“Oh, you’re among the land of the living. Good.” Ashley smirked at her friend. “I see my brother strutting. He’s not a rooster; he should know better.”

“If you’ve got it, flaunt it.”

“Oh, dear God. Not you too.”

“What?” Skylar asked innocently, batting her eyelashes.

“Girls. And my brother.” She shivered. “EW.”

Skylar laughed. “You know, he’s a God in certain restricted circles.”

“Please don’t tell him that,” Ashley replied, shaking her head and trying not to laugh. “And please don’t ever say the word God in conjunction with my brother.”

“I’ll try to stop myself.”

Ashley tried very hard to keep any more groaning under wraps as she surveyed the pool area. “Is that Ian Thorpe?”

Skylar scanned the immediate area. “It’s gotta be. There’s no one that looks like him.”

“How do you know?”

“If there was someone who looked like him, wouldn’t you be married to him and have five children by now?”

“Hmm. Probably.” Her eyes widened slightly. “Especially if he looked that good in a full body suit.”

Skylar laughed. “I think it’s safe to say that you are gone, Ash.”

“Way gone,” Ashley agreed, fanning herself. “It would be just great to have him stand there all day looking pretty.”

“And speaking.”

“Yes, speaking randomly about whatever he wanted. Grass growing. The weather. Anything.”

Skylar shook her head. “God.”

“Someday, Sky,” Ashley said, sighing wistfully and patting her friend on the shoulder, “Someday you’ll know what it feels like to be this gaga over some guy.”

“I sincerely hope not.”

*

“So sexy, I’m sexy! So come and dance with me Michael!” She was singing rather loudly than she normally would, shimmying her hips around the poolside area, her headphones nearly falling off because of all her bouncing. Skylar’s one relief from studying and being uptight was to dance around with headphones, singing obscure rock songs.

“SKYLAR!” Ashley’s voice barely penetrated her ears as the chorus built up in her headphones.

She pulled them off, still dancing around, ready to yell at Ashley for interrupting her.

Her words fell quite short at the sight before her.

“Um. How long have you been standing there?” Skylar asked, pressing the stop button on her MP3 player and stuffing it into her pocket as quickly as possible.

Aaron smirked. “Long enough.”

Her face was burning, so she put her cold hands up to either side, attempting to get back to her pale self. “You’re not going to do a Home Alone, are you?” Ashley asked, sauntering into the room and dropping a towel on a chaise lounge chair before untying a sarong from around her waist.

Skylar blinked. “Not likely.”

Aaron dropped down onto one of the other lounge chairs, groaning audibly. It was nearing midnight, and the closing of the pool, and he had just returned from an all day swimming fandango. The odd thing was he had only swum one race, but had been required to be there all day. The girls had stayed until mid-afternoon when Ashley announced that she was going to do a spa and then meet them for dinner. Skylar spent the afternoon studying (Ashley was glad about this only because it meant she wouldn’t have to study continuously for the next four days).

Dinner had been Ashley and Skylar in the hotel restaurant, talking mostly about Ian Thorpe and how good a swimmer her was; Aaron was out having dinner with some of the other swimmers (the girls had been invited, but declined because Ashley was not prepared for being surrounded by hot guys for over an hour -hence the spa- and Skylar was too study-minded to bother).

“How was dinner?” Skylar asked, sitting down in the chair beside Aaron as Ashley dove into the pool. She was hoping to divert their attention from her crazy let-loose dancing.

“About as good as your dancing,” Aaron replied, grinning as he stretched out his arms behind his head.

Skylar scrunched up her nose. “That bad?”

Aaron laughed, and hit her gently on the arm. “It was really good.”

She blushed, but he didn’t say anything else about it (thankfully) she relaxed in the chair and closed her eyes.

“Ashley’s dancing, however, is more like Elaine on Seinfield.” Aaron was watching as Ashley got out of the pool and walked over to get her towel. “Has no rhythm.”

Ashley sneered. “Very funny.”

He stood up and went over to the pool, pulling off his t-shirt and tossing it back at his sister, who was still scowling. “You should take dance lessons from Skylar.”

Skylar was biting her bottom lip to keep from laughing; Ashley glanced at her angrily and then walked over to her brother. “I am going to push you into the pool.”

“Do it!” Skylar yelled, nodding vigorously.

Aaron laughed. “God, you sound just like Ben Still--AHHHHHH!”

Caught unaware, Aaron was plunged into the pool at the hand of his crafty sister; Skylar and Ashley were collapsed in laughter as Aaron wiped beads of water from his face as soon as he surfaced. “You are SO going down, Peirsol.”

Ashley feigned boredom. “I am so scared.”

In about ten seconds, Aaron had thrown his sister into the pool, screaming, and picked up Skylar.

“Don’t you dare,” Skylar warned, squirming around trying to get free. “Put me down.”

Aaron had that mischievous glint in his eyes as he carried her toward the deep end. “Aaron. Don’t!”

He didn’t listen. “I have electronics in my pocket!”

Swiftly, he took said electronics out of her pocket and slipped them into his own (however since his shorts were wet, it obviously didn‘t do much good), wiggling his eyebrows at her. “You told her to do it.”

“I was doing a Starsky and Hutch impression!” She shrieked as she slammed into the water; it surprised her so much that it took her several seconds to resurface. She hadn’t thought he’d really go through with it.

Aaron was crouched down at the pool’s side, grinning cheekily at her. “Nice night for a swim, huh?”

Skylar narrowed her eyes at him. “I don’t think I’m talking to you.”

Ashley was sitting, wrapped in a towel, on a chair at the other end of the pool. “Now you see what I put up with.”

Aaron raised his eyebrows, smirking; Skylar found herself feeling an odd pull to run out of the room and hide under her covers until she could think clearly again.

“You need help?” He asked suddenly.

Blinking several times to get the oxygen to return to her brain, she shook her head and swam quickly to the ladder.

He was waiting for her there, offering his hand; she took it and was pulled up to the edge, where she found her knees had given way and had decided to collapse her against him.

“Ooomph. Hmm. The water makes my legs all…um…watery.”

Aaron chuckled and she could feel it reverberate against her chest. Shivering, she realized her t-shirt was plastered against her chest, and it was white, and she also noticed that her toes were curling and if she didn’t get to a towel soon she might drop back into the water.

He produced a towel, as if on cue, and wrapped it around her. “Sorry about that,” he said, tipping his head to the side and looking at her. “Your lips are turning blue.”

“It’s cold in there!” Her teeth were chattering and he started rubbing up and down her arms; Skylar attempted to look at the wall over his shoulder but found she’d rather look at him.

“What were you doing in here anyway?”

She cleared her throat, looking him in the eyes. “I was…dancing. As you saw. Blowing off some steam before I went to bed. After all the studying I did today, I needed it.”

“You needed that dip in the pool too,” Ashley said, padding up behind them and jabbing a finger toward the door. “Pool’s closing.”

Aaron cleared his throat and dropped his arms to his sides. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“Not as early as this morning, I hope,” Ashley said, waddling (due to the towel constricting her moment) to her pile of clothes. “Unless you want me dead.”

Aaron chose not to comment as he held open the door for them and followed them upstairs; bidding them goodnight in front of Ashley’s door.

“I think my brother likes you,” Ashley commented lightly, turning her key and going into the room, Skylar following close behind.

Skylar forced a laugh as she pushed through the door adjoining their rooms. “I doubt that.”

“He doesn’t throw just anyone into the pool,” Ashley replied knowingly.

“He threw you in,” Skylar pointed out.

“That’s different,” she said dismissively, “I’m his sister.”

Skylar highly doubted Ashley knew what she was talking about.