"My throat's closing up," Lexi announced croakily when we finally got to Kate's office. "Stupid bee stopped Alex from seeing me in my swim suit!"

"That's the last of your worries," I told her as I sat her down, looking around for Kate. "I'll go find Kate. Just try your best and breathe, okay?"

Lexi gave me a flat look. "I'll try."

I looked around and called out her name a few times before she finally emerged from the back room, almost frantically.

"What's wrong?" she asked. "What's wrong, Jordan?"

"My friend was stung by a bee," I informed her quickly, motioning toward her quickly. "She's really allergic. Is there anything you can do?"

"Of course," Kate nodded, walking over toward Lexi, who looked almost terrified. Before I knew it, Kate's hand was up in the air and quickly swinging down toward her leg. Lexi let out a shout when Kate's hand connected with her leg, and I looked over to see she had stabbed her with a shot.

"She'll be better after the medicine kicks in," Kate sighed, standing up and patting Lexi on the shoulder. "She should go back to her cabin and rest. She'll be back to normal in a few days. But I'll have her stay in here for tonight, just to make sure."

I nodded, smiling at her before turning toward my best friend. "Are you going to be okay?"

She nodded at me now, swallowing hard. "My throat's getting better now," she answered me hoarsely. "I'll be fine. Go take my place for the dunk tank like you said you would."

My eyes widened when I realized what I had told Jesse to do. I was just so worried about Lexi that I wasn't even thinking when I told him to go tell them I would do the dunk tank. Even though I wasn't going to be dunked into the pool or anything, I still was going to be dropping into water... I hated water...

"Okay," I gulped, giving her one last smile before turning away from her and exiting Kate's office. I had to get back to my cabin so I could change into a swim suit...

I then realized that I didn't even own a swim suit. Since I couldn't swim, I never thought I'd need one. The last swim suit I had worn was...

Oh, no. I couldn't wear that skimpy swim suit I had used to seduce Jesse! That was way too revealing! Sure, it covered up everything it was supposed to, but... it was super small and tight!

I sighed, pulling the damned swim suit out of my dresser and holding it in front of my face. I scowled as I pulled it on, dreading the looks I was going to get from the different guys that passed. Especially after I got dunked... How disgusting.

Only Jesse had seen me in the swim suit, and it was dark while he did. I knew that he could see what I looked like, but just barely... Now I was going to be out in the bright daylight, being violated by every guy that passed. I was so not looking forward to this.

I wrapped a towel around my body, making my way out of the cabin and hurrying back toward the fair. I wasn't getting any looks as I passed through the huge groups of people as I made my way to the dunk tank, but that was because of the towel that continued to stay wrapped around my body.

When I finally got to the dunk tank, I found myself smiling when I saw Jesse sitting where Lexi should have been, fully clothed. A little girl had one ball in her hand, and she threw it as hard as she could at the target, but missed it by a longshot.

When Jesse saw me, his face broke out into a smile. He told the next girl in the line to wait, and quickly hopped away from the water before she decided to throw the balls she had anyway. He beckoned me toward him, and I happily walked forward.

"Have fun, Emery," he told me, cocking his head toward the tank. "You have forty-five minutes of torture ahead of you. Just be glad that I didn't get dunked, or I would have had to kill you."

He was smiling as he said this, so I knew that he was just trying to be funny. I found myself smiling even brighter, nodding at him. If he had gotten dunked, he would have gotten his clothes wet as well. I didn't want to ruin his clothes...

I still had the towel wrapped tightly around me when he lightly pushed me toward the tank. I let out a low breath before slowly removing the towel from my body.

Before I could take another step toward the tank, Jesse clutched onto my arm.

"What are you wearing?" he demanded, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "Why are you wearing that?"

"It's the only swim suit I own," I excused with a shrug, tossing the towel on the ground next to the tank. I then smirked, getting in the mood for a little teasing. "What, are you jealous or something?"

"Yeah."

His blunt answer almost completely knocked me off my feet. Jesse was jealous that all these other guys were going to see me in the skimpy swim suit? What did that mean?

