Chapter 2-Scooby Doo the Wise

We stood there like idiots until I decided to introduce myself.

"I'm Cira, by the way."

He refocused on me. (Before, he was looking anywhere but). "Hayden."

Seeing how he wasn't going to say anything else, I spoke up again. "I just moved, so my mom had me come here and try to make friends." I chuckled uncomfortably. Look how that turned out.

"Where did you move in?"

I scratched my head. "Um, I don't really remember. Beach Tree Lane, maybe?"

His face shone with comprehension. "Oh, you mean Birch Tree Lane. I live there as well."

Geez. He must have money. Well, my dad is going to be bringing in the bacon with his new job, but our house is one of the smallest on the whole street. "Cool."

He nodded and sat down. "D-do you want to bring your stuff over here?"He reddened and broke eye contact.

He must be shy, but I can't fathom why he has a reason to with his looks! "Sure!" I picked up my tankini and went over to get my bag. I growled when I saw the little girl from before, swimming happily in the water. Brat…

"So," I said, stretching out on the seat next to him, "who do you hang out with?" I winced when I realized how that must have sounded: Why are you all alone? I scrambled to fix my mistake. "I-I don't mean that you have no friends, I was just wondering…"

Hayden grinned at me, and I instantly hoped he did that often. "It's okay, I know what you mean."

I blew a puff of air at a piece of hair hanging in my face. "Oh, good."

"And to answer your, question: all my friends went on some cruise for two weeks."

I offered him a sympathetic smile, "Why didn't you go with them?"

"I was sick and my mom refused to let me go."

I nodded. "That sucks."

"Yeah." He agreed.

I absently heard little kids squealing, and a life guard's whistle blowing. But, our conversation was not going. It kinda…ended. Gosh, we are just loaded with awkwardness, our little 'kiss' kind of set us off on the wrong foot. I decided to listen to my iPod again, and once I plugged in my ear buds, Hayden did the

same. I honestly didn't know what I expected. What, we would talk about our life stories and suddenly be best friends? Guess not…

After half an hour I was extremely hot (again) and had to change into my bathing suit unless I wanted to become an insane person. I tapped my 'new best friend' on the shoulder and waited until he could hear me before I told him where I was going.

He looked at the ground and mumbled, "I'm kinda hot too, so I guess I'll go in with you."

"Okay!" I said brightly.

The second that my body was completely underneath the water, I sighed …but soon had to push up for oxygen because I swallowed some of it. I doggie paddled over to the edge while I hacked up what had gone down the wrong pipe.

I heard breathing next to me and soon a tentative, "Are you alright?" followed.

I nodded through my coughing. "Uh huh."

Surprisingly, Hayden waited with me the whole time until I was able to take in air properly again. (I might make that sound like it took forever, but in reality, it was about five seconds).

"Okay, I'm gonna go over to the lap pool and do some freestyle. How 'bout you?"

He thought for a minute and I noticed a strange, almost playful, twinkle in his beautiful eyes. "Want to race? Only one lap?"

I shrugged, "Sure, but I'm not very fast." I'm not being modest, I'm really not speedy.

He mimicked my movement. "It's fine, I'll go slow." And then he showed me his disarming grin again. I almost told him that all he has to do is smile to get me to do whatever he wants…but I didn't, I'm a good girl.

…

Don't give me that look, I really am! (As long as Tye isn't around, trying to make up devious plans to get me drunk, but that's another story).

We got to our places, a lane apart, and took some deep breaths. I tried not to look at his chest (because it was look up toward the heavens amazing). Of course I didn't obey myself, but what can a girl do?

"You ready?" He asked.

I opened my mouth to take in one more gulp, and then shouted, "Go!" before swimming. I know, cheating is not the answer, but I want to at least have some chance!

