Chapter 2

Eric woke the next morning at seven to the beep of his alarm. For him and almost everyone else on staff at Summer Lake, it was orientation day. As he stumbled to his feet, his roommate Nick sleepily mumbled for him to be quiet.

“Hey not all of us have big fancy jobs that don’t need an orientation,” Eric said as he stripped with his back to Nick and got out a clean pair of underwear.

“Ugh, I can see your ass dude, use the bathroom!”

“It’s the size of a phone booth,” Eric said with a shrug. He wasn’t trying to be rude, he just felt like Nick was the surly sort who complained about everything, much like his own sister. But Nick was a dude and Eric was going to treat him as such. He could deal with seeing Eric’s backside.

“You should trade rooms with your sister,” Nick said, covering his head with a pillow.

“Yeah you’d like that,” Eric said with a laugh. But as similar as Nick and Abby were, he actually couldn’t wait to introduce them. The night before Eric had proposed they meet up with Abby after orientation and even though Nick seemed to object to everything else, he instantly agreed to the meeting. Eric thought there was a whole lot of potential there.

Dressed in his blue work pants and a green Summer Lake Resort T-shirt, Eric made his way across the semi-subterranean employee floor and into the girl’s staff section where he was looked upon like an invading barbarian by the girls fluttering about getting ready for their orientations, but boys were allowed over there by daylight.

He tapped gently on his sister’s door and she opened it quickly. Abby was wearing a bright red one-piece bathing suit with “Lifeguard” in white letters across the chest above a cross. He was proud of how very much like a classic lifeguard she looked.

“Good morning,” he said. Just then he saw a figure stirring behind his sister and Lacey came into focus, wearing just her white underwear as she stumbled out of bed. Eric’s virgin eyes couldn’t look away.

“Good morning,” his sister said, then noticed where his gaze was directed. “Let’s go, pervo.”

Eric cleared his throat and let his sister out of the room, but his eyes stayed on Lacey for a brief moment until Abby closed the door sharply.

“Ugh, you’re such a male ever since puberty hit,” Abby said as they started to walk through the narrow corridors toward the elevator landing.

“Ummmm well,” Eric said awkwardly, “How did you two get along?”

Abby shrugged. “It wasn’t a complete disaster,” she said, “She’s not overtly mean at least. She’s not exactly Miss Popularity here, it seems, except with the boys, and for all the wrong reasons.”

“Oh,” Eric said, processing the implications.

“Yeah yeah, well,” Abby said, “I don’t know what to make of it either. She just likes sex, and I ... don’t think she’s super-smart, but she’s very nice. Don’t tell her I said that about her IQ.”

“Of course not,” Eric said.

“And don’t perv on her, she’s my roommate,” Abby added.

“Oh,” Eric said awkwardly, “Yeah of course. You know I just want you to be happy.”

Abby looked at him. “Well, maybe you can perv on her a little if you must, but be a gentleman about it,” she said.

“I’m always a gentleman,” he said playfully, then hit the button to request an elevator car when they arrived at the landing. “Oh, my roommate wants to hang out with us after orientation, and introduce us to his sister.”

“Aww, how wholesome,” Abby said as they waited.

“Yeah, he’s actually an interesting dude,” Eric said, “He’s kind of a bohemian and likes the same music you do, but I won’t hold that against him. He’s very protective of his sister.”

“Aww well that’s my favorite type of guy, you know,” Abby said playfully. The elevator chimed and they entered when the door opened.

“Oh, he’s Mexican, if that matters,” Eric said as the elevator door closed.

“It doesn’t,” Abby said casually. “Guess it’s good that the staff’s not 100% lily white like us though.”

“Yeah I guess,” Eric said nonchalantly.

“Never met a Mexican bohemian though,” she said. The elevator rose just one floor to the main lobby. “Hmmm we should take the stairs, that was a waste of electricity.”

