Acting Out (12 page)

“Really?” I'd figured she was glad to get rid of me.

“Of course. I want everyone to finish. I'd hoped Lauren would at least stay in and keep learning, but she decided she'd rather wait till next year to try the class again. And that's okay. All I want to do is to prepare every single person in my class to become a good lifeguard.”

“I promise—you won't even recognize me in class from now on. It'll be like I'm a completely different person,” I managed to say with a straight face.

Alex raised her eyebrows. “Okay. But one tiny slipup, and I don't ever want to see your face again.”

“Thanks, Alex!” She let me go, and I raced up the steps toward our cabin. Everyone else would be happy to hear the news. And I was good at something, really good. Wouldn't my parents be thrilled when I wrote them about that?

“Today we're going to do a submerged rescue,” said Alex. “What do you think that means?”

“When you're under the water?” guessed Mei.

“Well, yes. It's when your drowning victim has gone under, and you have to go underwater to complete the rescue.” Alex kept talking, explaining how this was different from a rescue where the victim was splashing around and still conscious. I sat quietly and listened.

For once I felt like I could relax. I didn't have to be “on” the whole time, trying to come up with a joke. Everyone knew I was on probation, and one slip-up would get me kicked out again. It was great to finally have an excuse to be good.

Alex demonstrated how we were supposed to swim down to our victim and wrap the rescue tube around her before bringing her up to the surface.

“Okay, let's pair up. One of you will be the victim, and the other is the rescuer. If you're the victim, I want you to go under toward the bottom of the lake and then float there. When the rescuer approaches you, stay passive, like you're unconscious.”

Claudia threw me a quick glance, like she expected me to make a joke about that. I looked back at her with my lips pressed together as if they were glued shut.

Shelby and Courtney were the first ones to try it. Shelby dove in, came up for a quick breath, and then did a surface dive. Courtney stayed on the dock, holding the red foam rescue tube and waiting until Alex blew her whistle. Then she wrapped the tube around her waist and jumped in.

Alex had told us that the tricky part would be forcing the tube underwater. It was made to float, and so it took a lot of strength to get it to submerge. We watched Courtney struggle with it. She looked like she was wrestling a giant hot dog. Meanwhile, poor Shelby was probably turning blue near the bottom of the lake.

After a couple of minutes Shelby bobbed to the surface and took a breath. “What's going on?” she asked.

“Sorry. This is really hard,” said Courtney.

Alex told Shelby to get out for a few seconds while she jumped in and showed Courtney how to submerge the tube. But even after watching Alex, Courtney still had trouble doing it.

“Okay, let's mix things up a little.” Alex climbed up the ladder and handed me the tube. “Courtney, this time I want you to be the victim.”

Courtney dove under and stayed there. Alex signaled me to jump in and save her. I wrapped the tube around my waist and jumped in, bobbing up again quickly because the tube made me float. Then I pulled the tube into the water vertically the way Alex had shown Courtney.

The tube started to float back up, but I forced it down with all my strength. Once I had the whole thing below the surface, it was a little easier to control. I kept a firm grip on it while I swam down to where Courtney was floating.

Now the tricky part was getting the tube in between me and Courtney. It kept trying to float up to the surface. And I could only hold on to the tube with one hand because I had to grab Courtney with my other arm. After a few seconds I had the tube in place, and I swam back up to the surface, bringing my victim along with me.

When we both came up, everyone applauded and cheered. “Excellent! That's exactly how it's done!” said Alex.

Then she made me get out and demonstrate to everyone how I'd done it. I felt pretty good that I'd done it right the first time. After I gave them all a few tips, she sent Mei and Claudia in to try it. Mei was the rescuer, and she had as much trouble getting the tube under as Courtney had.

In fact, everyone had a hard time with this exercise. It was one of the hardest things we'd done so far. Every time someone was struggling, Alex told me to get in and show them how to do it. At first I thought it was pretty cool that she was asking me to show everyone how to submerge the tube. But then it occurred to me: She wasn't letting me help her teach the class. She was being especially hard on me to make sure I knew she was the boss. It didn't take long till I was completely exhausted.

So this was how it was going to be. She'd let me back in the class, but she was going to torture me the whole time. Why did I want to put myself through this?

“Okay. That's enough for today. I'll see you guys during free swim, right?” Alex asked us as we got our towels and dried ourselves off. She expected all of us to show up later to do some of our service hours, helping the swim staff lifeguard during free swim.

“Yes,” Shelby and Courtney replied. The rest of us groaned.

We were walking away when Alex called me back. “JD, I want to talk to you for a minute.” My shoulders slumped. Why couldn't she leave me alone?

When Mei and Courtney tried to hang around and wait for me, Alex told them I would catch up with them later, so they left me alone with her.

“You thought I was pretty hard on you today, didn't you?” she asked me.

“Yes,” I said, looking her in the eye. I had to obey her. I didn't have to like her.

“You know why I asked so much of you?”

“To keep me in line. Maybe to punish me a little for causing trouble in the past.”

