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“It’s not that bad,” she said, rolling her eyes.
Better to just get it over with. I dove under the water and my nervous system freaked out.
I surfaced and my lungs struggled to remember what they were supposed to do.
“That was awful,” I said. Natalie laughed and swam out where the water was deeper.
“Sometimes things start out awful and they get wonderful,” she said, twirling in the water.
We used to pretend we were mermaids, sticking our feet together and kicking like we had tails and covering our heads with seaweed that we pretended was our hair.
“And sometimes something starts as awful and ends up more awful,” I said.
“You’re so grumpy today,” she said, swimming close to me.
“I’m not grumpy,” I said, and she laughed.
“You’re a little grumpy. You just need some salt water and some sun and some sand. And some ice cream, and then you’ll be all better,” she said.
Natalie flipped on her back and let herself float. I did the same and we floated next to each other. She grabbed my hand.
“I don’t want you to get swept away,” she said.
“I won’t.” We were both strong swimmers. Wyatt had taught me to swim by picking me up and throwing me in. That was one of the first times my parents had actually yelled at him, after I’d almost drowned.
As much as I disliked Gretchen, one thing was for sure: she loved Natalie. I remembered watching Gretchen teach Natalie to swim and wishing I had an older sister instead of an older brother.
“What are you thinking about?” Natalie asked.
“How I wish I had a sister,” I said. “But unless Wyatt comes out as trans, that’s unlikely to happen.”
“I always wished I had a brother. A little brother,” she said. “So I wasn’t the baby anymore.”
“I think everyone is unhappy with their birth order,” I said.
Natalie laughed.
“That’s probably true.”
We floated until a boat went by and stirred up the waves so much that we couldn’t float on our backs and not get hit in the face.
Natalie and I rode the waves to the shore, which was kind of surfing.
Natalie squealed and then started thrashing around.
“What’s wrong?” Stinging jellyfish were pretty uncommon, but not unheard of.
“There’s seaweed on my leg, get it off!” she squealed. She kept trying to kick it off and wasn’t having any success.
“Stop moving,” I said, and then dove under the water, opening my eyes so I could see what was going on. I pulled the seaweed off her and resurfaced.
“My hero!” Natalie said, pretending to faint.
“Thank you, thank you. I am here for all your seaweed-removing needs.”
She laughed and then hugged me.
“Thank you, Em.”
