Friday 26th August

Again, it was another scorching hot day and it got to the point where we were all drinking every five minutes, but despite that, it didn't help very much, so we ended up asking Rosie what we could do to cool down and she replied with, "Well, maybe there is something."

"What is it?" Wendy asked.

"You'll just have to see."

About twenty minutes later, she came back downstairs with a box and for a moment, I got excited, but then I thought, no, that box is way too big. However, it turned out I was right because when Rosie got out a pair of scissors and cut open the box, inside it was a massive inflatable pool with an air pump and everything. Rosie said that it would take a while to blow up and then it had to be filled, so she said we could all have a popsicle each. Mine was a twister that was red, purple and blue. I loved it, but unfortunately, it was so hot outside that it melted at the bottom and it dribbled all over my fingers, so I had to lick them quickly.

Soon, I wanted another one, but would probably suggest to Rosie that she was wasting money even though six popsicles for £1.50 was a great buy. Despite that the pool wasn't filled up yet, me and Lemmy went through our closet and found two pairs of trunks that managed to fit us both perfectly. We went back out into the backyard again and there were three cans of Rio on the table under the gazebo, so we both sat down and drank.

Rosie said that they had just come out of the fridge, so no wonder there was condensation on the sides of the cans. Soon, the pool was filled up and me and Lemmy instantly got up, ran up the grass and stopped. I got in first. The water was just the right temperature for hot weather. I then knelt up in the water and helped Lemmy into the pool because it was quite high up and he was quite short. We both sat back, leant against the side and closed our eyes. The next thing I heard was a country song playing from inside the house and I knew that Rosie had been working on a CD to play during the summer and that it was going to have lots of summer songs on it as well.

Even after a few seconds of the song playing, I was in the vibe already. I still had the taste of Rio in my mouth and the cold water all but chilled me out. I made sure I didn't fall asleep because my head would probably slip off the edge of the pool and I would drown, that's if Lemmy would've also fallen asleep in the hot sun as well, of course. After a while, I opened my eyes again, but for some reason, they felt really heavy and when I looked down, Wendy was sitting in the pool. I was thinking that she would class herself as too grown up for a pool like this, I mean, she was a year older than me, but sure enough, she was there and she looked pretty down.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Rosie said I was being unsociable 'cause I was on my phone." Wendy replied. "So she took it away."

"So, you're down because Rosie took your phone off you?"

"No, it's not as simple as that. I was…uh…" Now she looked really sad. "I was trying to text Iggy."

Me and Lemmy looked at each other. Last night, Rosie had told us that no phones were allowed in prison cells.

"Um, sorry to break this to you," I said, biting my lip. "But I don't think Iggy's going to reply to those messages."

"Why not?"

"Rosie told us you're not allowed phones in prison."

Wendy's face dropped. "No phones?" she asked. "Not even iPods or smartwatches?"

"I don't think so." I replied.

Wendy stared ahead for a few seconds before saying, "I'm going to get another popsicle." and she got out of the pool, wrapped a towel round herself and went back into the house. I felt awful for telling the truth, but I had to otherwise Wendy would've been the only one who didn't know. However, there was one thing that we forgot to tell her. We could receive occasional letters from Iggy, but now I suspected that Wendy was crying in her room, thinking that none of us would be able to contact him in any way and Iguess that's why she left us looking so upset.

Me and Lemmy tried not to worry about it and we still had fun in the pool by making up lots of competitions on who could stay underwater for longer and we played a few games of Marco Polo as well. I think today was the day I've spent the longest in water. Four hours straight. I don't think it counts me being in water when Mom was pregnant with me because I hadn't even been born yet. I looked down at my hands. My fingers felt really uncomfortable and withered from being in the pool for so long, so me and Lemmy grabbed our towels, stepped out of the water and wrapped ourselves in them.

Despite the sun still being out a bit, we were shivering. I think it was the fact that it was four in the afternoon and we had just got out of a cold pool. When we had stopped dripping, we dried ourselves and got changed back into our normal clothes. Shortly after that, I got a text from Ludwig saying he was bored and that he wondered if we could buy a takeaway and hang out together. Rosie said I could, but then I remembered that I was now living in a house that was right in the middle of town, so I said to Ludwig that I was going to wait for him near the fabric store.

I had already told him all about Iggy going to prison and that now I was living with Rosie. At one point, he said that he felt bad for me, but I had no idea what he was talking about because I loved it here. Eventually, we both met up and as we walked through the parking lot, Ludwig said to me, "Why's your hair wet?"

