Poolside Prophecies

I stood at the edge of the pool, clutching my Vitamin Water like it was some magical elixir that could make me disappear. My palms were sweating so much I could practically water plants with them.

"You're going to dominate, Mia," Jax said, splashing water at me. He'd been swimming competitively since kindergarten and had those annoyingly perfect athletic genes. His palm met mine in a high-five that left me wiping my hand on my towel afterwards.

"Easy for you to say," I muttered. "Your parents didn't sign you up for lessons at age fifteen because they finally realized their only child might drown at a pool party."

It was mortifying. Everyone else had been swimming since they were basically fetuses. Meanwhile, I was still doing that awkward doggy paddle that made me look like I was fighting for my life.

"You're overthinking it," he said, floating on his back. "Just... don't think about it. Like when you're watching your weird cable shows and you just zone out."

I glared at him. First of all, my family still had basic cable because we were "old school" (aka my dad refused to pay for streaming services). Second of all, I did NOT zone out. I was very thoughtful about my TV consumption.

"My grandma says she can see things in palms," I said suddenly, desperate to change the subject. "She read mine last week and said..." I paused. Why was I telling him this? It was embarrassing.

"What?" Jax flipped over, suddenly interested. "That you'd meet a tall, dark stranger?"

"No, she said I'd have to learn to swim before the summer ended or I'd regret it forever."

He cracked up. "Your psychic grandmother predicted you'd need to learn swimming? Wow, Madam Cleo, really went out on a limb there."

But then he stopped laughing. "Wait, she actually said that?"

"She also gave me these." I pulled the bottle of gummy vitamins from my bag. "For stress. They're shaped like dinosaurs."

Jax looked at me, really looked at me, like he was seeing something new. "Okay, first of all, those are adorable. And second..." He grinned. "I'll teach you. But you have to teach me how to actually talk to girls without saying something weird about cable TV."

I laughed, and for the first time, the pool didn't look like a nightmare waiting to happen. Sometimes the weirdest predictions come true—and sometimes you find exactly what you need while holding dinosaur vitamins and talking about cable television.