And she couldn’t help thinking how hard it must be for Mom to have a daughter who didn’t match. To sit there inside Mrs. Sloane’s office, probably wishing she had married someone as smart as Mitch the first time around, so her kid could be as successful as she was.

Chapter 16

There was a meet on Friday afternoon, so at least Annabelle had a chance to redeem herself after the last one. It was against a team from the mainland—one they hadn’t raced before, so nobody really knew what to expect.

When it was time for the medley relay, Elisa gathered Kayla, Ruby, and Annabelle together for a psych-up cheer, and then they all lined up to start.

Annabelle breathed in the familiar chlorine-filled air, focused on those steady black lines at the bottom of the pool, and visualized herself diving in at just the right time. Making everybody forget the last race.

When the buzzer went off, Kayla got out to an easy lead, and Ruby pulled farther ahead on her leg. Annabelle’s heart rate slowed down. Her team’s second-best relay group was ahead of both groups from the other team.

Colette had told her not to think about leaving the blocks early—to approach the start the way she always had. But when Ruby touched the wall at the end of her leg, Annabelle was cautious. As long as she didn’t get DQ’d again, this was an easy win, so she might as well play it safe.

When they won the race, they all high-fived and Colette told them good job, but when Annabelle turned to walk away, Colette called out to her.

“Hey. You have to trust yourself, okay?”

And Annabelle felt as if she’d let the team down and lost them the race, even though they’d won by half the length of the pool.

“I’ll do better next time,” she said, and Coach Colette nodded.

“I know.”

And in Annabelle’s individual races, she did. It was easier to dive off the starting blocks right when the buzzer went off instead of waiting for someone else to reach the wall. She couldn’t quite forget about the risk of diving in early, but she could measure her own start off of the swimmers on either side of her. She dared herself to be the first one into the water—the way she and Mia used to dare each other to try flips and back dives off the diving board—and each time, she was. She won both individual races she swam in, which meant that she earned six more points for the team, all by herself.

The score wasn’t close, but it felt good to win by a lot. And they still had a chance at making it to the Labor Day Invitational as long as they could win most of their other meets and beat South Shore when they saw them again in August.

Annabelle wrapped herself up in a plain navy towel—no more monogrammed purple for her, even though Mom kept setting that one out as if Annabelle had forgotten she had it. The middle school meet was after the high school one this time. Jeremy was talking to some of the boys, but Mia grabbed Annabelle’s arm and dragged her away from the group before it started.