by Jade Parker
I recognized a lot of the people here. Music began to play. Some people started to dance. Robyn and Sean came over.
“What did you think of the light show?” Robyn asked.
“I thought it was absolutely awesome,” I said even though I hadn’t seen it. I didn’t want them knowing that I’d left the room early.
“I liked it,” Sean said, “but there’s something about fireworks on the Fourth.”
“No chance of fires with the light show,” Michael said. “And since we’ve had so little rain this summer, fire marshals are cracking down on fireworks.”
“But then water isn’t a problem where we are,” Sean said.
“Why the hard time, man?” Michael asked.
“Yeah, Sean, what’s your problem? You voted for the light show,” I reminded him.
“And I still like it. I just think that I’m going to miss fireworks.”
“Guess we can always come out here and shoot fireworks,” I said.
“Isn’t this place amazing?” Robyn asked.
“Oh, yeah.” Funny that I could tell Michael what I really thought but I was afraid Robyn wouldn’t understand. How had that happened? That I could tell a guy I knew only a little something that I couldn’t confess to my best friend?
“I need to tell my dad something,” Michael said. “I’ll be back.”
I watched him walk over to a tall man with curling black hair. I could see him more clearly now than I had the other night. He looked a lot like Michael — or Michael looked like him.
“Okay, you have no idea that the light show was awesome,” Robyn said, “because you didn’t stay. We saw you sneaking out.”
Busted!
“Michael wanted to show me the vintage car. Did you see it?”
Sean narrowed his eyes. Robyn punched his arm. “Lighten up.” Then she turned her attention to me. “Soooo, I’d say that Jasmine is not a problem.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Because she’s here and he sneaked out of the room with you.”
My stomach knotted up. “She’s here?”
“Yeah.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
We both looked around. And then I saw her. On the far side of the pool, in the shadows.
Déjà vu.
She was kissing Michael.
“Do you want me to go beat him up?” Sean asked.
I’d clearly underestimated my brother. The worst part of all? His offering to beat up a guy for me made me cry. I never cry and here I was all blubbery.
“I just want to go home,” I said.
Robyn went to tell Whitney that we were leaving. Sean directed me through the house. I needed someone telling me where to go. Number one, because I didn’t have a map of the place, and number two, because everything was blurry because of the tears.
I got into the backseat. When Sean got in the front, I said, “Why can’t guys like me?”
“They like you. You just pick the wrong guys.”
“So it’s my fault.”
“I don’t know, Caitie. Guys are idiots. You know that.”
The front passenger door opened and Robyn hopped in. “Let’s go.”
She said it the way someone would during a bank heist, trying to get away. But it worked, because Sean started the car and we headed home.
“I don’t know if this will make you feel any better, but Jasmine is officially off the light-show committee,” Robyn said.
She sounded so mad. Robyn didn’t usually do mad. It took a whole lot to upset her. So, of course, my eyes started watering again.
“Maybe it wasn’t her fault,” I said.
“Does it matter?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I was finally starting to trust him.” I groaned. “I should have stuck to my plans. No guys until school starts. And only geeks.”
No one had anything to say after that. And what could they say? I was an awful judge of guys. Absolutely awful.
Sean dropped me at home first. Guess he figured out that I just wanted to be alone. When I walked in, I could smell brownies. I went to the kitchen. Mom was sitting at the counter, reading a magazine. A pan of brownies was in the middle of the counter.
“You made brownies?”
Mom looked up and smiled. “I’m sure there is some obscure holiday that we need to celebrate.”
“Meteor day,” I said as I walked farther into the kitchen and sat at the counter.
Mom cut me a brownie and set it on a plate.
“How did you know I needed this?” I asked.
“Sean called, told me what happened, said you were leaving the party.”
I guessed that he’d done it after I’d gotten in the car, before he got in. Or maybe he’d done it as we were leaving and I’d been too devastated to notice.
“Want to talk about it?” Mom asked.
I shook my head. Nodded. Shook my head again.
My mom is really pretty. I didn’t think she’d understand. Guys were probably always kissing her — or wanting to anyway. She and Dad started dating in high school.
“Sean isn’t the jerk I thought he was.” I almost choked on the words.
“I know. It’s difficult being younger.”
“I guess.” I sighed. “Michael’s a jerk and I didn’t think he was.” I lifted my shoulders, let them drop in defeat. “I don’t know how to judge guys. I always get it wrong.”
“One day you won’t. One day you’ll get it right.”
“But when?”
“Not much longer,” she said. “After all, you finally figured out the truth about Sean.”
That wasn’t much consolation. Because I hadn’t figured out the truth about Michael.
So now I was hurting again. And it hurt worse, so much worse, than it had when Tanner had betrayed me.
* * *
On the Fourth of July, the water park was crammed with people. Every age, shape, and size. Various pavilions were reserved for family reunions. Kids were running around like crazy. It was louder than it had been all summer. The sun was out. It was hot. As long as it didn’t rain, we were good.
