Fox at the Pool

The chlorine smell hit me before I even opened the gate. Another Saturday at the Ridgewood pool, another day of trying not to look like I'd rather be literally anywhere else.

"Yo, Harper!" Marcus waved from the deep end, splashing water everywhere. "You coming in or what?"

I hesitated, touching my hair self-consciously. Mom had talked me into trying that new purple shampoo to "bring out my natural highlights" but instead I looked like a grape exploded on my head. Great. Just great.

Then I saw her. Fox.

Okay, her actual name was Phoebe, but everyone called her Fox because she was cunning and quick and impossible to catch. She had this messy-bun situation that looked effortless while mine just looked tragic. She was reading near the shallow end, legs dangling in the water, completely unbothered.

"Vitamin D time," I muttered to myself, fishing the bottle out of my bag. Mom was obsessed with me taking them since I "never went outside." The irony wasn't lost on me as I stood there in direct sunlight.

I swallowed one dry and nearly choked.

"You good?" Fox was looking at me now. Actually looking at me.

"Fine," I croaked. Smooth, Harper. So smooth.

She laughed, and it was this real laugh, not the fake giggle popular girls did. "Need water?"

"Yes, please."

And just like that, I was sitting next to Fox by the pool, talking about everything and nothing. She told me she hated her hair too, how she wished she could pull off short hair but was too chicken to try it. I told her about the purple shampoo disaster.

"Dude," she said. "At least you can pull it off. I tried blue last summer and looked like a walking bruise for weeks."

Marcus did a cannonball nearby, soaking us both. We screamed.

"My vitamin!" I yelled, fished in my bag. The bottle had fallen in the puddle. "They're gonna taste like pool water now."

Fox grabbed a gummy from the bottle. "Challenge accepted." She ate it. "Tastes like victory."

I couldn't help it. I laughed. Really laughed.

"So," Fox said, "same time next week?"

"Definitely," I said, and I actually meant it.

As I walked home, hair still vaguely purple and smelling like chlorine, I realized something: Sometimes the most embarrassing moments become the best stories. And sometimes a fox at the pool turns out to be exactly who you needed to meet.