Page 10 of In Too Deep

“See, I’d make a terrible marine biologist,” she said with a silly grin. She moved to the side and braced her forearms on the tile.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Then again, maybe I shouldn’t have worried. This was a pool, after all, and Christina was a swimmer like me. She would be just fine. In fact, she seemed like she was having fun.

And I was getting envious.

“I think you should come out,” I told her.

“Why don’t you come in instead?” she said, flexing her eyebrows. “Swimming with dolphins is so much fun. My dad and I have done it dozens of times.”

I tried to think of a reason not to join her, but in the end, I took off my sweater, and slid into the water next to her.

My dad would kill us both if he caught us swimming in the dolphin pool, but I wasn’t about to let her have all the fun.

We swam for nearly an hour, playing with the dolphins and racing them and each other.

I had swam with the dolphins before, but somehow, it had never been this fun.

I was almost sorry when my Dad finally showed up and ordered us to get out.

“You know better than to do this, young lady,” he said in that tone that meant I was in trouble. He put his hands on his hips and scowled at Christina. “And I suppose you’re Dr. Mallory’s daughter?”

“Christina,” she said in a small voice. She gave me a way look and I just rolled my eyes. No fear here, sister.

Dad kept harping. “The two of you shouldn’t have been in that pool.”

“Oh come on, Dad,” I said as I dried my hair on a towel from my gym bag. “Surely, we can enjoy the perks of our fathers’ great jobs.”

“It was my fault, Mr. Collins,” Christina said. “I fell in like a clumsy idiot. Janet just got in to make sure I was okay.”

I looked at her. Why was she standing up for me?

My dad finally sighed and waved a hand at us. “I’ll let it go this time, but it shouldn’t happen again. Otherwise, neither of your fathers will have jobs.”

“I understand,” I said.

“Go on, hit the showers,” he said. “You both smell like fish!”

We headed to the locker room, going into adjacent stalls. For a while, we were quiet as the shower washed the stink off of us.

As we sat on the bench, still wrapped in towels, Christina squeezed water from her hair and said, “That was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said honestly. “I’m glad you convinced me to jump in.”

“I’m glad I fell in.”

“And thanks for trying to take the blame, though you didn’t have to.”

“Your dad seems pretty cool. He had to pretend really hard to be mad.”

I grinned. “Yes he did. What about your dad?”

She thought for a moment, then shrugged.

“Great guy, but kind of weird.”

I chuckled. “Well, he is a scientist.”

She gave me a smile and narrowed her eyes. “So you’re going to be weird one day, too?”