"Payton? Want to go have chicken fights?" Ruth yelled into the room.

Since the whole 'wave jumping incedent' I had stayed inside in my room and messed around on my laptop.

"We're talking chicken fights in the pool right?"

"Yep."

"'kay. I'll be down in a minute." I called back. She left. I shut my computer down and went to put my hair up in a bun, this way no one could pull it.

For those of you who don't know, Chicken Fights, at least that's what we call them, are when one person gets up on another's shoulders and tries to push an opponent who is on another person's shoulders off. The bottom people also fight. It can get nasty in this house, since all of us are so competitive. Just look at the parent's poker games! I used to be partnered up with James Goode for when we played at home, but his family didn't come since his brother is looking at colleges.

I threw on another bathing suit since I had changed out of mine. It was just a simple bikini, the only thing that set it apart from others and made it stand out, was it's color. It was the perfect shade of blue, and with the help of my dark lashes, it made my eyes pop, like more than usual.

I practically ran down to the pool since the ground was hot and I forgot flip flops, but whatever.

"Payton! You're my partner." Shane called.

"'kay. Just don't let me drown." I joked. I noticed he tensed, but then he relaxed.

It made sense, my partner wasn't her and neither was his since he usually paired with Colleen, James's sister.

"We're doing a tournament." Griffin said coming up to us. "And you two are playing Lena and I in the second first round. But there is a game before us."

"Who's before us?" I asked.

"Cole and Claire against Joe and Thalie." He said then turned to the pool area on whole, "Palmer and Flynn kids, report to pool. You guys are up first."

This round really wasn't that interesting after all the two top players didn't want to fight, Claire because she is so sweet and Natalia because she 'didn't want to break a nail'. I'm not sure if I said this before, but Natalia is a bit of a slut, nice girl and all, but a bit of a slut. To her appereance is everything. That is probably the reason she doesn't like me too much. See, the first time I met her, I had just had a feild hockey game, so I wasn't really sweaty, but you could tell I was a bit, and my hair was screwed up and I was still in uniform... but that's a story for another day.

Anyway, Cole and Claire won, because Cole kept pushing until Joe ended up in the deep end and fell. So they won and moved onto the next round. Now it was my turn.

I climbed, well descended, but you know what I mean, into the pool. When the water was around my waist, fear coursed through me, but I ignored it and mounted Shane's shoulders.

I'm going to tell you something about myself. Do I have fears, yes. Do I let them keep me from living, no. So even though, I was completely freaked out from earlier when I nearly drowned, I faced my fear. That's what I do, I face fears.

Lena and I locked hands and started trying to push each other off. We were about the same size, so it wasn't easy. She hated to lose, which gave her the extra boost. And she was starting to win, but Shane was winning against Griffin, so it was a tie.

"Pay. Cause a distraction." Shane said quietly, I'm not sure if I heard him right, but whatever...

I looked around the pool, no parents. Perfect. "Hey, Griffin." I said, he looked up, but kept fighting. So I hooked my finger in the front of my bikini top. I pulled on it a little, but just enough to see the white part of my boob, where it didn't tan. That was enough though. He froze and Shane over powered him. We won. I felt kind of dirty, but we won, and it was among friends, so I let it go. Plus I didn't really do anything.

We waited through the rest of the games. Now we were against the Palmers. That game was over quick. Claire was just to sweet. And if you haven't figured it out, I play to win. When I was younger, that meant using brute force, now it is strategy... So yes, it seemed as though I was losing at first, but I was just waiting for her to let her guard down and think she was about to win, then I turned on the brute force that I still know how to use and shoved her off her brother. We won.

Now we just had to wait for two more games then we play for the championship.

Jake and Thalia Bowden overpowered Annie and Emily. But in turn the two Bowden's were overpowered by Ruth and Kelsey Hunter. That meant we were up. Shane and I against Ruth and Kelsey. Great.

Ruth was crazy aggressive, then again her brother could be when he wants too as well, but he knows how to turn it off, she doesn't. Kelsey was obsessed with winning. Her whole family was.

Story time! One time Mrs. Hunter was saying how amazing she was at volleyball and how she led her high school team to regional's. Sure they were out in the second round, but whatever. She was saying all this to my mom, who would just nod and smile. But I saw the smirk. My mom had done the same for her team. The difference? My mom got on the team out of a pool of over five thousand students and Mrs. Hunter was out of like five hundred if that. But whatever. Oh. And my mom went on to nationals, but whatever. Who was keeping track.

Okay. On with the chicken fights. Once again I found myself in the water. Shane swam between my legs and stood up, me on his shoulders. And the fight began. This one was probably the longest fight. The lead kept going to the other team. No one could stay in front. Then Ruth, got smart, or stupid, depending on how you look at it. She went to punch her brother, who hit her hand. However, Ruth's punch, origanally aimed at his chest, hit him in the nose. His head slammed back, right between my legs.

For any girl who hasn't experienced a crotch shot, it still hurts, even though we aren't guy. And Shane had a hard head. I fell backwards, but I kept my legs wrapped under Shane's shoulders. I had done gymnastics for almost ten years, so I was flexible and had good muscles, plus I did a bunch of different types of dance, so I was really flexible.

I waited for the pain to subside and then I got mad. Scratch that. I wasn't mad. I was pissed. I sat back up. And now I just used brute strength like Ruth was doing. Ruth relied on her large size. I was tall and skinny, but not beanpole skinny, and I used muscle, strength and strategy. Which let me tell you, in all cases, if you had to pick between a stupid brute and a smart strong person, go with the stupid one. They punch blindly, sure the hits hurt more, but the smart person, would go for pressure points and sensitive spots.

So while Ruth was punching Shane's rock hard chest, I started to hit pressure points on Kelsey. How did I know a ton of pressure points? I'm a nerd okay. I know this type of useless information. Anyway. I his a bunch, including one on the back of her neck which made her crumple up and fall over off Ruth.

"And we win. Thank you very much." I yelled to the crowd. Everyone cheered and laughed, except for Ruth and Kelsey.

I looked down and Shane. He was looking up at me and I met his eyes. He was smiling at me and I smiled back.

"Ready?" He asked.

"For what?" I asked back.

"This." He smirked.

He unwrapped my legs and stood me on his shoulders. I complied and made it easy for him. He walked over to where it starts getting deep. Held out his arms. I looked at him uncertain. I weighed like 120 lbs. there was no way he could lift me.

"Go ahead." I did as he wanted. He lifted me above his head, by feet on his hands. He bent his arms and then shot them up. I went flying into the deep end.

I who wasn't ready got a bunch of water up my nose, but not in my lungs. I was pretty goo with staying under water for a while, so I figured I would freak him out. So I stayed under.

It took him less than ten seconds to dive in after me. He didn't see me, since I swam behind him. My bathing suit matched the lining perfectly... I guess that helped a bit. I swan up to him. I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck.

He turned around in my arms (and legs) so he was now facing me. His face went from worried to relieved to annoyed to playful. He wrapped one of his arms around my lower back. With the other he reached up and with one of his fingers, he touched my eyelid, and moved his finger down, I slid it shut. Out of my other eye, he nodded. I closed the other.

I felt us move up, then out of the water. He swam and then I was on the pavement/patio, whatever. I heard him climb out after me. We had only been underwater for less than a minute, but it seemed longer.

"Really Shane! Twice! Now it's your fault!" Cassidy yelled at him.

"Calm down! I saved her once, I can do it again." And with that he pressed his lips to mine.