My Life Would Suck Without You

by Krystal George

  The Girl Who Wouldn’t Swim

  By DL Kelly

  ©2014 by DL Kelly

  “I won’t!” She slammed her locker and pressed her back against it. “I won’t do it. They can’t make me!”

  “I think they can. It’s a freshman requirement,” I said, hesitantly. Emmy had become my best friend since her family moved across the street from mine last May. We had been together almost every day, and I know that she meant what she said. This is good and bad. Some people, like her parents, say she’s stubborn.

  “Why didn’t someone tell me that in May when I applied here?”

  “They told your Mom. Maybe you didn’t hear it. Swimming is a requirement for all freshmen. If you don’t pass it, you’ll flunk.”

  Emmy’s green eyes sparkled. She shut them before the tears fell. She wouldn’t cry here, in the hall outside of Biology.

  “Well, I’ll find out,” she called over her shoulder and headed into the classroom. I kept walking towards English.

  I didn’t want to bring up the subject at lunch time. Emmy couldn’t wait until we sat down to start on it.

  “What if I’m allergic to water?”

  “That’s just crazy. You drink water. You shower.”

  She sighed. Then, “How about chlorine?” Maybe I can say it bothers my skin?”

  “I guess it’d be worth a try. But Emmy, what’s the big deal?”

  “I just don’t swim. Not around other people, anyway.”

  “Are you afraid?” I asked.

  “Michaela, you know I’m not afraid of anything. This is supposed to be a free country. No one can make me do anything I don’t want to do.” I knew she was upset. She usually calls me Mikey, like everyone else. She adjusted her glasses and looked the other way, towards the exit.

  “Go talk to the guidance counselor. Maybe he can help,” I suggested. Mr. Stemmler was old, probably fifty, but seemed to understand kids. He helped my brother get into some classes he needed when he suddenly decided to go to college. Anyway, maybe Emmy would open up to him.

  “It’s worth a shot. Maybe I can say I have too many classes.” She had as many as I did, but I let it go. She checked her watch. “I’ll go now and try to see him today.” She grabbed her tray and ran.

  She wasn’t the same person after school that day. When I went to her locker she was loading her stuff into her camo back pack. The bright, feisty girl I had lunch with was replaced by this sad one who barely looked at me.

  “He said I have to take swimming,” she said, as if there hadn’t been three hours since we last spoke. “Starting tomorrow.” She shouldered her bag and shuffled towards the exit. “I hate this school!”

  I tried to text her that evening, but she didn’t answer. I couldn’t sleep that night, wondering what she would do.

  She was like a stone, only one that could walk, on the way to school in the morning. I tried talking, but she only answered “Yes” or “No.” Usually “No.” So I just dragged along, hoping for her to say something. When we got to her locker, she raised her head and said, “See ya third period.” Which would be Swimming.

  I hadn’t ever seen Emmy in a bathing suit. All summer we wore shorts and tanks, sometimes halters when it was really hot. I have to say, not because she’s my best friend, but because it’s true—she looked better than any girl in our class in those ugly green tank suits we were required to buy. Apparently someone had clued her mother, because Emmy had the right one. She didn’t seem nervous or embarrassed. She was wearing her glasses.

  Miss Gardner, the teacher, was new. I heard this was like her first year of teaching.

  We sat on the bleachers while she spoke to us, telling us what we would be doing in the class. When she asked who could swim, Emmy raised her hand with most of us.

  “ Thought you didn’t swim,” I whispered.

  “Didn’t say I couldn’t. Said I wouldn’t. I only swim in private. My Aunt Tina has a pool and we swim all summer.”

  When it was time for us to get into the water, Emmy climbed in with the rest of us. Still wearing glasses. Come to think of it, I never saw her without them. She didn’t wear contacts like most kids. Maybe she was almost blind?

  It took about fifteen minutes for Miss Gardner to notice the glasses.

  “Emmy? Dear, we don’t wear our eyeglasses in the water. You know, they could fall off and break. One of you girls could step on them and get hurt. So please take them off, okay?”

  Emmy smiled the biggest smile I’d ever seen, like her face would split.

  “No, that’s okay. I’ll just keep them on, if you don’t mind.”

  The teacher hadn’t expected this. “Emmy, if you’re worried about not seeing and bumping into people, we won’t be doing actual swimming today. Maybe you could get those prescription goggles. But for today, you have to take them off, for safety reasons.”

  Emmy climbed up the ladder and headed for the locker room. Miss Gardener stood there with her mouth open. She hadn’t expected this, either.

  “That’s okay, Miss Gardner,” I said, jumping out of the water. “She’s my friend. She’s new here, too. I’ll go see what’s wrong.”

  “Thank you, Michaela.”

  “It’s Mikey,” I hollered back.

  Emmy huddled on the bench near the showers. Her shoulder length, dark brown hair was hiding her face, but she was crying and I wanted to cry, too. Emmy was very strong and fearless. She wanted to be a veterinarian. Something major was wrong to upset her like this. I sat there for a few minutes until she stopped sobbing.

  “Em, I’m your best friend. Please tell me what’s wrong.” Still face down, she took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. When she lifted her face, I saw an area of red skin along her nose and around her right eye.

  “See? It’s a birthmark. The doctor told my parents he couldn’t fix it until I’m grown up, and that I wear glasses anyway. I guess he figures, ‘So what?’ I wear makeup most of the time, but it isn’t waterproof.”

  “Is that why you won’t take the glasses off? Em, it’s not so bad.”

  “Bad? It’s ugly! Hideous! People think there’s something wrong with me, or I have some horrible disease.”

  “Nobody thinks that. I’m sure. Probably no one would even notice, and if they do, really, so what? It’s not their business, is it? You are not ugly!

  Em, none of us is perfect. Do you know Stacey? She’s in your Algebra class. I’ve known her since fourth grade, and one day someone said to me, ‘Isn’t it a shame about Stacey’s teeth?’ I had to ask what was wrong with them. Okay, so they’re crooked. Big deal. That’s just her. Stacey is one of the nicest and funniest girls in the school. Her parents just don’t have the money to get her teeth fixed. And did you get a look at me? I look like a green bean in this bathing suit. My mom promises me that I’ll fill out someday. But when?”

  Emmy rubbed her cheeks and smiled at me. “I like green beans. They rock.”

  I stood up and held up my right hand. She high-fived me. “C’mon, let’s go swimming.”

  Emmy’s parents bought her the prescription goggles. I took her to see my Aunt Kristine, who works in a beauty salon. She fixed her up with some waterproof makeup.

 

  Emmy joined the swim team. She plans to work as a lifeguard in the summer after our junior year. We know we will go to Florida for spring break, when we’re old enough.

  She is still my best friend.