Jeremy rolled his eyes, but Mia nodded.

“Okay, I’m in,” she said, and her voice wasn’t so sharp now. “I guess we better say goodbye to Annabelle the Swimming Phenomenal and go practice with the middle schoolers.”

“I think you mean phenom,” Jeremy told her. “Or phenomenon, maybe.”

“Whatever,” she said, sliding her arm through his. “Let’s go, Dictionary Boy.”

Jeremy shook his head. “That sounds like the dorkiest superhero in the history of the world.”

“Cheerio!” Mia called over her shoulder in a fake British accent. That’s what she used to say whenever she and Annabelle had to leave each other to go to different classes at school.

Annabelle had done it. They were okay. Or as okay as they had been for a while, anyway.

“Ta-ta!” she called back.

She settled in to watch her friends swim, her muscles the best kind of tired and her mind mostly calm. This was going to be good for her and Mia, if she had Kayla and Elisa and even Connor Madison to hang out with, the way Mia had all her other friends. If she didn’t need Mia so much more than Mia needed her but they both made time for each other.

Things would be more even then, and everything went better in a friendship when things were even. She was sure of it.

Chapter 9

The meet on Friday was against South Shore, and South Shore was good. Last summer, their high school team had finished first on the island and second in the league, so they’d made it to the Invitational.

The middle school meet was first, and Annabelle got there early to cheer for Mia and Jeremy. But the longer she sat there, the more nervous she got.

Last year, the middle school team had lost to South Shore, but this year they won without her. Mia took Annabelle’s spot as anchor on the freestyle relay and butterfly on the medley, and at the end of the meet, she collected high fives and hugs from everybody who usually rushed over to congratulate Annabelle.

“Awesome job!” the middle school team coach’s voice boomed as he patted Mia’s shoulder, and Annabelle’s heart lurched.

Stop, she told herself. Compliments weren’t like the equations they learned about in math class that had to stay balanced. There could be plenty to go around.

Mitch would say she should make herself think positive. “Believe to achieve” and all of that. So as she walked over to the end of the pool where the high school team gathered, she tried the visualization trick.

There. She saw herself at the Labor Day Invitational, touching the wall at the end of her medley relay leg ahead of the competition. Setting a team record. A league record, even.

Okay. Her next breath came in easier. She stopped to congratulate Mia and Jeremy and then joined the high school team.

Elisa waved and then twisted her thick curly hair back into a bun and pulled on her cap. She had so much hair that it made an extra big conehead shape in the back. Annabelle had heard her joke once that this was her version of practicing with a second suit on to get more drag, and someday she was going to cut off all of her hair and shave seconds off her racing times.