Eric smirked. “He’s an engineer, in charge of the sound for the ballrooms and outdoor events, even though he’s our age,” he explained, “He’s really smart. I think he’s one of those people who’s unique and does stuff that nobody else can do. Like you.”

“Are you trying to hook us up?” she asked wryly.

“No!” her brother said defensively. “I’m just describing him. But if you are looking for a boyfriend, I mean, you could probably do a lot worse.”

“I’ll pretend you didn’t say that,” Abby said playfully. She’d never had anything close to a boyfriend, Eric knew, so she was easily embarrassed on this issue. They walked across the lobby, which had more staff than guests as the new hires made their way to various orientations for their departments.

“What’s his sister like?” Abby asked eventually.

“14 and works in concessions, but I haven’t met her,” Eric said with a shrug.

They left through the back exit of the lobby onto the massive concrete and stone terrace behind the hotel which overlooked the lake and included the pool area.

“Well, guess this is where we split,” Abby said with some anxiety in her voice.

“You’ll be fine,” Eric said and took his sister’s hand. “You’re a very qualified lifeguard.”

Abby rolled her eyes. “That’s not the part I’m worried about,” she said.

“Well if anybody gives you a hard time, just tell me and I’ll beat them up,” he said with a grin.

“Even the girls?” she said, but he didn’t know how to respond to that and just gave her a goofy look. “Thanks, Eric,” she said, “I’ll do my best.”

He smiled. “I’ll meet you in the lobby a little after three, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, “See you then, brother dearest.”

Eric walked off toward the front parking lot, which lead eventually to the maintenance building where he was headed for orientation. He was worried about his sister. Abby was such a magnet for bullies. Even though she could fight them off better than just about any girl, he knew the words still hurt her. He didn’t understand why people had to be so mean to his sister. She was just a little bit different.

Abby watched her brother go then walked to the pool. She felt uneasy, but she’d been around pools and swimmers since she was a kid. She wasn’t here to be social anyway. This was a summer job and a good one. Perhaps the boss would keep everybody professional and prevent the cool kids from bullying her. But she doubted it.

The resort stressed swimming as one of its core purposes and had an Olympic-sized pool as a part of the massive lakefront terrace. The pool was set up today for laps but there were also springboards and a diving platform, all built to competition specifications. The pool area was surrounded by a black steel fence and included extensive deck space with lounge chairs and a white pavilion tent which she soon learned was the lifeguard’s area for taking breaks and, in practice, socializing with each other and bullying her.

The lifeguards were gathering by the tent and chatting casually as Abby approached. They looked like lifeguards everywhere. The boys wore red shorts and were all white guys with varying qualities of tans and haircuts ranging from shaggy surfer styles to crew cuts. Most were tall and all had attractive physiques. The girls were of varying height but on the tall side as well, mostly with toned bodies, long blond hair, and large breasts. None looked much like Abby at all, in fact, with her big red hair, pale skin, flat chest, and wiry muscularity. Some of the beautiful people glanced her over and had the predictable reaction: a look of annoyance and disdain.

She stood at the fringes of the crowd quietly until a middle-aged man got up and introduced himself as Tim Fleetwood, Aquatics Director, and their boss. He was also in charge of the competitive swimming team and told the lifeguards to all call him “Coach”. He had a swimmer’s build with broad shoulders but was working on a potbelly, providing Abby with an amusing prediction of where some of her hard-bodied male counterparts were headed in 20 years once the magic of youth wore off.

Coach Fleetwood had a booming voice which Abby could tell he acquired from years of barking out instruction to swimmers in their lanes at practice. As the staff were all already trained back home and certified as lifeguards, the orientation consisted of the specific things they would need to know to work as lifeguards at Summer Lake. Topics ranged from how to clock in to requesting time off, with many reminders to be very courteous to the guests at all times and never, ever make a remark about their age. Coach Fleetwood was nice enough but he had many policies to go over. Everyone’s face was rather glazed over by lunch, Abby’s included.

