I could tell she resented it, though she didn’t say anything. Oliver’s… I just can’t bring myself to say “Dad”, sister, my new aunt, is taking me to school before she goes to her job and picks me up after school. My school is too far from the grandparent’s house to walk. Thankfully, there’s only a few weeks left before summer break. The downside of summer is that my new dad wants to enroll me in some activities.

The week at school went pretty normal. I’m still friends with Brandy though the light behind her eyes have been long gone. It’s not that she’s a zombie or anything, but she’s just an everyday ten year old girl. Emily never returned.

I knew something was up as I climbed inside Aunt Christine’s car on Friday afternoon. That grin always means something’s up. And the fact that she was wearing a bathing suit was another giveaway.

“Hey squirt,” she said with a grin. “It’s Friday and I’ve got something fun planned for today.” She held up a child’s bathing suit and said, “We’re going swimming at the Y. We have to wait until school’s out to go the county pool.” It had a colorful tie-dye look. Mom would say it was cute.

I held up the suit. “You expect me to wear this?”

My aunt frowned at me. “Of course, silly. It’s a one piece. I figured you’d object to a bikini.”

I frowned at the bathing suit. “I don’t know how to swim. I’ll get sunburned. I’ll… I’ll… “

Aunt Christine laughed. “It’s an indoor pool, goofus. They’ve got lifeguards and a shallow section just for kids. I know I just kinda sprung this on you, but I got a call from my boyfriend this morning asking if I could go swimming. He promised his little brother he’d take him. Don’t look at me like that. You’ll like his brother. I think he’s eleven and he likes those stupid Japanese cartoons that you like.”

I frowned. “They’re not stupid and they’re not cartoons. If you…”

Aunt Christine interrupted by waving her hand dismissively. “Look. I really don’t care. Let me finish what I was going to say.” She sucked in a deep breath. “Anyway… We’ll only spend around an hour to an hour and a half in the pool. Then we move outside to the park by the Y and grab a table near the pond. Pete… that’s my boyfriend, has packed a picnic dinner for us. Just sandwiches and kool-aid. He’s bringing a baseball so you guys can play catch. Sound like fun?”

I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter since I’m a prisoner in your car and have no choice.”

Aunt Christine looked over at me and shook her head. “Girl, you need to stop being such a gloomy gus or you’ll never get a boy.”

I grunted. “That’s the plan.”

A few minutes later, we found ourselves parked at the Y. “Look. There they are waiting for us. Oh look. Pete’s brother is cutie.” Aunt Christine held my bathing suit in front of my face. “Take it. Let’s go.”

As we approached, Pete grinned and waved. Pete was wearing green swim trunks, a t-shirt and sunglasses. “Hey Chrissie! Is that your little sister?” Pete and his brother were facing directly into the sun and were squinting at us.

She put her hands on my shoulders and stood behind me. “Guys, I’d like you to meet my niece Chrystal. She’s staying at our house while her mother and my brother are on their honeymoon.”

Pete grinned at me. “Cool. That’s always interesting… mixing families and all.” He reached over and mussed up his brother’s longish blond hair. “And this is my little brother Aaron.”

Still squinting, Aaron cocked his head to one side. “Hiya.” He had on red trunks and a blue baseball jersey style t-shirt that had a big picture of a chocolate cookie in the middle with the word “Oreos” across the top. They were both wearing flip flops.

Pete shrugged and pointed his head towards the entrance to the building. “Well, let’s go swim.”

Aunt Christine took my hand and we followed Pete into the building. As we walked towards the entrance, Aunt Christine leaned over and whispered, “That Aaron is a cutie.”

Shrugging, I said, “Whatever.”

We had to sign in as Pete’s guests and then we were shown where I could go change. I was the only one of us not already wearing a swim suit.

We weren’t completely alone in the changing area. While we were all girls, I was still embarrassed to change in the presence of others.

When we got to the pool, Pete and Aaron dove right in and splashing around. My aunt walked down the steps at the shallow end and just eased into the water. I stood at the top of the steps and dipped a toe in.

“I thought you said this pool was heated,” I whined.

Pete laughed and said, “Just jump in!”

Aaron shouted, “Don’t be a wuss!”

I looked around and there were kids younger than me jumping around and laughing while they splashed around. Learning how to swim was one of the things I never got around to doing. At this end of the pool, I could easily stand up in the water. So I thought, to hell with it, sucked in a deep breath and closed my eyes and just jumped in. Damn that was cold at first!

I bobbed up to the surface and sputtered. I looked over at Aunt Christine. She smiled and said, “There you go! See? It’s not bad.”

She was right. I started to enjoy being in the water. It made me think about the last time I was in a pool. I was probably about this same age. It was at the public pool where there were things to climb on, and slides and big circle where a current carried you through. Dad was with me those times. Memories of all the fun we had at the pool flooded my mind. I grinned at those memories as I started to splash around. There were no toys or slides at this pool, but it was still wet.

Calling from the deep end of the pool, Aaron shouted, “Hey Chrystal! Can you swim?” He beckoned me to the deep end.

I had walked to about as deep as I could go with the water up to my chin. I shouted back, “No. Sorry.”

Pete said, “Chrissie, they have swimming lessons here. You might tell her mother about them.”

My aunt swam past me. “Is that something you’d be interested in, Chrys?”

I nodded. “I would.”

My aunt grinned at me. “I’ll tell your Mom about it.” I could tell her myself. I guess since I’m a kid she thinks I’ll forget.

For the next hour, I have to admit I had a lot of fun. Not just splashing about, but Aaron took my hand and guided me around where my feet couldn’t reach the bottom. At first I was scared, but he didn’t do anything to try to scare me. Eventually, I felt safe and confident with him.

Grinning at me, Aaron said, “You should definitely take lessons. I don’t think it’d take you long to learn at all.”

“You think so?” I asked as I glided through the water while he held my hand.

He nodded. “Oh yeah.” He showed me how to tread water and do a “deadman’s float” As he guided me around, we talked about our favorite science fiction and monster movies. He knew almost as much as me and took sci-fi seriously. I’m not that much into comics, but I was impressed that his dad has the #1 issue of Spiderman. He keeps it in a plastic bag and won’t let him touch it. Despite the fact that he’s a boy, I actually like Aaron.

Pete and Aunt Christine decided it was time to get out of the pool and have our picnic. That was fine with me as the pool had been invaded by a gaggle of little brats who all seemed to have very shrill squeals.

Pete and Aaron took a handle each of the big ice chest and carried it down to a picnic table next to the lake. Pete opened the chest and announced, “Okay. We have ham, ham and cheese and bologna. And we’ve got mustard, ketchup, relish and cheese slices. And we got cherry and grape Kool-aid. Just grab what you want.”

I sat next to Aaron after grabbing a bologna sandwich. Pete poured some cherry Kool-aid into a cup for me. I don’t even remember the last time I had meal like this. It was just a lot of fun. I was really enjoying being a kid.

Aaron took a bite of his sandwich and turned to look at me. “You know, Chrys. You’re very pretty. You’re the only girl I know who likes Attack on Titan” Our bare legs touched as we sat at the table.

I tensed and stared straight ahead. Why did he have to say I was pretty? I just said quietly, “Thanks.”

I wanted the mustard and it was in front of Aaron. I started to reach for it, but he said, “I’ll get it for you.” As he turned when he picked the mustard bottle up to hand to me, we were almost nose to nose. He looked deep into my eyes and I smiled weakly at him. And then he leaned in towards me.

This can’t be happening! I tried to turn away...

To be continued…