Jesse's eyes widened, and I could tell he bit the inside of his lip, as if he didn't mean to say it. I could have sworn that his cheeks were pink... But I couldn't have been sure, because my cheeks were probably ten times the color of his. Which was even more embarrassing...

I heard a wolf whistle from behind me. "Woo, Jordan! Looking good!"

I turned around to see familiar guys from my first period walking passed, all whistling and winking at me, some of them even shouting about how good I looked. I turned away and ignored them, making my way to get up on the dunk tank.

"You're going to buy a different swim suit for Aimee's party, right?" Jesse asked me, coming up to the side of the dunk tank as the next girl in line threw the ball and missed. "You're not going to wear that one again, are you? Because that's not really a good idea..."

"I'll buy another one," I assured, wincing slightly when the ball almost hit the target. The water sure looked cold... I definitely wasn't looking forward to this. "I don't really like wearing something that shows this much skin. It's more of Aimee's thing, don't you think?"

Finally, Jesse smiled once again. "Yeah, it is."

For the next thirty five minutes, my heart jumped whenever someone was close to hitting the target. Some guy got really close, and barely missed it. When I only had ten minutes left, I started to worry less and I was sure that I wasn't going to get dunked.

"How about you have a go, Jesse?" I suggested to him when no one else was lining up. He had stayed by my side the entire time, which surprised me a little. I would think that he would want to go hang out with his friends or something, since after I was done we would only have an hour left.

Jesse smirked up at me, looking like he was considering it. I stuck my tongue out at him, waving him toward the baseballs that lay on the table. "Go on, I bet you can't dunk me."

Jesse continued to smirk, now making his way toward the balls. "Okay, Emery. I bet you I can."

I stuck my tongue out at him once again, and Jesse dropped a five dollar bill on the table and grabbed three balls. He walked and stood behind the line, winked at me, and then chucked one at the target.

My eyes widened when I saw how close it got to hitting the target. What if he actually dunked me? I didn't want to get wet! I should have thought before I made that stupid bet with him...

The second ball whizzed past, nicking the side of the target just barely. I held my breath, getting ready for my impact with the water, but it never came. I started to breathe again when I realized that it wasn't enough to get me to fall into the water.

"One more ball left, Jacobsen," I gulped, trying to sound smug. I was pretty sure I was failing at that... "Are you sure you're going to be able to dunk me?"

Jesse winked at me. "Definitely."

I shut my eyes tightly and braced myself for the cold impact of the water as Jesse threw the ball at the target. When I felt nothing, I cracked my eyes open to see Jesse smirking at me, no balls in his hands. He had missed, and yet he was still smirking?

"What's with the smirk, Jacobsen?" I asked, looking around just in case he had some kind of sneak attack that would get me to fall in the water. "You lost..."

He shoved his hands in his pockets, coming back up to the side of the dunk tank. "Yeah, I did lose, Emery. But... I know something you don't know," he sang childishly at the end, causing me to stare at him with wide eyes.       What did he know? Was I going to fall in at any second?

"Don't look so terrified," Jesse laughed, rolling his eyes at me. "You're not going to fall in, I assure you."

I let out a breath, relieved that I was going to stay dry. The last thing I wanted to do was spend the last hour of the fair all wet and gross...

"Do I get a turn?" a giggly voiced asked where the line was supposed to form. I internally groaned as I looked over to see Aimee smiling almost seductively at Jesse. "I've always wanted to try one of these things!"

No, she just wanted to drown me.

"Sure," Jesse said, taking the five dollar bill from her hand and handing her three baseballs. "Just hit the target, that's the only instructions you need."

She giggled flirtatiously, shuffling two of the balls onto her left arm as she clutched onto one of them with her right hand. When her eyes met mine, her flirtatious look turned to a cold scowl. If looks could kill, I would be dead in the water at that moment...

"Isn't that my old swim suit?" she inquired, her eyes narrowing and her eyebrows furrowing. "I left that at Chelsea's house, didn't I?"

I shrugged, trying to look like it didn't matter. But inside, I was so embarrassed I thought I would burst. "Yeah, so what if it is?"

