Playing with the dingy plaster pirate
skull in Tammy’s office was Simon, his mind filled with thoughts of the past
surrounding him, Tammy, and Billy. He
remembered when they were new lifeguards on the same team, watching out for
young children at the local parks and recs pool. Then he was saddened at their present, all
playing on opposite sides.
“Simon, I wasn’t expecting to see you
here,” said Tammy walking into her office.
“Hello, Tammy. It’s nice to see you too,”
Simon responded.
“Look, Simon, if you’re here to rehash
the past then I’m sorry. I wanted to
tell you but…”
Simon cut her off, “No Tammy, that’s
not why I’m here.”
Tammy perked up then asked, “It’s not?”
“I want in.”
“In?
Well, okay, do you have a resume?”
“I want in on the competition you and
Billy are having.”
Tammy laughed and said, “This is a
waterpark competition, Simon.”
“I thought it was a lifeguard
competition? And you know the Parks and
Recs has great Lifeguards that are very worthy of this competition. You should know.”
“Okay, okay, I hear what you’re
saying. But we have to ask Billy.”
“So?
Get him on the phone, I’ll ask him myself.”
Tammy was quick to dial Billy’s
number, getting him on the speaker, and he seemed a little perplexed at the
little reunion. But after contemplating
the idea of having a third lifeguard team enter their little relay competition,
he gave it a thumbs up. After all, they
needed a little boost to their competitive spirit. So why not?
After the phone call, Simon left Tammy’s
office with a renewed sense of purpose, something exciting for his small-time lifeguard
team, and a perfect public relations campaign for his social media
channels. However, Tammy was not
entirely enthused with mountains of old lifeguard memories clouding all around
her, struggling with her own identity and opposite-sex work relationships. Simon was the unfortunate fool that helped
her realize she was gay and preferred to be with a woman. She knew he hated her after that, which made
their work environment very unpleasant, no matter how many smiling kids and
happy laughs surrounded them. She almost
hated being a lifeguard. But then a
young Billy was hired, and she took him under her wing like a little brother,
teaching him the lifeguard ropes at the pool.
She was proud to watch him grow up and be the mascot for Pirate’s Plunge,
eventually running the waterpark. Then
life happened, pinning Billy against Tammy, with Simon now caught up in the
middle. It was a fantastic turn of events
that will hopefully find some resolve coming this fourth of July.
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It was a tense situation at Pirate’s
Plunge, now with three opposing teams trumping through training around one
waterpark, but it was necessary. Blackbeard
Billy did not want to have any tricks during the contest since he was against
cheating of any kind. All teams from
Watermania, Pirate’s Plunge, and Parks 'n' Recs were able to familiarize themselves with the
contest relay course by going through water slides, down water chutes, swimming
around the lazy river, and then body surfing in the mini wave pool. Unfortunately, nobody planned on Chad now
leading the Pirate’s Plunge Lifeguard relay team. Pirate’s Plunge clearly had the winning ball
in their court, making Jack nervous and doubtful. “Reporting this to Tammy is not going to be
easy,” thought Camilla.
While Jack was getting familiar with the course with his teammates, Junior stood by, thinking about the pirate prison he knew all too well, suckered by that mermaid
harpee.
“Heeeeey there, th’ailor boy. Are you ready to plunge my pirate ship?”
asked a familiar masculine voice from Barbie.
“Back off, banshee, this one is mine,”
said an Asian mermaid.
“You better watch it, little miss
awkward Ariel. I just might scratch your eyeballs out,” Barbie said as she hissed and walked away.
“Uh, thanks?” said Junior, unsure what
to make of this new situation.
“Sorry about the last time you were
here. No hard feelings?” said Ariel
smiling with sad puppy eyes.
“I guess you had a job to do,” replied
Junior.
“Can we start over? My name is Ariel, by the way.”
“Actually, I think you still owe me a
kiss.”
Ariel looked Jack up and down and got real
close, cupping his entire man package with one hand, “You know about Asian
women, right?”
Junior was taken by surprise and just
stood there, fear of getting his penis ripped from off his body.
“Once you go Asian, there’s no
stopping the invasion.”
Instant boner. Junior was helpless
against Ariel, who could feel Junior’s penis growing inside her hand. She smiled and let go, “You better be here
for the contest next week.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Junior in a squeaky
voice. Then he breathed a sigh of relief
when she left. What did she mean? Was he going to get lucky next week at the
contest? And what type of invasion was
she exactly talking about? He was too
much of a virgin for this shit, for sure.
But he loved a woman taking charge, even though she was from the enemy
water park. Junior quickly glanced
around to see if anyone was watching and then decided to keep this second-chance
encounter to himself. He went over to
the snack pavilion and decided to treat himself with some ice cream, sitting
down at the tables next to other people.
He could overhear a group of girls in the middle of a conversation, “I can’t
believe we got Billy’s nephew on the team now!
We are totally going to spank Watermania.”
“Yea, like, Chad is shit-hot. Have you seen him on Instagram?”
“Those waterpukes in Omaha had no idea
who he was.”
“I just love those videos he made on
Tik Tok.”
“Yea, right? Who wants to get caught with a wedgie,
especially on Tik Tok?”
Junior got a real bad feeling in the
pit of his stomach and couldn’t wait to leave to go back home.
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Back at Watermania, Tammy, Camilla,
Junior, and the rest of the relay team huddled around a Pirate’s Plunge map. They were going over the course details with Tammy when Camilla told her the bad news about Chad and whom he was
related to, “Sorry, Tammy.”
“Well,
anybody got any ideas of how we can win this thing?”
“We got Jack,
Tammy, I believe in him,” said Camilla reassuring.
Tammy cracked
a fake smile, “We got one more week till showtime, kids. I know you will all give it your best. You can all go home now and get some rest.”
“Um, Tammy,
can I talk to you?” asked Jack.
“Sure,
kid. What’s up?”
“It’s about
that bonus, do you mind? We got rent
due.”
“I did
promise you, didn’t I?” Tammy dug in her
pocket but stopped to say, “You boys are doing really good, and I am very proud
of you and Junior. I just hope the both
of you are happy here?”
“Happy?”
asked Jack.
“Yea, y’know,
that you two like being here and that you want to be here? Because when I was your age, it took me a
while before I felt really good about doing any kind of job, especially as a
lifeguard. But then I realized it wasn’t
so much about the actual job; it was more about my mindset and attitude about
working. Changed my attitude, changed my
viewpoint. Then I started loving it.”
“What was it
that you loved the most about your work?” asked Jack.
“The kids, that
they needed me to help them survive,” said Tammy.
Jack
contemplated Tammy’s wisdom for a moment when she said with a twinkle in her eye,
“Win that race, Jack, and you’ll get an even bigger bonus!”
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Stay tuned for the final chapter coming next Friday, June 30th!
