I slip into my bikini top, a light blue halter with white poppies on it, and the matching bottoms. I grab my white lace dress and throw it on top before running down the steps to the door where Daisy and Lincoln have let themselves in.

"Hey," I greet them casually. They follow after me into the kitchen, and Daisy immediately rushes to the fridge.

"Aha! Flavored water!" Daisy annonces. She grabs four bottles in her arms and turns toward me. "I'm ready." I shake my head and laugh while grabbing some chips and snacks from the pantry.

"Can you grab some sodas, Linc?" I ask Lincoln who is standing behind me. He nods and jogs over to the garage. I grab some beach towels from the linen closet and throw them over my shoulder and toss one at Daisy. Linc comes back with a box of cokes and mountain dews, and we all walk out the back door to the pool.

"Cowabunga!" Daisy yells as she drops all her stuff and jumps into the pool, where Matthew and Ava are already swimming.

"Daisy!" Ava squeals, annoyed. I laugh as Daisy lands in the pool and water splashes everywhere.

"Don't hold that face for too long or it'll get stuck like that," Daisy says jokingly to Ava, who has an irritated look on her face. She rolls her eyes and swims away to the shallow end with Matthew.

"You want to jump?" I ask Lincoln. He crosses his arms over his chest and steps back a little. I walk up behind him and unfold his arms and grab his hand. He starts to shake his head no, but he already knows what I'm up to.

"Too late!" I squeal as I jump in, dragging Lincoln with me. Cold water rushes over me, and I hear muffled shrieks before coming up for air.

"Why does everyone have to jump in?" Ava grumbles and we all laugh in return. Daisy splashes water at me and I throw it back at her. I narrow my eyes and I know what we're both thinking. The game is on. Soon enough we start running around the pool feeling like astronauts on the moon and splashing each other with water. My hair gets drenched as Lincoln comes up from behind and dunks me under. Daisy floats down to the bottom of the pool and grabs my leg, trying to pull me down too. I thrash around, but between Lincoln keeping me down and Daisy pulling, I give up and let her win. We all pop up to the top gasping for air.

"You won that round," I announce, gesturing to Daisy and Lincoln. She does a little curtsy and Lincoln pretends he's playing a trumpet and makes a fanfare type sound. I laugh and swim over to the edge of the pool and lift myself up. Daisy follows me and sits on the ledge as well.

"Ahhh!" we both scream as Lincoln clutches our legs and drags us down at the same time. The water chills my bones as I'm submerged in it since I'm not used to the temperature anymore.

"Lincoln!" I yell when I come up from the water. I run after him and push him over, and Daisy holds him down. He kicks his legs and our hold on him weakens, and he tips us over and comes up. We glare at him, pretending to be angry before we dissolve into a fit of giggles. Lincoln laughs with us, and we float on our backs for a while.

"Hey girls...and guys," a voice I recognize as my mom's says with a laugh. I roll off my back and look up at where she is standing with a ton of grocery bags in her hands.

"Hi Mom," I say.

"Hey Mrs. Nevue," Daisy and Lincoln both greet I turn my gaze to Ava and Matthew who are sitting on the pool chairs and talking. Neither of them probably heard her arrive.

"How was your last day of school?" she asks.

"Good. We mostly just watched movies and played random games."

"And of course acted out plays with Mrs. Chavaski," Daisy adds in. We laugh, remembering the crazy Pinocchio play we did today with our very elderly literature teacher. My mom joins in our laughter and shifts the bags around so she doesn't drop them.

"Do you need help Mom?" I ask, already swimming over to the edge.

"No, no. You guys have fun. Should I order a pizza for you?"

"Sure. Pineapple and ham and then one pepperoni maybe?" Daisy and Lincoln nod their heads in agreement, and my mom smiles before stepping inside the house. I turn around to see that Daisy had found some floaties, and I quickly steal the pink flamingo. She climbs up onto the swan, and Lincoln finds the pineapple.

"Ava!" I yell across the pool. "Can you take a picture?" She rolls her eyes and nods before getting up and grabbing my polaroid.

"I'll be hearing this till the day you die," she mumbles. She quickly snaps the picture and goes back to her secret spot with Matthew. I glance at Daisy and splash a little water at her, and she cups some in her hands and attempts to throw it at me. I paddle away on my floatie, and she follows after while kicking and flailing her arms everywhere. I hear a splash and turn around on my flamingo to see that she's fallen off.

"I won!" I boast while letting my legs dangle off the sides of the floatie. I feel a ripple around my legs and look down where Daisy is about to grab my leg. I try to move out of the way and go left, but she grips my leg quickly and pulls me down into the water. I shriek before my body hits the water, and she lets go of my leg. We come up out of the water and I slick my drenched hair back.

"I do believe I won that round," Daisy says matter-of-factly. I scowl and push her over slightly and she falls back onto her back, and I join her.

"Race you to the other side of the pool and back?" she asks.

"Challenge accepted," I answer. We both flip up and start swimming as fast as we can. Daisy dives underwater and swims like a mermaid, and I do the breaststroke. My arms slice through the light blue water, and my legs kick and splash tons of water into the air. I glance down to see Daisy ahead of me. I narrow my eyes and take a deep breath before diving under also and power swimming to the end. I flip over and punch the wall with my feet and getting a good surge ahead, I start doing the breaststroke again. I tap the other wall with my hand before jumping up and announcing my victory.

