My Extra Best Friend Read Online Free PDF Page B

“But she doesn’t know me.”
    Alex shrugs again. “It seems like she does.”
    A whistle blows. “Your turn!” the lifeguard on the dock shouts to us.
    Beach towels and cover-ups fall to the sand. Everyone takes off for the water. Alex heads back to the cabin. But I hesitate, thinking.
She must have me confused with someone else
.
I don’t know any girl named Liz.
    The lifeguard blows his whistle again. He points at me. “Are you taking the test?”
    Everyone turns, looking.
    I drop my towel, kick off my flip-flops, and hurry across the sand. But it’s deep, so I stumble. The next thing I know, I’m on all fours like a baboon with my blue bikini butt sticking up in the air.
    “I see London!” Rusty shouts.
    “I see France!” Joey chimes in.
    “I see Ida’s underpants!” they sing together.
    The beach explodes with laughter.
    Quickly, I take off for the lake again. The other girls are inching in, but I plow past them, not caring that it feels fives degrees warmer than ice.
    All I care about right now is disappearing.
    I plug my nose and dunk.
    I stay under until my lungs burn. Until I’m sure all the laughing has stopped.
    When I finally pop up, the other girls are at the rope that divides the shallow area from the deeper water. I swim-walk toward them as fast as I can, catching my breath the whole way.
    “I want you to swim the length of the rope,”the lifeguard on the dock tells us. “Do the crawl on the way down. Then back float here, to me.”
    Everyone starts in. I’m an okay crawler, but I’m still out of breath from dunking.
    The boys are cheering and shouting out names from the shore, like we’re racing. Only no one is shouting my name because I’m in last place. The more I try to catch up, the more I struggle with my stroke. Before long, the other girls are back floating toward me.
    “Faster, Ida!” Jenna says as she glides past me. “You’re getting left behind!”
    I glance at the lifeguard.
    He studies me for a moment. Then he makes a mark on his clipboard.
    Calm down,
I tell myself, crawling as fast as I can.
Everyone thinks the test is easy, so stop making it look so hard.
    I get to the end and start back floating toward the dock. But the faster I go, the more I bump into the rope, which is covered with slimy weeds. Plus, each time I take a stroke, my swimsuit top creeps a little closer to my chin.
What if it’s around my neck when I get to the dock? What if everyone laughs again?
    I stop.
    Flick a weed off my hand.
    Tug my top down.
    Glance at the lifeguard.
    He frowns and makes another mark on his clipboard.
    “Have a nice
trip
?” Brooke asks, shivering, when I finally finish.
    I don’t answer. My teeth are chattering too much. Partly because I’m cold. Partly because I know I’m flunking this test.
    “Now I want you to swim out until you can’t touch bottom,” the lifeguard says. “When I say ‘Go,’ tread water for two minutes.”
    “You can do this,” Jenna says as we duck under the rope and swim out a few feet. “Tom can tread water for
thirty
minutes. His arms and legs are way shorter and skinnier than yours.”
    “Go!” the lifeguard shouts.
    I churn my arms and legs extra-hard.
    I try to smile casually at the lifeguard, but when I do, lake water washes into my mouth.
    I stop smiling.
    The Purdee pool never chops like this. Plus,you can see through pool water and keep track of the things that are skimming past your legs. Diving rings. Lost goggles. Other kids’ feet. But you can’t see through lake water. It’s cloudy, like vegetable soup, without the peas and carrots. You can only imagine the stuff that’s swimming around below you. Stuff with fins. And teeth.
    I force my tired legs to do wild kicks, hoping I look too complicated to eat.
    “One minute!” the lifeguard calls out.
    One minute? It feels like one hour.
    I sink up to my earlobes.
    “Keep treading!” Jenna pants encouragingly. “Think…about things…you like!”
    I concentrate on my