Lunch was provided from the concession stand, which was nearby as another part of the sprawling lakeside terrace. Abby sat by herself and no one tried to talk to her. She hadn’t liked her chances of making friends among the lifeguards anyway, and seeing them today confirmed her suspicions. They were all very attractive and athletic, the cream of the crop of Summer Lake staffers, so naturally they wanted nothing to do with Abby Frank.

After lunch, Coach Fleetwood took them down to the area of the lake where swimming was allowed with lifeguard chairs on the beach. They had been trained on conventional pool lifeguarding so he went over some rules-of-thumb for working a lake, although with its cordoned-off swimming area it wasn’t drastically different from a large pool. Finally, it was back to the competitive pool to go over all of the resort’s rules for swimmers. No running, no back-flips off the low dive, toddlers must wear swim-proof diapers (that got a few “yuck!” comments). There were so many rules that there was a short list of “rules of emphasis” to be sure to enforce, which made her wonder what the other rules were exactly.

He quizzed them on the rules, calling on them each at random to answer a question. Abby nailed hers, of course, for all the good it did her with her peers. When Coach Fleetwood called on this tall chick with backcombed blonde hair who looked like she was straight off the set of Baywatch and asked her about the glass bottle policy at the lake and she said “be sure to give the lifeguard a beer too”, everyone just laughed and even the coach didn’t seem to care. So once again, being fun and cute got you further than being smart and trying hard, Abby noted.

As it was 15 minutes until three by the time the quiz concluded, she hoped she was home free, but then Coach Fleetwood said exactly what she didn’t want to hear: he was going to give them the remaining time set aside for orientation to get to know their fellow lifeguards, and he went off to smoke a cigarette by the concession stand.

It started pretty much as soon as their boss was out of earshot.

“What’s with Lurch?” a male voice asked.

“I saw her at the state championships, she’s hot shit,” a girl said.

“She looks like hot shit,” a boy said, one of the ripped surfer dudes who looked like he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Everyone laughed at his barb especially.

“She looks anorexic,” a girl said.

“Well?” said a tall girl with long blond hair with a very athletic build, straight bangs in front over her pretty, thin face, small breasts, a proud face and a nice tan. She now remembered Coach Fleetwood calling her Nicole and saying she was the head lifeguard.

Something was different about this girl. She wasn’t just a hot chick who got to be a lifeguard because she was popular; she was actually an athlete. But a bully too, so Abby didn’t like her. “You think you’re better than us? Not saying a word all day except during the stupid quiz?”

Abby looked at her and didn’t say anything. Silence was very upsetting to bullies, Abby knew, since they were only acting this way to get a reaction out of their victim. When she just stood there blankly and gave them no reaction, they lost their minds and had to get more and more ridiculous to make her talk.

“Hello! I’m talking to you, scarecrow!”

Abby remained silent, but gave a slight smirk.

“Very funny, bitch,” Nicole said, strutting around with all eyes on her and Abby. The beautiful blond lifeguard was clearly enjoying this. Everyone loves a good bullying except the victim.

It was all standard stuff, Abby thought. Nicole stood a foot in front of her and stared at her but Abby just looked off in the distance, hoping the remaining minutes would go by fast so she could leave.

“Are you dumb or something?” Nicole asked, “Or just stuck up? You know we have to work with you all summer. How are we gonna do that if you’re too good to talk to us?”

Abby shrugged. It wasn’t like Nicole had in particular authority over her. She was the head lifeguard, but according to the rules they’d just learned she filled out the schedule and prepared reports for their actual boss, Coach Fleetwood.

“You have to at least prove that you can swim, so we can trust you working with us,” Nicole said.

“Race her, Nicole!” some girl said. “Yeah you’re the champ!” a boy said.

“No, she thinks she’s better than us ladies, clearly,” Nicole said, then gave an evil grin. “Let’s make it an interesting race. Who’s the slowest guy?”

“Todd,” a male voice said, and it was quickly confirmed with laughter from the other guys.

