Waterworks Part 2:

"You're going for speed." Sydney made clear above all else while Christian helped adjust his contestant's lifejacket, at the insistence of a worried mother.

Adrian laughed. "I don't think we have much to worry about."

"I'm twenty-five dollars in debt. I need to regain some ground." Sydney looked over the edge, where Mason hit the water just seconds before Rose. "Thirty dollars, now."

"Sage. You gambler, you." Adrian chided, but he had a smile in his voice.

Christian finished his task, straightening up and welcoming the two onto his slide.

"It helps if you lean back a bit," Sydney ushered Adrian forward. She warned him, "Don't fail me."

He pinched her cheek. "Wouldn't dream of it." Then he was off.

Christian and Sydney peered over the edge.

"Thirty-five," Christian said satisfactorily when the Mother-Child duo won. "I'll be a rich man before I know it."

Adrian looked up at Sydney and gave an exaggerated 'what can you do?' gesture before hauling himself out of the pool.

"So..." Christian contemplated as they waved their next takers through. He said his next words slowly, cautiously. "I'm not going to pretend I have any sway over you and Ivashkov, but I just want to get my two cents in."

"What do you mean?" Sydney asked, resisting the urge to pick at her sun burnt shoulder.

"He's a player, Syd. Not to mention his sights are clearly set on Rose." Christian paused, letting that sink in.

"I know." Sydney said, confused. "Eddie told me about him a few weeks back."

"And... sometimes, when it comes to Ivashkov, girls lose their heads." Christian finished.

"Yes, Eddie said that too." Sydney turned to check if the pool below was clear, but whipped back around just as quick, eyes wide, and said, "You think I like Adrian?"

"Well, can you blame me?" Christian put up his hands, as if in defeat. "I mean, he's been up here three times in the past thirty minutes, and he's obviously flirting."

"Flirting?" Sydney said, taken aback. "Well, alright, but he flirts with everybody. That doesn't mean I'm looking to start something with him."

"You were flirting back." Christian bluntly pointed out.

Sydney mentally reviewed their conversations. They'd been easy and quick and fun. It was refreshing to talk to someone as boyishly normal and laidback as Adrian. But she was sure she had not been flirting.

Sydney shook her head. "I wasn't."

Christian sighed. "Alright."

"I wasn't! I don't like him... like that." Sydney assured Christian and happily smirked as her team won.

"Okay. I was just voicing a friendly concern. Crisis averted. Cautionary speech: over and done with."

Adrian visited the waterslides four more times that day, and each time Sydney carefully monitored both her verbal and body language. No flirting on her end. Nada.

-0-

"Okay Sage, I've got a plan this time, and there's no way it'll go wrong." Adrian said, and-for the first time-stepped into Christian's line.

Sydney raised an eyebrow, and her lips twitched but she caught herself before she could grin. It had been several days since Christian's accusation, and the more attention she paid, the more she realized just how comfortable she was around Adrian.

"Just don't violate any safety precautions. That's all I ask." Sydney warned him.

"You got it, Sage." Adrian winked.

Sydney turned to Adrian's corresponding player and found herself looking into the glittering eyes of Lissa Dragomir. She looked as if she were going to say something, but Sydney gestured at the platform, and the other girl closed her mouth, settling for a small smile.

Sydney watched as they shot down, down, down... and then not so much.

Adrian braced his legs against the walls of the slide, and he slowed to a crawl, and then to a stop.

"That's a safety violation if I ever saw one," Christian informed Sydney before pulling out his whistle. He blew it several times, but Adrian only tilted his head and lifted a hand to his ear.

A laugh sputtered out of Sydney, growing louder and more gleeful as it came up.

Christian continued blowing his whistle while Sydney waved another swimmer through. The look Christian cut her said he thought that was cheating, but Sydney just shrugged.

"He's your problem, Ozera." She said through the last of her giggles.

Adrian finally dislodged himself, but only after four of her patrons splashed into the summer warm water and her debt was drastically reduced. Things only went uphill from there, and for the first time in days she didn't owe anything.

Christian had finished sulking and was going on about the uselessness of whistles (and how maybe they should be replaced with their more effective cousin, the blow dart) when Adrian appeared at the front of the line again.

"No." Was all Christian said.

Adrian made no effort to board Christian's slide, heading instead for Sydney. "So?" He leaned against the slick wooden rail of the tower, letting the man behind him go in his stead.

Sydney allowed a toothy grin. "Much appreciated. Although, one more second and Christian would've called management."

Adrian shrugged. "Nothing is ever gained without risk."

"I'm winning now."

"Then I would say it was a risk well worth taking."

