’t tell her that,” he says quietly, “otherwise she’ll go buy a swimsuit and electrocute everyone in the pool.”
“Oh, good point.” Liz is my foster mom, mine and Aubrey’s. She’s got the ability to turn into pure electricity. “But she takes showers,” I say, trying to figure it out.
“Yeah, she can turn it off for that long, but it’s still a risk when there’s norms involved,” he says. “If it’s unnecessary don’t risk it, right?”
“Trent, she’s using me as a horse again,” Ditto complains, making him look at her. He reaches up, grinning as he ruffles her hair.
“You’re tough, Ditto, you can handle it,” he tells her.
“Okay, boys and girls, we’re going in,” Nico says as he heads for us. “Keep together, make sure no one is lost--especially Carla,” he drawls as he passes the adorable black girl in question. “You’ve got to behave, got it?”
“Ye-eesss,” she says, grinning from ear to ear.
“No running, got it? None. Even if we HAVE questioned your ability to run on water, we’ll test it somewhere not public.”
“Aww.” That was half the school, if you’re wondering.
“And now that Jack is back we can go in,” he goes on as we look over. There’s Jack, looking completely human--with a blue Mohawk. Wow, Ace is good. “Looks good.”
“I’m only doing this because it’ll be funny seeing him sink,” Ace says, making Jack snort.
“If it makes you feel better, there are gigantic water guns you can hit people with,” Nico says.
The two look at each other. “I do believe I’ve just lost my date for today,” Aubrey says, laughing as they grin evilly.
“I’ll be your date!” Ditto says, dropping me and grabbing her cheerfully. “Let’s try surfing!”
“I really doubt I’ll be good--” Aubrey starts out, only to be dragged off. Thankfully I landed on my feet, I think as I grab our bag from Trent.
“We’ll be out as soon as we’re dressed, okay?” I tell him, racing after the other two. I’m a little nervous, actually, going to a pool full of teenagers in bikinis. Look, of all the girls in the school I’m the least “looks good in a bikini.” I’m flat as a board, short, and my hair is choppy and bright red.
Actually--
“Sunny!” I say, veering course to grab the sleepy looking teen by the arm. “Give me your suntan lotion.”
“What for?” he asks, looking down at the arm I’m grabbing. His girlfriend is standing right next to him, so I guess it WAS a bad move. I switch, grabbing Adanna’s arm instead.
“Tell him to give me the suntan lotion, Danna?” I ask, looking up at her and batting my eyes. “I don’t want to risk getting sunburnt--I’m a redhead, you know?”
“Your girlfriend’s in full flirt mode today, man,” I hear Jack say. I glance back to see him and Trent watching me.
“Give her the suntan lotion, Sunny,” Adanna says, reaching up and patting me on the head. “She would look terrible with a burn.” I grin at her and grab the bottle Sunny offers before racing off to the changing room.
“She’s just excited,” I hear Trent say as I enter the changing room.
“Finally!” Ditto says. “We thought you’d never get here!”
I toss her the bottle of suntan lotion and dig through the bag, pulling out the swimsuits to hand out. “Aubrey, Ditto, and me,” I say, pulling out my suit. I hesitate, looking at the two piece hesitantly for a moment. “You think I picked the right one?” I ask finally.
“It’s perfect,” Aubrey promises as Zoe comes out of her changing stall in a sexy little black and white suit. My little bit of self confidence plummets at the sight. Stupid, I know, but it’s a girl thing. “Go on, Trent’s waiting, right?” Aubrey encourages me. “And I want to find Jack before he decides to mess with that water gun thing. I’d like to spend at least a few minutes with him before we try surfing.” We all head into the little changing rooms, changing quickly and heading out.
I’m a bit worried, still. The sight of Trent standing outside the changing rooms, dressed in a pair of dark blue swimming trunks and sunglasses almost has me turning around--until he starts to laugh. “Really?” he asks, staring at my swimsuit.
“I happen to LIKE Kid Liberty,” I say, sticking my nose in the air. The top is more of a sports bra in shape, dark blue in color with a silver Kid’s Liberty symbol across the chest. The bottom is a pair of boyish swim trunks with silver lace down the sides. Ditto comes out a few seconds later, wearing a one piece with Liz’s mask clad picture printed across the front and her symbol on the butt. She turns to show that part off.
“Liz bought that, didn’t she?” Trent asks.
“I picked it out!” Ditto says, hugging her swimsuit happily. “It’s the next best thing,” she adds with a serious nod. She wanted Liz to come, too. We REALLY love our foster mom, okay? But when your foster mom just happens to be one of the few S class females out there, not to mention someone that absolutely adores you, how can you not? It’s so different from our last foster family.
