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Episode 2: A Day at the Pool
OK, here's episode 2. If you didn't read the first one, you'll probably want to so that you can "get to know" the characters. Personally, I don't think I did that great of a job on this one, but I hope y'all like it anyway. --The Author
"Come on, Juliana, we're gonna be late!" Hannah called to her friend from outside Juliana's room.
"I'm coming," was the excited reply.
On this fine, warm Sunday afternoon, the Beloits had invited Hannah and Juliana to go with them across town to the swimming pool at the park; and Hannah didn't want to be late.
Finally Juliana emerged, and together they started down the street toward the Beloits'.
"It sure is hot today," Juliana noted.
"It's a perfect day for swimming!" Hannah replied.
"That's right!"
After half walking, half running the mile to the Beloits, the two were quite tired and sweaty. "Boy, you all look like you're ready for a swim!" Mr. Beloit greeted them cheerily.
"Yep, sure are!" Hannah answered.
"Well, you came to the right place."
"Great! Is there anything we can help you with?"
"No, but I think Ann might could use some help bringing the towels and stuff out."
So the two went inside and said hello to Mrs. Beloit and the kids.
"Hello girls, you ready to go?" Mrs. Beloit asked.
"You bet," Hannah replied, smiling. "Do you need help with anything?"
"Well, in just a minute I'll have this stuff together for you to take out," Mrs. Beloit said, as she rummaged through the towels in a closet.
"Oh, have you seen the new bathing suit I got?" Hannah asked excitedly.
"Why no," said Mrs. Beloit.
"It's kind of plain, but I like it anyway," Hannah replied, lifting the t-shirt she was wearing so Mrs. Beloit could see the cute pastel blue bikini-style bathing suit.
"That's, uh, very nice," Mrs. Beloit replied somewhat hesitantly. She held quite conservative views on such topics as modesty in dress, so much so that she only let her own girls wear one-piece bathing suits because she felt they were not as revealing. Thus Hannah's new swimwear was a little outside her strict definitions of propriety. But she decided it was quite modest compared to many others available, so she said nothing else about it. "Oh, here are the towels I was looking for. Could you take these out to the car?"
"Sure," Hannah agreed happily, not even having noticed Mrs. Beloit's lack of excitement over her clothing.
Chris, who had come into the room just in time to hear the exchange, did notice his mother's cool response, however. After Hannah and Juliana disappeared out the door, he spoke. "Aw, don't worry about it, Mom, you know she's not trying to be immodest or anything. After all, it might even have been the only one she could afford." he reasoned. "And plus, she does look awful cute in it," he added, though it didn't have much to do with his argument.
Apparently having missed his comment about Hannah's being 'cute', Chris's mom agreed somewhat apologetically with his reasoning. "Yes, she really does do her best."
Now make no mistake; as cute as Hannah might be, Chris made it clear to himself that he was not trying to win her as a girlfriend. No, she wasn't 'taken', and there was clearly nothing wrong with her. The fact is, until very recently, Chris had had a girlfriend himself; but she cruelly dumped him for one of the richest kids in school. Dejected and disillusioned, Chris told himself that he wasn't going to go out looking for another girlfriend. If that was the way they were going to treat him, he just wouldn't let them get to the point where they could. Or so he thought.
Finally they arrived at the park. The five kids piled out of the car and headed for the swimming pool. Mr. and Mrs. Beloit told them they would be back in a little bit, and then headed off to take care of some business in town. "Last one in is a rotten egg!" Amanda yelled as she ran ahead of the others.
Hannah looked at Juliana questioningly. "You don't want to be a rotten egg, do you?" she asked, and then took off after Amanda.
We'll never be sure who deserved to be the "rotten egg", because Chris and Sarah both jumped into the refreshingly cool water at the same time. But the tiebreaking vote was 4 to 1 on strict gender lines that Chris earned the ignoble title. "Oh well," he laughed, "that's what I get for coming to the swimming pool with a bunch of girls!"
