Remembering the Facts of this girl makes me ashamed for her, so I open my phone praying for a text from Stella but there are no texts period so I just stare purposefully at my empty flip phone which is embarrassing in 2011 but Dad says I can’t have an iPhone until I’m fourteen, and when the girl in front of me gets to the window she turns around and she’s like What do you want I’ll order for both of us which is a very nice thing to do with the line moving slowly and I’m like Wow, thanks, I’ll have a burger and a Coke and she orders two hamburgers and two Cokes which is my second lunch since I already bought a grilled cheese but I never even took a bite, I think I left that sandwich in the Ladies Locker Room where food is not permitted! We collect our food and kind of drift together toward Pool Area and her name is Lulu and she is floating too and thank God there is no sign of Stella who would have a good laugh about my new friend.
Our Club’s pool has a Diving Board plus a High Dive and there is a wide paved Splash Zone where teens congregate and beyond that is a lot of thick grass where grown-ups sit on wooden recliners with soft cushions attached. Stephanie Salazar and Kathy Bingham are on recliners drinking iced tea in their bikinis, they are both Bikini-Wearers which is surprising in Kathy who has five children including twins, she still has a six-pack under what I have to say is a lot of loose skin and in her position I would wear a one-piece. Stephanie Salazar on the other hand looks kind of amazing, she is deeply tanned and there is the dark octopus tattoo on her calf which you don’t see every day at the Crandale Country Club, and she lies on her back reading The New Yorker and underneath her arm that holds up the magazine I can see little spikes of dark hair that she hasn’t shaved in a day or two and is it strange that I’m so fascinated by people’s bodies? There are no secrets when grown-ups wear bathing suits they might as well be naked, I have seen various Dads’ Testicles dangling inside their swim trunks when I’m lying face-up on a towel and they walk past, they look like overgrown pink grapes and there is no way I will ever have sex with a man whose Testicles look like that, it is a dealbreaker as they say, and I might not have sex anyway, the idea is horrifying.
Lulu and I sit down on the grass and I’m like I’ll pay you back for the burger and she’s like I charged it, no worries and of course no one pays for anything at our Club we just sign tickets with little green golf pencils although Lulu is a Non-Member so I’m not sure who will pay. We eat our burgers watching the High Dive where Chris Salazar and Colin Bingham are still diving, Colin is fearless I have seen him belly flop from the High Dive which caused the Lifeguard to jump into the pool but Colin came up laughing, he is a Thrill-Seeker. I ask Lulu where she lives and she says Upstate New York and her Mom has a gourmet store and there are a lot of lakes and she can swim for several miles without stopping. I tell her I came back three weeks ago from Camp in Maine and my Primary Activity was Archery and my Secondary was Beaded Basketing. Lulu points to a pale daylight moon above the trees and she’s like I love the moon I always look for it even in daytime and I can hear Stella repeating those words in a mocking voice and it reminds me that I need to get away from Lulu before Stella comes back.
So I get up taking our paper plates to throw them away and I go into the Girls Room to pee which is right near the Pool, taking my time so Lulu will get the memo that eating one burger together doesn’t make us All-Day Friends and disappear so I can return to my Stella drama which feels dangerous to forget about for too long. When I come back outside I glance at where we were sitting hoping Lulu will be gone, but Lulu is still there and CHRIS SALAZAR AND COLIN BINGHAM ARE SITTING WITH HER. At first I’m too stupefied to even move, Lulu is two years younger than those boys who are fourteen and rising freshmen, but I hustle back over there and sit down with them kind of shyly, the boys are still in their bathing suits with T-shirts on and Colin is flicking water at Lulu who laughs trying to dodge the drops and I notice she has dimples and tiny gold hoop earrings and a sweet laugh and I’m like Hi and they’re all like Hi and Lulu is like Colin is about to show us his favorite place at the Club, but I didn’t want to leave without telling you, Molly, and I’m nothing short of amazed by her kindness, this is not something you see in my world, kindness and coolness do not go together in girls, being cool means you leave people out, that is the actual definition of the word because if you’re nice to everyone, then why should people near you feel special and why should people NOT near you WANT to be near you, and why should anyone assume that the Times they are having without you are worse than the Times they would be having with you?