“It figures she’d get girls as obsessed with herself as she is,” Trent says, shaking his head and taking our bag from us again. “We’ve got a row of cubbies for this stuff, so get what you need and I’ll put the rest up,” he says. We grab our things out of the bag and I grab the suntan lotion from Ditto, holding it up to him.
“I don’t want to burn, so can you help us put this on when you get back?” I ask, only to flush as he laughs.
“Yeah, I’d be happy to,” he says, heading away with our mostly empty bag.
“Nice job, Em!” Ditto says, elbowing me.
“What? I can’t reach my ba--” I stop as she just stares pointedly at me. “Oh, right.” I can always reach my back--there’s two of me. “Oh well!” Not like I’d take it back even if I could.
“Jack! Don’t you DARE!” I hear Aubrey bellow from the water area, followed by the sound of he
r and several others squealing. I move, trying to see what’s going on while I wait for Trent to come out.
“Is there a reason you’re just standing here?” someone asks from behind us, making a tiny part of my mind twitch without even realizing it. I turn, looking blankly at a tall-ish blonde girl, one that’s glaring at Ditto. She turns that glare on me. “What, twin stupidity?” she asks, her hands on her hips. “You’re blocking the way to the cubbies.”
I move a step forward, intent on giving her a piece of my mind, only to blink as someone grabs my hand. I glance up at Trent, who automatically wraps an arm around my waist. “Don’t,” he says quietly as the blonde glares at us and walks on past.
“Yeah, whatever,” I mutter, glaring after her for a moment before looking at him. “Let’s go swimming!” We rush in, only to stop and stare as we see the massive park in front of us. There’s a gigantic swimming pool straight ahead. To the right there’s a lazy river with people on inner tubes just relaxing as the twisting path pulls them along. To the left is a massive water battle field. I’ve never seen something like that before, I think blankly.
There are a ton of little kids in the field, chasing each other with squirt guns and water balloons, dodging the various spouts of water or hiding in the trenches that are probably small pools. To the side, though, are the really powerful water guns, the ones that are attached to the ground. That’s where I see Jack and Aubrey fighting over the biggest gun on the floor.
“Swimming or water gun fight?” Trent asks me as Ditto hops onto his back. We get a few strange looks, one guy with “twins” but I ignore them, looking for the funnest thing to do. “The moment we go on the field you know Jack’s going to shoot us,” he points out.
“Let’s do...” I stop, my eyes going huge as I see the biggest water slide I’ve ever seen in my life, “that,” I say, practically drooling as I point up at it.
He follows my pointing, looking up at the skyscraper that’s masquerading as a slide, and lets out a whistle. “Wow, if I fell from that I’d definitely learn to fly,” he declares.
“Let’s do it!” Ditto says, cheering loudly. “Onward, to the Plunge!”
We head for the line, waiting patiently for our chance to get on the massive scale to be weighed. You wouldn’t think we’d top 550--we don’t, but we’re close enough that the guy with the piece of paper in his hand looks at us a little strangely. I mean, Ditto and I barely top the five foot mark and are as skinny as can be, while Trent doesn’t have an ounce of fat on him. He’s just muscular--and REALLY heavy.
“I work out,” Trent says blandly when the look lasts too long.
“He does,” I say, pointing at his arm, “ALL the time.”
“Yep,” Ditto agrees. “So can we go up the stairs yet?”
“First I have to read this to you,” the man says, still looking at Trent a bit strangely. He rattles off a lot of words, which I promptly ignore, then motions us up the massive stairway to the top.
“Did you see his face?” Ditto asks as we start up the steps, joining a seriously long line. “Think he figured it out?”
“He would have if it’d been Jack,” Trent admits. “He started out at over three hundred, but last we checked he was nearing four--Dad thinks he’s going through a growth spurt.”
“Shhh,” I say, noticing the norms in front of us glancing back. “His brother’s seriously fat,” I tell one that’s bold enough to keep looking. “Like REALLY fat. Don’t go judging,” I add, giving him a dirty look. “Fat people are people too!”
~About the Author~
R.J. Ross has been writing since junior high, when she discovered that it could help her keep an A in English Class. She lives in Missouri, where she works as a secretary for the family business and spends all of her free time writing. If you would like to see more of her work, you can find several short stories at http://amazon.com/author/rjross!
Like her on Facebook for bonus material such as character profiles, unpublished information, and status updates at http://www.facebook.com/capehigh! Or check out her blog for free Cape High short stories at http://capehigh.wordpress.com/ or follow her on twitter @nosidekickhere
