Sharks

Chapter One

April 1
^st
2006

"Sharks!"

"Shark attack!"

Lifeguards dove, swimming with strong clean-lined strokes and circled the water-treading students.

The students' eyes bugged out. They knew what would happen soon. Everything they had learned would be tested--all physical
prowess
challenged--every bit of knowledge put to use.

Lilly slanted her BFF, Jacob, a smile saying
I can hardly wait for this. Remember when we were challenged this way?
She hoped he could still read her mind. He usually could.

She swam water polo style, circling the students, picking out her prey, and trying to find the absolute best way to attack. She needed to weed out the weakest of the large group. It was time to kick butt.

Lilly and Jacob moved as one, each toward the student of choice. Lilly backed off, waiting, intending to watch Jacob and prolong the suspense for the others. The students needed nerves of steel to survive this shark attack. The fluttering in her stomach began--nerve wracking for the instructors as well.

Jacob's arms wrapped around one of the weakest swimmers in the group. He hung on as the young man struggled to break the hold, doing everything wrong. Lilly sensed the panic in the boy whose arms began to flail and thrash the water. He chocked and coughed as his head bobbed below the water level then back up.

"C'mon Jacob, let him go. He can't do this--not today." Lilly waited for what seemed an eternity as Jacob released the young man and pulled him to the side of the pool. "My turn."

She circled the swimmers, her gaze moving from one student to the next.
There…

The girl was not one of the strongest swimmers, but she had a lot of potential--thinking ability--logical. Lilly grabbed the student from behind. When the girl was unable to break the hold in the usual manner, she resorted to another useful technique. Unlike Jacob's prey, this girl immediately did a foot first dive to the bottom of the pool.
Yes…

Lilly hung on for a few seconds but knew she would have to surface. Two hands at Lilly's waist, the girl pushed her away and swam out of reach. The pair surfaced and Lilly smiled broadly. "Good job."

"Thanks, I just did what you guys have preached. The last place a drowning victim wants to be is at the bottom of the pool. They want air. When I recalled the info, everything else was easy. Do I pass?"

"This test. But you know there will be more."

The attacks went on and soon all the students had been tested. Lilly swam to the side of the pool, calling for everyone to get out. Jacob tossed her a towel and grabbed one for
himself
. She loved the way her BFF looked, the way he moved with such an easy fluid grace. But even more she loved the way he treated her. He would protect and cherish her as a friend. He always asked her advice about when he wanted to date someone she knew. He respected her judgment. Oh, they had tried dating once. OMG was that the hugest of hugest mistakes or what? BFF's--that was all they could ever be.

They were just too different--polar opposites. She was poor. He had been born with a silver spoon so to speak. She thought abstract art was crazy awful and he'd already sold a piece with red and yellow blocks, streaks and splatters and etc. for a couple thousand dollars. She was an atheist; he was a devout Catholic. They could never have a conversation involving religion or politics without arguing--they had agreed to disagree in silence. But even then, if a threatening topic came up, the tension crackled.

Yet--when she was with Jacob, she felt a connection she had never, ever felt with anyone else. The first time she saw him, her heart slammed against her ribs and she shook from head to toe. Butterflies danced inside. Her breath caught in her throat and she thought for a brief moment in time she might faint. Physically the only words to describe Jacob were drop dead gorgeous.

Later she discovered Jacob was beautiful on the inside too. Then…

She learned the awful truth.

He thought of her as the girl next door--the sister he didn't have but had wished for his entire life.

Of course she was a bit of a tomboy but she liked feminine things too. Dang, she wore dresses sometimes, just not those silly, frilly ones. If she wasn't at the pool for the day, she wore makeup and curled her hair. Makeup was useless when a girl was dripping wet every hour or so.

But it was worse than that. He seemed to gravitate to the dumb blond type, the trophy girlfriend. The over the top, drop dead gorgeous types who wore double D cups and laughed in breathy little whispers, cooing over everything he said and pawing his chest with their perfectly manicured fingernails.

Sigh…

Still, those relationships never seemed to workout for him. A month, maybe two at the most and the girl would vanish. At least as a friend, she knew she would never lose him.

He walked toward her, grinning and toweling his dark hair, leaving the strands in disarray. He was tanned from his trip to Hawaii a couple of weeks past. His blue eyes sparkled with unspoken humor as if the little boy inside had a prank in mind.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"Huh…" She stuttered, unable to pull myself into the present and away from her musings about his fine-looking bod.

"Shark attack."

"Oh, that. They did well--better than expected." She sat down on a bench, watching the rippling water.

"You think?"

Lilly laughed and swatted him with her towel. "I do…"

"Think…"

"Yeah, sometimes," Lilly said.

"You over-think and over-analyze everything," he told her with a smug expression. "But I love the results--something I can't do."

"Think?" she asked. "I've always thought of you as a dreamer."

"Analyzer," he told her. "Seems to be a problem of mine, and yeah, I guess one could say I am a dreamer." He looked back to the students. "Did any fail? I hope not. It's always so hard to tell them they have to come back next year and try again."

"Only your first victim. Do we give him another shot?"

"Sure, but I don't think he's going for it. After I left him at the side of the pool, he vanished, grabbed his towel and I haven't seen him since."

"You must have scared the living daylights out of him," she said. "Go see if he's in the locker room. Don't want to lose one to shock. He looked pretty terrified."

"Good idea." Jacob strode to the dressing room and disappeared inside. A few moments later he stood outside the door, waving to her to get her attention, "He's gone."

Lilly breathed a long sigh of relief. The boy was young and his swimming skills weren't strong. He wanted some sort of merit badge. He should have been in a different class but had protested so much they had agreed to give him a chance.

Sitting down on the edge of the pool she splashed water with her foot, concentrating on the past hour. So lost in thought she didn't realize Jacob had sat down beside her until he wrapped a brotherly protective arm around her shoulder.

"What's up?" he asked, "Or should I say, a penny for your thoughts." His grin mesmerized, her heart pounding something besides brotherly love.

"Don't you think my musings might be worth a bit more?" she queried, looking for some way to tease him. The last thing she wanted was for him to see how attracted she was to him. It would ruin everything.

His laugh warmed her all the way through her core. "Of course. How about a million pennies?"

"That's better. I was thinking about graduation. Won't be very long and we will be walking, our diplomas in hand and off to college."