TORCH by Yvonne Collins, Sandy Rideout Read Free Book Online

direction.”
    “Well, you’re not my boss, anymore.” Despite my best efforts, my voice spikes. “Because I quit.”
    Hux pulls himself upright. “Don’t quit, get better. That’s how you handled swimming. Why not guarding?”
    “Because guarding is just a job.”
    “That’s not who you are,” he says. “What’s changed?”
    He has some nerve telling me who I am when he’s only known me two weeks. And everyone in this town knows what changed in my life. “The smell of chlorine makes me sick, that’s what’s changed.”
    Forget guarding. Forget swim team. I am done with water.
     

 
     
     
     
    I find Regan at her locker and drag her out the closest door to tell her about what happened with Hux. It’s only when we’re outside that I remember why Regan avoids this exit. We’re standing in the sheltered area between the old and new wings of the school, where the cool kids congregate. People like us incite ridicule just by inhaling their second hand smoke.
    I can tell from Regan’s expression that she thinks I shouldn’t have quit. Money’s tight around our place since Dad took a pay cut. He lets me drive Nate’s Jeep, but I have to pay for gas, and my savings won’t hold out forever.
    “There are other pools in Rosewood that’d be glad to have me,” I tell Regan. “Or maybe I’ll get a job in a store or something.”
    Regan starts by saying all the right things, about how Hux is an idiot to let a skilled lifeguard like me go. But she changes her tune when it comes to the swim team. “Are you sure you want to give that up? It’s your passion.”
    “It’s not, anymore. Really, Regan. I’m going to have to find that buzz from another sport. Maybe basketball?”
    She laughs and I join in. The lack of coordination I demonstrated in the dance audition sort of applies generally.
    “Do you think Bianca turned Hux against you?” Regan asks.
    “Did I hear my name?”
    Bianca is standing behind us. Although she’s shorter than Regan and me, she gives the impression of being taller. As much as I hate to admit it, she has presence. Narrowing her striking green eyes, Bianca takes a long drag on her cigarette and exhales in my direction. “Too bad you guys got passed over for dance club,” she says. “But you had to know you weren’t cut out for it.”
    I stare at the cigarette in her hand. “Don’t you worry that smoking will shorten your dance career?”
    She takes another drag. “I could die tomorrow and they wouldn’t call you two off the bench. Because you’re a klutz and she’s fat.”
    Once again Regan is collateral damage in my battle with Bianca, and it pisses me off. “I’ll challenge you to a few laps in the pool any day.”
    “Really?” Bianca says. “Because I hear you’ve been banned from the pool.”
    My altercation with Hux is half an hour old; Regan must be right about their colluding.
    “Phoenix didn’t get banned,” Regan says. “She quit.”
    “After nearly killing someone.” Bianca drops her cigarette and grinds it into the pavement with the toe of a black suede boot. “Hux is nominating you for the Loser Lifeguard Hall of Fame.”
    Noticing that a dozen people have tuned into the drama, I force a smile. “It’s an honor just to be nominated.”
    Nate always told me to stand up to bullies from the start or it only gets worse. I’ve had to follow his advice a few times, knowing he was around to back me. Now, I’m on my own.
    Bianca looks down and sees that the cigarette at her feet has relit. She presses it again with her boot, but as soon as she moves it reignites.
    I stamp on the cigarette with a sneaker and it goes out with a trickle of smoke.
    Bianca continues on her mission of harassment. “By the way, I hear your dad had to get a security job because his beer breath is a fire hazard. Even Chunky’s dad wouldn’t take a chance on him.”
    The shot’s a direct hit and I can’t pretend it doesn’t hurt. Bianca's dad is the chief of police, and if