Three Wishes (18 page)

When it's all over, I take a deep breath and thank him for what I'm sure was meant to be a special treat for me. I'm faking excitement, and my stomach is rumbling from lack of food. It seems like I missed the dinner part of the dinner theater. Oh, well. I'll be going to sleep soon, anyway.

We head home, with him waxing enthusiastic, surprised to have enjoyed the show. I'm able to keep up the charade through when we get home and, after a long time spent kissing, we separate and I go inside the dark house.

My grandparents are already asleep, and I sneak into the kitchen for something to eat, reaching for the bag of chocolate on the counter. Sighing, I stop my hand midair and instead grab some baby carrots from the fridge. I long for the candy but force myself to leave the kitchen and go up to my room. The TV has some random rerun, and I curl up on my bed, snacking as I watch. The carrots are satisfying enough that I am able to go to sleep without hunger pangs, but in the morning I'm ready for something heartier.

My grandfather has hard-boiled eggs and whole-wheat toast with peanut butter waiting for my breakfast when I go downstairs. It's not quite the calorie-laden waffles with whipped cream and chocolate syrup I was dreaming about, but it'll do on the day I'm swimming my heart out.

“Thanks, Papa. This is great,” I tell him.

“Power food — lots of protein to fuel your swim today.” He grins, back to his old self. You'd never know he had such a serious accident only a few months earlier — the doctors proclaimed him a miracle patient. “You should finish it off with a banana, too, and some coffee.”

My grandparents have a reputation as the swim team's best boosters. Not only do they show up for every single meet without fail, my grandfather also offers specials at his store where a percentage of the day's sales goes to help fund the team. It's because of this the school was able to afford the extensive repairs the pool needed last year. My dream is we'll raise enough money to pay for heated towel bars, which would be plush. Perhaps, though, freezing in the locker room is part of the character-building process.

Papa is already halfway through his breakfast and he notices I'm still picking at mine. “What's the matter? Is everything okay?” he asks with concern.

“It's fine. I guess I'm a little nervous, and my stomach doesn't feel up to much.” I don't tell him I'm also worried about my weight and having Pete see me in my bathing suit in the afternoon, because I know what Papa would say to that. “Where's Mamère?” I ask to distract him from my eating habits.

“Oh, I don't know. She had some errands to run. Said something about a sale at the shoe store.” He laughs. My grandmother is far from being a fashionista, but she does have a healthy collection of shoes, and oddly, all of them are black. Shrugging, he adds, “We're driving with the Hirsches to the meet. How are you getting there today? With Leia?”

“Yeah, I'm driving with Leia, and Luke, too, but I'll get a ride back with Pete. We have to be there so early for warm-ups that I didn't want Pete to get bored. Then we'll all go out afterward and celebrate or commiserate.”

“Luke's coming, too, eh?”

“Of course! Can you imagine him not coming to cheer on his twin sister at her final high school meet?”

“Good point. He's a nice, solid guy. I wish…”

I clear my throat. “Be careful, Papa.”

“Oops! I sometimes forget. But what did ever happen between the two of you?”

“It's such ancient history. We just are better as friends, that's all.”

“Well, I'm glad you have had Luke and Leia in your life. Their whole family has been good to us.” He begins clearing the dishes off the table. “When I think of what it was like after we lost your parents… we had you, a little baby, to take care of, but we were so deep in grief ourselves. The Hirsches took over the day-to-day care of you for a solid couple of weeks until your grandmother and I were able to function again.” He starts loading the dishwasher, and I almost miss what he's saying over the clatter of silverware. “I'll always be grateful to them.”

It is rare my grandparents mention the time after my parents died. They don't avoid it if I bring it up, but it's unusual for either of them to start a conversation about it. I guess, even after all these years, it's still too painful. Nevertheless, I can't let this opportunity slip by. I lean against the counter and ask, “What brought this up, Papa, talking about my parents?”

“Just… seeing you growing up and into an adult reminds me so much of your parents. Until you came along, your father was the light of our lives, and we thought your mother was lovely, too.” He pauses while scrubbing a pot. “We didn't have enough time with her before we lost them both, but I was always so glad Matt found his soul mate. That gave us a great deal of comfort after their loss. And then, having you to raise… sweetheart, we couldn't have asked for a better child than you.

