Drawn

  I shook my head. Nope. Not a morning swim.

  “Get up and get dressed,” she said. “We’ve got to find them.”

  “I’ll go check the pool.”

  “Not alone, you won’t.”

  I grabbed my shirt and pants off the chair and took them into the bathroom with my toiletries bag. While I brushed my teeth I replayed the night before in my head.

  They couldn’t still be at the pool, could they? Did they all fall asleep there? Did they sleep at all?

  The stomach-sucking image of Damon dunking Mandy popped into my head.

  No. He wouldn’t do that.

  I left the bathroom to find Mrs. Teele in nothing but a slip and knee highs. I looked out the window.

  “Why in the world did I sleep in my clothes last night?” Mrs. Teele asked.

  “You were really tired.”

  “I don’t even remember going to bed.”

  I watched her pull on an elastic-waist skirt and a fresh blouse, and remembered what we did.

  We lied to Hirsch.

  We drugged Mia’s mother.

  We snuck out and had a pool party. Coed. And un-chaperoned.

  I sat down on the bed.

  But Damon called me his girlfriend. I knew now what Pam meant when she said that kissing Mark made everything else worth it.

  “Come on, let’s go,” Mrs. Teele called to me as she dug around in her purse. “Where’s the room key?”

  Oh, no.

  “Here it is.”

  It is?

  The Do Not Disturb sign hung on the inside of the doorknob. It fluttered to the floor when Mrs. Teele threw the door open.

  She held me by the arm as we walked to the elevator.

  “I can keep up.”

  “I’m not losing track of you, too.”

  “I’m sure they’re fine.”

  She clucked her tongue. “They won’t be when I get a hold of them.”

  We went straight to the pool. As we powerwalked past the front desk, Mrs. Teele asked the receptionist if she’d seen any teenagers. The lady shook her head. “But I just came on.”

  Outside, the abandoned pool reflected the morning sky and fanned a brilliant sunbeam across our faces. I shielded my eyes and checked for evidence. Damon’s shirt was gone. No towels. No beach ball.

  Right there is where he dunked me.

  “Where could they be?” Mrs. Teele’s voice cracked.

  “Don’t worry. Wherever they are, they have to be together. That’s good, right?”

  Hirsch came out the side door. “I’m glad to see you’re still here, Miss Brynn. How is it you got left behind?”

  “I really don’t know.”

  “Betty, do you have any idea what time they went out?”

  She shook her head. “I slept like the dead last night. I do remember Juliet getting up to go to the bathroom.” She turned to me. “What time was that?”

  “Probably about 1:00.”

  Mrs. Teele turned to Hirsch. “It had to be after that. Or Juliet would’ve noticed they were gone.”

  I bit my tongue and felt about two inches tall.

  “I never heard a thing,” Hirsch said. “Those boys must’ve snuck around like church mice.”

  Whatever, Mr. Lumberjack. “Could they be at breakfast?”

  We turned around and headed back into the hotel. In the lobby, the desk clerk smiled and pointed with her thumb toward the hall that led away from the elevators and pool. “They’re in the atrium.”

  Mrs. Teele let go of me and ran down the hallway.

  “They might’ve left a note,” Hirsch muttered.

  We heard their voices as soon as we turned the corner. By the time we got to the breakfast room, Mrs. Teele was already scolding Mia in a shrill, mother-hen cackle that didn’t seem to require her to stop for breath.

  I didn’t see any of the Ballards, just our team and a group of women at a table in the corner. None of the guys wore shirts.

  Mrs. Teele reached over and lifted up the back of Mia’s shirt. “You’re wearing a swimsuit. You didn’t tell me you were packing a swimsuit. Why did you bring a swimsuit?”

  Mia looked up at her mother and blinked once, slowly. “To go swimming.”

  “But it’s dry.” Mrs. Teele looked over at Hirsch.

  “Boys. Stand up,” he commanded them.

  The guys all looked at each other. Lucas turned bright, summer-crimson red.

  “Now!”

  They scooted their chairs back and stood up.

  I put my hand over my mouth as Mrs. Teele gasped, “Lucas Emberry!”

