It was through Jackie Reed that I met her. I first met Jackie "Jacks" Reed at the end of eleventh grade. She was a late joiner to the swim team, and despite her short stature, I thought she swam like a real life mermaid. She had technique and excellent form, and best of all, she wanted to be my friend. My best friend, even then perhaps. We first spoke when stood, waiting for our names to be called, shivering at the school's poolside. Our knees were trembling, droplets of pool water gathering at our fingertips and dripping. She looked at me, then back at the pool, then to me again.
"You're an amazing swimmer, you know?" She said.
I looked at her, "thank you. I think you're a good swimmer too."
"No—like amazing. How long have you been swimming?" She asked, hopping from one foot to the other cautiously.
"Since I could, so like five or six maybe?" I said, shrugging. "How long have you?"
She puffed out her cheeks as she thought, then said, "I think since I was like ten or eleven. I guess you wanna be a swimmer then."
"Who knows what I'll be... maybe I'll swim, maybe I'll just work." I said, then our names were called out.
I was quite easy to reveal myself to Jackie, I figured it was because I'd felt a change in future—even then. Our friendship formed quickly after our first interaction. There were long conversations on our shared walk home, races in the pool, constant texting during summer break. After only a month, I'd already considered her my closest friend. I'd been ready to tell her everything about me, and I managed to tell her something new about myself every week until there was nothing new left to say. She caught on quick to the nickname I'd been given by the swim team and my other friends; Fish. And while I'd usually found it quite weird to be called, it felt strangely intimate when Jackie said it, in an entirely platonic sense.
Jackie and I differed a lot in height, and I often teased her when we stood together. I was an average 5"6, whilst she was around 5"1. Jackie had poker-straight long black hair, and I'd noticed her faintly foriegn facial structure—I wanted to guess what country she was from when we'd met, but I instead waited for her to tell me herself. She revealed to me during the summer break between eleventh and twelfth grade that her dad was American but her mother, she, was Japanese.
I didn't have much that was special about me. And with Jackie being as interesting as she was, I started to wonder how I would make my dull life interesting—where I would go after high school, what job I'd settle with, where I'd travel, what kind of situations I may end up in. All I had to me was the fact I loved swimming and I'd been swimming since I could. Otherwise, my life hadn't gone anywhere yet.
There were a few times when I thought that it was lucky that Jackie and I grew up in the same town, that we went to the same private high school—the only school for miles that had a uniform. It was such a boring uniform too; girls had to wear navy and green plaid skirts and white button ups with sweaters, boys the same only with trousers. Jackie, I think, represented a turning point in my life.
Despite our friendship beginning much earlier, I first went to Jackie's house on the last week of september. She'd mentioned earlier in the day - a day that we didn't have swim practise—that she had an indoor pool in her house.
"Who has an indoor pool in their house?" I asked, still in disbelief, as we were on our way there. I was pushing my bike along as she walked. The road she lived on was single-sided; one rowed with houses and the other side had a fence that ran all the way along it, beyond it, a field of tall grass.
"Me, obviously."
"Is it heated?"
"Of course," she said proudly. Then she added: " Also, my mom will be the only one home."
A little further up the road from my house we reached a very modern looking building—two-storeys, smooth metal-handled front door, a neat and bright front yard. I propped my bike up against the front wall, trusting that in a neighbourhood as nice as this, no one would take it. Jackie pushed through the front gate and then the door, me trailing behind as I studied her house. It was twice as big as mine, and definitely newer, like it had been built in the last ten years. Through the front door, I saw that most of the rooms were openly connected. We walked straight into the living room, which was decorated in quite a minimalist fashion with a plain white couch and a loveseat and a flat screen hung on the wall. There were a few family photos on the coffee table in front of the couch but apart from that, it was sparsely decorated. There was a set of grey carpeted stairs built into the wall on the left side of the room. The living room and the kitchen were separated by a singular wall with no door—the entire layout was very modern. It made me feel scruff, so I buttoned my loose blouse up to my throat and smoothed my skirt.
"Should I, uh, take off my shoes?" I asked, motioning to my filthy trainers. I was in serious need of a new pair. The laces were trodden and greying and the material was scuffed and stained. I couldn't walk into Jackie's perfect house in them.
"Oh yeah - I forgot myself, of course, yeah take them off." She replied, also looking down at my trainers. Jackie's were perfectly white and unscathed, her laces tied in a simple knot. But she slipped them off and then kicked into a pair of slippers. A bit posh, I found myself thinking. I tried to place mine and make them look as neat as possible, but they stuck out like a sore thumb at the door beside the other clean shoes.
Jackie took me straight through to the kitchen, where I could hear the sound of the faucet running. "Mom, I'm back and I'm with Norah." Jackie announced.
The woman at the sink turned, holding her sudsy hands out in front of her. She had an apron tied around her waist and at her neck, it was flushed tightly against her motherly body, her stomach and breasts pressed against the material. Her hair was similar to Jackie's, jet black and as straight as a pin, but hers fell around her shoulders and she had a neat fringe. Her thin, upturned eyes had a honeyish tint to them which complimented her warmly coloured skin. She was only slightly shorter than I was, maybe only by an inch or two, so when she caught my eye, her lashes raised to meet my introductory gaze.
"Hello, Norah." She said, a sweet hint of an accent in her voice.
"Hello, Mrs. Reed." I said, smiling politely.
"You're the swimmer friend, right?" She kept her eyes on me as she spoke.
I nodded, "I am, ma'am."
