A/N - HA! It took me long enough to update, didn't it? But I did update! Actually, this chapter's been written in a notebook for almost a week , I just hadn't gotten around to typing it until now. Hope you like it!
This chapter is dedicated to I am not a chipmunk 13 (or whatever. What happened to the 13, anyway?) who was the only person to review every chapter! Hope you like it, Annie.
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Chapter Five: The Dreaded Game of Water Polo
I awoke the next morning to the sound of my cell phone playing Metallica's Master of Puppets and vibrating on my bedside table. I groaned, reached out, flipped it open, and held it to my ear.
"Hello?" I muttered groggily, sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.
"Spazzy!" Dewey's over-enthusiastic, childish voice rang in my ears long after his exclamation ended. "Wake up! We're going on a field trip!" I held the phone away from my ear while he babbled on about something that sounded like 'waiter poll.'
"Finn, chill," Summer's voice was a welcome relief — for multiple reasons. I wanted to ask her if she was okay, but I had a shrewd suspicion that Dewey had me on speaker phone. "You're probably freaking the shit out of him."
"Tink, you take all the fun out of life," Dewey sounded upset, in the fake ouch-that-hurt-deep-inside way that I knew so very well.
"Well, at least I don't sound like an over-excited five-year-old going to the grocery store for the first time." My suspicions were confirmed when I heard what sounded like the whole band laugh. I distinctly heard Tomika, Alicia and Marta say "Burn!" in unison. Honestly, those three have hung out for so long together that I swear they can read each other's minds.
"So, what exactly is going on here?" I asked, trying to figure about exactly what this 'waiter poll' field trip was about. It was Katie who answered, because Summer was trying to apologise to Dewey.
"Dewey's taking us to the pool for the day. We're going to play water polo." Suddenly, I started to laugh, without fully realising why myself. "What's so funny?" Katie sounded indignant.
"I thought Dewey said waiter poll!" I chuckled. Then I stopped. That wasn't why I was laughing . . . Was it?
"Well . . ." Katie sounded a little bit scared. "Just get over to Dewey's as soon as you can."
"What about school?" I asked, getting out of bed and pulling on random clothes that I found on my floor. (A/N - I know, it's gross . . . ) Not like I really cared about school at all. Well, I cared about my Writing class, but that was about it. No, I just needed a distraction.
It was Summer who answered, apparently given up on apologising to Dewey.
"Don't worry, Jones," she laughed. I could almost see her smile in my mind. "Jimmy and I have got that covered."
Jimmy. I wanted to yell at her, to tell her to get out of that relationship right then and there. But the whole band was listening in. And that probably meant Jimmy, as well. Speak of the Devil . . .
"Yeah, we've got it covered, Jones." And he speaks back.
"Just get over here, Freddy," Dewey sounded perfectly fine again. "It's no fun without you."
I sighed. I imagine it sounded a lot like a hurricane to the band on speaker phone.
"Okay, I'm on my way over."
As I hung up the phone, I heard Summer talking to Dewey: "You were never even MAD at me?"
I smiled and got ready for water polo.
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"Okay, so here's how it'll go," Dewey told us as we assembled on the deck of the local pool. "It'll be all the girls and me against the guys. Alright! Let's play!"
Great. That meant I had to be on Jimmy's team. Just wonderful.
He'd already tried to get onto Summer, and we hadn't even started the game yet. We'd been waiting in the viewing are for Dewey to come out, and he'd been reading a list of the members in the various clubs. Turns out that Summer's on the competitive swim team, the synchronised swim team, and the water polo team. She was also a lifeguard, an instructor, and a pool manager. Jimmy almost had a field day with that.
"You're a manager of an awesome band, you swim, do synchro, water polo, guard, teach, and manage this place too?" He'd filled his voice with a disgusting amount of awe and admiration. "You're like, totally amazing!" Summer had smiled, gigged, and told him to shut up gently. Standing beside me, Billy had muttered,
"And you're, like, totally lame!" I'd smiled and agreed. Then Dewey'd come out and organised us into teams. And I was stuck with Jimmy.
But then again, so was everyone else on my team. It was clear that he hadn't made himself very popular the previous day. The only person who seemed warm to him was Summer.
We all got into the water. Before I even knew what was happening, a whistle had been blown and the ball was flying straight for me. I caught it hurriedly and passed it to Billy, who was nearest, who went to pass it to Zack, but was intercepted by Tomika, who passed to Alicia, who passed to Summer, who put it away into our goal without a problem. And so it went on, for at least ten minutes. The girls were good, I soon realized, as Summer somehow managed to manoeuver herself around Frankie and slam the ball into the goal for the seventh time. Dewey was hanging out at the girls net, waiting expectantly for the ball to come his way. Five minutes later, it still hadn't. The girls were faster, smarter, and smaller, which meant that we, the big, bulky guys, were to nervous to try to tackle them in fear of breaking them, while they took the ball and put it away for the eighth, ninth, tenth time. Then, the ball was coming my way. I caught it, pulled my hand back to throw it . . .
