I walk over to our towels, pick up a box of donut bits, and pop it open in front of Simon. “Would you like a sour-cream glaze?” I ask.

“Hey, yeah, thanks. Right after my swim.” He takes two long steps and jackknifes into the pool. Tara and Francesca inch their way down the stairs.

“Oooh, it’s cold.” Tara folds her arms across her chest and scrunches her shoulders.

Brenna cannonballs like Tom.

Su-Ling helps herself to a donut bit. “My favourite,” she tells me. “Here, take a pop, if you like.”

“I shouldn’t. There’s no bathroom, you know.” But I pick out a raspberry fizz and pull the tab as I sit down on the towel. Diesel immediately flops down next to me.

Su-Ling waves her hand. “Doesn’t matter. You just go in the water. Everyone does it.”

Ew. I grab a couple of donut bits and Diesel’s tail waves up a storm. “You want one, you have to work for it,” I tell him. “Roll over, roll over. All the way. That’s it!”

“Such a well-trained dog.” Su-Ling pulls out a portable speaker from her bag, connects it to her phone, and swipes the volume up. “Too bad he smells so bad.”

Now I want to kill her, too.

Simon likes me, I tell myself. What can I do to start a conversation with him? I throw a bit of donut up high and Diesel leaps and snaps it in his jaws. Beautiful. Couldn’t have done it better. Simon dives under the water at the same time, though, and misses it.

“My favourite song!” Su-Ling stands and starts to wiggle to her music. Simon surfaces again. Her dance definitely catches his attention.

“Come on in. The water’s fine.”

He isn’t inviting me — he’s asking her, and they’re all ignoring me. Middle school all over again. I pop another donut into my mouth, swig back some raspberry fizz, and belch. “Oops, excuse me,” I tell no one in particular.

Such a large growl from a small human. Diesel tilts his head in wonderment. Nice! He opens his mouth and gives a grinning pant.

Tom and Morgan start a splash war. They aren’t fooling anyone; they are sooo flirting. Fine, she’s getting the guy she wants. That’s what this is all about.

I feel my face get hotter. I drink some more pop, feel anxious and desperate, then breathe in deeply, trying to relax. The music seems to grow louder. I stand up, and Diesel jumps to his paws. Maybe I will dance. I shuffle my feet a little to the music. I give a bit of a shimmy. It feels weird to be dancing on the pool deck all by myself.

So I climb down the stairs into the pool, Diesel nudging my back with his moist nose. With seven people already in, water splashes at me from every angle.

Whoosh! Simon keeps lifting Su-Ling up and throwing her back in. Her hair is plastered to her head. She blinks the water from her eyes and shoves at his chest in protest.