‘Hugo!’ Chaz calls from the water. ‘I haven’t seen your diving yet.’
‘Coming, Mr Chaz!’ Hugo calls back and fast-walks over to the blocks.
‘You don’t need to call me Mr Chaz,’ the swimming instructor replies. ‘The Incredible Chaz is fine.’
Judging from the big grin on his face, that last bit was supposed to be a joke.
Hugo climbs up onto the starting blocks and assumes the diving stance.
‘Hugo! You still have your T-shirt on,’ Chaz tells him. ‘Better take it off.’
‘Oh, whoopsie!’ Hugo says, straightening up. He whips off his glasses and then his T-shirt.
Suddenly, everyone gasps! I look at Hugo. Eek.
‘What?’ Hugo asks, confused. ‘What are you all looking at? I can’t see anything with my glasses off! Are my swimmers stuck up my bum?’
‘Hugo!’ I call out. ‘You’re covered in spots!’
Under his T-shirt, my friend’s skin is covered in red blotches. It looks like someone splattered him with tomato sauce.
Abby points at him. ‘That looks like . . . chicken pox. That’s super contagious!’
‘AAARRGGGGHHH!’ everyone screams.
The class descends into chaos. Everyone panics, and so they should! I mean, I don’t want to blow this out of proportion, but we need to RUN FOR OUR LIVES! I’ve heard about chicken pox. It’s supposed to be like getting bitten by a hundred mosquitoes all at once. I don’t want to catch that. I have important things to do! Like be amazing! How am I supposed to be amazing if I catch Hugo’s chicken pox?
Oh, man. Maybe I’ve already caught it? I touched Abby’s lunch box and Hugo touched that before I did. Did I touch Hugo? I don’t remember? How close do you have to be to catch chicken pox from someone?
I don’t know the answer to that. I’m only eleven. I don’t keep those sorts of useless facts in my head. But I need to act fast. If not for my own sake, then for the sake of all these innocent children!
I jump up on one of the other diving blocks and yell, ‘Evacuate! Evacuate!’
‘Stop!’ Miss Sweet yells, pointing at me. Apparently she thinks we all need to listen to her because she’s the adult in the room. Yeah, well in times of crisis, the loudest voice wins okay? And I have the loudest –
Oh, wow. She has a pretty loud voice.
‘But he’s Patient Zero, Miss Sweet!’ Abby says. ‘He needs to be quarantined!’
‘Enough!’ our teacher commands. She’s been pointing that finger a lot today. She turns to Patient Zero. ‘Hugo. How long have you had those spots?’
‘Um . . . I don’t know.’ He shrugs. Oh, great! Take some responsibility for your health, Hugo!
Miss Sweet sighs. I think she’s going to have a big glass of cordial when she gets home tonight. She’s certainly earned it today.
‘How could you not –?’ she starts to ask and then stops herself. ‘Never mind. You can’t swim today, Hugo. We need to give your parents a call and get them to come pick you up.’
‘You’re right. It might not be. Abby’s not a doctor, but I’m going to let your parents take you to one so that you can work that out. Shirt back on please.’
‘Oh, bummer,’ Hugo says, stepping down. ‘I was looking forward to swimming. Max, do you want to borrow my towel?’
And before I realise what he’s doing, he throws his towel in my direction.
That was close.
Miss Sweet walks Hugo towards the front door of Redhill Pool and everyone watches in horror. Behind us, Chaz tries to get our attention.
‘Guys? Guys?’
Everyone ignores him.
Somehow I’ve found myself standing next to Abby.
‘Max,’ she says, ‘you know how to get out of the swimming carnival now, right?’
‘What?’
Abby grins. ‘Go hug Hugo.’
‘Are you crazy?’ I shout. ‘Do you not understand the seriousness of this situation! I do not want to get chicken pox! I’ve got a baby at home to think about!’
Abby screws up her face. ‘You mean your little sister?’
‘Yes. It’s a lot of responsibility,’ I say, huffily.
I actually haven’t done a thing to help since Rosie was born. That’s not my job. I’m a kid. She wasn’t my idea. But protecting Rosie sounds a lot better than just telling Abby I hate being itchy.
‘Anyway,’ I go on, ‘you want to get out of the swimming carnival too. You go hug Hugo.’
‘It is interesting . . .’ Abby’s voice trails off.
Is she actually considering giving Hugo a squeeze? ‘What’s interesting?’
‘Well, it just doesn’t happen very often, that’s all.’ Abby shrugs. She’s in her own world, staring at the swimming pool. I have no idea what she’s talking about.
‘What doesn’t?’ I ask. ‘The swimming carnival? It happens every year.’
‘No,’ she replies. ‘It doesn’t happen very often that you and I both want the same thing.’
Well, I guess that’s true.
Abby turns to look at me. I can practically see the gears of her mind grinding away inside her head.
‘You know, there’s a saying, Max,’ she says. ‘“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” I think this is a bit like that.’
‘What? You have two enemies? I thought I was your only enemy!’ I ask, screwing up my face. ‘Who’s your one friend?’ I think Abby might have finally snapped. You know . . . mentally. Maybe the lunch box was just a step too far. She sighs and rolls her eyes like I’m the weirdo.
‘I just did! “The enemy of my enemy” – so someone with the same enemy as me – “is my friend.” If we share an enemy then we’re actually on the same side and we can form an alliance.’
‘You and me?’ Is she thinking straight?
‘We both tried to get out of the swimming carnival on Friday,’ Abby explains. ‘When I wrote that note . . . I mean, when my mum wrote that note . . . I thought that would get me out of it, but it didn’t work. You gave your silly little speech up on the diving blocks.’
‘Hey! I made a lot of good points!’ I say.
‘Whatever,’ Abby says. ‘All that matters is that we want the same thing. Maybe instead of fighting each other, we should . . .?’
‘Work together?’ I say. That felt weird. What is this upside-down world I’m now living in? Tyson is the good twin, Pip is the bad twin and Abby and I are a team? ‘But what could get us both out of the swimming carnival? Miss Sweet seems pretty intent on making sure it happens.’
‘Unless . . . it doesn’t happen,’ she whispers.
‘What? The whole swimming carnival?’
That’s when it hits me like the first rays of a sunrise. Instead of trying to get us out of it, what if we could cancel the entire swimming carnival? That’s a whole different challenge, and one that Miss Sweet would never see coming.
Abby smiles.
‘Yep. You’re a genius all right,’ she says.
Ooh, this is interesting. Being on the same team as Abby means she says nice things to me.
There’s one thing that’s still got me confused though. ‘So, just to check, with what you were saying before, who’s our enemy?’
She looks at me like I’m an idiot.
‘So now we’re friends with a swimming pool?’ I scrunch my nose. That doesn’t sound right.
‘No,’ Abby sighs. ‘You and I were enemies, but then we realised we had the same enemy, which is the swimming pool.’
Hmmm. This is going to take a bit of getting used to.