Sweet Summertime

                The sun was shining bright, heating the atmosphere to its highest temperature, burning skin or leaving a nice tan. Summer brought pools and bathing suits, ice cream trucks and Dairy Queen, cute guys and the lack of homework. My days were spent at the pool when I wanted a nice tan or burn or at the mall on a hot day. I sometimes curled up with a good book in my nice bed. Summer is truly the best season of the year.

                The first day of summer after my senior year in high school, my best friend Kenny and I celebrated ending high school by visiting our local water park. We played in the 6 foot deep pool and the lazy river, the kiddie pool and the not so lazy river. We shared a grape and peanut butter sandwich with chips and salsa. Shortly after lunch, we were back in the water, swimming like fish.

                While running around in the whirlpool, I looked up and there he was. Walking around the pool with his life preserver and his fanny pack, I fell in love. His blonde hair was showing through his blue visor and his muscles rippled through his tank top. I was debating against pretending to drown just so he would save me but the fact of the matter was that I was too tall to drown in three feet of water and he would just tell me to stand up.

                Instead, I asked him if he could run sunscreen on my back. He said he couldn’t do it while he was working because he couldn’t take his eyes off of the children. Of course I told him I would wait. Who wouldn’t want to wait to be touched by a hot life guard? I had Kenny rub some on my back while I waited for him to finish his shift. I already started acting like a jealous girlfriend. I made sure to swim by him every now and then to make sure there was no flirting going on with another girl.

                When he was finally done with his shift, he came and found me at my lounge chair. Being out of the water, I was more self-conscious than I was before. I took Kenny’s towel and used it to cover my body. He came up to me and sat at the bottom of my chair.

                “May I rub the sunscreen on you now?” He asked, and I almost fainted.

                I nodded and turned my back to him. “Would you like to join me in the pool?”

                He said “Sure!” and followed me into the lazy river. We shared the double donut float and just floated down the river without doing much work. We talked long enough not to realize that we went drifted through the river five or six times without stopping.

                Sometime during our swim in the not so lazy river, Kenny came to get me. It was almost closing time and I was her ride home. We exchanged numbers and I said good-bye and that I hoped to see him again.

               The rest of my summer was spent at Splash Island, swimming while Richie was working his shift, or enjoying Dairy Queen dates and Speedway Mountain Dew Freezes. I don’t know why it took so long for the sweet summertime to come, but I’m glad it happens once a year.