A World Apart

Chapter V, Dawson

I have to congratulate myself on getting Amelia to come to the party, I really don't know what I've done to offend her but I am so going to change her mind about me. I will show her that I am the guy of her dreams.

I arrive early with the other lifeguards to set everything up. 

"So," Hannah asks, "Which games are we going to play?" At our initiation parties we always play games like two truths and a lie and stuff like that. 

"We'll make it up as we go." I say. We always have our party at the pool, we go swimming and other things.

Amelia walks into the pool area, I try not to stare. She looks beautiful. No beautiful is not a strong enough word.

She's wearing black sweat pants and a brown tank top. Her flip flops slapping against the pavement. 

"Hey," I say. Amelia gives a very bad attempt at a smile. "Hi." I turn to the others.

"Amelia, this is Hannah, Ashley, Victor, Courtney, Austin, Alex and Jack." I introduce the others to Amelia. She gives them her bad attempt at a smile.

I guess this was a mistake, I shouldn't have asked her to come to the party. Maybe I should give up, Amelia will never like me.

"So, who wants to go swimming?" I ask, trying to break the tension. "Sure." Courtney says catching on to what I'm doing. We all pull our sweats off and kick off our shoes. I try not to stare at Amelia but man, that girl looks great in a bathing suit.

I flash everyone a grin and dive into the pool, I come up in time to see Amelia do the most graceful dive into the pool. "Nice one." I call to her. I see a fleeting glimpse of her real smile. But when she catches me watching her smile falters and fades.

The others jump in and soon we are racing each other around the pool, Amelia wins every time. We all congratulate her and finally climb from the pool. We all sit on the floor letting our bathing suits dry chatting and joking.

Amelia has joined in a little more asking questions and making small jokes. Her black and dark blue bathing suit seems to dry faster then the rest of ours. 

"Come on, enough talk." Ashley says. "As this is an initiation, we have to play two truths and a lie!" We laugh and everyone agrees. Even Amelia.

"Okay, since this is all for Amelia, I think she should go first." Jack says. We all agree and Amelia thinks for a moment.

"Alright." She says. "My father left my sister, mother and I when I was ten. I have never lived in any place longer than a few months and I hate books." I have to think very hard, any of her three things could be true or false. Other than...

"The lie is that you have never lived anywhere for longer than a few months." I say. The others nod their heads in agreement. Amelia shakes her head a small smile on her face. 

"Your father left when you were ten?" Victor asks. Amelia nods her head, "Yep, he left." She smiles, a real smile. "I love books." I exchange a look with the others.

No wonder Amelia doesn't bother trying to make friends. A few months is long enough to get to know someone and settle into a routine and then she would have to leave again.

"Why do you move so much?" Hannah asks. Amelia shrugs, "My mom likes to travel, I'm not old enough to not go with her and live longer than a week." The way she has said it makes me wonder if she has ever considered actually staying and letting her mother leave with out her. I don't know if I could do that.

"So whose next?" Amelia asks. Jack gets things moving again, "Dawson, you go." He says. I nod. 

"I love fruit, my mother's maiden name was Crawford and when I was three I threw my neighbor's doll out the window." I wait, the lie is that I like fruit. I hate fruit.

Amelia squints at me, "You actually hate fruit." She says simply. I stare, how did she know? Was it a lucky guess?

I nod, "Yep." We play until everyone has gone. 

We then have a few snacks then I suggest we play truth or dare. Amelia seems a little hesitant but she agrees along with everyone else. 

"Okay, Amelia." I say. "Truth or dare?" Amelia thinks for a moment. "Dare." She says. "I dare you to do a handstand underwater for a minute." She shrugs and jumps in the pool. 

Amelia does it, she even goes over the time a little.

When she climbs from the pool grinning, dripping with water, I grin back. She looks around at us, "Victor." She says.

We continue to play until we have all gone, we all chose dare so we decide to go around again but this time we have to pick truth.

"Amelia," I say, "What was the worst thing you ever did to someone?" Her face drains of colour. "I-I-" She stammers. The rest of us exchange a look, what could Amelia have done that is so bad?

"I was helping my mother at work, she was laying bricks on the side of a house and I accidentally knocked a pile of bricks down on the people below us." Amelia's face is pale and I decide that we better move things along. Now.

"So Amelia," I say. "What are you going to make Victor tell us?" We continue to play until we have all gone. None of us ask Amelia questions about her truth but we all could tell she wasn't telling the truth. I don't want to know what the true answer, I hope that maybe what the truth is isn't too bad for one reason. I have fallen for this brave, intelligent girl. Amelia doesn't realize how people see her, they don't see her as a weirdo but as a normal human being.

Finally we pull our sweats back on and depart, heading for home.

I watch Amelia until she is out of sight.

Alex comes up beside me, "She's hiding something." I turn to look at him. "I know." I answer still watching where I last saw Amelia.

"It would still be great if you two starting dating." I roll my eyes, "And why do you want me to get a girlfriend?" Alex shrugs, "I want more time with my girlfriend, so if you get a girlfriend then you'll spend time with her and I can spend time with Kriss." I roll my eyes.

My eyes still return to the spot where Amelia disappeared.