Breathing hard, I gulped and grabbed the slick metal bars just before me and tugged myself upward. Aunt Sylvia was saying something to Uncle Jim back there as I dragged my wet body out of the water. I reached back quickly to make sure my trunks didn’t fall backward, exposing my rear end to everyone still in the pool: Aunt Sylvia, Uncle Jim, my mom and younger cousin Mike . . .
“Where you going?” came another voice.
I didn’t look back. “Need to go inside. ”
“What, you need to pee again?” she shouted back.
“Ashley!” That was Aunt Sylvia, voice laced with disapproval. “Are you going to talk like that during the whole visit?”
“Probably. ”
Ashley’s attitude was different, that was sure — way different from what I was used to at my school.
I stepped across the patio, feeling the warm concrete under my bare feet, warmed by the mid-July sun. Aunt Sylvia wasn’t saying anything and I turned back to the pool to answer. “I’ll, uh, I’ll be right back.