The Foxfire Chronicles- Comrades and Classmates

Chapter 2-Ending Summer with a Splash!

             "Sophie?" Sophie's dad Grady's voice sounded from downstairs. Sophie's mom was a couple towns over, picking up an injured animal, so Grady was in charge for a day or two. "Can you come downstairs for a moment, hon?" Sophie agreed and walked out of her room, bounding down the stairs, her fat little pony trailing behind her. Poor Silveny needed less food, and more exercise, so she was already panting.

             When Sophie got downstairs, Grady was waiting. "You've been indoors for a week, Sophie!" he started. "It's so nice outside! Why don't you go out and get some fresh air instead of being stuck inside? You know, there's an outdoor pool about a block away, you could go for a swim." he coaxed.

              Sophie was about to decline, but getting out of the house did sound nice. "You know what?"she replied. "That does sound fun. I'll just go grab my swimsuit to change into, and-"

               "But. " Grady interjected. "There are some rules we need to establish." Oh brother,  Sophie thought, a Grady lecture. "First," Grady continued. "No running near the pool, and second, wear sunscreen. Third and most importantly, NO talking to strangers. ESPECIALLY boys. Now I've already talked to the lifeguard. Her name is Mindy, and I asked her to make sure she keeps an extra close eye on you."

                 Sophie blinked a few times, taken aback. Honestly, she should've expected her overprotective father to take such drastic measures, as soon as he agreed to let her go. She knew from experience that the best strategy is these situations was just to nod, and agree. If she didn't, then she wouldn't be getting out of the house until she was 30!

                 After Grady's very thorough safety instructions, Sophie went back upstairs to her room and grabbed a duffel bag, putting in it some sunscreen, a lilac purple swimsuit, and per Grady's request, a box of band-aids. Sophie said goodbye to Grady and dashed out the door before he could stop her, or give her another list of things she needed for safety, impossible though it seemed.

                Sophie walked a couple blocks over to the public outdoor pool. She walked into the office building in front of the pool to check at the main office. Grady had already signed her up for a two week pool pass, so when Sophie told the secretary at the desk her name, she was allowed to go straight to the ladies dressing room. Instead of changing, she decided to first go and check out the pool.

               There was a lap pool with tubes, a deeper pool with a high and low diving board, and a large pool for leisure swimming. There were quite a few people there, the majority of the swimmers swimming in the leisure pool. It was all in all, a pretty nice pool, but that wasn't what first caught Sophie's eyes, or rather her ears. By the edge of the regular pool, there was a fairly heated discussion taking place between a tall, blonde boy, and an exasperated looking lifeguard.

               The boy sighed and quickly glanced up at her name tag. "Mindy, Mindy, Mindy." he said clicking his tongue. "It was not  a dive into the shallow end of the pool, it was just a graceful belly flop." he exasperatedly clarified.

               The lifeguard assigned to watch over Sophie clearly wasn't buying it. She raised an eyebrow. "We don't allow belly flops either." she retorted. "Look kid, if I have to talk to you again, I'm going to have to kick you out."

                 At this point, Sophie started to walk over. When the boy was done talking, she had a question or two for the life guard. The blonde boy continued, "I don't think you can do that Mindy." he told the lifeguard.

                "Why not?" the exasperated lifeguard asked impatiently.

                 "You'd miss me to much." The boy responded cockily. 

                "Yeah, I doubt that." Mindy snapped.

                    The boy started walking away, yet was still looking at the lifeguard as he spoke. "Playing hard to get." he said winking. "I see how it  is." He took one more step away from Mindy, smirking all the while, and bumped right into Sophie. 

                     Sophie, the clumsiest human to grace this earth, flailed her arms a couple of times in an  attempt to regain her balance. Of course, with her balance issues she failed, and toppled right into the water, fully clothed.

                    Sophie landed in the pool with a loud "SPLASH!" and quickly started to swim to the stairs leading out of the pool. To her surprise, the boy that had knocked her into the pool was holding out a hand to her. Face blushing furiously, Sophie took his hand as he helped her up, and out of the water.

                     "Sorry about that." the boy said, his face looking earnest. Than it turned joking as he stage whispered, "But you don't want to dive in this area." he glanced at the lifeguard. "They're kinda, might we say, touchy here?" He raised his voice much louder than his natural volume, "It's all right  Mindy, I already told her, NO DIVING ." 

                    Mindy rolled her eyes, having heard everything. The boy grinned, sky blue eyes flashing. Sophie started to walk away, but the boy stopped her. "Hey," he said. "What's your name? Mine's Keefe, but feel free to call me Lord Hunkyhair. I also accept the title of The-Hottest-Guy-That-You've-Ever-Had-The-Pleasure-To-Meet." He smirked, waiting for her reaction.

                    "It's Sophie." Sophie told him, still kind of in shock that a seemingly popular boy was talking to her. At this, Mindy bolted up in her seat.

                      She gulped and than  nervously asked, "Sophie Foster?" When Sophie nodded, she continued, "Wait, so you fell into our pool got wet, was helped up by a boy and are now talking to that same boy?!" When Sophie nodded again, Mindy paled. "Your dad's gonna kill me." she moaned. 

                       Poor Mindy. Sophie thought stiffing a giggle. The boy, Keefe, turned back to Sophie and said, "Sophie Foster, eh? Well, I have to head home now. My mom's gonna freak if I was late, but I'll see you at school."

                       Play it cool.  Sophie told herself, knowing that she knew nothing about how to talk to boys.  She finally responded, "Um, yeah. Maybe."

                       If it was even possible, his grin got even bigger. "I knew you couldn't resist the Keefster. It's a date Foster." he said swaggering away. Sophie hoped that he had left before he could see her face turn redder than a tomato. She glanced up at Mindy who looked like she was about to have a panic attack. Sophie bit her cheek to keep her from bursting out in laughter. 

                        As Sophie walked to the girls dressing room to change out of her sopping wet clothes, she said to herself, "Keefe." Saying his name made her smile. Maybe making friends this year wouldn't be too hard after all. 

                    YES!!! We all love Keefe. 😆He is so fun to write about. So, this is my first Wattpad book, and we'll see how it goes so just bear with me!!!😬I know where my opinion lies and BOY is it strong, 😉but I wanna hear what you all think. Who do you want to end up with who in KOTLC????? Thank you so much for reading, you make it possible! Hope to post another chapter A.S.A.P!