"We're gonna use the pool, mom, so can you please bring me a towel?" Jackie asked, setting her bag down on the table.
Mrs. Reed looked from Jackie then back to me. "Do you need somewhere to change, Norah?"
"No, ma'am, I'm wearing my suit under my uniform." I replied, watching her eyes travel down my body to my blouse, as if she were innocently trying to see whether she could spot the outline of my suit beneath. It was tight and navy-coloured, I thought she might be able to.
"How about a towel?" She pressed.
I turned side-on to show her my book bag on my back, within it was my swimming towel. "Got one, but thank you."
"I need one though." Jackie piped up, looking to her mom with hopeful eyes.
The older woman nodded and passed between us, pressing a kiss to Jackie's temple as she did. She headed for the stairs. I didn't watch her go, I instead followed my friend through the polished kitchen. There was a set of sliding doors on the far side and Jackie pushed through them, me following. It led straight into a spacious pool room, walls made of tinted glass so you could see right out into her even larger back yard. The pool glowed with the lamps beneath the water, coloured a sea blue from the tiling inside it. I felt like diving in with my uniform on - it was the nicest pool I'd seen in a long time. I dropped my bag beside the wall, gazing into the wobbling water.
"Jesus, Jacks..." I muttered, already rolling off my socks.
"I admit, I thought this was the best part about the house when we moved here." Jackie grinned, unbuttoning her school blouse and tugging it off her shoulders. By that point, I had already wiggled out of my skirt and was removing my shirt with eager intent. Jackie laughed.
With my uniform off and only my usual pendant necklace dangling from my neck, I launched myself into the pool, feeling the water rush up around my body, hearing my breath and the impact in bubbles beside my ears. I turned myself, extending out my arms to feel the base of the pool. My fingertips slid against the tiling and I felt content. The need for oxygen made my body rise to the surface.
"You're the only person I know who does that." Jackie told me once I resurfaced. She'd dipped her head under and her nose was dripping.
"It's a habit now, I suppose." I said, smoothing my hair away from my face with my palm. "God, this pool is nice though."
"You're so polite in front of adults, I never knew. I don't think my mom has ever been called ma'am." Jackie giggled, wading into the centre of the pool where I was keeping up.
"My parents always taught me to address older women as ma'am or by Miss or Mrs." I said.
"You calling my mom an older woman now?" Jackie cocked her eyebrow jokingly.
I shook my head, laughing softly. "No, of course. She actually looks really young - maybe like 28 or 29?"
"Flattering for her, she's actually 36." Jackie told me. I was slightly surprised; she did look almost flawless for her age. Her face was smooth and blemish-free, she looked really only a few years older than Jackie, but her body was motherly and curvy.
"Was the ma'am thing really that weird?" I asked.
Jackie splashed me. "No, no, it was fine. Just strange to see you so polite."
"I'm always polite." I mumbled, leaning onto my back and letting my body float atop the pool.
I swayed my arms against the water, drifting away from Jackie. I hadn't seen it before, but the ceiling was also made from glass. I stared up into the dulling sky, watching the clouds slowly roll above the house, grey in hue. I wondered whether I'd get caught in it on the way home, whether I'd make it if I pedalled fast, if I stood instead of sitting. I wiggled my fingers in the warmth of the pool water. I felt Jackie was lucky; lucky that her parents could afford such a place. My parents would've laughed in my face if I'd even looked in the direction of a property with a pool. Our little townhouse barely had enough room for a gym - the one we owned being only a little larger than a closet. All I could do in there was standing exercise. I wondered whether Jacks had a gym.
I felt her hand grip my foot suddenly and I quickly flipped myself upwards, pushing my lower body back under water. Jackie was smiling at me, her mom stood beside the pool. She'd folded Jackie's towel beside my bag and was looking expectantly at me.
"Fish!" Jackie laughed. "God, you're deaf."
"Sorry... I couldn't hear underwater. What's wrong?" I asked, shooting a faux glare at Jacks.
"I was asking if you want to stay for dinner." Mrs. Reed said. I could see the corners of her mouth pulling, like she wanted to laugh. I wanted to tell her she could.
"Thank you, but it's all right, Mrs. Reed. I'll go back before it starts raining." I said, slicking my wet hair behind my ears. I could feel a bead of water sliding down the length of my nose.
"Are you sure? It's no problem." Her voice was smooth like velvet, and the accent was endearing but barely noticeable.
"I'm sure. Thank you." I replied, wiping the end of my nose with my thumb.
She looked at me a moment longer, then nodded and slipped back into the kitchen. That time, I watched her go, watching the way her long skirt brushed her shins. She was dressed so modestly, even in her own home; a long black skirt and white blouse. I supposed that she dressed like a thirty-six-year-old, even if she didn't look like one. To me, she looked more like twenty-six, younger even. Her face was just so attractively young-looking. Her age shocked me.
Jackie swam over to me, once she'd left, and looped her arm around my neck, using me as a buoy. She laid her head against mine, and chuckled softly.
"I guess you'll be coming over often now then." She said.
I stiffened. "What do you mean?"
"The pool. I can tell you love it."
I smiled. "I love the water, I love the poolhouse, I love the tiles. I love your house."
"So you're using me now for my house?" She huffed, faking her annoyance.
"Of course - I love you too, Jacks." I chuckled, and she pinched my ear, then pushing off my body into a backstroke. I turned just to catch her stick her tongue out at me, her nose scrunched, teeth bared like fangs. That girl would be the reason that everything would spiral; Jackie "Jacks" Reed.