  Hirsch walked over to the table and rubbed the outside corner of Damon’s trunks between his fingers. “Dry.”

  Maybe Hirsch and Mrs. Teele would think they hadn’t gone to the pool yet.

  Then I saw the pile of towels on the floor beside the table.

  And so did Hirsch. He grabbed one. “These are pretty wet.”

  “Can we sit down?” Erik asked.

  “Please do,” Hirsch said and shook his head at Lucas. “I want to know what’s going on here.”

  No one said anything right away. Mia looked at me.

  “Miss Brynn?” Hirsch asked.

  “We went swimming last night,” Damon jumped in. “After you went to bed.”

  Mrs. Teele gasped again. “Alone?”

  “We were together,” Kim told her.

  “But no adults? Someone could have drowned! Or worse!”

  Hirsch pulled a chair up to the table and sat down backwards in it. He folded his arms over the back of the chair. “If you swam last night, why are you still in your swimsuits this morning?”

  The guys all looked at each other again. “We forgot to take the room key,” Erik said.

  Hirsch dropped his head down on his arms. “You forgot the key. Why didn’t you just knock on the door?”

  “We did,” Lucas told him. “We tried calling, too.”

  “You must sleep pretty sound,” Damon said.

  “And you didn’t go to the desk for help why?” Hirsch asked.

  Erik’s mouth opened, then closed. “Oh,” he said. “Didn’t think of that. We just decided to keep swimming.”

  Hirsch’s head rocked back and forth on his forearms.

  Mrs. Teele folded her arms and tapped her toe on the floor. “That story’s a little fishy. All of you forgot to take keys?” she looked down at Mia.

  “No,” Mia said. “We took ours.”

  “No, you didn’t. I have it.”

  Kim looked up at me. “We came back to see if Juliet wanted to come to breakfast with us. But she was sleeping so sound, we didn’t want to wake her.”

  “Thoughtful of you.” Hirsch took a deep breath and growled it out as he looked at each of us one at a time. “So am I to understand that Juliet is the only one who got any sleep last night?”

  The others all shifted in their seats and looked at the table.

  “We are going to the finals today. We have a shot at going to nationals in January, and five out of six people on my team stayed up all night.”

  “Sorry, Mr. Hirschman,” Kim muttered.

  His mustache twitched, the way it does when he’s really, really mad.

  “Mia Elizabeth Teele, I’m simply shocked,” her mother said.

  “I didn’t make out with anybody in the pool, if that’s what you’re worried about. Not like some other people,” Mia said and took a bite of donut.

  Some other people?

  Her mother gasped again.

  Hirsch stood up and put his fingers in his ears. “La la la la la. I don’t want to hear any more. No one’s saying anything. Eat breakfast, and get upstairs to change. We check out in forty-five minutes.”

  Some people made out in the pool?

  “Juliet, dear,” Mrs. Teele said. “Why don’t you go get something to eat?”

  Who made out in the pool?

  I stumbled over to the counter and got a cereal bowl.

  Maybe it was Erik and Polly. Or
Lucas and Kim. Who else could it have been?

  I grabbed a box of corn flakes and a half pint of milk. I had to get Mia and Kim alone and find out what happened.

  At the table Damon and Kim scooted apart to make room for me.

  I sat down in the chair Hirsch abandoned. Damon just gave me a sheepish smile and said, “Morning.”

  Then we heard voices in the hall. I recognized Mandy’s over all of them. Ballard’s team entered the atrium in a cluster. Polly smiled and waved at Erik. The guys all headed straight for the food counter. Mandy came in last.

  She stared right at Damon and gave him this enormous, eye-batting smile.

  And she had his shirt on.

  * * * * *

  I burped six times in third stall of the service hallway bathroom.

  The door swung open and Mrs. Teele called my name.

  “I’m fine. Please go away.”

  “I can’t leave you here alone.”

  “I’m not a kid,” I told her, as another wave of nausea welled up.

  She clucked her tongue. “You sound just like Mia.”

  I gagged and choked everything back down.

  “Oh, dear. Are you sick?”