After a little while, he found a way to redeem himself. "Hey girls," he called, "Let's see if you can do this." With that he took a deep breath, slipped under the water, and, as the girls watched, propelled himself underwater quickly along one of the long racing lanes across the pool. The pool was unusually large, but he could hold his breath quite well and easily made it all the way across. Then he took another gulp of air and came all the way back to them.
"Oh sure," Sarah said confidently, "that's not hard." But she only made it about two-thirds of the way across before coming up for air.
"Aww, come on, Sarah, you can do better than that!" Juliana chided playfully.
"Yeah," Hannah agreed, "Come on, you can't let Chris beat u-*hic* -- Oops, I think I've *hic* got the hiccups aga-*hic*-in."
"What's new?" Juliana laughed.
Sarah came back and tried the long underwater swim again, but this time she came up even sooner than before.
"Now S-*hic*-arah, I think I cou-*hic*-ld even do better than *hic* that," Hannah claimed. "And I've got *hic* the hiccups!" she added irrelevantly. She then proceeded to make good on her word, crossing about three-fourths of the pool before her breath gave out. Then, as Chris had done, she took another deep breath and came back to where the others stood.
"Nice job, Hannah," Chris congratulated, "but I've still got you by a good quarter of the pool."
"I'll *hic* make it a-*hic*-cross, you *hic* just wai-*hic*-t and see *hic*. Let me *hic* just cat-*hic*-ch my brea-*hic*-th again. If *hic* my hiccups *hic* will l-*hic* let me," Hannah replied.
"I think holding your breath made them worse," Juliana said.
"Yeah, *hic* al-*hic*-ways does. *HIC-ahh*" Hannah covered her mouth and giggled.
Juliana tried the feat next, but came up just short of Hannah's spot. Amanda didn't even try, since she knew she couldn't go nearly as far as the others without breathing.
After a few minutes, Hannah tried it again. With an extra-deep breath, interrupted by several hiccups, she started out again. She made it all the way across, but couldn't make it back on her second breath.
"You've got to come back on one breath, too," Chris reminded.
"I *hic* know, *hic* I'm go-*hic*-nna ma-*HUCK*-ke it all th-*HIC-uhh* way next *hic* time," Hannah promised, hiccupping even faster and harder now. Once again, she waited a little bit before making her third attempt.
This time she made it all the way across and back, each in one breath. When she came up at the end, the others all cheered. "Well, I guess you made it!" Chris said.
"Yep, *HIC-uhh* and I *hic-cup* bet I *HIC-uhh* could ma-*HIC-uhh*-ke it ac-*HIC-uhh*-ross again, *HUCK*" she claimed, quickly setting off again for the far end of the pool.
The lifeguard settled into his perch above the pool, starting his afternoon shift. He lazily scanned the people in the water. Suddenly, a sound like a cough drew his attention. It almost sounded as if someone was choking. He found the victim almost directly underneath his post, just in time to see a head slip beneath the water. Quickly he jumped in. But no, the person his eyes were fixed upon wasn't a drowning child. It was just Hannah; her crazy hiccups had sounded like choking to him, and she had only gone under because she had lost her balance in the water, which was just about as deep as she was tall! "Oh, I'm sorry," he said when he realized his mistake, "I guess, uh, I've just never heard anyone with hiccups like that. Doesn't it hurt?"
"Nah, *HIC-uhh* I get *HIC-ahh* them all *HIC-uhh* the ti-*HURK*-me," Hannah replied nonchalantly. "But th-*hic*-is is the *HIC-ahh* first time *HUCK* anyone's eve-*HIC-ahh*-r thought I *HIC* was choking!"
"I'm sorry," he apologized again.
"No *HIC-uhh* problem!" Hannah laughed.
After a little more swimming around, Hannah decided to take a rest; all the exercise swimming, along with the involuntary exercise her hiccups were providing, had tired her. She walked over to the chairs where she could lie in the sun. Juliana soon joined her there.
"Man, you sure got 'em bad," Juliana exclaimed as she lay down on the chair next to Hannah's.
"Yep! *HIC-uhh* You can *HIC-uh* say th-*HIC*-at again!" Hannah agreed.
