The Pool Party Resurrection

I felt like a straight-up zombie. Junior year had me operating on two hours of sleep and caffeine, and somehow Maya thought dragging me to Tyler's pool party was a good idea.

"You'll have fun," she'd said. "You need to get out there."

"I'm good," I'd said. But here I was, standing by the edge of the pool in my swim trunks, holding a red plastic cup, watching the baseball team splash around like they owned the place. Tyler, the captain, was in the deep end tossing a football to Jake. They laughed at something I couldn't hear, and I felt that familiar knot in my stomach.

I'd played baseball freshman year before quitting to focus on grades. Now I was just the quiet kid in AP classes who didn't fit in anywhere.

"Yo, Marcus!" Tyler called. "Get in here! We're playing pool baseball!"

"What?" I said.

"Baseball. In the pool. Duh," Jake said, grinning.

Before I could decline, Maya pushed me. Literally pushed me. I went under, chlorine filling my nose, and came up sputtering as everyone laughed. But not mean laughs. Real laughs.

"Okay, okay, I'm in," I said, wiping water from my eyes.

Tyler explained the rules — basically baseball but everything was floating, and you had to throw while treading water. Jake tossed me a tennis ball.

"You're up, rookie."

I aimed for the inflatable home plate across the pool. My mechanics came back like muscle memory, even in water. I threw, and the ball sailed perfectly, splashing right into the center of the target.

"Whoa!" Tyler said. "Where'd that come from?"

"Old habits," I said, suddenly feeling something I hadn't felt in a long time. Confidence.

"You played, right?"

"Freshman year. I quit."

"Why?" Jake asked, genuinely curious.

I looked around at everyone waiting for my answer. The old me would've mumbled something and changed the subject. The zombie me would've stayed home and avoided this entirely.

"I don't know," I heard myself saying. "Maybe I'm done quitting things."

"Well," Tyler said, tossing me the ball again. "Tryouts are Monday. We could use an arm like that."

I caught it. The sun was actually starting to feel good. Maya winked at me from the edge of the pool.

"I'm there," I said.

And for the first time in forever, I didn't feel dead at all.