My dog’s alive. I can swim underwater. Everything is okay, I tell myself as I start to breathe too quickly. But she lied to me. Put one over on me again. I kick my legs and dive under the water, where everything moves slow and blob-like and I can’t help but feel relaxed. When I poke my head out again, I hear the latch click.

Checking, checking. Diesel climbs the pool stairs quickly and heads to the gate.

Then some voices:

“Oh my gawd. I can’t believe we get to swim here.”

“Like, who lives here, a movie star?”

Lots of giggles and then the gate bursts open. It’s the fabulous four, the tall girls, the cool girls.

“Hi there!” Tara, the tousle-haired brunette, waves at me.

Diesel, the traitor, wags his butt off, swivelling from one to the other.

“Who’s a cute puppy wuppy?” Francesca, the black-haired, chisel-cheeked girl, asks as she pats him.

“Ew, what’s that smell? Is there a skunk nearby?” Brenna fans her hand in front of her nose.

“Hi,” Morgan calls, breaking into her usual wonky grin.

I glare at her. She is just the perfect hostess.

“Hi, Peanut,” Simon calls.

He still doesn’t call me by my real name. Should I bother getting out of the water? Those girls’ legs are taller than I am. I push my hands along the edge and hoist myself up awkwardly. I crawl to my feet, feeling foolish.

Brenna points. “Elevator girl. You’re the brainy girl who tutors, right?”

“The little genius kid!” Tara chimes in.

“I wouldn’t call her a genius,” Morgan says. Strange, but it feels like she’s trying to defend me.

“She’s the kid who tutored you, isn’t she?” Brenna asks.

Morgan told everyone about that? What else did she tell them?

She opens her mouth to say something, but Simon beats her to it. He gestures with his palm up toward me. “Ladies, allow me to introduce you to Pea—”

“Naomi,” Morgan finishes for him. “Her name is Naomi.”

I stand, dripping, on the other side of the pool, wishing I had something cute and funny to say. Even the shortest of the girls, Su-Ling, who truly has the best skin of all of them, towers over me. Still, I like her best, the only one I don’t really want to kill at this moment.

“Is this your house?” Su-Ling asks me as she pulls a can of pop from out of her bag.

“No, a friend of Morgan’s uncle owns it.” As I speak I see movement up at the second-floor window next door. A blind slat lifts up and the apple-doll face looks out.

I raise my hand to my head in a salute but she frowns and pulls away.

Simon tugs off his jeans. Underneath, he wears orange board shorts with a lightning bolt on them. He pulls off his T-shirt and I look away.

“What are you waiting for, ladies?”

The girls giggle and peel off their own skirts and tops till they’re all standing in stringier bikinis than mine. But, of course, their bodies … not so stringy.