[interesting]

At first, the situation was simple. Paul and I played at the deep end of the pool while Rita and Danielle played at the shallow end. At one point, we switched places. No one talked much at first, because of the unfamiliarity of Rita's and my presence, but as the minutes rolled on, Rita and Danielle started chatting about school; meanwhile, Paul and I picked wherever we had left off our previous conversation. Suddenly, we were all chatting in our corners, oblivious for the moment to the whereabouts of the other group.

Paul eventually got out of the pool. We were talking about one of our writing projects - he decided that he'd get the notes from his room and drop by the bathroom first. He hurried outside of the room and I was left alone with the two girls. I swam about a little in the shallow end. Rita and Danielle came about towards it so I instinctively went over to the deep end. It was Rita who called out to me.

"So you're a friend of Paul?"
"Yeap."

Danielle provided what she thought would be all the information her friend needed.

"Yeah, Frank used to live around here, but he moved away five years ago to Sherbrooke, and now he visits once every year for a few days."
"So you live there."
"Yeah."

Danielle seemed agitated that her friend was taking any interest in me. I wasn't particularly concerned, mostly because my mind was elsewhere, still wrapped up in the stories Paul and I were concocting.

"So you like music?"
"Sure. I play guitar too. I write my own songs."
"Really."

Rita seemed really impressed. Danielle grabbed her friend by the arm and pulled her towards the shallow end of the pool. That's when I first noticed a slight blush on Danielle's face. For a moment, my mind wandered to it; then, I dismissed it, as I dismissed most things in her regard, given our age difference. Paul returned and sat on the side of the pool; we exchanged some ideas and he wrote them down on the pad.

Rita, swimming back to the deep end where I hung on the side, called out to us again.

"Writing stories?"

Paul answered, somewhat defensive.

"Yes."
"What kind?"

He didn't want to answer. I had no qualms about it so I did.

"Superheroes."
"Really? Like the X-Men?"
"More like the Justice League?"
"Who?"

I smiled at Rita. Danielle joined her friend; she seemed less irritated by her friend's demeanor than she previously had.

"Who's your favorite superhero?"
"Mine's Batman."

Rita seemed satisfied with my answer. Batman wasn't my favorite per se, but he was the one she was most likely to identify without inquiring further, and he was in my top five. I returned the question.

"Do you have one?"
"Oh! Maybe Wolverine..."

I wasn't extremely surprised. Rita smiled at us and went back to the shallow end with Danielle. They seemed to be talking in quiet tones, making sure we wouldn't hear them. Paul put the pen and paper away so they wouldn't get wet and we went on with our swimming for a while longer. Paul was ready to leave, but I wanted to remain in the water a while longer. He told me he'd got on his computer and I could join him a little later; he'd done some music sampling and was itching to have me hear it. As he went away, Rita once more returned towards me. I noticed that Danielle stayed at the other end.

"You've known Paul for how long?"
"Six years now. What's this about?"
"What?"
"You keep coming over here. Do you have something you want to ask me?"
"Nothing special. Just want to know you."
"Not much to know."

She smiled and swam back towards Danielle, but she spoke to me as she did.

"You wanna play a game or something?"
"What kind of a game?"

She turned to Danielle. This time, I could tell something was up.

"We could play tag."
"Here, in the pool?"
"Sure."
"Should we go get Paul?"

My question seemed to put both Danielle and Rita at ease so I answered myself.

"We don't have to... I guess we can play, the three of us."

Rita smiled at me. I figured some sort of plan was hiding behind those pearly whites but, for the life of me, I couldn't figure out what. What would a thirteen or fourteen year-old girl want with a sixteen year old guy like me?