Abby sighed. This seemed about right though, of course the female bully wouldn’t agree to a fair fight. Even her best times wouldn’t get too far of last place in a boy’s race at a real swim meet, she had to acknowledge basic biological differences were there. Of course she was faster than a random male swimmer, but lifeguards at a place like this weren’t randoms, they usually had been on competitive swim teams since they were kids. Even a below average male competitive swimmer could be a challenge for Abby. And that was if Todd even was the slowest, for all she knew they were setting her up against their fastest guy to humiliate her even more.

From the way Todd blushed as his buddies pushed him forward, well, she thought maybe he really was the slowest after all. He was short for a guy, which made him noticeably shorter than Abby, but he was quite muscular, as if to make up for his lack of height. He had the broad shoulders of a swimmer and a smug look on his face now that his buddies were cheering him on, like racing a girl was anything to be proud of.

Abby shrugged and put on her swim cap.

“Ooh she means business!” a girl joked.

“Let’s get this over with,” Abby said, her first words of the whole encounter.

There were snickers, and someone said “Ooh Todd watch out, she’s gonna kick your ass!” The lifeguards stayed around her and Todd and nudged them to the starting platforms.

“Uh what are we even doing?” Todd asked.

“Freestyle,” Nicole said. “100 meters. You better both do it for real, or you’ll be sorry.”

Abby sighed. Did Nicole know this wasn’t her race, or was it just a lucky guess? They stood atop their starting platforms. A boy stood between them yelled, “On your mark. Set. Go!”

She may be a bullying victim, Abby thought, but she could fight back. She had things inside of her that none of these idiots knew about. Not yet at least. She knew it was petty and that they’d only hate her guts even more for what she was about to do, but she had to show them who they were messing with. Adrenaline surged as she came up from a very powerful underwater off the dive. She decided to sprint the entire length, which was very possible for her in 100 meters. It was silly to do that for a nonsense race that didn’t mean anything, but she didn’t care.

So she sprinted flat-out, pushing as hard as she possibly could. The water coursed around her as if she was cutting right through it. She turned around with grace at the end of the pool. Righteous anger always brought out the best in Abby Frank.

Coming into the final stretch, her fingers and toes were already going numb from the tremendous exertion. Her hands and feet were shaking. Her body was at its limit, but that was what she wanted. The smirk on that bitch Nicole’s face gave her motivation to ignore the pain. That girl was the embodiment of every smug, hateful bully she’d ever known, and she’d known many. Abby wanted to scare Nicole, to show her what a frightening, unbeatable foe she had just made an enemy of for the summer. She screamed into the water and gave it everything she had. Her hand hit the wall and she came up for air. Silence.

“What the fuck?” she heard someone say eventually.

“Did anyone time that?” A girl asked. Only then did she hear Todd finally reach the finish in the next lap over.

More silence.

“Is she a man?” Nicole asked. “Did she cheat?”

“She’s faster than you then huh, Nicole?” a boy teased.

“Shut up,” Nicole said, “We didn’t time it. I’m faster than her. You all know that. Now get out of the water, you weirdo.”

“Fuck you, bitch,” Abby said, still in a quiet rage as she climbed out. Water dripped from her body as she peeled off her swim cap, flexing her body proudly. She moved with a swagger now.

“What did you just say to me? Do you know who I am?” Nicole shouted. But Abby had no time for this. She’d won the stupid race. She won strong and won proud. She walked fast at Nicole, leaning into her to push her back, but the girl didn’t budge, surprising Abby with her strength. “Where do you think you’re going?” the head lifeguard yelled impudently.

“Eat my pussy,” Abby said as she shoved Nicole to the side, using her full strength this time.

Everyone gasped. Nicole didn’t even make a comeback. The crowd was quiet as Abby stomped off toward the lodge.

The 15 minutes was up.

“So how was orientation?” Eric asked cheerfully as his sister approached him in the lobby a few minutes after three that afternoon. She had stopped by her room to change into jeans and a green knit sweater, while Eric still wore his work outfit.