She threw the first ball, ignoring me now, and it missed the target by a mile. I let out a bark of laughter, not able to control it. Jesse laughed as well, but did his best to hide it by turning away from us.

The chucked the next ball, but missed once again. Her face was turning as red as her hair with anger, and she turned to glare at me as I continued to laugh at her. I knew from the beginning that she wasn't going to be able to dunk me! Now if Yolanda had come up to throw a ball... I'd be in the water after two seconds. Man, did that girl have an arm. It was almost scary.

She threw her last ball as hard as she could, and I had to duck out of the way so it wouldn't hit me. I almost fell off the board that I was sitting on, but I luckily didn't. But I then almost fell off once again because of how hard I was laughing.

Aimee looked outraged, like she couldn't believe that she couldn't dunk me. She looked over at Jesse, who wasn't even trying to contain his laughter anymore. He almost fell over from laughing so hard, and Aimee now looked embarrassed from being laughed at by her object of affection.

She let out what I thought would be a growl, and she stepped over the line where the people throwing the baseballs couldn't pass. Before Jesse and I even knew what she was doing, she was throwing her hand at the target. My eyes widened and Jesse reached out to grab her, but it was too late.

Aimee's hand connected with the target hard, as if she was imagining that the target was my face. I made sure to hold my breath as I felt the board that I was sitting on disappear. I closed my eyes tightly as my body made contact with the ice-cold water.

Did they want the people dropping in the dunk tank to get hypothermia? 

"Aimee Dennett!" I heard some member of the faculty shout when I finally emerged from the water. "To the main office! Now!"

Aimee glared at me, but walked away and toward the main office anyway. I wiped water out of my eyes, my teeth chattering as I did so. Before I knew it, I was being pulled out of the tank and a towel was being wrapped around my body securely.

"Well, I have to admit that I was kind of expecting that," Jesse smirked, making sure the towel was wrapped around me nicely. "I knew she wouldn't be able to hit the target... I even knew that she'd probably run over and hit the target. I should have been able to stop her, though..."

"It's fine," I shook, tightening the towel around my body. "I didn't think she'd do something like that... I should have seen it coming..."

"Eh, so you got wet," he shrugged, pulling away from me and placing his hands back in his pockets. "You're going to get wet tomorrow when you're swimming, so this is just a little warm up. Or should I say cold up..."

He chuckled at his joke, and I forced out one as well, now focused on what was going to happen the next day. Jesse expected me to swim... But I couldn't. Oh, man. I definitely wasn't looking forward to this...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"You look gorgeous in that new swim suit, Jordan!" Chelsea giggled as I came out of the bathroom, a flat look plastered onto my face. The only people that knew that I couldn't swim were Lexi and Dallas, who had been my friends ever since I was little. Ryan moved away before the idea of swimming even came up. "Jesse's going to be begging on his knees!"

"Uh-huh," was all I said, looking over at the mirror. I guess I didn't look that bad, but I'd definitely look bad when I was drowning...

But I wasn't going to get in the pool. I'd tell Jesse that I suddenly didn't feel good or something, and I was sure he would either let me go back to the cabin or just have me sit around while he messed around with his stupid friends or flirted with Aimee. The idea of that made me sick to my stomach, but it was better than dying...

When there was a knock on the cabin door, Cindy broke out in giggles. "Ooh, Jordan, your date is here!"

I felt my cheeks heat up, but I tried my best to ignore it. "He isn't my date," I insisted, making my way over to the door and grabbing onto the doorknob.

Even though Chelsea wasn't invited, she was coming along with me. Lexi couldn't go because of her allergic reaction, and AJ volunteered to stay and take care of her. I knew the only reason she was doing that was so she wouldn't have to see Aimee having fun with all her friends and people she invited.

I felt really bad for AJ. At Aimee's last birthday party, they snuck away for a bit and then shaving creamed everyone that was there. They looked like they were having so much fun, especially AJ... I knew she missed that part of her best friend. She probably felt so betrayed after what Aimee had done with Bruce, as if she didn't even recognize her best friend anymore... That was the sad part.