  The mental image of Mandy’s ample chest pushing out the words Dive and ProS on Damon’s shirt induced another spasm in my stomach.

  No. Think about something else.

  A different picture. I needed something else in my head. A Doberman.

  A Doberman?

  As I forced myself to think about Dobermans instead of Mandy or Damon, or Mandy and Damon, the eruptions in my stomach settled down some. I flushed and went to the sink.

  “I’m fine,” I assured Mrs. Teele.

  “It’s a good thing you stayed in last night if you’re still not feeling well.”

  “Just give me a minute, okay?”

  Her mouth twisted to one side of her face.

  “Really. You shouldn’t miss breakfast on my account.”

  She nodded. “Don’t be too long.”

  She left and I washed my hands, then swished some water around in my mouth and patted more on my cheeks and forehead.

  “I’ll bet Mandy’s sitting next to Damon. Or on his lap.” I swallowed down another burst of bile and imagined a football field full of Dobermans.

  Fine. Let her.

  Dobermans. Big, snarling, man-eating Dobermans. With fangs. Sharp, bloody ones.

  “If I had a Doberman I would train him to attack on the command, ‘Eat Damon’.”

  I took a deep breath and pushed open the bathroom door.

  My right foot took a step, but the left one didn’t want to cooperate. “Do not fall apart here.” I convinced my body to take me back to breakfast.

  Mandy stood in front of Damon and chattered at him. She played with the sleeves of his shirt where it lay against her arms. He tried to get my attention, but I ignored him. I went to the counter and poured a cup of coffee. My hand shook as I dribbled cream into it.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Damon stand up.

  I grabbed my cup and headed for the doorway.

  “Julie!”

  Deep breath. Big smile. Calm Cool Laugh.

  I turned around. “Yes?”

  “Where are you going?”

  Up to my room to cry my eyes out over you, you stupid, cheating, lying, worthless, big, fat, stupid, stinking boy!

  I cleared my throat and smiled bigger. “Up to get ready.”

  “I’ll walk up with you.”

  “No, thank you.”

  He frowned. “I want to talk to you. About last night.”

  “No, thank you.” I turned and made for the elevator.

  But Damon never gave up that easily. “Wait!”

  I stopped and spun around to face him. My jaw started to quiver, so I took a drink of coffee to buy myself a few seconds. I swallowed and dropped the smile.

  “You don’t get to tell me what to do, Damon Kyle Sheppard. And this conversation is over.”

  Geezow, who am I?

  I took the last few steps to the elevator and punched the button. The car door opened immediately. Thank you, God.

  I stepped in without one more look at him.

  And when I got to the room I realized I forgot to get the key.

  * * * * *

  We all carried our bags across the street in silence. The other kids yawned and rubbed their eyes. I could’ve used a few more hours of sleep, so I could only imagine how crummy they felt.

  Good. I hope Damon is totally miserable.

  All the final matches took place in the main auditorium, a cavernous room that could’ve held a rock concert. The TV stations set up their cameras, and people already filled in the chairs ten and twenty deep around the stage, even though the first heats wouldn’t start for another half an hour. Hirsch pointed out our assigned seats in the first row, all the way to the right, then took us to our prep room down the hall.

  “Time for a pep talk from the coach,” Erik muttered.

  Erik, you rotten traitor. I glared at him.

  Hirsch closed the door and told us to sit down. “I’m wholeheartedly disappointed in five of you.”

  Kim sneaked a look at me and tipped her head a little.

  “I will be very surprised if you even score fifty points today,” Hirsch continued. “None of you, save Juliet, are in any shape to compete, and these are the toughest schools in the state.”

  The door opened and Mrs. Teele came in with a tray full of coffee cups. Hirsch nodded to her and she passed them out.

  “With cream and sugar, dear,” she said and smiled as she handed me mine.

  “I like cream and sugar, too,” Kim said.

  Mrs. Teele turned to Kim and her smile flipped upside-down. “The rest of you get black. Strong, hot, and black.”

  I accidently glanced at Damon and he grinned at me, so I looked away and took a drink.

  “Juliet, you are the only one who will not be getting a bad report home when we get back,” Hirsch said to me, and gave me a thumbs-up. “Maybe you can carry the day.”

