The Lifeguard Hates You (Completed)

June Chapter 30

We're tied.

This has not happened in years.

But it's happening. We are actually tied with Polished Elite right now. As in tied to win. As in we could do this. We could beat them. We could win.

I can see from the spectator area that Jay is not happy. He thought that because Rory was in charge instead of him that we'd be dead last. He said it a million times on the way home from the hospital, in the cabin straight to Rory's face, all this morning and all the way here. It got so bad Rory refused to stay in the cabin with him last night. She actually stayed with me and Shawn on our couch and she had to be driven up in a separate car. That meant Jay had to come up with Lacey and her new boy-toy Devon.

Rory regains my attention with a few quick snaps of her fingers.

"Alright guys, this is it. It's the multi victim race," she says. We all nod. She glances back to where the Peg's amazing 5 minute and 45 second time is glaring down on at us. They had gone before us and just obliterated the race. If we want to beat them, and we really, really do, we'll have to beat that time. And let's face it, it was going to be impossible.

"It's daunting," she tells us and that's true. "But we're just as good as them." Not true but hey it was a nice sentiment. "We've given them one hell of a run for their money so we're going to give this our all and have fun. Okay?"

We all cheer and she nods again.

"Here's our game plan, we're all going to fan out, bring the minors to the majors so we can all be working close by and we can recruit bystanders once our minors are good. I'll go for the Major, Shawn, Candy go for the minors and Sarah you're going to be the recruit, you go to whoever calls you. Remember to be loud. We get points for correctly identifying and for doing the correct first aid."

I can't help but smile at Rory. She's taken to leadership well and unlike Jay when she's shouting at us when we mess up, she shouts encouragements instead of calling us stupid. She hasn't said a single mean thing to us all day and I think it's really helped us get this far. I mean it was a little rickety at the start. Sarah had been a forced recruit. We needed someone to fill up Rory's fourth guard position and since that one hadn't had an official replacement only a block in quotations that said "Whoever we have hired for the summer" the judges let us get away with it and put her up. Other than being nervous and not really knowing what she was doing it wasn't that bad.

I can tell that Bryce is not happy about this turn of events, but unlike Jay I could tell right away that he was nervous about competing against Rory. I think he knew that with Rory at our lead we would do better than before. Yeah, I didn't like them dating but I sure did like that he had more faith in her than any of us did.

We line up on our marks, we get into a racing position. I hate this part because it involves running but I know I'm going to give it my all because this is the year we could win. The blaring beep from the megaphone goes off and startles us into actions.

All of a sudden, we become this hectic loud team, working together, clearing victims. We've all gathered around Rory who has the major—stroke victim— taking our three minors—asthma, paper cut and bumped head—with us. The bumped head could become a major if we don't get the right phrases or do the right things in time.

We're all wrapped up in the flow of things, our two minors that are now fine are acting as bystanders, we already have the mock paperwork filled out and mock 911 called. Needless to say, when the buzzer goes off in what seems like seconds later, we're surprised. Why is it going off so early? Have we done something wrong? Have we gone past our time limit? All of us are confused, Rory most of all because it felt like we were doing well.

The announcers are calling out our time, we've apparently finished a whole 30 seconds better than the Pegs.

For three seconds before we start screaming and hugging each other we're in stunned silence. I don't think any of us really thought it would happen but it has. Rory is in the middle of it all as we jump up and down and scream. Lacey is going crazy in the stands. Bryce is clapping politely at the side but when Rory turns her beaming face to him, he's got an encouragingly warm smile on his face. I notice that Jay is the only one in the stands not up on his feet cheering, he's sitting in what looks to be a shocked stupor staring at us and the score going up on the scoreboard.

For the first time since Marnie left us, the Earth and Body Spa and Retreat hasfinally won the Lifeguard Comp. The title is ours again. And it was Rory whobrought us to Victory. Not Jay.