“Hey, Madison!” Penny said with a wave. She had already changed into her bathing suit and was in the process of tying her long brown hair up into a bun. Most of us tried to keepour hair as dry as possible throughout the shift to save us the pain of washing it after work every single day. Not to mention the damage that having chlorine-soaked hair for eight hours straight could inflict on your hair. Last summer, when my hair was still dyed pink instead of its natural blonde, keeping it dry had been even more important because every time it got wet, it meant that the color faded that much faster. Granted, I ended up taking the pink out near the beginning of the school year anyway when I hung out with Sabrina and realized she also had part of her hair dyed pink. I would never admit it, but I thought she pulled it off way better than I ever could—and it suited her aesthetic better anyway—so I’d decided not to keep it anymore. Maybe once I was done working here for the summer and went off to university, I would dye it some other color, but for the time being, keeping it natural seemed like the easiest option.
“Hey, Penny!” I replied. “How’s it going?”
“Pretty good,” she said with a small nod. “You?”
I shrugged with one shoulder. “Same.”
I hung my bag up on one of the hooks and started taking off my outer layer, so I was left just in my bathing suit, then grabbed my whistle from my bag. It was already attached to an elastic, so all I had to do was put it on my arm.
“How was your school year?” I asked. Penny was one of those friends that I didn’t really talk to outside of when we worked together, so other than the few social media posts I’d seen from her, I had no idea what was going on in her life.
“It was…” She paused. “Eventful.”
I tilted my head. “Eventful? That doesn’t sound great.”
“Some of it was great. Some of it not so much.” She shook her head. “I’ll tell you about it later. The short version is that I have a new boyfriend.”
“Intriguing. I look forward to it.”
Penny laughed, then looked toward the pool door.
“Ready to face the beast?”
“Never,” I said. “But I guess we have to, right?”
“Unfortunately.”
We walked onto the pool deck. The smell of chlorine washed over me, so familiar and comforting as if it was welcoming me back after time away. Although I went to Bayshore and the pool was in the building, I rarely got the opportunity to go swimming. I wasn’t on any sports teams that used the pool and I’d stopped taking gym class after the one mandatory semester of it in the ninth grade, so I mostly only came in here when I was teaching during the summer.
A group of other instructors and lifeguards were sitting on the built-in benches along the left-hand wall, so Penny and I immediately walked over to join them. To do that, we had to pass the glass window of the manager’s office, and I glanced inside quickly. The head of the swimming program, Kelly Pearce, was in there, along with who I assumed was the lifeguard supervisor and Courtney. Luckily, none of them noticed me looking in, and I quickly averted my gaze before they had the chance to do so. No need to make uncomfortable eye contact first thing in the morning—Courtney would find some way to turn that into a fault from me, and I didn’t need to deal with that right now.
“What did you put as your preferred levels?” Penny asked me.
“Uh…” I thought back to the intake form I had to fill out before starting. “Honestly, I don’t remember exactly. I think I said the middle levels? Like four to seven.”
At the beginning of every session, we filled out a form stating what swim levels and ages we preferred to teach. Obviously, there was no guarantee that we would get what we requested since it depended on everyone’s responses and what kids signed up for, but I appreciated that they at least attempted to placeus with the right levels. Last summer, Courtney sometimes purposely gave me levels I didn’t request just to make me angry.
“Penny! Madison!” One of the instructors we worked with last year, Thomas, jumped up and jogged over to meet us when we were almost at the benches and gave us each a hug. “How’s it going?”
“Not too bad,” Penny said. “You?”
“Doing all right, doing all right,” he said with a nod. “Graduated high school, so no complaints there.”
“Same here,” I said. I held my hand up for a high-five, and he obliged. “What school are you going to?”
“I’m actually going to the States,” he said. “NYU.”
Penny whistled. “Damn.”
Thomas grinned at her. “You ready for your senior year, Penny?”
She grimaced and shook her head. Thomas and I both laughed.
“Don’t worry, it won’t be that bad,” I said.
“You mean other than the insane pressure?” Penny asked sarcastically. “Yeah, I’m sure it will be a breeze.”
Behind us, the door to the manager’s office swung open and Kelly marched out, followed by Courtney and the lifeguard supervisor. The three of us quickly hurried over to the benches and sat down alongside everyone else. Kelly was very sweet, but she also ran a tight ship and we knew what was expected of us. A quick glance at everyone sitting there told me that there were no new hires this year, or at least none of them were working this session.
