Swimming? No thanks

Chapter 24

I ran down to the beach after school and almost dove in before remembering that I couldn't just dive in with my clothes on. I groaned and turned to head back home to change. I saw Dalton about to do the same thing I tried to do. "You don't have tail, remember?"

"Right. I guess I have to change into swim trunks."

"Yeah, I have to go get a bikini to wear out to Texas."

"Meet at my boat in half an hour?"

"Sure." We went our separate ways. I got home and grabbed a purple polka dot (That's the correct spelling, I checked) bikini. I pulled off my T-shirt and jean shorts and threw on the bikini. I checked myself in the mirror before grabbing a towel and goggles and running downstairs. The door opened as I went to open it.

"Shouldn't you be at swim practice?" My mom questioned as she shut the door.

"Yeah, that's where I'm headed now. I just forgot a swimsuit and goggles." The lie rolled off my tongue easily.

"But it started half an hour ago."

"They pushed it back an hour since we're going to be there for four or five hours."

"Well, have fun."

"I will. Bye." I hurried out the door before she could question the long practice. I ran down to the dock where Dalton's boat was.

He was already there waiting on me. "What took you so long? We were supposed to meet five minutes ago."

"I live farther away than you do and I ran into my mom. Apparently swim practice started over half an hour ago."

"I wonder if I'm on the swim team."

"You were on it before your tail, right?"

"Yeah."

"So you probably are on the swim team, but that gives you an excuse for why you're going to be missing for hours. It's the reason I gave my mom."

"Smart."

"I know. Now let's go. Maddy's waiting on us." I hopped into his boat and we took off. "I really hope this works."

"Me too." We got to Tremp and he parked his boat on the beach.

"You remember where the land entrance is, right?"

"Possibly. I normally use the water entrance."

"Me too. We might have a large lung capacity from being on the swim team. Want to try the water entrance?"

"Not taking the chance. Let's just find the land entrance." He started the hike through the jungle and I followed.

"I think it's this way." I went in front of him and led the way to the land entrance. After hiking for five minutes, we finally found it. We walked in and saw Maddy in the pool. "Hi, Maddy."

She turned around. "I've been waiting here for hours."

"Did I forget to mention that we had school today?"

"Kind of."

"Sorry. Our boat is on the beach. Let's swim to it." I dove in and looked up at Dalton. "Coming in?"

"Sure." He dove in and popped up beside me. "Take a deep breath." He took in a lot of air before going under.

"I know." I copied his actions and Maddy followed. We swam until we could go above water. Dalton and I went up and started to swim to the boat. "Stay here, Maddy. We'll be back in a couple minutes."

"Okay."

We got to the beach and climbed out of the water. I hopped in the boat and Dalton glared at me. "What?"