At least I wasn’t the oldest Guppy.

Braces Girl from the bus

was a Guppy, too.

I was pretty sure she was older than me.

Because of the braces.

I couldn’t tell if she recognized me from the bus,

because she kept looking down at the dock

while we all waited for the Guppy teacher.

After a few minutes that teacher arrived

and blew her whistle.

“Everybody in the water!”

she said.

Braces Girl was the first one in.

I jumped in second.

That water was still freezing!

But I warmed up

because our teacher made us swim forever!

Five laps of backstroke,

then five of freestyle.

She must have liked my backstroke fine.

Because she never said anything about it.

But after one lap of freestyle,

she tapped me on the head.

I held on to the dock, kicking my feet,

and looked up at her.

“Watch,”

she said.

She showed me how to breathe,

two or three times,

then sent me off again.

“Show me a stronger kick,” she told me

after the third lap.

I tried hard for the rest of the laps,

kicking and breathing.

“Better,” she said

when I was done.

“Much better.”

I’d never swum ten laps before

in my whole life.

I figured our lesson must be done.

But when the last of the Guppies returned

to the dock,

our teacher said,

“I want everyone to tread water now

for five minutes.

Or until you can’t tread anymore.

Ready? Set!

Go!”

I wasn’t sure I could tread at all.

My legs were tired!

But I moved away from the dock,

not far from Braces Girl,

and I started to tread.

After about a minute,

I was facing away from the dock,

struggling to keep my head above water,

when I heard my name.

I kicked around.

Joplin was standing on the dock,

dripping wet.

She waved at me.

I did not wave back.

I knew if I did,

I’d sink to the bottom

of the lake

and never rise

again.

“You’re moving your legs too much!”

she shouted.

“Slow down!”

“Shut up!” I wanted to shout back at her.

But I could barely breathe.

“Move less!” Joplin shouted again.

“Pedal a bike slowly!”

Actually,

I realized,

moving less sounded good.

So I stopped kicking fast

and started pretending to pedal a bike slowly.

It was easier.

Much easier.

Joplin kept shouting directions at me.

And when our teacher blew her whistle

after five minutes,

I was still treading.