Confessions of Your Friendly Neighborhood Lifeguard

Chapter Five

The next day, Avery invited me to go swimming at the B-Sac. She had off and I had nothing better to do except, obviously, ruin my tan even more. I dressed in an old suit from years past that had purple flowers and sparkles on it. This suit was my favorite fun suit I'd ever had. I should be buried in that suit. That is how it amazing it is.

I met her at the entrance of the pool. Excuse me, at the front of the B-SAC. The locker rooms, guard room, and admissions desk were all under one roof called the Bath House. I learned that they called it the Bat House, thought. Apparently there was some incident with a bat and a broom... it's a long story that I never really understood. It was a large oval shaped building with women's on the right and men's on the left. Everything was painted a rather disgusting shade of blue with white waves painted on all the walls. Still, everything was clean and working. It was a very nice facility.

Avery and I walked inside and threw our things on some beach chairs. The pool was busier today, but not very. She informed me that the only people who ever really visited were locals, but still even some of the locals swam at the beach.

“Why don't you guard at the beach?” I asked.

“That's actually originally what I planned to do, but I read the manual about everything and it was horrible. People die more of drowning at beaches than at pools. Zero visibility below water in the ocean. And you do not want to know how they conduct searches in lakes and oceans. It's horrifying. I had nightmares about it for weeks. And besides, the lifeguards at the beach think they're so awesome. They're not. They just like to check out the tourists.”

“You see, there wasn't anyone to check out at my pool,” I said.

“I would have to disagree,” Chip said, coming up behind us.

“Chip!” Avery and I shouted. Avery looked at me and I smiled and laughed.

“Sheesh, cut a guy a break,” Chip sighed. “Whatever, I'm off to guard your life.”

Avery and I swam for about an hour and then left, deciding to check out the beach. She told me she had to make sure I wouldn't transfer to the dark side of Snow Beach. We drove down to the beach and wandered in to the water.

“First of all, look at all the people. You've got toddlers, teenagers, Europeans in Speedos... it's not pretty. Second of all, look how many of them there are!” I glanced out at the water. There were hundreds of people swimming. “And there's two guards. Ridiculous. It's a horrible place here.”

“It looks pretty horrible,” I replied. “The ocean is pretty though.”

“Oh no Rae, don't start this. That is how it begins... by complimenting the ocean. Keep it up and you're bound to die.”

“Die?”

“Ok, well maybe not die... but you get it? Beach= Bad. B-SAC= Perfect.”

“Avery, I would never guard at a beach. Trust me.” Avery sighed and smiled. “I'm gonna take off. I'll see you tonight?”

“Sure. We're playing laser tag tonight. Be there at eight.” I nodded and headed home. I wondered when my beautiful mustang would be finished. Soon. As my punishment my mother took away her car and I now had to walk everywhere. And when you're walking everywhere, this town doesn't seem as tiny as it once was.

I was about halfway home when I walked past a rather appealing cupcake store. I was going to walk right past, since I had worked so hard on my two pack after all. But, the bright pastel colors and smell of fresh cupcakes was just too appealing. I pushed open the door and walked to the counter. A bell sounded as I came in and an attendant came to help me.