Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight...though I'd love to have Jacob or Edward XD
And it'd be great if someone could give me some feedback...XD
Katie Sanders
It was dark again, darker than it had been the night before. Normally this didn't bother me; yet tonight some sixth sense told me that I ought to be very frightened indeed. They were coming for me now, really coming. And yet, even as I ran through the forest, I was not afraid. Because I knew he was there, somehow. The wolf was here to protect me...
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing The annoying sound of my alarm jerked me roughly from my dream, or, more accurately, nightmare, bringing me into a brand new summer day much earlier than I'd have liked. I glanced over at the clock sitting at the far end of the wooden bookshelf at the foot of my canopy bed, internally cursing as I read the time which was broadcasted in bright blue numbers: 7:30 am.
At the beginning of the summer, when my boss, Tim, had asked me if I wanted to pick up an extra dollar per hour and a few more shifts, I'd said yes right away, without thinking of the consequences. For example, the whole-getting-up-at-the-crack-of-dawn-factor. That certainly hadn't been mentioned in my job description.
But still, I'd made a commitment, and actually did enjoy making a couple extra bucks to spend. Plus, it wasn't as though being a lifeguard and swim instructor was a particularly difficult job. Lifeguarding was 98 sitting in a chair and getting tan; and I honestly enjoyed bouncing around with the little tykes early in the morning. Still, I had to remind myself of this "love" for my job as I hauled my lazy butt out of bed, and stumbled over to my chest of drawers. I'd been working for just two weeks this summer already, but I already had my morning routine down pat. Probably because it never changed, except for every other Friday, and sometimes weekends, but really, hardly enough to break a routine.
Therefore, it was hardly necessary for me to waste "valuable" time trying to figure out what to wear, mostly because I knew what I'd wind up in anyway, the required staff uniform- a red bathing suit with the word "GUARD" stamped across the front, over which I'd throw red shorts and a white "Staff" t-shirt, which was way too big for me, despite being a small. After running over to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth, I hurried back to my room to grab my stuff. I barely even looked at myself in the mirror as I hastily brushed my long, dark-blonde, hair and pulled it back into a ponytail, mostly because I figured that the kids I taught really wouldn't (or shouldn't) care that much about what I looked like while teaching them, and I'd just be jumping right in the water anyway, so really, any attempt to make myself look halfway decent would be entirely wasted in the long run.
Having hurriedly thrown some clothes on, I grabbed my faded black Adidas drawstring bag, chucking my wallet, car keys, cell phone, whistle, and towel into it, and darted downstairs, fully aware of the fact that I was just barely going to make my 7:45 call time. On my way past the kitchen, I grabbed a back of cinnamon Poptarts- mostly because I knew I'd be hungry later while at the pool, and my friend Ice-cream Truck Man didn't come until at least two, sometimes after.
I ran out into my car- a beat up white Toyota Camry- threw my stuff into the passenger seat, fished my keys out, and started the engine. Another glance at the clock told me that I was indeed going to be late for shift. Still, the pool I was working at today was only about five minutes away. I reminded myself of this as I took off out of the driveway, speeding down my quiet street.
I was right about being late-I ran into the facility about five minutes after I was supposed to be there. Of all four pools that Glouster Parks and Recreation has, Groto is probably my favorite one to work it. It's close to my house for one thing, and in a quiet neighborhood so guarding's always easy, but it's also surrounded completely by woods, which makes my hour long breaks pass by much quicker than they should. It's not as fancy as Terry, but then, it's not as crowded either. The pool itself is fairly small, maybe about 25 yards long, with a springboard at the "deep" end (personally, I thought that 10 feet hardly qualified as deep enough, even for the tiny board that we had, and had the list of first aid calls to prove it, but year after year, I was overruled..) Plus, the people running it are all college students, approximately my age, which is awesome, because we can be more, er, relaxed about following little nitpicky technical rules and no one's around to care. For example, at Terry, the head guard would have given me a long lecture on my tardiness, but, since she was often late for work herself, our head guard, Laura, didn't really care. Besides, only a few of my kids had gotten there, and technically lessons didn't actually start until 8, and we couldn't really start until then, so life was good...sort of. Laura and Paul had made fun of my slightly deshelved entrance, but that was just how we all were. And the third instructor, Will, was even later than I was.
And so it was with in a much improved mood that I greeted my first class of the day- a scrawny, nervous-looking bunch of level ones. "Hi guys! I'm Katie Sanders, and I'll be your instructor for the next two weeks. Now, I'm going to start out by taking attendance, and when I call your name, I want you to shout out your favorite flavor of ice-cream, ok?" I held my clipboard up and began reading names off the list, one after the other, smiling at the various ice-cream flavors. You could tell a lot about someone from their ice cream preference- and I could tell that this was going to be one unique group of kids- I hadn't even known there was such a thing as banana ice cream.
Having finally completed attendance, I smiled at my new class, "Ok level ones, it's nice to meet you! So, tell me, how many of you have ever taken a swim lesson before?" About two in the group raised their hands. Joy. Majority of newbies.
However, I simply smiled more encouragingly and said, "That's wonderful! We have some new and old students here! Now, I want to let you know here and now that if you're ever uncomfortable with anything in this class, you should tell me- I pinky promise that I will NEVER make you do anything you don't wanna do, ok?" Some of the students looked visibly more relieved, and I continued, "So, without further ado, I want you guys to leave your towels here, and follow me over to the shallow end of the pool, while walking." I placed extra emphases on the word, hoping to illustrate the importance for them. "Who here knows why it's so important to walk?"
A small boy with a short blonde hair cut raised his hand, and I pointed to him, "Cause the lifeguards yell at you if you don't!"
I had to fight back a chuckle, "This is true, but who here knows why the lifeguard will yell at you? Can anyone think of any reason why running would be unsafe?"
A taller girl with brown pigtails and a bright green bathing suit raised her hand. I pointed to her. "'aCause we could slip and fall and scrape our knees."
I smiled at her, "Exactly! We always walk while on the pool deck because it can get very slippery, and the last thing I want to happen is to have one of you hurt, so it's very, very important that we WALK whenever near water."
By this point, we'd finally reached the shallow end. I sat down on the poolside, legs dangling over the side, and motioned for the kids to do the same. "Come on guys, sit, sit! Ok, we're going to start out by just getting wet. Stick your toes in! Come on, those toes wanna be in the water! Let's go!"
It took nearly fifteen minutes to get all the kids in the water- hardly surprising, considering it was a level one, but frustrating nonetheless. Still, I kept a bright smile on my face as I encouraged the group to stick their ears in the water, and "listen to the fishes".
Once the initial tensions had passed, the lesson began progressing somewhat faster- in more ways then one. Mostly it had to do with the fact that the kids were beginning to feel somewhat comfortable in the water, and they began to pick up what I could teach them in the last ten minutes rather rapidly. After I finally dismissed them, with a smile and a, "I'm very proud of you all, it's been a very productive first day! Good job!", I hurried over to the bench to grab my towel, and my clipboard, ready to take on whatever lesson Laura was planning to stick on me next.