Max and I

Chapter Sixteen

So Max was moving and it wasn't a joke.

He told me that on Tuesday, that he wasn't kidding.

"Can I come talk with you?" I asked.

"Not today," he said. "Too many plans. I don't know when. Mom has to get ready and stuff."

I knew it was boring and everything but I decided I had to just draw and do nothing. I didn't want to call up Sonya ever again because maybe if I didn't there'd be some hope we could be friends again.

Mom came into the room with Wayne.

"Can you go outside with Wayne and supervise her? She wants to go over to a friend's house," Mom told me.

I went out of the room and down to the front lawn. Wayne was on her training bike and we had to ride up the road to the dead-end. Mom said Wayne's friend lived somewhere back there.

When we reached the dead-end, I looked at a fairly large red house and a small girl was playing with a fat, taller girl.

The little girl introduced herself as Ruby, and the fat girl didn't say anything. She was on the pull-up bars hanging upside down. I couldn't help but notice how fat she was.

I asked her if I could play with her.

"Sure," she said. "What's your name?"

"Meg."

"I'm Beatie. My name's Beatrice, but my friends called me that. I'm thirteen. How old are you?"

"I'm going to be thirteen in a couple of weeks," I said.

"Oh." Beatie fell onto the grass suddenly and looked tired.

"Are you OK? Did you slam your head on the grass?" I asked her.

"No. I'm fine. I do that kind of stuff all the time."

I followed Beatie around to the back yard. There was a sun deck and an in-ground pool. She went into the bushes and put a bathing suit on. I could already hear Wayne splashing with Ruby.

Beatie came around the back of the pool and climbed right in.

"It's cold. Do you really want to go swimming?" I asked Beatie.

"I don't care. Do you want to?"

"I don't have a bathing suit."

"It's fine. I have one in my room. Would you like me to get one for you? I'm going to."

"Sure," I said. I could tell that this wasn't going to be so bad after all.

I took my shoes off and climbed up the two steps and onto the diving board. I climbed down it and them put my toes in the water. It wasn't really that cold.

Beatie came into the pool and gave me a big bathing suit. I headed towards the bushes, but Beatie told me not to. She would go inside and ask the two younger girls to go in with her too while I undressed. I agreed, and I was soon in the pool, with the other three girls.

Beatie could go underwater, but I couldn't. I had to admit I was really bad at swimming and never took classes. I was a very bad beginner. I just swam around the pool three times and went back onto the grass again.

Ruby, on the other hand, was very good for her age. Wayne actually didn't know how to swim; Ruby just held her up and Wayne could float. But I could see she was almost there.

I looked at Ruby. She was plump too. Wayne was skinny compared to her so it was easy to pick Wayne up.

Beatie went onto the sundeck and I followed her. She had some lemonade and everything. I felt like it was summer again.