Then the voice came again, surprised. “Whoa! It’s the valedictorian!”
I realized that they were talking about me. I
nervously tugged at my jacket.
Ray and I made eye contact. I found myself checking him out.
His swimsuit clung to his body, showing off his
abs and shoulders. A total V–taper.
<
But he didn’t look too happy.
I lowered my gaze.
Right, he didn’t like me. Probably didn’t like me looking at him either.
When we lined up, the coach frowned at my glasses. “You don’t have prescription swim goggles? How are you supposed to swim like that? Don’t you have any common sense?”
Becca laughed and said, “Coach, you are hitting the nail on the head. Her dad’s disabled and her mom didn’t finish elementary school. They are so poor, they can barely feed themselves. How can you expect her to know that she needs prescription goggles for swimming?”
Becca pretended to explain things, but she was really just pointing out how poor I was.
Tha
ཁཔ་དཔཔ༐ ཤཔཔ་
than muda anal..
<
The coach looked surprised, then awkwardly
said, “If… if your prescription isn’t too strong,
you can just take them off.”
Becca raised her hand again. “She’s a
bookworm, coach. She reads all day long. How could she have a mild prescription?”
Then Ray said impatiently, “Ugh, can you just
shut your mouth? So annoying.”
Becca’s face went red. But she didn’t dare say anything.
- 13.
The coach moved on.
I took off my glasses when I got into the water.
Being severely nearsighted, I stayed out on my own. I was worried I would bump into someone.
I did end up bumping into someone, though.
Without my glasses, my eyes were all blurry.
I surfaced and saw a set of abs.
I apologized right away. “Sorry… you okay?”
I looked up to see who it was.
I was met with a smirking face.
“Valedictorian?”
My eyes widened. I tripped and fell back into
the water.
A hand pulled me up.
I took a deep breath and looked at Ray, his face
blurry. My chest heaved.
Ray leaned in close, studying my face, then
smiled. “Valedictorian, do you have a weird
thing for me?”
<
12:31
912
“What do you mean?”
“What I mean is…” Ray whispered, leaning
close to my ear, “I take back what I said about
you not being my type.”
I froze. My ears went bright red. Then my entire
face felt hot.
I wriggled out of his grasp and swam to the
edge. I put on my glasses, feeling safe again.
I scanned the pool. Ray was gone.
The red on my cheeks faded, and my heart beat
returned to normal.
“Don’t believe him. He’s just messing with
you,” I warned my younger self.
But she couldn’t hear me. And I… woke up.
4 A
12:31
I looked around the room.
913
Simple. A computer desk, a gaming chair, a PC.
I had on different clothes.
“Didn’t die, huh…”
