Jeremy was really only on the swim team because Kayla swam and his mom wanted him to do something other than read and mess around on his computer in the summer. He was always the first person to congratulate Annabelle when she won a race, but sometimes, if he’d finished last in his own race, his smile didn’t latch into place when he told her good job. And when a coach wanted to talk to him after practice, it was to tell him what he was doing wrong on his flip turns.

But he smoothed down his own hair spikes and shrugged. “That’s okay. I’ll wait for you and Mitch in the parking lot.”

“You owe me a talking-animal video,” she reminded him. At least that might give him something to look for while he waited.

She’d sent one to cheer him up a few weeks ago, when he’d gotten sick and missed the end-of-year school trip to Boston to see a show. They’d been sending them back and forth ever since, because who didn’t need adorable animals with funny voiceovers in their lives? Their favorites were the ones that had actors’ really serious, deep voices dubbed in as animals swatted each other or chased each other around.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he said, and Annabelle went to join Mitch and Colette.

“Hear you had a great practice today, kiddo,” Mitch said.

“She sure did,” Colette agreed. “You’ve got a lot of potential, Annabelle. Your power is impressive for your size. Especially on the butterfly.”

Annabelle glanced at Colette’s toned arms and shoulders. Maybe that’s what her shoulders would look like someday. She already had long arms and legs that propelled her across the pool, but her limbs hadn’t filled out with obvious muscle yet.

Mitch always said it was a good thing that Annabelle hadn’t peaked yet, physically, because she’d be even faster when she did. Annabelle hoped that when she did peak, her body would look a lot like Colette’s. People talked about how hot Colette was: pretty and strong. Annabelle wanted people to talk about her like that, too.

“I’m wondering what you think about the possibility of swimming up with us this summer,” Colette said. “We could use some extra speed, especially on the relay teams. We have a chance at making it to the Labor Day Invitational, and you could really help make that happen.”

Annabelle’s heart jumped around in her chest as if she’d just beaten her fastest time in the 100-meter fly. Last year was the closest the North Shore Sands fourteen-and-up team had ever come to making the Labor Day Invitational, but they’d only finished fourth in the league, behind one other team from the island and two from the Cape. Only the top two teams in the league got to go.

Colette wanted her to be on the older team with all those high school swimmers, even though she was only thirteen?

“What do you think?” Colette asked again.