“You don’t even want to know, dearest brother,” she said in a tone that was cheerful by her standards, but Eric knew his sister too well to be fooled.

“That bad huh?” he said.

“How was lawnmower class?” she asked.

“Aw not you too,” he said, “But it was actually fine. They gave good equipment here. Really nice commercial stuff. Our boss seems alright.”

“Well that’s good,” she said, “You really don’t mind pushing a lawnmower around all summer though? You could have done that back home.”

“Nah they have self-propelled mowers here, you just stand on the back, and seven different types of trimmers, and attachments to pull behind the mower, so you can fertilize or...” he said excitedly.

“Oooh kay I did not realize lawn care was so fascinating,” his sister said with some sarcasm.

“Hey I’m sure sitting in a chair watching old people do water aerobics is thrilling to you but some of us have more to work the more mundane jobs,” Eric joked.

His sister laughed. Eric hoped bantering like this made her feel good after whatever had happened at her orientation. It certainly made him feel good.

“So what are we doing again? Meeting your roommate?” she asked as they walked across the lobby. Although it was still just Wednesday afternoon, guests for the big Memorial Day weekend start of the summer season were beginning to trickle in and the lobby was no longer just a crossroads of youthful staff on their way here and there.

“Yeah, at the concession stand,” Eric said.

Eric thought Abby seemed a little amped up, she normally wasn’t quite this sassy, but he figured if she had a problem he’d find out about it sooner or later and would help her with it.

“Hmmm, dear brother,” Abby said playfully, “I still think you’re trying to hook us up.”

“What? No!” Eric said, blushing, “I just think he’s going to be in our group of friends here this summer, so uh, I thought you should meet him. Since of course you’ll be in whatever group of friends I have.”

Abby smiled. “So considerate. You’re the opposite of all those jerks,” she said, not quite saying who she meant but Eric took it to mean the lifeguards. “I’m so glad you’re my brother. Anyway ... I’m not looking for a boyfriend, maybe some friends. You’re very optimistic though ... group of friends. We’ll be lucky if it’s not just you and me all summer.”

“Well that would be fine too, dearest sister,” Eric said. And he meant it, his twin sister was his best friend in the whole world. Still, it would be nice to form a group of friends and have a really good summer.

They walked out to the glass patio tables near the concession stand on the tiled portion of the terrace. They found Nick sitting at a table waiting for them, looking rather mod, Eric thought, in tight black jeans and a striped shirt with sunglasses. “Hey Nick, this is my sister Abby,” Eric said, “She loves The Smiths too.”

Abby glared at her brother.

“Oh uh, that’s cool I guess,” Nick said, looking her over, “Hmmm you guys do look kind of similar. And you both look like ... intense.”

Eric laughed. “Abby’s definitely intense,” he said.

“So you do the sound here?” Abby asked. Eric smiled in pleasant surprise, having been afraid his sister would do her unusual no-talking routine.

“Yeah,” he said, “Actually spent today getting everything set up for the season opener concert Friday at the bandshell. Or getting started at least.”

“I looked at the upcoming concerts and events and uh, that’s sure a lot of polka,” she said.

Nick laughed. “Yeah exactly. There’s a brass band playing Friday night. The 1990s haven’t hit Summer Lake yet, and probably won’t for a long time. Oh uh, I hope you guys don’t mind, but I mentioned I’d be meeting you guys here and my sister invited herself. Her shift is over at three-thirty I think, she works at the concession stand.”

“No that’s cool,” Eric said. Expanding the group definitely seemed like a good thing.

“Fair warning though, she’s um, very strong-willed,” Nick said.

Eric smirked. “Hey, I know all about strong-willed sisters,” he said, and Abby punched him in the shoulder playfully.

“You guys are too cute,” Nick said, but Eric thought it was in a friendly way, not dripping with insinuations like how people back home sometimes said that sort of thing. Sometimes that lead to him having to fight them, or Abby if it was a girl who said it. But there was none of that in Nick’s tone.