I was sitting in my lifeguard station, watching everyone playing in the pool. I hadn’t seen Michael since the fateful kiss. Whitney kept in touch with him. She usually had something to say about him when we had our committee meetings. He was busy helping his dad get all the lights set up and in sync. What we’d seen at her house was just the computer rendition. Now they had to make it work and time was short so they were working really hard.
The night before, she’d had dinner with the Romeo family. She’d invited me to go with her, but I’d forgotten to make my bed that morning so I’d needed to get home to do that.
I didn’t understand why she didn’t understand that I didn’t want to have anything to do with Michael. As a matter of fact, I’d almost resigned from the committee, but in an odd way, I felt as though that would have meant that Jasmine had won. As though her kissing Michael was a sign of absolute victory.
So I stayed on the committee, went to the meetings every day, and tried to look like my heart wasn’t hurting.
When I was on the lifeguard platform, I tried really, really hard not to think about Michael, not to wonder what he was doing, not to wonder what I’d done wrong. It seemed as though we were liking each other — so why had he kissed Jasmine?
Late last night, the committee had hung red, white, and blue streamers all over the pavilions. Robyn and I had wrapped ribbons around the palm trees. Today’s guests received little flags to wave around. Everyone was having fun: screaming, laughing, being so loud. The noise was almost deafening.
The alarm sounded, people shrieked, the waves started up. I stood up. I felt more alert when I was standing. Trent had come by a couple of times and told us to stay on our toes. When so many people are in the pool, it’s easy to miss something.
I glanced toward the shallow end. I saw a boy about seven or eight walking into the pool. He was
holding one of those awful blue hot dogs. He wasn’t in my zone, but I knew you weren’t supposed to come into the pool eating.
“Tanner!” I yelled. He was sitting in the next lifeguard platform. But there was so much noise that he didn’t hear me.
I blew my whistle. Some people in the pool looked up at me. They had guilty expressions. I wondered what they’d been doing that they weren’t supposed to do. But Tanner didn’t look at me. Lifeguards didn’t expect to have the whistle blown at them.
The waves were getting higher and stronger. The kid was still eating his hot dog. A wave plowed into him. He went down, came back up out of the water. It looked as though he was coughing or trying to cough. He wasn’t holding his hot dog anymore.
I took a quick look around my area, then looked back at the kid. Something was wrong. He was staggering, holding his throat. Why didn’t Tanner see him? Where was Trent?
I knew I’d get chewed out for leaving my station, but I didn’t see that I had a choice. No one else seemed to be noticing what was going on. I knew there was a chance that the kid was just goofing around — and I’d get teased about panicking again. But better me getting teased than a kid choking.
I climbed down from my station and started running toward the shallow end of the pool.
“Watch my zone!” I yelled at Tanner as I passed by his station.
“What are you doing?” he called down, but I ignored him.
When I got even with the kid, I leaped into the pool and waded to him. People were playing around him. No one seemed aware that he was choking. And he was choking. I could see him clearly now. People don’t realize that hot dogs — if they’re not properly chewed — can get stuck.
“It’s okay,” I yelled at the kid. “Can you talk?”
His eyes were wide. He shook his head. Not good.
I put my arms around him. I’d learned the Heimlich maneuver in first-aid class, when I was being certified to be a lifeguard. I put my fist beneath his breastbone. With my other hand, I thrust it into his abdomen. The disgusting blue hot dog went flying into the water. Someone screamed. The kid gasped, choked, started to cry. I led him out of the water, sat him down on the sand.
“You okay now?” I asked.
He nodded.
“I need you to say something.”
“I’m okay.”
“Never eat in a pool,” I said. I knew it was probably the wrong time to get after him, but what he’d done had been really dangerous.
He nodded again.
“Where are your parents or the adult you’re with?”
He pointed behind him.
“Come on. Let’s get you to them.”
I helped him to his feet, took a step, and nearly knocked into Trent, who was probably there to chew me out. I wasn’t in the mood. “He was choking,” I said.
“I saw.”
“I was going to take him to his parents.”
“I’ll do it. You should get back to your station. No one’s watching your zone.”
“Oh, okay.”
I turned to go.
“Morgan?”
I looked back.
Trent gave me a thumbs-up. “Great job.”
I smiled broadly. “Thanks.”
* * *
“You’re a hero!” Robyn said.
It was later in the afternoon. Robyn and Whitney had joined me for my break. We didn’t usually take our breaks together because they were so short, but they were worried about me. I hadn’t seen Michael since the kiss. We all knew that any time now he’d be showing up with his dad and their crew to start setting up for the light show.
Word had spread about my rescue. I felt myself blush. “It wasn’t really a big deal. I don’t think I’ll get news coverage.”
“Do you want news coverage?” Whitney asked.
I had a feeling if I said yes that she’d make it happen. She had power. I just hadn’t figured out where it was coming from. “No, I really don’t.”
“It’s not so bad,” Robyn said. “News reporters are nice.”
“Not always,” Whitney mumbled.
“Have you been on the news?” I asked.
“Let’s just say I know some reporters who aren’t nice.”
“Are you nervous about tonight?” Robyn asked me.
“What’s there to be nervous about?”
She made an impatient face. “Michael will be here.”