-0-

"A water park?" Carly laughed.

Sydney tucked the phone in the crook between her shoulder and ear while she inspected herself in the mirror. "You should see me, Carly. I don't think I've ever been this red in my life. Or this smelly."

Carly laughed again. "So, have you saved anyone's life yet?"

"Nope. In fact, I've found that lifeguarding is more conducive to developing elaborate murder plots than actually guarding lives." Sydney rotated her shoulder, watching the pink skin shift.

So. Freaking. Sunburned.

"What about the boys? There's got to be something on that front."

"I've made some friends."

"And...?"

"That's it." Sydney took the phone back into her hand and bent over, searching for the aloe. After a beat, she added. "I swear!"

"Uh-huh." Carly said drily. "What aren't you telling me."

"Nothing!" Sydney smiled. "And honestly, I could go without looking at bare-chested men all day. It gets pretty disgusting. Makes it hard to care about getting romantically entangled."

"Then tell me about these... friends."

"Well, there's Kristin-"

"Just the boy ones, please." Carly clarified.

Sydney huffed and rolled her eyes. "I man the waterslides with a guy named Christian. I eat lunch with a boy named Eddie. I think I've made friends with a customer named Adrian. The manager, Marcus, is cool, but he thinks he's funnier than he really is."

Carly ordered, "Elaborate."

"He's always laughing at his own jokes, and-"

"Not about Marcus. Talk about Eddie."

"There's definitely nothing going on with Eddie. He's completely gaga over someone else." Sydney slid under the covers. "And so are Christian and Adrian."

"Uh-huh. That's a damn convenient explanation. Now, again, what aren't you telling me?"

"Why would I lie about this?" Sydney pulled the covers up around her neck.

"Maybe you should tell me about the girls." Carly sounded forlorn.

"Nothing on that front, either, sis." Sydney smiled.

"Well, the minute there's movement on any front, you call me."

"Got it."

"Uh-huh."

"I love you."

"I love you too. Goodnight, Sydney."

-0-

The lunch that had once consisted of just Eddie and she had added three fellow guards. Trey and Brayden were both teens working summer jobs, like her. Then, there was Dimitri. Over six feet tall and well into his twenties, he worked during the school year as a security guard at a private institution. He, too, was just here for the summer.

She didn't have a romantic interest in any of them (a statement that went unbelieved by Carly), but Sydney was quick to notice that, with the addition of these boys, came the addition of girls. Namely, Rose.

"I think I get it now," Sydney told Eddie after lunch one day. "I get why the popular kids come here. Rose comes because Dimitri works here, and they just follow."

Eddie appraised the group they'd left behind and nodded. "I'd say you're correct."

"Do you think Adrian realizes?" Sydney asked after a moment.

"He's not an idiot. He knows." Eddie sounded sure in this.

-0-

Sydney stood on the sidewalk outside of the employee door, completely floored.

She didn't know how long she'd simply been standing there before Adrian waved a hand in front of her face and said, "Sage."

"Ivashkov." Sydney blinked out of her stupor. "It's almost five o'clock. What are you doing here?"

"I stayed a bit longer than usual." Adrian sighed. "I'm not in the mood to be giving bratty teenagers rides home. Unless said teenager is Rose, which it never is." He rambled on, talking less and less to Sydney and more to himself. "But... even if it was Rose, I don't know if I'd give her a ride. All she'd say is 'Dimitri this, Dimitri that. Do you think he likes me? Sigh. I think he does.'" Adrian reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette, a nasty habit of his Sydney had noticed. "You know Belikov. Do you think he likes her?"

"It's hard to tell with Dimitri." Sydney shrugged.

"What you mean is, yes." Adrian sighed.

Sydney shrugged again. "He's more indulgent of her rule breaking than of other girls, but that doesn't mean he likes her."

"Right." Adrian sighed again.

"I don't think it's healthy to sigh as much as you've been. Especially not while smoking." Sydney started the trek to the parking lot. Unfortunately (stupidly) employee parking was as far away from the employee entrance as possible.

"What about you? What's got you so out of it?" Adrian changed the subject.

"Oh, um..." Sydney bit her lip. "I think I just got asked out on a date."

Adrian's eyebrows went up, and he laughed. "You're not sure?"

"I'm mostly sure it's a date." Sydney said defensively.

"What, you've never been asked out before." He sounded sarcastic, but a moment later he only sounded surprised. "You've never been asked out before?"

Sydney pursed her lips. "No. I haven't."

"Well, then, lay the drama on me. I'll figure it out for you."

Happy Sydrian Week! Hope I'm not too late (again).