“Ah, I don't know what's gotten into me, getting so mushy,” he says, dabbing at the tears threatening to drip from the corners of his eyes. “But we're very proud to be your grandparents. We love you, just as you are, from the end of your nose to the tips of your toes, and everything in between.”

I smile at the familiar refrain, which I have heard with regularity for as long as I can remember. “I love you, too, Papa.”

He puts the pots on the drying rack and we hug each other.

“I'll always be your little girl,” I say, but it gets muffled into his shoulder, and I'm not sure he hears me.

He clears his throat and draws back. “Well, I don't know if that was much of a pep talk, but you've got about an hour before you have to get ready for the meet. Why don't you finish your breakfast?”

But I decline, again citing nerves, which is somewhat true. I don't feel hungry at the moment. When I think about the meet, though, I know my body probably needs a little more than I've given it. Well, I'm sure I have plenty of excess chocolate booty I can burn off in the pool, and I'll try to eat a banana later on.

The pool where the state meet is being held is about an hour and a half away, but the time flies by while in the car with Leia and Luke. Both Leia and I are nervous, so we avoid talking about anything serious, focusing instead on random gossip and the songs Luke is playing to get us pumped.

We all laugh when “Eye of the Tiger” comes on, a song from one of the many boxing movies in the nineteen-eighties. It's meant to motivate us, but does more to loosen us up. Luke is driving, but Leia and I keep giving each other the
Eye
and breaking into hysterics while we do it.

When we reach the pool complex, we become a little more somber. After Luke parks the car and heads toward the boys' locker room, Leia grabs my hand. “G, this is our last meet together, ever. I don't want to think about it too much ‘cause it'll freak me out, but I want us to kick some butt today.”

Smiling through the tears springing to my eyes, we share our special pinky-link promise and enter the locker room. After we change into our bathing suits, I catch Leia watching me check myself out in the mirror. She starts, and with a laugh asks me why I'm obsessed with my own image.

“Ha, ha. Seriously, though, do you think I've put on weight?” I ask.

“Good grief. No! Not this again. I thought we went over this already on Valentine's Day. You look… amazing. Hot. Everyone who sees you is lusting over you, don't you know? I wish I… well, forget it. If wishes grew on trees, blah, blah, blah,” she says, rolling her eyes.

I relax a bit, having tensed up when she started to make a wish. Somehow I still haven't told my best friend I'm a genie, though so much of the time I, myself, manage to ignore that. Now is not when I should be revealing anything more.

With Leia's pep talk under my belt, we both step out onto the pool deck with confidence. I have my usual towel wrapped around me. Glancing around the enormous aquatic center, I see Coach Terri and two other swimmers from our team at the other side of the pool. Other coaches' whistles and commands echo throughout the space. Four members of our team of twenty-nine qualified for the state meet, a pretty high percentage for a school as small as ours. It's a testimonial to Coach Terri's solid work with us over the years. As I peer into the stands, I notice most of the rest of the team already there to cheer us on. Luke is holding up a corny but cute poster that says
Go, Baby, Go!
and has old baby pictures of Leia and me. Laughing, we both wave and give him a thumbs-up.

After warm-ups I see Pete in the stands, sitting awkwardly next to Luke. When he catches my eye, Pete blows me a kiss and waves before wolf-whistling. He holds up a bouquet of flowers and points to it so I know they're for me. After all his talk about my candy problem, it seems he's enjoying seeing me in a bathing suit. I wave back at him, though I put my finger over my lips, hoping to shush his whistling.

Because, of course, when he whistles like that, everyone else also stares at me, including Joel, one of the four of us to have qualified for states, and Ryan Smith, a speedy freshman who is the fourth member of the team to be swimming today. Joel and I have been able to keep pretending nothing happened. I should win an Oscar, with how I've been acting like things were normal between me and Joel and Pete.

“This is it! Our last meet. No
distractions
, right?” Joel says.

