“I may just turn up on the first day, wearing all black, and never speaking,” I’d told Jessica, the day before, my sunburned legs up against the white wall, as I smothered them with aloe vera. “Everyone will whisper and wonder about me. I’ll be so mysterious that everyone will fall violently in love with me.”

“I’m just really excited about not being known as That-Slut-Jessica.”

I winced. “College is going to be so much better than school.”

“It’s going to have to be.”

Jessica picked up her watch again from her sun lounger and turned to me seriously. “It’s time to turn,” she said. “Fifteen minutes on our fronts, and then we can get into the pool.”

“Yes, captain.”

I fumbled about with my towel, getting it in the right position, and lowered my stomach onto the bendy rubber bands. The sun slowly baked my back while I twisted my head to one side and watched children screaming as they splashed around the babies’ pool. Then an actual teenage boy appeared. Holding the hand of a much younger sister, walking her toward the paddling pool.

“Jessica,” I hissed urgently. “There’s a boy.”

“A what?” she asked from under her straw hat.

“A boy. Our age. Over by the kiddy pool.”

“So?” said the hat.

“So...well, a boy.”

“I’m not interested in anyone but Julio, to be honest.”

She yawned and continued her siesta, while I put on my sunglasses so I could spy on him.

By the time we needed to turn again, I’d confirmed, quite decidedly, that I was in love with him. I’d decided he was kind, because he was playing with his little sister. I’d decided he was attractive, because he was the only teenage boy I’d seen in four days, and scarcity mindsets are dangerous things. And, I’d decided he was going to fall violently in love with me, and I’d have a “holiday romance” and be able to put to good use all the relevant advice I’d read about them in the damp teen magazine under my lounger. I scrambled up to arrange my body as best as I could in case he noticed me—tucking my sarong around me to hide my scars, throwing my shoulders back so my AA cup buds protruded to maximum effect. I smiled to show just how naturally happy I was.

“Why are you sitting all funny?” Jessica asked, pushing herself up off her front. Her back was now a delicious shade of brown.

“Am I?”

“Yes. Like you need a wee. Do you need a wee?”

“Shall we get in the pool?”

“Why? Are you going to pee in it?”

“Jessica!”

“We all do it, Fern. It’s OK.”

“I’m not...” I glanced over at The Boy, and lowered my voice into a whisper “...going to piss in the pool. I just want to get closer to this boy.”