"Oh, I've been sitting in a pool all afternoon." I replied.

As we journeyed up the hill to the local chippy, we talked about the things we had done since we last saw each other. Eventually, we reached the chippy and I realised that I didn't have enough money to pay for a battered sausage, but Ludwig nudged me and said that he had enough, so he gave the coins to me. After that, we took our food to our Primary School recreation ground and ate it. We also played chilling music, which got us into full on summer evening vibes. Then , we started to get silly but I wasn't sure why.

Maybe we had purchased energy drinks by mistake, but surely the people selling the drinks would've known that. By 'getting silly', I meant not doing illegal stuff, I meant doing things like pretending that our drinks were beer and we giggled at our battered sausages and imagined them as some other things… Also, we made funny videos which contained our food and I had to try not to laugh behind the camera. When we watched the videos back on my phone, we laughed really hard.

Despite that the Rio we were drinking wasn't caffeinated, we were both full of energy, so we decided to make hilarious YouTube shorts and post them online. We watched them back and agreed that the sunset had made the videos look more effective and that the viewers would like them. After a while, I began to imagine what jail would be like if you were allowed phones. If only Iggy would be able to see me having fun, but I think it would probably make him want to be free more. I didn't worry about it and we both had fun all evening until Rosie texted me and said that I had to be home by nine o'clock, so I asked her if Ludwig could hang out at home for a while and it was a yes.

Even though it was summer, it was already dark when we returned home. When it was time for Ludwig to go, Rosie asked him, "Are you sure you're okay walking home? It's quite dark out there. You don't want me to drive you?"

Ludwig looked out the window, then Rosie, and back again. "Actually," he said after some thought. "I think I'd rather be driven, thanks."

While Rosie was gone, I took a shower and dressed in my pyjamas. After that, I decided to sit on the couch and watch YTPs. As I was looking through YouTube, I saw a YTP of an animated show which was made in Wales. I vaguely remembered watching it as a kid and it felt great to see it again, except that it had been edited and the episode had a whole different context to that of the original. I decided not to show Rosie some of the YTPs I had watched because there were some rude parts in them, but I can never tell how stern she's going to be with me because when you're a little kid, you get told off for doing something like that, but as a twelve year-old, I would probably get told off, but in a joking way.

Luckily for me, Rosie's in her mid twenties, so surely she must still have a little bit of immaturity left in her. I turned off my phone because I was quite tired, but unfortunately, I wasn't far from trouble. As I got off the couch to put my phone on charge in the corner of the room, my elbow caught on the edge of a cup on the coffee table and I knocked it over. The cup fell on the floor and water spilled everywhere. Lemmy was sitting on an armchair next to me and for a moment, we just stared at each other open mouthed.

We had to clean it all up before Rosie got back and we considered that it was a bad idea to ask Wendy to help because she would only ignore us and I was tired, but me and Lemmy did our best to clean up the water. It was when there was only a little bit to clean up when Rosie's car pulled into the driveway and we only just sat down in time when she opened the door. After a while, me and Lemmy decided to go up to bed because my eyes felt really heavy and as we said goodnight, Rosie gave us both a big, caring hug and kissed us on the cheek.

Then we dragged ourselves to bed, but Lemmy talked to me about my trip out with Ludwig when the lights were off and my eyes were closed, and when we got tired of talking, we whispered. I must've fallen into a light sleep for about a minute because I got woken up by the door opening and Wendy was standing in the doorway.

"Can you guys keep it down?" she hissed over to us.

Lemmy spoke up. "Sorry, sis, my fault. It wasn't Larry, he fell asleep."

At this point, I was really confused, so I muttered, "Did I?"

"Um, yeah, you did."

Ever since I had been old enough to understand Biology, I've noticed that I have confusions whether I'm asleep or awake. I don't know what happens. Maybe there's some kind of triggering in my brain at a certain time at night. Whatever it is, I hate it because it bewilders the hell out of me, but unfortunately, I have to live with it. Or maybe people just pick a really poor time to wake me up. Wendy closed the door and we heard her stomping back to her bedroom.

What I thought was funny was that Lemmy said sorry to me because he thought that he had bored me to sleep by talking too much.

"No." I replied. "I was just really tired."

"Oh, okay." Lemmy said. "You should've said. I know I talk a lot, but I never know when to stop."

I gave a little laugh as I closed my eyes and I got comfortable to sleep.