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Today I held my own in push-ups After about fifty, I was nowhere nearincreased I tried to concentrate on nore His face turned very red His arms trembled, and finally he collapsed on his bare storunted as much, but he took the opportunity to lie down on his sto no one would notice as Cameron drew the fire

Caet ear today"

Between push-ups, I breathed, "About twelve ounces too much frat party for both of you"

Cameron scrambled toward et up and run One solid arhtly I couldn’t wiggle or, better yet, kick hie of the wharf

I ed not to plead or scream After almost sixteen years with boys, I had a lot of control over irl-reactions It wasn’t until he pitched irl today Then, as I hit the water, I realized I hadn’t screened this swied in Alh the water, toward the sunbeams and the platform on the back of the boat, which was less likely to harbor bryozoa than any part of the concrete wharf Ugh, ugh, ugh, I could al past my skin--but I made it safely to the surface

And slapped myself mentally as I climbed up on the platform If I’d pulled off my new siren act, Cameron wouldn’t have tossed hty He wouldn’t have dared to touch irl, on some level If I’d been Ada me up

By the ti a wet bikini I collecteddown into the boat look halfway svelte But nobody was looking at me anymore Ca push-ups

Ada himself up in an even rhythritted teeth, turning redder and redder The bulging muscles of Sean’s tanned arms trembled

Oh God, Sean was going to lose

3

He fell on the concrete with a groan, followed by eleven choice curse words Adaaht claier Adam was no fool Hepush-ups

"We’ve created a ood ether to brush off the dust And then--don’t do it, Adaave Sean a grin

"I don’t believe it!" shouted Cameron "You knohat else? Adam is taller! Stand back-to-back and let me make sure"

Sean refused to stand back-to-back with Adaoaded him and called him na a girl, the worst insult ih, Sean was more muscular and filled out, as always, but Adariest"

"Ohhhhhh!" Caood punch on Sean in one of their boxing matches I’ll spare you the full five irls on the tennis tea up around boys, because I had ainto how boys thought This, my friends, was the deep, dark secret The size jokes went on and on as if I weren’t there, or as if I weren’t a girl I wasn’t sure which orse

Sean s only a little when they shoved hi no s I loved about Sean Surely the boys knew they couldn’t break him They would try anyway

I was a little concerned about what Sean would do to Adaet aith stuff like that But I supposed that was Adausted, I sat in the boat with my back to them When they ran out of size jokes for the moment--they would think of more as the afternoon went on, trust ue about who got to drive first The consensus was that Sean could drive first as a consolation prize because he was a loser

There was no question about ot my boater’s license when I turned fifteen, just like they did The probleht This was their fault, really They taught et up and stay up on the first try, so I wasn’t properly instructed on the dismount I couldn’t steer Too terrified to drop the rope, I ran into the dock and broke ht ar the circuitry that told ht Because since then, I’d never been able to hear Sean yell, "Go left!" or , Okay I broke ht arm They want me to turn this way, by which ti on the wakeboard into a tree We found this out the hard way last summer, the first tiine and putted through the marina waters, and Adam had the nerve to plop onto the seat across the aisle froe of the idle zone and cranked the boat into top speed Adam called to me so softly I could barely catch his words over the s"

"What for? I waxed!" I looked down tothe other way and couldn’t hear s even wider, put enerally took up as lanced back over at Adam "Does it make you uncomfortable for me to sit this way?"