Author's notes: this takes place sometime early on in TDA.
…
Sadie was swimming in the pool trying to enjoy herself. It wasn't working. She had been feeling very depressed because Justin had made a confessional yesterday about how glad he was that being in the competition kept him separated from Katie and Sadie. He went on how about how stupid and annoying they were, implied with all the subtlety of surgery with a chainsaw that they were an in the closet lesbian couple and finished off with some very unflattering remarks about Sadie's weight.
Cody was in another part of the pool and noticed how depressed Sadie looked. He decided that he was going to talk to her. He swam up to the part of the pool where Sadie was.
"Hi Sadie," he said.
"Hi Cody," Sadie returned the greeting. She wasn't sure what Cody was up to and she was depressed to care, so she decided that she'd hear whatever he had to say.
"I'm sorry about all those things Justin said yesterday," Cody said.
"Not as sorry as I am," Sadie said.
"For what it's worth," Cody began, "I'm aware of how much it sucks to have the person you're crushing over not return your feelings, so I have a vague idea of what you're going through."
Sadie thought over how Cody phrased himself and was impressed how he was sympathetic without presuming too much. She was glad about that last part, because she'd be extremely pissed at Cody if he had tried to equate Gwen's shooting him down to Justin's vicious berating.
"I know it seems like the most impossible thing in the world right now," Cody said, "but the best thing to do right now is to put Justin in the past and look towards the future."
Cody felt like a bit of hypocrite for handing out advise he was having trouble following himself. He had not completely gotten over Gwen yet, but he did feel better on the days he didn't think about her. Hopefully, Sadie would feel better if she tried not to think about Justin anymore. Getting over Justin might be pretty easy considering how he tore into her and Katie, Cody thought.
Sadie had heard what Cody said and decided that she was going to take his advice about ignoring Justin. In fact, she was going to start right now and see if there was more to Cody than just a gap-toothed geek who tried way too hard to get female attention.
"Want to go grab a bite to eat?" Sadie asked.
"Sure," Cody answered with a restrained grin. If his experience with Gwen taught him anything, it was that he might have better luck with girls if eased up on the hard sell and now he was going to put his new wisdom into practice.
