I Live by the Woods [On Hold]

Chapter 13: Flattering Pictures

"Swimming is not even that hard, Thomas."

"Maybe for you! I haven't swam a day in my life."

"Have you ever been in a pool?"

Thomas shook his head, glancing nervously at the body of water in front of him. I sighed in defeat and stepped out of the pool myself.

"Have you ever been to a lake before?" I asked, putting my cover-up on. I sat in the seat next to a sleeping Enoch and took Stephanie from his lap.

"No, we don't go every summer."

Sarcastic little—

"But that's not the point! I've never actually been in the water!"

I gave him a pointed look and motioned toward the kiddy pool for Stephanie.

"This is still available if you're so freaked out."

"There is no way in Hades that I will let him do that," Enoch spoke, startling me. When I looked over at him, he gave me a sheepish look. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"It's fine."

"Yeah, I agree with Enoch. I don't want to go in that pee pool."

"It isn't a–"

"You'd be surprised," Enoch and Thomas said in unison. I backed off, holding my hands up in mock defense. Thomas looked back toward the water and slid a dry foot into the water.

"What kind of marvelous item is this?!"

My head shot toward the back door and found the smiling face of Mr. Pendleton. His gaze was directed at Thomas.

"I'm teaching him how to swim," Enoch piped up, smiling cheekily at his father.

"That's a funny joke, Enoch. How do you come up with your material?" My sarcasm dripped like a waterfall.

Weird analogy, but you get it.

"Oh, I just come up with it here in my–"

"Walnut for a brain? Yeah, everyone knows that," Thomas sat, running his hands through the glorious water.

"I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that Enoch has been sunbathing while Isabella actually gets stuff done and is teaching Thomas how to swim." Mr. Pendleton was standing beside the pool now, getting ready to sit in a patio chair.

"Attempting to teach," I corrected. "He's not very open to someone telling him what to do."

"That's understandable. When he was a baby, I'd tell him to stop spitting up all over my good clothes. The first night after I said that, he escaped from his crib and crawled into my room."

Mr. Pendleton looked me dead in the eye.

"I had to skip work that day as all of my shirts had baby barf on them."

I burst into a fit of giggles and watched as Thomas stepped fully into the water. He gave me a glare before speaking up.

"This is basically like a cold bath! I can do this!"

With that, he began doing a backstroke and swimming to the deep end.

"You could swim this entire time?!" I blurted out, huffing in anger.

"Obviously. I'm eleven years old, Izz! Heck, I even compete!"

Enoch burst out laughing, slapping his knee. Mr. Pendleton also laughed, but hid it behind his hand.

"This. This is why you are my least favorite Pendleton," I glared at Enoch.

Now wasn't that the biggest lie of the century?