The Long Game, Lucas Sinclair

026. max gaslights me and el for 5,609 words

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX.
3x03: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard

The rain had picked up greatly when they left Max's house. The girls were forced to put on the rain jackets they'd brought with them, Sam giving them the reminder that it was going to rain, although neither girl had heard anything about it. Nevertheless, Max and El were grateful Sam had advised them.

Sam was wearing an electric blue rain jacket, the color of it scarily similar to the color of that spark of electricity she'd created in El's room. El's rain jacket was red, while Max's was yellow. Sam had joked they were the primary color trio.

Because of their young age, the girls had to bike in the rain so that they could reach the local pool. Well, Sam and Max biked, and El rode on the back of Sam's. It wasn't a two-seater bike like Mike's or Lucas's, so El really just had to hover over Sam in the single seat, but they made it work.

The reason they were at the local pool was not just because Billy worked there—it was due to the fact El found a lifeguard fanny pack and bloody whistle with the ice tub in Billy's bathroom. After parking their bikes, they jogged under the overhead to both get away from the rain and contact the front desk.

Luckily the pool manager wasn't hard to spot. He was reclined behind the brick half-wall lazily, reading a newspaper and accompanied by another female lifeguard who had the same nonchalant attitude. They didn't even look up when the girls approached them.

"Excuse me?" Max announced their presence impatiently, hair drenched and curling like the other two.

The pool manager didn't even spare Max a glance. "No one in the water until thirty minutes after the last strike. And don't try and argue with me. You wanna get electrocuted, go climb a tree."

Sam blinked, offended by the unnecessary cruelty. "Excuse me, sir. We're not here to swim," her look morphed unsure for a beat, "or get electrocuted."

"We found this," El said, holding up the fanny pack.

The pool manager finally looked up from his newspaper, though his demeanor was still frustrating. He eyed the accessory silently.

"Does that belong to anybody here?" Max asked.

"Oh yeah," he drawled. "That's Heather's. I'll get it back to her."

"We could give it back to her," El blurted, sounding much too eager for the statement to go overlooked.

The pool manager tilted his head in offensive amusement. "You could... 'cept she's not here. Bailed on me today."

Sam, Max, and El looked to each other, sharing expressions of rising suspicion. Sam met El's eyes, and El's eyebrows raised gravely. Sam swallowed.

"What is this?" asked the dude, watching the looks on their faces. "You girls want a reward or something?"

Sam turned away from Max and El to put on a fake smile of innocence for him.