Author's Note: Yeah, I know chapter one is little strange, but bare with me. I lost the PM that had all the ideas that Autumn gave me, but I do remember one briefly, so hopefully I can find the PM! But, enjoy, and happy reading!

Chapter One: Swimming Lessons

"Don't let go!"

"I won't, I promise."

Everyone had the day off today, and Lucas Grabeel was teaching Angel Robinson how to swim (she never learned while being in the hospital).

Or, rather, he was trying to teach her how to swim!

Lucas was holding Angel while being in the country club pool, and Angel was staring at the water fearfully.

"Are you sure?" Angel asked, and Lucas smiled.

"I'm sure. But, you need to trust me. Alright?"

Angel nodded, and Lucas placed her in the water, and Angel started to whimper.

"Trust me, remember? I'd never let anything happen to you."

Lucas let go of Angel, and Angel began to splash around, and pretty soon, he heard her laugh.

He realized she learned how to doggy paddle, and Lucas began to laugh himself as Angel swam laps around him.

"Well, aren't you a little fish? We should call you 'Angelfish'." Lucas suggested, grinning, and Angel glanced up at him.

"No! I want to be a mermaid."

Last night, Ashley Tisdale gotten her hands on a copy of The Little Mermaid (the newer version, with Ashley's music video in it), and Lucas, Angel, and Ashley sat down and watched it in the lounge.

"A mermaid, huh? You don't want to be an Angelfish? I think it suits you better than a mermaid." Lucas replied, and he saw Angel's eyes light up.

"Wait! I don't want to be a mermaid! I want to be a princess!"

Lucas chuckled at the reference to Princess Tiki.

"Okay, so let me get this straight: you don't want to be an Angelfish or a mermaid, but a princess instead?"

"Yeah!"

The things kids say these days, right?

"Well, Ariel is a princess, remember?"

Angel stopped doing laps around Lucas to look at him.

"Yeah..."

"So, you can still be a princess and a mermaid."

If anyone else saw this, they might have thought that Lucas was crazy: but, Angel was only six-years old, so explaining that a mermaid was really a princess wasn't really that crazy after all.

"You're teaching Angel how to swim?"

Lucas and Angel looked up to see Ashley looming over to them, and Lucas smiled at her.

"Yeah. I figured why start now than later?"

Angel swam over to Ashley, while calling out, "Ashley Tisdale! Come in the water with me and Lucas!"

Ashley laughed as she looked at the little girl.

"I'd love too, Angel. But, I don't think I have the proper attire."

Lucas looked at Ashley's outfit, and smirked: a baby-doll shirt with a white tank-top, jeans, and flip-flops.

Angel noticed Ashley's outfit, and frowned.

"Oh."

"But, I can stick my feet in the water, though." Ashley said, kicking off her flip-flops, and placing her feet in the water, making the little girl feel slightly better.

She then looked at Lucas.

"Well, it's nice that you're teaching her, but what about her...problem?"

Lucas sighed at the word, problem.

"I'm watching out for her, don't worry."

Ashley gave him a look that read, I hope so, and Lucas shook his head as he looked back at Angel, who was still swimming around.

It looked to Lucas that she didn't want to get out just then, but it didn't seem that way when Lucas started the lesson.

He smiled when he saw that she got the hang of swimming on her back: let's see if she wanted to go on her back.

"Hey, Angel. Ready to swim on your back?" Lucas asked, and Angel looked at him.

"I don't know...it sounds scary. What if I drown?"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ashley trying to hold a laugh in, but then he returned his gaze towards Angel.

"It isn't scary. Look, I'll show you."

Lucas got on his back, and Angel giggled when he kicked his feet, and swam around her.

"Yay! I wanna try! I wanna try!"

For the next half-hour, Lucas taught everything (that was simple and easy for her to do) on her back, that when it was time to get out, Angel didn't want to leave: the very opposite of what the beginning of the lesson was.

"It's time to get out, Angel." Lucas stated, starting to climb up the pool steps, and Angel just just stood here, not moving.

"No. I like it in here." Angel explained, and Ashley smirked.

"Looks like we got ourselves a water bug."

Lucas sighed as Ashley headed back towards the hotel, and got back into the water to fetch Angel.

"Angel, you're going to get sick if you stay in the pool for too long. Come on: it's time to get out."

"No!"

It almost seemed to match the time that Angel wouldn't come out of the playhouse at the hospital because she didn't want to see her social worker, so Zac had to say that they were serving cookies in the cafeteria.

"Okay, have it your way: but, if you stay in there, me and Ashley will have to watch the new movie she got just for you."

Angel raised an eyebrow.

"What is that, Lucas Grabeel?" she asked.

"Oh, nothing speical...just Fox And The Hound 2." Lucas explained, and he smiled when Angel slowly started to swim over to him.

"Don't leave me..."

At that point, Lucas knew a sob would break out soon, and he went back into the pool to fetch her.

"I'm not going to leave you. You need to follow some rules around here, and that means when one of us says it's time to get out, understand? Otherwise, something bad will happen to you, and we don't want that."

Angel nodded as she took hold of Lucas' hand, and Lucas helped her get dried off and clothed, and they headed towards the hotel to see Ashley.

Ashley smirked when she saw them in the doorway.

"I thought she wanted to stay in longer."

Lucas shook his head as he released her hand, and Angel went to go sit down next to Ashley.

"No. I told her we're going to be watching Fox And The Hound 2 tonight, so she got out."

Ashley nodded as Lucas setted up the movie, and then went to go sit next to Angel, so she was in between them.

As the movie played, Lucas thought about what he said to Angel:

If he ever did lose her, he didn't know what he'd do.

And he wasn't prepared to lose her just yet.