“So? Jasmine can have him. I knew all along he was a Romeo, so I didn’t invest my heart.” I couldn’t say the same thing about my pride. And okay, maybe it had hurt my heart a little — a lot. How could I start to like a guy so much in such a little bit of time?
“Well, if it isn’t my hero sister!” Sean announced. He took off my visor and ruffled my hair like I was a kid.
“Hey!” I snatched my visor back from him and settled it into place.
“We brought you something special.”
My heart did a little crazy thudding. First of all who was “we”? Could it be Sean and Romeo? And the something special? That could be Romeo, too.
I looked around Sean. Jake was holding a tray with ice-cream cups on it.
“It’s a holiday, right?” Sean asked. “And even if it wasn’t, we have a ‘Celebrate Caitlin’ moment.”
Jake set the tray down and began handing everyone a cup of ice cream. I figured Sean had helped him because he got mine right: pistachio. And Robyn’s strawberry. Sean’s chocolate. But how had Jake known Whitney’s? I assumed he’d chosen right for her because she gave him a bright smile. Who would have thought designer Whitney was a plain vanilla?
“My break’s almost over,” I said.
Sean sat between Robyn and me. “I’ll tell Trent to chill.”
“Can you do that?” I asked.
“Hey, I’m front office. I can do anything.”
Jake sat beside Whitney.
“No ice cream for you?” I asked.
He shook his head. “I’m not sure I’ll ever eat ice cream again.”
Whitney laughed and extended her spoon toward him. “Come on. One little bite. You have to celebrate Caitlin’s breaking the Tsunami curse.”
Shrugging, he took the ice cream from her spoon.
“What’s this about a curse?” I asked.
“Nothing was working for you there. You meet a guy, you lose a guy. You were doing things that seemed right, only they turned out to be wrong. Blowing your whistle, clearing the pool. Now you did the right thing. The curse is broken.”
“So now she’ll get a guy?” Robyn asked.
It was really embarrassing to have her ask that when my brother was around.
“I don’t want a guy,” I said.
“Maybe another position in the park?” Whitney asked.
“No, thanks. I like Tsunami. Yes, it has its challenges, but I think Trent will get off my case now.”
“Well, if he doesn’t, we’ll sue him for harassment,” Whitney said.
“You can’t sue a supervisor for doing his job,” Sean said.
“Honestly, y’all, thanks, but I really think everything is going to be okay now.” Or at least it would be after tonight. But maybe with it being dark, Michael would never see me. That would be great, because I didn’t want to see him.
After we finished our ice cream, we all headed back to our separate jobs. I was almost to Tsunami when Tanner moved away from a palm tree. Maybe he was taking his break, too, but it seemed as though he’d been waiting for me.
“Hey,” he said. “You did great rescuing that kid. That was my zone and I didn’t realize he was in trouble.”
I didn’t want him feeling badly about what happened with the little boy. What happened with Jasmine, sure, but he didn’t need to feel guilty about the kid. “I probably wouldn’t have either if I hadn’t seen him carrying the hot dog. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if the kids are goofing off or in trouble.”
“It would have been on me if things … - well, if it hadn’t had a happy ending.”
“But it did have a happy ending so no point in borrowing trouble. See ya.”
I started to move past him and he stepped in front of me. “Some of us are going to go out for pizza after the park closes. Someplace that has no red, white, and blue theme. I was, well, I was wondering if you wanted to go. With us. With me.”
“Why now? Because I’m a hero?”
“No. Because I heard …” His voice trailed off.
“Heard what?” I demanded to know.
“That guy … Romeo. He’s with Jasmine now. I really like you. I thought maybe now that he’s with her, you’d give me another chance.”
Before this summer, I wanted to go out with a guy more than anything. I wanted a date. More than that, I wanted a kiss. My first kiss. I never thought that if a guy asked me out, I’d say no.
But the truth was, Tanner was nice, but he wasn’t Michael Romeo. And even though Michael was with Jasmine now, and he’d never be with me, I wanted to go out with a guy who made my heart do cartwheels the way that Michael did. I wanted my first kiss to be with a guy who made my toes tingle and curl when I thought about him.
I didn’t really know how to tell Tanner no. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but I didn’t want to go eat pizza with him. And I really didn’t want him to kiss me. “Thanks, Tanner, but I have plans already.”
He nodded. I think he knew it was a lie.
“Well, have fun,” he said.
“I will.”
He walked away toward the food court, so I figured he was still on break. It was the Fourth of July. Independence Day. I’d saved someone’s life, turned down a date, said no to a guy. What else could possibly happen?
* * *
I didn’t see Michael until later that afternoon. I would have been happy to never see him again, but he’d come with his dad and a crew to start setting up for the light show. And since he’d decided to display it at Tsunami, they were setting up around me.
He was wearing jeans, the Lights Fantastic T-shirt, sneakers, and the baseball cap. He came up to me while I was sitting at my station. “Hey, Caitlin. You left in a hurry the other night.”
It sorta sounded as though he was asking a question. I pointed behind me at the large sign with all the rules.
“Aren’t we past that?” he asked.
