Concrete Pond Lessons

Marcus stood at the edge of the pool, clutching the rescue tube like a shield. First day as a junior lifeguard, already questioning everything.

"Yo Marcus!" Jayden yelled from the diving board. "Check this!" He launched himself into a cannonball that soaked three sophomore girls.

"My hair!" one screeched.

"My life!" Marcus muttered.

The pool was a social minefield. He'd spent freshman year perfecting the art of invisibility in hallways, but here? Here he was supposed to be in charge.

His phone buzzed in the lifeguard office. The ethernet cable stretched across the floor like a tripwire of temptation—prohibited social media access. But Maya had DM'd him. MAYA. The girl whose spiral notebooks he'd been secretly admoring since algebra.

*Party tonight. Bring friends.*

Marcus stared at the screen. What friends? The only person he really talked to was his grandma's dog, Buster, who was currently snoring on the couch back home.

Suddenly a commotion erupted. A golden retriever had escaped its owner and was doing laps around the pool, barking joyfully at the screaming children. Half the pool was in chaos.

"Someone get that dog!" the head lifeguard shouted.

Marcus moved without thinking. He waded in, slow at first, then swimming properly, cutting through the water with determination he didn't know he had. He cornered the retriever near the shallow end, grabbed its collar, and guided the shivering animal to its relieved owner.

"Nice work, kid," Jayden said, actually sounding impressed. "You actually have a spine."

Maya's message still glowed on his phone later that night as he sat in his room, Buster at his feet. Marcus thought about the pool, about how he'd stopped treading water and actually moved. He picked up his phone and typed back.

*Can I bring just myself?*

The response came instantly. *That was the plan lol.*

Marcus smiled. Maybe summer wouldn't be so bad after all.