The Lifeguard Hates You (Completed)

June Chapter 10

"Jimmy! If you don't stop pulling Cole underwater, I'm going to suspend your drama privileges for the rest of the day!" Rory screams.

She's chest deep in lake water as the kids are practicing their strokes. Jimmy's been a nuisance since day one, he likes to push Rory's buttons. His new game is swimming underneath his camp mates, grabbing their ankles and pulling them down. To be honest, I have no idea how Rory remembers all these kids' names. There has to be at least fifty of em but she knows them all. Let's just say I'm happy to be the guard that stands on the dock and only jumps in when Rory doesn't notice one of the little ankle bitters is drowning. So far she hasn't missed a single one.

"HA! You're not my camp counsellor! The most you can do is stop me from swimming!" Jimmy snaps back and I can see Rory's face change. It has darkened into a mask of rage, the infamous glare that can paralyze a kid from twenty paces has caused all the kids around him to gasp and paddle away. Poor Jimmy is treading water all alone with a look of fear on his poor pale face as Rory casually breast strokes towards him.

"Beach. Now!" she snaps once she gets close and then follows him to the shore. She pulls him up to Maggie who is now nervously wringing her hands. She doesn't like dealing with Jimmy and his attitude but she's more afraid of Rory so I know Rory's going to win this battle.

"Alright, listen you little serial killer. You're not going to drama today," she snarls she then turns to Maggie, puts both hands on her hips and asks: "Now is he?"

Maggie puts on her sternest face, which looks more like a grimace and says: "No he's not."

"You're done swimming. You're going to sit beside Bryce and shiver for the rest of the hour, you got me?" she orders. Jimmy opens his mouth but she quickly adds. "No. No towel. You wanna be a trouble maker you can freeze."

Jimmy slouches over to me, his eyes pleading with me to take mercy but I don't want Rory to yell at me so I do nothing but shrug as the kid sits down at my feet. "Shouldn't have mouthed off," I tell him and maybe this time he'll listen when Rory tells him to do something.

I can't help but marvel at just how strong and imposing she can be. All I ever saw her as was the perky clumsy guard that Nishyama was constantly frustrated over. I mean it makes sense, she's always done all the work over at Earth and Body but my guards have never had that sort of presence. She's a real softie underneath that hard exterior though, and I'm starting to enjoy having her around.

As she gets out, I hand her both her towel and mine. She's freezing, being in the lake always turns her blue, so I figure today she can use the two. Today there's a chill to the air as the forecast called for rain, so we have a grey sky dappled with even darker grey clouds. "Are we going for lunch today?" I ask and wince internally.

I sound super desperate and that's not like me. The fact that I'm even asking a day after we just went for lunch is completely not like me. But Rory's not like the girls I'm used to. She doesn't fawn over me or swoon when I smile at her, she's apparently so in love with Jay she's impervious to my flirting. Yesterday when I took her for lunch it was because I wanted to get to know her. Granted she did admit to me that she had talked to her boss and now the classes were being evenly split between all the full-time guards over at Earth and Body and that she was avoiding them because they were all mad at her. But that was it. We spent the rest of the time talking about me, about my recent break-up or the relationship with my step-dad and how it could have been worse considering he didn't need to keep me when my mom died when I was 12.

Though I had absolutely no proof of this, I felt like I could trust her with my secrets. I just implicitly trusted her and I have no idea why. And that scared me. I almost told her that my break-up wasn't really that big of a break-up which would have been the stupidest thing ever as it would have ruined everything I done so far. All that hard work blown up in my face. And trust me, getting Rory just to agree to go to Lunch had been harrowing, she wouldn't even let me take her out, we ate in the Fablehaven cafeteria.

She claimed the food was okay for camp mess hall food but with my highbrow taste it might as well have been prison food.

I quickly get over the internal wincing at my patheticness and focus my attention on Rory and her answer. Rory's giving me a soft smile and I can tell already that she's going to say no. "I can't today, I have to go back and make Jay lunch."

Must be nice to have a free personal caterer. Jay had no idea how good he had it.

"Thought you were avoiding those guys," I remind her but she just shrugs.

"Turns out the only one who's mad at me is Shawn and he'll get over it."

I fall into step beside her, we're heading for the showers. She's either walking slowly because she's cold or she's waiting for the kids to finish so she can shower on her own. I try not to seem too disappointed that she's turning me down, but I have a feeling it's on my face.

"Do you want a ride then?" I ask.

"No thanks," she says quickly. "I like walking so..."

"But it's going to rain," I point out. I hate myself for this, for seeming like I can't live without her, that I really, really, really don't want this time with her to end but unfortunately that's how I feel.

She looks up to the sky and takes in the clouds and her lips begin to twitch. I don't know why she's doing it but it's cute. It makes me want to kiss her and then I get mad at myself for wanting her to kiss me when I shouldn't really. I mean, I could get any girl I wanted I didn't need her, it was just pissing me off that she hadn't thrown herself at me yet.

"How about you wait, and if it's raining by the time I'm done showering I'll accept the ride," she says.

I want to tell her that I don't want to wait, and honestly, I've never even waited for any girl before, not even my girlfriend. Okay, that's not true, I waited for her sometimes but I always made a big stink about it. However, I don't tell her that and I don't make a big stick. Instead I surprise even myself by saying "Okay."

She takes a half hour to shower, and it's not raining when she comes out. She apologises for making me wait, but says that she'd much rather walk and get some exercise. She doesn't change her mind when I point out she was in the water for two hours swimming back and forth with the kids and that counts as exercise. I'm mad at this point, mad that she won't just fall to the ground and beg me to mount her, but more mad that I'm damn near close to begging her to just get in my goddamn car and kiss me. She walks off and I speed past her in my fancy new beamer. Not three minutes later it starts to rain and I think: Serves her right. I briefly entertain the idea of turning around to go and pick her up but I'm spiteful so I don't. The guilt ends up haunting me all night and I know that next time I'll be damn certain to turn around and get her.

I hate it but she's actually turning me into a nice guy.