The rest of the girls were going to the party as well, but they decided that they wanted to leave after I did. They didn't want to interrupt the "date" Jesse and I were going on. Just the thought of us going on a date made butterflies erupt in my stomach.

When I opened the door, it was really hard for me to keep my jaw connected to the rest of my head. Jesse wasn't wearing a shirt, and his perfectly chiseled chest was out for everyone to see.

I hadn't ever seen him shirtless before... Why wasn't he wearing a shirt? Why couldn't he spare me the blushes and just wear a shirt until we got to the pool? It was like he was living to torture me!

"Hi," I croaked out, looking away from his chest.

Jesse smirked at me, looking me up and down. I blushed slightly, looking down at my feet.  "Hey... That swim suit looks a lot better on you then the one you were wearing yesterday."

The girls behind me giggled, and I stepped forward and slammed the door shut behind me. Why did they have to embarrass me?

If I didn't die from drowning, I'd die of embarrassment...

When we got to the pool, I was almost trampled by someone running passed us, trying to catch a Frisbee that someone was tossing from the pool. As I stepped in the water that had splashed out of the pool, I felt my blood go cold. Maybe this wasn't a good idea...

"Come on, Emery, let's swim," Jesse suggested, motioning me toward the pool. "The water looks nice."

Yeah, it did, but not to me. To me, it looked like a death trap. I did not want to get into the chlorine pool of death...

Okay, I was over exaggerating, but it still didn't mean that I wanted to get in there anytime soon. The shallowest the pool got was five feet... I was barely a foot over that... It went all the way to ten feet!

I was going to die...

"Um, actually, I don't feel that well," I lied, looking away from him. It wasn't actually a lie, I guess. Whenever I looked at that pool, my stomach twisted into knots and I felt like I was going to throw up. And I was pretty sure chlorine wouldn't get rid of puke...

"Are you okay?" Jesse asked, now fully turning toward me. "Do you want me to take you back to the cabin? Do I need to make you more soup or something?"

I knew he was trying to be funny with the last thing, but I only shook my head and continued to stare at the ground. I didn't want to make him drive me all the way back to the camp when I wasn't really sick... That would just be a waste, and he'd be missing out on fun things with his friends and Aimee...

"No," I answered with a shake of my head. "I'm fine. I just need to sit down..."

I plopped down on one of the lawn chairs, covering my stomach with my bunched-up beach towel. I watched as everyone splashed each other and laughed, and I was jealous. I couldn't do that because of what had happened to be when I was little, and I hated myself for being afraid of something that I didn't have to be afraid of... Why did I have to be so weak?

"I'll sit with you," Jesse offered, sitting down lazily on the lawn chair beside me. He smirked at me as he continued. "I don't want my date to be lonely. That's not something a gentleman would do."

My face turned bright red, and I stared at my lap. "You heard the girls teasing me?"

"Maybe."

"Well, this isn't a date." Even though I wished it was...

"I know."

I let out a sigh, continuing to watch people have fun in the pool. I envied them so much. All because of a stupid childhood fear, I couldn't enjoy the cool water with them...

I felt a little queasy when I saw we were sitting right by the deep end.

This was going to be fun...

Not.

"Jesse!" a voice giggled, causing me to let out a groan. I looked up to see the familiar redhead smiling brightly at Jesse, but then glaring quickly at me before turning back to him. "It's so great that you could make it! It's so great to see you!"

She was talking like she hadn't seen him in years, as if this was some type of high school reunion. She was just flirting with him yesterday.

"Glad I could make it," Jesse smiled. "Happy birthday, Aimee."

She giggled. "Thank you!"

She then turned toward me and glared, and I couldn't help but just stare right back at her with a flat look on my face. It would always be the same thing with her, wouldn't it? Jeez...

"I'm going to go get drinks, Jordan," Jesse informed me, catching me off guard with my first name as he stood up from his chair. I thought it meant something at first, but then I realized he was only saying it because we were supposedly boyfriend and girlfriend. That sure took my happy attitude away. "What do you want?"

"Coke," I mumbled, not even looking up at him.