  I took a big breath and blew it out. The weight of becoming Hirsch’s and Mrs. Teele’s pet added to the pressure and shame that everyone else knew the truth.

  “Then I should get a bad report, too.” I took a drink and peeked at Hirsch over my cup.

  He scowled. “For what?”

  “For the same thing as them. Mostly.” I glared at Damon. “I left before the making out started.”

  Damon tipped his head to one side, stupidity all over his face.

  Hirsch closed his eyes. “Not talking. Not using those words. Not hearing.”

  Mrs. Teele put the tray on the desk. “But you were in bed this morning. You were in the room last night.”

  I took another drink. “I just got in when you saw me. I was by myself.”

  “Oh!” She put both her palms on her forehead.

  Every time I didn’t think Mrs. Teele could look any more horrified, she proved me wrong.

  Hirsch’s chin dropped to his chest. “My last ember of faith in today’s youth has been expunged.”

  An official knocked at the door. “Fifteen minutes. If you could make your way back to the auditorium.”

  “Come on, then,” Hirsch said, and held the door open.

  Everyone filed out, but I stayed in my chair and picked at a piece of fuzz on the upholstery. Everything inside me hurt, as if invisible hands wrung all my organs like washcloths. He’s completely stupid over you, Erik said.

  Right.

  I’m the one who’s completely stupid.

  “Miss Brynn?” Hirsch called. “Are you joining us?”

  With the bathroom-pass expression on my face, I asked Hirsch if I could have a minute.

  “What’s wrong?”

  The tears started to pool in my eyelids. I shook my head.

  Hirsch sent the others out, then sat down across from me. “Want to tell me what happened last night?”

  I shook my head.


  He crossed his arms over his chest. “How scandalized would I be?”

  I shrugged. “Nothing happened while I was there.”

  “Something’s going on between you and Mr. Sheppard, though.”

  “Geez!” I banged my fists on the armrests. “Nothing happened!”

  He stretched his arm across the back of the couch. “No one’s accusing you of anything. And it’s a perfectly natural thing, anyway.”

  “What is?”

  “A boy and a girl being attracted to each other.”

  It’s Dad all over again.

  “But I’ll let you in on a little-known secret about boys.”

  Here it comes.

  “We’re fairly stupid,” he whispered. “At least when it comes to the fairer sex.”

  “What?”

  “Whatever put your nose out of joint, I can assure you with a superior degree of confidence that Damon Sheppard hasn’t the first, faintest, foggiest clue what it was.”

  I rolled my eyes as the tears spilled. “Right.”

  “Did it have to do with that little sassafras from Ballard?”

  I nodded.

  “And that she had his shirt on this morning?”

  My eyes squinched shut.

  When I opened them again, Hirsch leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. “She snookered that from him last night.”

  “What?” I wiped my cheekbones with the balls of my hands.

  “I talked to their coach this morning. After you fled breakfast.” He pulled a tissue out of a box on the desk and handed it to me. “One of Ballard’s chaperones woke up last night and found them gone. She went to the pool and corralled everybody back to their rooms. Mandy grabbed that shirt on the way out. It wasn’t till this morning the chaperone realized it wasn’t Mandy’s.”

  She stole it from him.

  My muscles unknotted and my stomach unclenched.

  “Talk to Damon,” Hirsch advised me. “Don’t ever assume he knows what’s going on, because he almost never will.”

  “I was really mean to him this morning,” I said.

  Hirsch clapped me on the shoulder as we stood up. “He’ll get over it.”

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  “A man doesn’t stay married to the same woman for twenty-seven years without learning a thing or two.”

  * * * * *

  In the front row, behind a big Parnell Junior High School banner, our team sat in the same order as yesterday. The one empty chair put me between Erik and Damon again. Erik sat with a huge smirk on his huge face. Damon watched me walk toward him like he thought I might pull a shotgun out of my bag and take aim.

  Ten minutes ago, if I’d had one, I might have.

  No Ballard anywhere. Hopefully they’d left.

  I sat down, but couldn’t make myself look at Damon, much as I needed to apologize.