Electric Summer

I stood frozen at the edge of Maya's pool, chlorine stinging my nose. Every pore of my thirteen-year-old body screamed wrong place, wrong time.

"You coming in or what?" Tyler called out, doing that obnoxious cannonball thing that sends water everywhere. He'd been a total jerk all summer, ever since he'd hit his growth spurt and decided he owned the neighborhood.

My hair was already frizzing in the humidity. Mom had spent twenty minutes straightening it that morning, because apparently looking good for people I'd known since kindergarten was now my life's mission. I smoothed my palm against my temple, feeling the dampness gathering there.

Swimming had never been my thing. While other kids were doing laps and diving for rings at the community center, I'd been the one sitting on the edge, feet dangling, pretending I was just "taking a break." Again and again.

The sky chose that moment to crack open.

Lightning split the sky—this jagged, brilliant white line that made everyone gasp. A collective oh damn rippled through the partygoers as the first fat drops of rain began splashing into the pool.

Everyone rushed toward the patio umbrella, but I stayed standing there, rain plastering my hair to my forehead, my shirt to my skin. And suddenly, I didn't care. The humidity that had been making me feel gross and sticky now felt like freedom.

I dove in.

The water was shocking and perfect, rain creating ripples everywhere I surfaced. When I came up for air, Tyler was staring.

"That's actually kinda cool," he admitted, almost sounding like a normal person for once.

Maya grinned from under the umbrella. "Told you she'd come around eventually."

I swam to the edge, resting my arms on the concrete, rain and pool water dripping from my nose. My hair was a disaster. My mascara was probably running. But as lightning flashed again, turning everything purple and momentary, I realized something important:

I could keep worrying about everything, or I could just be the person who jumped in first.

"Race you to the other side," I said.

Tyler didn't even hesitate. "You're going down."

Bull. But sometimes that's exactly what you need to hear.