On the Other Side

Chapter 3

In late July, Aunt Tina came to visit again. Her third day in Nashville with us, she decided to take my two sisters, Ella and Lucy, and I to the pool. I almost cried when we got there because Daniel was there. He is soooooo handsome. Then I felt really self conscious about my body and I told Aunt Tina that I wanted to go home because I didn't feel good. Thankfully, I am a really bad liar. She saw right through me. She told my sisters to go ahead and go in, but not to get in the pool until she was in there with them.

"What's really going on Haylee?"

And then she saw him and just knew.

"Sweetheart, you are so beautiful. And you look really hot in that bathing suit. If that guy doesn't think so, he must be blind. Please come have a good time with us. After all, I'll only be here for 3 more days," she told me.

"Okay. Thanks Tina,"

"That's my girl!"

God, I love her.

So I marched through the gate. But the next thing I saw took my breath away. My youngest sister Lucy had decided not to listen to Tina. She was trying to swim in the deep end, without success. There was no life guard on duty at our pool. I screamed her name as loud as I could and ran to the other side. Daniel saw me running and looked to see what was going on. As soon as he saw Lucy, he swam as fast as he could to the other end. I screamed for Tina to call my mom and jumped in to help Daniel with my sister. The water was SO cold! I swam over to Lucy and reached her just after Daniel did. Together we drug her to the ladder and boosted her out of the water where Aunt Tina was waiting. She scooped Lucy up and took her to sit on the chair by our things. Tina checked her out and got her to calm down. My mom arrived fifteen minutes after the incident. We found her just in time. My mom was still worried about her so she took her to the emergency room, but Tina still wanted Ella and I to have time to swim. So she stayed with us. I laid in the sun and read a book for awhile. Then I went to sit on the edge of the pool. Daniel came over and asked about Lucy.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" he asked with genuine concern in his voice.

"I think she'll be fine. She can be so stupid sometimes," I responded.

"How old is she?"

"Eight. You would think she'd be old enough to know not to just jump in the pool. Especially after my aunt told her not too. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to start ranting. I just love her, ya know?"

"I get it."

"Thank you, by the way. I couldn't have gotten her out without you," I said.

"It's nothing. I saw that you needed help and I was there," he said sweetly.

"It's not nothing. You just saved my sister's life!"

"I guess I did!" he said sarcastically.

"Stop!" I giggled.

He managed to get me in the pool. I had a great time. It was amazing being in that pool with a great person like Daniel. Just laughing.

The next few weeks I didn't do much. The neighbors went out of town and when they came back they were never home. I hung out with two of my best friends from school. I told them about Daniel and they told me I needed to go for it. But I wanted him to pursue me. I didn't want to be rejected even though I doubted that would happen. I wanted him to ask me out, not the other way around. Cara came over a few days before school started and we just hung out.

I didn't see Daniel for a long time. Once school started, I got super busy with homework. And I'm sure he was busy with sports and stuff. On the first day of school, I was disappointed to find out that I only had one class with my friends from middle school. But I was going to be okay. I was determined to make new friends. I can still sit with my friends at lunch! I went to my piano class and then to Spanish class. Next was lunch! It was a normal lunch period for my friends and I. Then I went to my History and Science classes, and it was time to go wait for the bus.