Chapter 21
I looked up from my laptop as the telephone rang in the next room. Normally I would have ignored it entirely, but since no one else was at home I reluctantly got up to answer. Picking it up, I glanced with mild surprise at the number. It was the YMCA. "Hello?" came Janet's voice from the other end. Not too long ago I would probably have gritted my teeth and hung up on her, but things were different now.
"Hi, what's up? Have I been fired?" I replied with a chuckle and she snorted.
"As if that could ever happen!" she said. "Teddy approves of you too much." A smile spread across my face at that, but I said nothing and waited for her to explain why she had called. "I wanted to remind you to come in today and check your schedule for the summer," she continued. "Everyone needs to come in sometime today, preferably within the next hour or so."
"I'll be there in twenty minutes," I answered. "See you later." Tossing the phone back on the receiver, I hastened to my room to get ready. Ten minutes later I had locked the house and was driving to the Y, a cheery smile on my face. Ever since that call on Skype with my cousin a few days ago, everything had seemed to be looking up even more so. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Rohit was probably right; I hadn't ever felt this way about anyone as I currently did for Tracy. My stomach flipped just at the thought and I smiled to myself again, yup this was definitely something else.
Pulling up in the parking lot, I continued to grin as I strolled into the Y, marvelling still at how abruptly my life was taking a turn for the better. When I reached the guard office, I noted that there were already about fifteen guards there. Amongst them were Janet, Ben and Adam. "Hey guys," I greeted them loudly as I stopped directly behind them. They all jumped and turned to face me.
"Jesus, we need to get a bell around you!" Ben gasped, clutching at his chest with one hand. "You're looking really chuffed, what's happened? Did you win the lottery?" I laughed and shook my head but didn't reply to his question. He continued to look at me curiously as I turned to Janet.
"What are we waiting for?" I asked. "We only had to come to pick up our schedules right?" She nodded but looked rueful, and a little annoyed.
"Yeah, but Teddy forgot to print out the schedules, he's doing that right now. Until then, we have to wait," she replied, glancing in the general direction of the supervisors' office. I chuckled, it was just like Teddy to be doing things at the last minute, but I didn't mind waiting at the moment. Glancing around at the rest of the people here, my brow wrinkled in confusion.
"You noticed the new faces too?" Adam spoke up from behind me. I assented and he nodded. "Yeah, seems like we hired more than usual this time, probably because we're losing a lot of staff once this summer's over." It struck me that he was probably right, and I decided to help make the new lifeguards feel more welcome. Beckoning to Ben to come with me, we went over to them; they were sitting in a group by themselves, barely saying a word to each other or anyone else.
"Hey you guys!" I said brightly. "So you're the newest of all of us now, eh?" They nodded somewhat timidly, and I was surprised to see one of the guys there was even older than I was. What did he have to feel shy about?! I laughed. "Relax guys, these guards aren't gonna hurt you. You'll be working with us now, come and get to know everyone." I held out my hand. "I'm Akash and this is Ben." They looked at us uncertainly as Ben gave a wave too; suddenly one of them stood up and grasped my hand feebly.
"I'm Alexis," she said, looking suspiciously at me and Ben as she shook his hand too, as though she felt our friendliness was all a ruse.
"Nice to meet you," I replied kindly and turned to the rest of them. "How about you all? Everyone here has a name right?" A couple of them chuckled and nodded. Soon we got to know that Megan, Christie, and Alexis were the newest additions to our staff. Lastly I turned to the only male there, the one who I had a hunch was older than me. "What's your name man?" I said.