They just lay there enjoying the sunshine for a while, until Hannah looked back out into the pool, and laughed, "Oh, lo-*HURK* look at Ch-*HIC-ahh*-ris and Am-*HIC-urk*-anda. They-*HIC*-re such clown-*HIC-uhh*-s!" as she watched the brother and sister splashing each other mercilessly.
"Yeah, they've been going at it for a long time. Pretty soon they're going to come over here totally exhausted," Juliana replied.
Sure enough, it wasn't long before Amanda came and flopped down on the seat next to Juliana, and Chris claimed the spot on Hannah's right. "You tw-*HIC-uhh*-o looked l-*HIC-uh*-ike you were tr-*HURK* trying to drown *HIC-CUP* each other out *HIC* there!" Hannah said, her words broken by her very obvious hiccups.
"Well he started it!" Amanda giggled.
"Of *HIC-uh* course!" Hannah replied, poking Chris playfully, "It's *HIC-uhh* always Chris's *HIC* fault. An-*HIC*-d these h-*HURK* hiccups are *HIC-ulk* his fault, t-*HIC*-oo, you *HIC* know. *HIC-CUP*"
"Hey, I didn't make you swim across the pool. That was your own fault!" Chris defended himself. Then he added, "But I'm sorry you got them so bad."
"Oh, *HIC-uhh* that's OK. *HURK* You know m-*HIC*-e, I get them a-*HIC-uhh*-ll the time."
They all talked and laughed and teased for a little while. Then Amanda piped up with a suggestion. "Come on, everyone, let's go back in now."
"Yeah, let's go. Sarah looks like she's having too much fun out there alone!" Juliana agreed.
"I'm *HULK* still enjoying the sun-*HIC*-shine," Hannah said, "I'll *HIC-uh* be just a *HUCK* little longer."
Chris thought for a moment. "I'll be over there in a minute," he decided.
So Amanda and Juliana ran off and splashed into the cool water, leaving Hannah and Chris alone. "Amanda sure is *HUCK* energetic today. I suppose I'd *HIC-uh* be a little more ener-*HULK*-getic too if I didn't have *HIC* the hiccups. *HIC* This time they *HUCK* are extra hard," Hannah noted, watching her bare little stomach bounce up and down with each hiccup. "Feel how *HIC-uh* hard my tummy is *HUCK* bouncing!" She put Chris's hand on her jerking body.
"Boy, they are really hard," Chris agreed. "But they are still cute."
"Cute?" Hannah questioned.
"Well sure," Chris continued, his hand still on her stomach, "After all, even hiccups can't keep you from being beautiful!"
"Oh Chris," Hannah giggled, "what *HIC* would make you s-*HURK* say that?"
"Maybe because it's true? At least, it's my opinion," Chris said playfully, and winked at Hannah, who, of course, was very cute.
Hannah turned and looked Chris in the eye with an expression of mock sobriety on her face. "Christopher Beloit, *HIC* are you flirting w-*HURK*-ith me?"
"It sure seems that way," he replied.
She sat up fully and took his hands in hers. "Then why *HIC-uh* don't you just say *HURK* so?" she asked with a questioning smile.
Chris didn't answer, and the two just sat there, looking deep into each other's eyes. Chris was still amazed at how incredibly cute Hannah was as she sat there, her whole body bouncing with those unceasing hiccups. Finally he spoke: "Maybe I don't need to."
"Hmmm *HIC*," Hannah answered, "I guess I *HIC-ULK* have to *HUCK* agree with you on that one! *HIC*"
"Come on, you guys! What's taking so long?" Amanda's called from the swimming pool.
"I think they're flirting," Sarah confided to Amanda - quite a bit more loudly than necessary.
"Coming!" Hannah answered. She gave Chris a quick hug, although an extra-hard hiccup tried to jerk her body away from him. "Oh *HURK* bother," she laughed at her still-uncooperative hiccups, "These are *HIC-ulk* going to last a-*HUCK*-ll day."
"That's OK," Chris smiled. "But we're not going to be here all day, so let's go!" And with that the two ran off and splashed back into the pool, hand in hand. It was a wonderful day.