I looked to the steps in the shallow end, but there THEY were. The girls. What moments ago had looked like a small pack of minnows now looked like a teaming pack of piranhas, ready to gobble up anything they came in contact with.
There had to be a way out without completely embarrassing myself. If I went out of the shallow end, all the girls would see and then I wouldn't hear the end of it. I could here it now. The laughing. The ridicule. The nicknames. I wasn't going to get out of the shallow end and risk getting pegged for life with a nick-name like Bare Butt Ben.
The more I thought, the more I realized that someone was going to end up finding out because someone was going to have to help me cover up as I got out of the pool. I looked back to the boys. No. Then to the girls. No way! That left me with only one option…a parent. If my mother had been there, she would have helped out, but that was the problem. She wasn't here. She was off running errands.
My eyes scanned through the parents sitting poolside. They all seemed to be in deep conversations with each other. I continued to scan the crowd until I came across what I thought to be my one and only hope. Mrs. Anderson. She was watching all the kids play in the pool as she sat in her chair near the shallow end.
"Mrs. Anderson!"
She looked over to me as I waved for her to come over to the side of the pool where I was hanging onto the edge.
"Yes, Ben? Do you need something?" she said as she squatted down by the edge of the pool.
"I kind of have a problem," I replied.
"A problem? What problem? You look just fine to me," she said.
"It's my pants."
"Your pants?" she asked.
"My swim trunks." I took a deep breath. It was now or never if I was going to ask for help. "They, uh, kind of, uh, ripped."
"What, like, a small tear?" She put out her index finger and thumb and put them about an inch apart.
"No. Like a tear!" I put out both my hands about three feet apart to get my point across.
"Oh dear. That is a big tear," she said.
"It goes all the way from the front to the back! Please, you gotta help me," I pleaded.
She stopped talking and thought for a moment until she perked up. I could see the light bulb turn on in her head. "Alright, here's the plan. I'll go get your towel and meet you at the steps in the shallow end. You'll get out super fast and I'll wrap the towel around you so that no one will see. Then you can go inside, change into one of Billy's old swimsuits, and it will all be fine. OK?"
"OK…but," I began to say, but it was too late. She had already turned to go inside to get my towel. "But…but…The shallow end?
Not the shallow end! Anywhere but the shallow end. I'd almost risk getting out on the side of the pool and all the boys seeing my bare buns than go to the shallow end!
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