The Pool

Everett and I stood cold and dripping wet at the edge of the pool after our mad scramble to emerge from the watery grave.  There were no words between us as we stared down at the bloated, blue body of Jenn Rainey.

“What do we do?” Everett whispered, neither of us taking our eyes off of the floating corpse.

“I don’t know!” I snapped. 

“She was the best swimmer at Glendale High, how could she have drowned?” Everett questioned.  

I loved Everett dearly, but he was not the smartest guy in the world…or in the tiny town of Glendale Park.  The high-pitched inflection that he had begun using since he discovered that he was gay made everything he said sound even more dingy than it did before.

“She didn’t drown Everett.  Can’t you see the marks on her neck?  Someone strangled her.”  I pointed out the obvious.

“We have to call the police.” Everett began backing away from the pool.

My head swirled with a barrage of twisted thoughts before I vomited them into words.

“No!  You can’t call the police” I told Everett in a hushed tone. 

 “Why not?” he wanted to know.

“We will be suspects!”

“We were friends.” Everett said.

            Jenn Rainey and I were NOT friends and the cops would figure that out. I had known Jenn Rainey all my life, but we were hardly friends.  I think it’s safe to say that I hated her.  Second best was the only title that I could accomplish as long as she was around.  Her times were always better on swim team; she always beat me out for captain in cheerleading, leaving me with the less than illustrious title of, “co-captain”.

            Despite these petty rivalries, at the beginning of the school year, my life was good.  My boyfriend Thomas was captain of the football team and I was sure to take the crown in the Miss Glendale River pageant, since Rainey didn’t do pageants, but by homecoming Jenn had all of a sudden become a giggle machine around Thomas and she had also decided she wanted to try her hand at beauty pageants.  She rode off into the sunset with my boyfriend and my crown.  I started dating Leonard Price…GOD, I hate him, but he is popular and…the next best thing.

“Let’s get outta here” I told Everett as we grabbed our towels and bolted toward the gate.

“I heard that Jenn and Thomas got into a huge fight this morning in the cafeteria.  He accused her of sneaking around with Kendall Leary.”  Everett said.

Suddenly it occurred to me and I stopped in my tracks, holding one hand over my pounding heart.

“You know what this means don’t you?”  I asked.

“Of course, I know what it means.  Thomas was angry about Jenn cheating; he came here while she was practicing and strangled her!”  Everett appeared impressed with his mystery solving skills.

“No silly.  This means I’m going to make cheerleading captain!”

By:      JeanNicole Rivers

           www.jeannicolerivers.com

           Author of Black Water Tales: The Secret Keepers (http://tinyurl.com/cgvgd98)

           @JeanNicole19