My Den and I went to the nearby pool to work on our swimming belt-loops and pins. I had already done most of what we were doing, serving more as an assistant to the Den Leader and helping the others through the activities, mostly serving as the example and demonstrating what the others would have to do.
We were in relative piece in our little corner of the pool. People figured out pretty quick we were not just there for casual swimming, or at least not at first. After about a half hour everyone had completed all of their requirements and we were free to just goof around for the rest of our time.
"Hey Lemmy!" Yuuma asked to get my attention.
"Yeah?" I replied back. When I looked, he and a couple of the other guys were just looking at me expectantly. I rolled my eyes. "Anyone can learn how to, y'know."
"Yeah, but, you can already do it," he replied back.
"Fine," I shrugged, and started walking around the deck to the other side, where the diving board was.
I learned how to do it for Mothers' Day a few years ago. My siblings quasi-forced me to do it cuz they were too nervous to somehow? I dunno it's a weird story I guess. But anyway, now I can do it and so anytime there's a diving board around, someone asks me to.
I got in line right in front of a couple of chubbier kids that were already drenched; they were pretty much going in circles off the diving board and back on trying to make the biggest cannon-balls.
While the line progressively ratcheted forward, I looked out into the pool. It was actually two large pools, with a sort of island separating them, but the island had pass-throughs so you could go from one pool to the other without having to fully get out. Kind of like crenels of a castle, in a way. Although it was less of a pass-through area and more of a place where a bunch of people always sat and chilled.
There were a few large float toys in the pool. A boat, an alligator (or was it a crocodile?), and basically a mando-sized rubber-ducky. I noticed a little brown mousette in a pink bathing suit vying for control of this particular fowel steed. She looked a little older than me, but even still the float was big enough she was having trouble climbing atop it. It didn't help that other kids were trying to climb on it as well, and yet more were bapping at them and it with pool noodles.
Kinda made me think of a WoW raid boss or something.
My turn finally came up on the diving board. I stepped up onto the heel of it, and looked toward the guys, swimming nearby. I waited for someone to kick along by, and then when it was clear started my dash forward on the board.
I'm not quite sure how my brain knows how to time it or how to step right but I touched my right foot down at the edge of the board and leapt into the air.
The world spun with me as I whirled through the air, Norville looking not unlike a wheel as tailed behind me--I mean, rightfully so. Then I hit the water and did another flip underneath to right myself up, and swam up to the surface.
As soon as I popped my snoot out of the water, I heard the blaring of a whistle. I looked about, and the lifeguard was pointing out me, and gesturing me to get out of the pool.
Welp.
I swam to the neartest edge and climbed out. He walked up to me.
"No flips off the diving board."
"Okay," I replied.
He dragged over a deck chair. "Time-out here for fiftten minutes," he told me.
In my head, fifteen minutes sounded like a lot of time for a first warning, but I wasn't going to argue cuz I knew how older teens reacted. He'd just up it to twenty or something. So. I sat. It's whatever.
Yuuma swam over and made like he was going to get out of the water. "Sorry, I was--"
The lifeguard let out a tight chirp from his whistle. "He's in time out, you move along," he ordered.
I just shrugged at Yuuma, it was fine. Reluctantly the Pandr swam away.
I squeezed some water out of Norville and the lifeguard muttered something along the lines of letting me know when I was okay to swim again before walking away feeling important.
I was a little miffed, but I could make fifteen minmutes pass pretty quickly. I scooted my chair over so I wasn't quite in the sun as much and looked out into the pool.
My den-mates were still playing with the diving rings, probably trying to get them onto Yuuma's tail by the looks of it.
There were some other kids using the crenels as, well, crenels, trying to use their water guns on each other. Mostly getting innocent bystanders (bysitters?) in the cross-fire.
I looked at the ducky-float. There were several kids on it, but the mousette was nowhere to be found there. That was unfortunate, she looked so determined to get on that thing. She wasn't on the alligator. The boat was in the far pool but, it didn't look like she was on that either.
I looked about the pools for her and didn't see her right away. But there was someone underneath the water that, as I took a couple passes, I noticed was still there.
A lot of times kids did breath-holding competitions, but. This didn't look like that. I looked for the lifeguard. He was near the shed, talking to a mom.
I looked back at the smudge, warping under the turbulent surface of the water. Something didn't seem right all of a sudden.
I dashed out of the chair and jumped into the pool. Heck, I almost hit a kid doing so. I wasn't wearing goggles, I just opened my eyes underwater. Now that it wasn't smudged by the rippling surface, I could see that it was her, the mousette.
I heard the whistle blaring outside the water, muffled as it was. Guess I got the lifeguard to notice one way or another.
As I got closer I saw her face was... A bit blue. I picked her up enough to hook my arm around her, and squatted down. Pushing with my legs, I jumped straight up to the surface.
Other people were already getting out of the pool, the whistle was blaring. I swam to the crenels where I would be able to find footing easier, plus it was closest. The lifeguard was there and he took her from me when I helped him get her out of the pool. He princess-carried her over to the cabana, and another woman I didn't recognize--but given she was a mousette I think we can all put two-and-two together--ran after just saying "oh my god."
Thankfully, she wound up okay in the end, and walked out of the shack on her own with her mother. I think that they went home. Hopefully she comes back, with a buddy next time, and isn't like... Terrified of the water.
It was kind of weird how quickly things went back to normal after that. The lifguard whistled and reminded everyone to be careful, yaddah yaddah. Then we all went back into the pool.
"Aren't you still in time-out?" Pandr asked, a little bit trying to break the ice on the whole weird thing that happened.
"Maybe. Kind of a good thing I was in time-out, though. Might not've seen her on the bottom, otherwise."
Pandr looked a little guilty still. "You could probably teach the lifeguard a thing or two, though."
"Can't teach a teen not to flirt," I joked, getting a chuckle out of the guys. "So... When's it my turn to toss rings on Yuuma's tail?"
"Mine's tired, it's Norville's turn!"
Aside from someone else getting a leg cramp, the rest of the day was quite uneventful.