I'm pleased to be able to laugh now at his reference to Coach Terri's gaffe a few months earlier. With mock formality, Joel says it's been an honor to serve as co-captain with me. I incline my head and concur, feeling great about my upcoming swims.

The first few events drag by, though I'm happy when I notice my grandparents and Leia's parents waving from up in the stands, having made it in plenty of time to see us. Farther up, tucked in a corner on her own, is Dr. Morocco. There are empty seats around her, as if no one dared sit too close. We lock eyes and, even at a distance, I can sense the intensity of her power. But then she gives me a thumbs-up, and my heart's sudden acceleration slows.

I'm the first of my teammates to swim, and I'm feeling strong and solid for my event. When the beep goes off, I get a great start and plunge in the water with energy to spare. I'm keeping great pace, and as my arms churn through the strokes I can tell I'm up with the frontrunners. Going into the last turn, I'm still doing well and am able to make a final push in the last ten meters to have a hard finish. When our times are posted, I've dropped a half second on my 200 Individual Medley, a drop that's almost unheard of at this point in a swimmer's career. It's good enough to have moved up from a tenth-seed to a sixth-place finish, my best ever.

I come back to the team area, all smiles. Pete runs down from the bleachers, picks me up, and spins me around. “Genie! That was amazing, babe. You flew through the water. Too bad you didn't get first, but hey, sixth is still great.” He dips me and gives me a huge kiss, right in front of everyone. I break away as quickly as I can without hurting his feelings and then look around to see if anyone has noticed. Leia and Joel are studying the scoreboard, which is blank in preparation for the next event.

Coach Terri marches over to us. “No visitors allowed,” she barks. “These kids have to focus.”

I nod in understanding and say to Pete, “You've gotta go back. But I'm so glad you're here. Thanks for cheering me on.”

“Sure, you did great,” he says, throwing an angry glance behind Coach's back. “We'll catch up after your last event, okay?”

I peck him on the lips as a
yes
, and he heads back up the bleachers. I see my grandmother smile at him as he heads up to his seat, just past her. She waves at me and grabs my grandfather's hand to get his attention on me. He catches my eye and pumps his fist in victory. They could probably quote from memory every one of my best times over the years, so they're well aware that my performance was exceptional.

At that moment, Leia hugs me from behind. “Way to go, G,” she says.

I'm still flying with excitement.

Soon it's time for her only event at states, the 50-meter Freestyle. The meet's shortest event, 50 Free is two lengths of the pool. It's all about quick starts and turns and power in-between, at which Leia excels. She, too, has an amazing race and finishes in seventh place, far above her thirteenth-place seed.

We're both riding the high and are cheering at the top of our lungs when Joel goes to the block for his 100-meter Butterfly. It's the last event of his high school career, and he's loose and comfortable as he gets ready for the start. He explodes off the block and has a killer race, managing to drop three-tenths of a second off his time to finish in third. It's the best placement at states any swimmer from our team has ever had, and we're all going nuts when his hands touch the wall.

He leaps out of the water and makes a beeline for me. He grabs me and wraps his arms around me, swinging me around in the air. I'm so excited I hug him back, and suddenly I'm brought back to the unexpected sensations of our make-out session. An electric current runs between us, with only thin, wet bathing suits separating our bodies. We both drop our arms; he grabs a towel and takes a seat on our bleachers, not making eye contact.

Catching my breath as I recover, I sneak a glance up at the bleachers out of the corner of my eye, hoping Pete didn't notice what had happened. Sure enough, he looks like he's about to blow his top, but he knows he's not allowed down here, so at least his jealous accusations can wait until after the meet. Leia seems pretty ticked, too, and I can't blame her, either.

I'm turning this over and over in my mind but trying hard not to fall apart and feel like, um, worms eating dirt again. So time flies, and suddenly I'm only a few minutes away from my next event, the 100-meter Backstroke. I hadn't noticed how hungry I am until a loud belly grumble reminds me. Reviewing my actual food consumption over the past twenty-four hours, it's not much, but it's too late now for me to eat before my swim. Given how pumped I'm still feeling from all of our earlier successes, I'm sure I'll be okay, though I'm planning on having a giant meal as soon as possible.