"I won!" I yell while pumping my hands in the air. Daisy comes up seconds later and we shake hands and giggle. I turn to see Lincoln smiling and enjoying the show from his pineapple floatie. I doggie paddle over to him and climb onto his large floatie.

"Hey I'm coming too!" Daisy exclaimed. She pulled herself onto the floatie and lied down next to me on my right.

"Why does school exist?" she asked.

"To torture us," I answer.

"To make summer seem like a treat," Lincoln says. I turn to face him and smile.

"You're such a thinker," I comment as I bop him on the nose. He blushes and grins back at me.

"Next year we're seniors already. Where did time go?" Daisy wonders aloud.

"I don't know. It seems like just a few days ago we were playing on the same soccer team in kindergarten," I say.

"Remember when Daisy used to just sit down in the field and play with the dandelions?" Lincoln says with a chuckle.

"It comes with the name and the hippy parents," she explains.

"And remember when I got my ears pierced for my birthday and the referee refused to let me play unless I took them out?"

"And you ripped the earrings out, handed them to your mom, and stomped back in the game?" Lincoln mentions. We start laughing hysterically at the past memories and how crazy we were as kids.

"Ahhh!" we scream as we fall into the freezing water and the floatie flips over.

"The pizza is ready," Matthew announces when our heads pop out of the water. Ava is laughing uncontrollably at us, and I presume she's the one who pushed us over. I glare at her as we swim to the side of the pool and hoist ourselves up. I turn on the faucet for the outside shower and quickly rinse off alongside Lincoln and Daisy. Water drips from my body as I walk over to my chair and grab my towel. I wrap it around myself and dry my legs and feet. Ava opens the patio door and steps inside, and we follow behind her.

"Here you go," my mom says as she sets the two pizzas down on the granite counter. I glance around for my dad who should be home at this time but don't see him. I hear jumbled "thank you"s around me and mumble my own. My mom walks away into her office and I follow after her.

"Where's Dad?" I ask. She sighs and sits down in her chair.

"At Springston," she answers. I freeze. Springston is his hospital, but he wasn't supposed to have another appointment for a few more weeks.

"Why is he there? Did he get worse?" I worriedly question. She looks away from me for a split second and I know the answer to my question. "He did."

"I tried to pick him up from Applewood, but he fought with his nurse. Punched her right in the nose. They took him to Springston to observe him," she sighs.

"Geez," I mumble under my breath. "When is he coming home?"

"I'll pick him up later tonight. But don't worry about it. Have fun!" I give her a quick smile before walking back out to the kitchen.

"You okay?" Daisy asks.

"Yep. Did you leave any pizza for me?" I laugh. She swats my arm and opens the box for me. I grab a paper plate with polka dots on it and take a slice of each kind and then follow Lincoln outside. I settle down into a metal chair alongside Daisy and Lincoln. Matthew and Ava retreat to their own corner.

"You sure you're okay?" Daisy inquires.

"I'm fine. My dad is just at Springston. That's all." Lincoln and Daisy share a look, and I pretend not to see it by looking over at Ava and eating my pizza.

"How much longer do you think their relationship will last?" I blurt out.

"End of summer tops," Daisy announces.

"Two months into the school year," Lincoln guesses. I smile at him.

"Always the positive thinker aren't you?" I say. He smiles and covers up his blushing face by putting a slice of pizza in his mouth. The leaves of the palm trees blow in the light wind, and somewhere I hear a dog barking and kids screaming.

"I brought my ukulele," Daisy recalled.

"Ooh go get it!" I command. She darts back inside and comes back within twenty seconds with her instrument in hand.

"What song?"

"Riptide," I answer. Lincoln nods his approval and she starts making sure her ukulele is in tune.

"Ready," she says, and we all start singing along to the chords as she plays them.

"I was scared of dentists and the dark..."

I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations oh all my friends are turning green..."

"You're the magician's assistant in their dreams..."

*

After all the ukulele playing and singing for hours and dancing till our feet hurt, we head back inside. Matthew and Ava are already inside doing who knows what, so we try to be quiet as we make our way into the den with everything we need. I roll out my sleeping bag on the fluffy rug and plop my pillow down before flopping down myself. I wiggle my way into the sleeping bag and look over at Daisy who has curled up in a chair. I grin and glance at Lincoln on the couch. I toss my blanket over his toes that have peeked out the end of his own blanket and nestle back into my sleeping spot.

"This was a really awesome day," Daisy mumbles half asleep.

"Yeah. It was," I agree. Lincoln says nothing, probably already sleeping. I close my eyes, letting myself fall asleep after the busy yet fun day.

"You still shouldn't have hit the nurse!" I shoot up in my bed after being woken up by the yelling.

"Oh here we are again. Hitting the nurse. It doesn't matter!"

"Yes it does! We could have gotten sued if she had been injured!"

"But she didn't! So how about you worry about me for once instead of everyone else! Do you think that's possible? Huh?" I don't hear any voices after that. I sigh and rub my eyes. I hate all the yelling. I sometimes wish the Huntington's had affected his ability to speak, but then I feel evil and ugly. After all someday I will be like him, and I don't want people wishing worse for me. A spark ignited in my brain. I shimmied out of my sleeping bag and sneaked out of the room, being careful not to let the door squeak on my way out. I hear more talking but this time more shushed and not screaming. They must have realized people are sleeping. I tiptoe up the stairs to my bedroom and head to my desk where my backpack and school things are messily sprawled out. I move the mess out of the way and slide open a drawer. I take out a piece of paper and a pen, and I begin writing.