I didn't know if he noticed anything different about me, but he left to get us our drinks anyway. When I looked back up, I could see the fiery redhead still glaring at me evilly.

"You think you're so cool," she snapped, crossing her arms over her too revealed chest. "But you're not. You're nowhere near as pretty as me. The only reason Jesse's going out with you is because you're some innocent virgin that he can woo easily and then get into bed. But after he gets you into bed, he'll dump you and come running to an experienced girl like me."

I shook my head, looking down at my lap. "Jesse's not that type of guy," I almost growled, feeling the tears brimming my eyes. Why was I being so damn emotional?

Damn emotions.

"You really didn't hear any of the rumors about Jesse?" Aimee sneered, now placing her hands on her hips. "Do you live in a cave or something?"

"What rumors?" I demanded, now angry at her. Was she just saying this to mess with me? I sure hope she was...

"He's slept with almost every girl in Adeline," she laughed wickedly, rolling her eyes at me. "And almost every girl at the school Dallas used to go to, too. Except for you and your friends, he's been with pretty much every girl. And since I used to be in your circle of friends, I'm one of the girls he hasn't been with. But that's about to change very, very soon."

"You're lying," I accused, shaking my head. "Jesse's not like that. I've known him for the past four years!"

Aimee smirked. "But how much of him do you really know?"

I don't know why, but what she had just said struck a nerve. Did I really know anything about Jesse Jacobsen? I didn't know that he was in a gang, and I didn't know that there was someone out to kill him. And I definitely didn't know that he was apparently a man-whore...

That was what probably hurt the most. I didn't even care about Hunter and how he was out to kill me, but the thought of Jesse with almost every girl in the school made me sick to my stomach. I didn't even want to think about any of that...

I abruptly stood up, wanting to get away from her. She had to be lying... Jesse didn't even seem like the kind of guy that would sleep around!

"Don't think you can get away so easily," she snapped, grabbing onto my arm before I could run away. "You better break up with Jesse or just stay away from him. Because I always get what I want. Always. You used to be great friends with me, Jordan. You should know."

I shook my head, deciding right then and there that I wasn't going to give up on Jesse, even if the rumors were true. Even if he was my enemy, I wasn't going to back down.

"No," I spat, yanking my arm away from him. "You're not my friend anymore, Aimee. I'm not going to let you walk all over me anymore. And let me tell you, Jesse and I have done it plenty of times. And he hasn't left me yet, has he? Oh, yeah. We even did it in your bed once."

Yeah, it was a complete lie, but she didn't have to know that...

"You bitch!" she shrieked, her face bright red as her eyes went wide. I was suddenly being pushed backward toward the pool, and I let out a scream when I realized what was happening.

She was actually pushing me into the pool. The deep end at that! I felt my body panicking before I even hit the water, and I didn't know what I was supposed to do once I was in it. I flocked my arms and legs around frantically, trying to find someone or something to hold onto.

I would bob up and down, trying my best to get air. Every time I came up, I could see Aimee laughing over me.

"Ha!" she laughed. "The bitch can't swim! Who heard of an almost eighteen-year-old girl not being able to swim? That's pathetic!"

I heard a familiar voice shout, "Jordan!" before I heard a splash. My throat and nose burned from the chlorine that was being forced into them, but all I could hear was Aimee's laughing. My lungs were filling with water and not air, which I so desperately needed.

I slowly sunk down into the water, thinking about no one was rushing over to save me. Aimee didn't even seem like she cared! Yeah, she hated me, but she couldn't have hated me enough to want me to die! That was horrible! I hated her, but I didn't want her to die!

The last thing I could remember before blacking out was strong arms wrapping around my waist, and the feeling of going up. But all I could think about was Jesse. How handsome I never noticed he was, how chiseled his chest was, and how that was probably the last time I'd ever see him again.

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I got the whole Jordan-not-able-to-swim idea from sitting in a chair at the side of the pool in Lake Tahoe, watching my family swim while I got eaten to death by mosquitos. I'm seriously still scratching those bug bites.

I can swim, of course, I just hate swimming with an absolute passion. :D

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