But only Jimmy was open. And I did not want to pass to Jimmy. I looked around, trying to find someone else to pass to, like Billy. But he and Zack were blocked by Marta and Alicia. Tomika was covering both Frankie and Gordon. Meanwhile, it was taking to combined efforts of Michelle and Eleni to keep Marco in check.
I waited too long. Out of nowhere, Summer tackled me, taking the ball right out of my hand and jumping up. Someone, she managed to throw it up and over so that it fell directly into Katie's hands, who'd been standing behind me, waiting.
Summer fell into the water, sinking deep underneath the surface. Without knowing what I was doing, I held out my hand to pull her back out. She took it, and I gave a tug. She broke the surface and almost flew out of the water. But someone, she ended up with an arm around my neck, her other hand held in mine and her mouth close to my ear.
"You're such a gentleman, Freddy Jones," she whispered. (A/N - This line was inspired by lucky-starz06's review of the last chapter) Then she pulled away, and I was left stunned as I turned to watch her rush to intercept a pass from Marco to Billy, and score again. I turned back to Jimmy, and was taken aback by the hatred I saw in his face. His nose was all scrunched up, like he'd smelled something awful, and he looked ready to kill. I quickly turned away. I didn't want to have to see that face anymore.
I expected him to attack me, to try and beat the life out of me for 'manhandling' his girlfriend. But he didn't take him anger out on me. Quite on the contrary, he took it out on Summer.
She had the ball. He ran/swam toward her and grabbed it. She fought. He pushed her under. He held her under. Katie screamed at him to stop, but I saw the pleasure in his eyes. As though he knew what he was doing. As though he enjoyed it.
I couldn't stop myself. I trampled him and grabbed Summer. She floated to the surface of the water, face down, and didn't move. I almost dragged her like that to the edge of the pool, but my lifeguard training took over. I executed an imperfect spinal turnover, and pulled her gently to the side of the pool. Everyone just stood there, silently, except for Katie, who scrambled out of the pool and waited for me to get there. I knew what she was doing, because she'd been in the same lifeguard training course I had been in.
When I reached the edge on the pool, Katie grabbed Summer underneath the arms and waited for me to do my bit. I took a deep breath and went under. Slipping my arm under Summer's motionless legs, I reached up with the other hand and tapped the deck. One. Two. Three.
I felt Katie give a tremendous heave, and I pushed Summer's legs up onto the deck. I jumped out to see Katie checking Summer for her heartbeat. Lifeguards were rushing over, but they stood to the sidelines, waiting for us to admit that we couldn't help Summer.
"She's got a pulse," Katie said to me. "But she isn't breathing. Should I do some AR?" I nodded, and sank back on my heels, waiting, waiting. . .
Katie breathed into Summer's mouth twice, then waited. She did it again, but nothing happened.
"She's not breathing, Freddy!" Katie actually screamed in her desperation. "It's not working!"
"Do it again!" Tears filled my eyes.
Please, Summer, I thought, taking on of her motionless hands. Come back to us.
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A/N - I know you all hate me now . . . But I'm giving you all candy instead of flowers. (Because it's winter and I've run out of flowers) (And I'm not going to say 'candy' at the end of each review because it's too difficult)
LONEGiRL7- Katie and Zack are going to have more 'fights' like that one . . And I'm glad you hate Jimmy. Because he's made to be hated.
Autumn Sunlight - I'm sorry it took me so long . . . And I'm glad you like it. And I'm glad you hate Jimmy . . .
Wyverna - You might want to tone down your Green Day a little bit . . . St. Jimmy . . Honestly . . .
Sweetcaroline - Freddy's going to win! I swear!
Nanners-77 - Sorry about that. I will try and lay off the short forms. But don't get down on me for saying AR, because that's what they actually say. I would have written in ay-ar, but that just doesn't work.
I am not a chipmunk - Oh my goodness, you make me laugh so much! And you know what . . , I might actually put the Fredmister in there, just for you! Sometime . . .
R-k-bubblez - Glad you like it!
Writing on Paper - Flowers are yummy, aren't they? Hugs back Hey . . did you realise that we can't put star things, like shift-8's, into our posts? That's evil!
Lucky-starz06 - You inspired a line in this, and it shall forever remain yours! Yay! And that was exactly the point I was trying to get across!
MyOnlyCat - Here's your update!
Thank you so much guys! I love you all!
Maddy