I quickly heard him catching up and I struggled to speed up my strokes. My energy was depleting rapidly and I know I'm going to lose. When I noticed I was closing in on the end of the lane I spun around and

pushed my feet off the board, propelling myself the other way. A hasty look at my opponent told me he was a whole body length ahead of me. I touched the wall, or the finish line, breathing heavily and looking up at Hayden through my goggles.

"You win." I panted.

"You're not that bad." He said, hardly making an effort for air.

"Are you a swimmer?"

He pulled his eyewear off with a pop, and flashed me 'the smile.' "Yes."

I threw my goggles on the cement and pulled myself out of the water, too tired to swim over to the ladder. "Ugh." I made my way over to my seat.

He trailed after me and I'm glad I had my back turned when he got out of the pool. Jeez, I would have fallen right back in.

"Did you go slower than usual?" I had to ask, toweling off my hair.

"Yes." He answered bluntly.

"Wow, you must be freaking varsity or something."

He didn't respond, choosing to stare back at me for a moment before tearing his eyes away, the tips of his ears turning crimson.

"What's wrong?" Did I make him embarrassed?

"Nothing." He mumbled, sitting down and drying off his legs

By the way, I so did not see his back muscles flex when he did that. Nuh-uh.

"I have a question." I need to distract myself from his attractiveness. "Almost every house on my street has a pool, does yours?"

"Yeah."

I frowned confusedly. "Then why do you go here?"

He tossed his towel on his bag. "Sometimes I need to get away from my family."

"What do you mean?" I rapidly realized it might be some intense, sad story, so I backtracked. "You don't have to tell me, if you don't want to."

"No, it's nothing bad; it's just that I have five other siblings. It's often hectic."

My eyes widened. "Five! Wow."

He shook bangs out of his eyes and shot me an exasperated look. "Yes, five. Don't ask why my parents decided to have so many kids."

"Are you the oldest?"

"No, I have two older sisters, and then two younger sisters and one brother."

"Must be busy in your house." I thought Noah was a handful, imagine five Noah's! I shuddered.

"What?" Hayden asked, noticing my quiver. "Are you cold? Here," He grappled for something in his bag and when he found it, it got tossed to me. "Put it on."

I glanced down. It was his sweatshirt. It was grey and had some insignia on it with the word, Chevalier Swimming. I squinted, moving my head closer; trying to figure out what the symbol was…it looked like a guy on horseback.

"You will be attending Chevalier high, home of the knights."

"Cool." That's what that was!

"Chevalier in French means knight." Hayden said abruptly.

"Thanks for letting me know that useful information." I teased.

He blushed. "Thought it was something interesting."

I put on his sweatshirt. (I just started noticing goose bumps on my arms.I really was cold, just didn't detect it…it was getting cooler since it was late afternoon). "It is. Your sweatshirt is really comfy by the way."

His blush remained. "Yeah, I like it too."

I think I might like you…

Gah! Where did that come from? To quote the wise Scooby Doo: "Ruh row!"

We both got our things packed and then I called my mom and told her that I'm ready to go.

"Are you going to be here tomorrow?"

He looked up at the darkening sky. "Yeah, are you?"

If you're here? Duh!? I cleared my throat, and attempted to be confident. "Yup! And save me a seat, will you?"

He scratched his neck. "S-sure…"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

A couple things in this note:

I do not live in CT, so correct me if I make a mistake.

Expect slower updates (well, slower than ILA for those of you who read that story).School has started, and I am bombarded with essays and other uncool stuff.

Do not own Scooby Doo, or iPod.

Review please, I love reading what you have to say!

Thanks to: Meggie,IHateMyLoveLife,wowwww,I'm An Addict For Dramatics, , kitkatforcrunch,righthere431,KLAM,emotionless-stares,Jevanminx,Only4Miken,SKPD,Karlz4, Jeanne Marie Keh Lao,liquid soap bubbles pop, & Number One Dancing Queen (I Can't believe I got 20 review for the first chapter, you people rock!)

I don't know why I made this list, but anyhoo, hope you liked this chapter, sorry if it's a bit rough.

-kanders