“No, that's not it at all. You're the only one who could do that exercise so easily. Maybe I do expect more of you, but that's because you can do more. I doubt Mei ever would've been able to submerge that tube if you hadn't kept showing her how.”

I didn't say anything. “Well, that's all I wanted to say. You did a great job today. For the first time you performed up to the level of your ability.”

Then she let me go. As I walked away, I couldn't help smiling. Now I knew how Justin and Adam must feel, being the best at something. When camp was over, I could brag to both of them about what a great swimmer I was. I knew they'd be proud of me.

But then I wondered, would hearing about my great success make Justin feel even worse about his own problems?

“Every cabin needs to enter at least one act. You've got almost a whole week to get ready, but first you guys should decide who's going to enter,” said Michelle.

“I nominate JD!” Courtney called out.

“Great idea! She'd be perfect!” said Amber.

“Wait a second, you guys!” I told them. “I didn't agree to this.”

“Oh, JD, you'd be great!” exclaimed Michelle. “What kind of act are you going to do?”

“Something funny,” Amber said. “If JD's doing it, it'll definitely be funny.”

One minute Michelle was explaining to us that a talent show was coming up next week. The next minute
I'd
been picked to represent the whole cabin.

“Are any of you guys talented?” I asked, jumping up on Michelle's bed and looking over at Side B.

“Not me.” Isabel shook her head.

“I can whistle,” said Meredith.

“I could do impressions of all the people in camp I hate,” offered Katherine.

“You do it, JD,” said Mei. “You're the obvious choice.”

I plopped down on Michelle's bed. “What if I don't want to? What if I say no?”

“Well, somebody needs to step up, because every cabin is supposed to participate. So be thinking about it. Make it fun,” Michelle said. “Now all you guys need to go to the dining hall so Alex and I can hide.”

On the way to the dining hall we saw a bunch of counselors wandering around. They were waiting for us to go inside before they went to their hiding places.

The best part about the Fourth of July was that we didn't have any regular activities all day, which meant we got a day off from Guard Start. This morning we'd had a capture-the-flag game with the Juniors and Middlers playing against the Seniors. We won. Now it was time for the counselor hunt.

Inside the dining hall Eda explained the rules to us. “Counselors can hide anywhere on the camp property, but they cannot leave camp. No hiding in the stables, either, because it bothers the horses. Each counselor is worth a certain number of points based on how many years she's been at Pine Haven. When someone in your cabin catches a counselor, tell her your cabin number so you'll get credit for those points. Once a counselor is caught, she'll come back here to the dining hall. The cabin with the most points wins.”

Then Eda made us sing three or four camp songs to give the counselors plenty of time to hide. Some of the camp songs I actually liked, but one of them that Eda made us sing was so sappy and stupid, it always made us laugh. It was called “Camp Days!” and it was to the tune of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.”

Pine Haven, we'll always remember

For friendships so wholesome and true.

Pine Haven, you gave us our girlhood,

Forever, we'll love only you!

Camp Days! Camp Days! We frolic and skip in the dew, the dew!

Camp Days! Camp Days! We frolic and skip in the dew!

Your mountains inspire us to greatness,

Your streams fill our pure hearts with song,

Your trees make our souls sing with rapture,

Pine Haven, to you we belong!

When we got to the chorus about frolicking and skipping in the dew, I held my arms over my head and did some funky moves to make everyone laugh.

Pine Haven, when we have to leave you,

The sorrow we feel will be great.

Our hearts pine for you all the winter,

Pine Haven, to us you're first-rate!

Mei had her hands over her ears when we sang the chorus for the last time. “That's the stupidest song ever. Where did it even come from?”

“I think someone made it up about seventy years ago,” I told her. Eda opened the dining hall doors, and we all rushed outside.

“We should split up,” suggested Lauren. “We'll cover more ground that way.”

“Good plan. Plus it's hard for eight people to stay together,” I said.

“How about the little Guard Start clique all stay together, and the rest of us rejects will be another group,” Katherine said, wiping sweat off her forehead and flicking it at Isabel. It was a hot, sunny afternoon, and already we were all red-faced and sweaty.

“I'm not in the Guard Start class any more, Katherine. So I guess I'm with you rejects,” said Lauren. She took a couple of steps toward Katherine, who backed away.

“No one's a reject,” Meredith said. “Look, these are the teams. Me, Amber, Katherine, and JD will be together, and Isabel, Lauren, Courtney, and Mei in the other group. And remember, we're all working together for Cabin Two, right?”

We all agreed that was a good way to split up the cabin. It evenly divided the A and B sides and broke up our “little Guard Start clique.” And it kept Isabel and Katherine apart. Meredith was the best. She'd probably grow up to be a hostage negotiator.

“I know a great spot where a bunch of counselors always hide,” Amber told us. “Over in the woods near the camp store.” So our group took off in that direction, with Amber leading the way.

I knew it wasn't any big deal, but I couldn't stop thinking about the talent show next week. Had I really been picked to do an act for it? It was pretty cool that everyone automatically pointed to me and said I should be the one to do it. That never would've happened to Judith.