Alphabet Soup

Unruly

Unruly

        Billy dashed towards the stairs leading into the shallow end of the pool. His feet slapped the scorching hot concrete as he ran, desperate to dive into the refreshingly cool water as quickly as possible. With the blazing summer sun shining brightly overhead, today was a perfect day for swimming. As an added bonus, there wasn’t a single cloud in sight. Nothing could possibly ruin his fun today.

        Just as Billy was about to step into the pool, a voice called out from the lifeguard tower. “Hey, kid, no running!” The lifeguard pointed over to a nearby bench imperiously. “Go sit over there for ten minutes. That should teach you not to disobey the pool’s rules.” He then returned to lounging around, halfway laying back in his seat.

        Why did this lazy lifeguard take the time to punish Billy when it was clear that he didn’t care much about his duties? He wasn’t even watching the pool from the looks of it: his head was tilted so far back that he probably could see much besides the sky. Maybe Billy could convince him to forget about his timeout. “It’s my birthday. I can do whatever I want today!”

        The lifeguard sighed loudly as he tore his gaze from the sky overhead. He peered down at Billy over his ridiculously cheap looking sunglasses and took the time to smear some sunscreen over the bridge of his nose before answering. “I heard that what you want is to go sit on that bench over there, squirt. Now scram before I make it fifteen minutes!” He watched Billy skulk over to the bench and smirked at him before daydreaming once again.

        A gentle breeze blew through the humid summer air, providing Billy with some much needed relief from the heat. Still, it was unfair that he had to wait for the fun to begin. That lifeguard had a lot of nerve to mess with him on the day he finally turned seven. He had waited long enough as it was without being forced to sit on a small wooden bench clearly designed to be as comfortable as possible. He’d be lucky not to get splinters from this ancient thing. Billy grinned as his friends began to arrive at the pool. Now the fun could really begin.

        Once the dozen new arrivals gathered together, their parents all retreated to the lounge chairs around the pool to read, sunbathe, and do other boring activities while their children messed around. For the next hour or so, these little mischief makers would be the lifeguard’s problem. They gossiped and laughed amongst each other as the lifeguard on duty was relieved from his post by one of his coworkers so he could keep an eye on the group. He looked to be about twenty or so years old, hopefully he had enough experience already to keep the kids from creating too much chaos.

        Adjusting his sun glasses in a poor attempt at looking at least slightly cool, the lifeguard stood imperiously over the cluster of rowdy children. They practically vibrated with pent up energy as the soda and candy that must have consumed before coming here kicked in. “For the next hour, I am in charge of you guys. Now listen up, we have a schedule planned for this party.” He cleared his throat. “First, we will play Marco Polo. Then, we will play Sharks & Minnows. After that, the rest of the time is yours. Any questions?”

        The boys all grinned, preparing to run amok. Billy piped up, glaring at the lifeguard as he did so. “Yeah. Do you feel sorry for trying to ruin my birthday now?” The lifeguard frowned, curling his lip in disgust at the persistent trouble maker. Before he could respond, the group of boys scattered in all directions. The lifeguard scrambled after them, yelling for them to stop as they stuck their tongues out at him and laughed gleefully.

        Gasping for breath after running around the pool in pursuit of his tireless charges, the lifeguard used his last resort. He put his plastic yellow whistle and blew into it so hard that all of the boys cringed at the shrill, piercing noise. Now that e had everyone’s attention again, the lifeguard put his hands on his hips. “That’s enough of that nonsense. Now off to the bench, all of you. You’ve all lost fifteen minutes of fun for disrespecting me.”

        The bench didn’t have enough room for all thirteen of the kids, so some of them, including the birthday boy, were stuck roasting their butts on the concrete. They grumbled about how unfair the whole situation was as the lifeguard managed to sweet-talk his coworker into letting him long in the tower for the duration of their punishment. Just look at him, enjoying his day after trying to ruin theirs.

        Billy whispered a plan to his friends. They nodded eagerly, suppressing hysterical giggles as they thought about their revenge scheme. The lifeguard looked around before taking out the iPhone he had hidden away earlier that day. Seeing the perfect opportunity to strike, the boys set their plan in motion.

        They had to act fast: it was only a matter of time before the lifeguard would check to make sure they were behaving. As the boys tiptoed closer to the lifeguard tower, they could just barely hear the faint whee of Angry Birds being slingshotted coming from the lifeguard’s phone. Not only was this guy a real party pooper, but he was terribly behind the times. The boys all gathered behind the tower.

        One. Two. Three! The kids all shoved the tower, toppling the inattentive lifeguard’s sanctuary. The man yelled out in surprise as he fell into the water. He came up spluttering, hurling insults at the kids for messing with him and ruining his phone. Instead of blaming the children, the pool’s manager clearly blamed his employee. 

        As the soon to be former lifeguard received quite a tongue lashing, the boys all cheered triumphantly. They had shown that lifeguard who really ruled this pool. With his enemy defeated, Billy raced into the pool with his friends right behind him. They were soon splashing around gleefully without a care in the world except, perhaps, whether or not their parents would take them out for some ice cream afterwards.