No Best Favorite or Jealousy Ch. 01

"How did you do that without choking, dweeb?" she asked.

"It takes skill, something you obviously don't have," I responded leaning forward and ready to swim away.

"Tell me!" she demanded.

I had my feet scrunched up on the rock below me and kicked. "Make me," I said as I effortlessly launched myself in the air across the surface to dive into the water a few feet away. Back through the falls I went to swim as quickly as I could around the bend and hopefully avoid her. I soon reached the bend and cut back into the rock blind, hoping to be left alone.

A minute later I saw her rounding the bend and continue on. I hoped but didn't really care if she was smart enough to turn back when she saw the water speed up. Five minutes later I heard the scream that told me she wasn't.

I took off downstream to follow the screams and find her. Soon I saw her clinging to a tree branch over the river. I had the odd thought of a scene in countless movies while I figured out my move. I also really hoped that someone else had heard her and came to help so I could leave.

I swam to the shore closest to the branch and looked for anything to help me. The tree branch wasn't moving and she wasn't climbing out. She was really scared, yelling out for me to help her. I half considered gesturing good riddance at her while I went back to the falls, but no amount of her being mean to me could make me do that.

Just up the river I saw a boat dock and a length of rope on it. I hoped that it was enough. "Hang on, I'll be right back!" I yelled out and ran for it. When I got back I tied it off to the tree and tossed it to her.

"Grab on and I'll pull you in," I said wary of putting any additional stress on the old branch. I had to toss it a couple of times before she grabbed it and I was able to pull her. It was a bit unavoidable that she bounced against some other debris in the river as I pulled her against the current, but soon enough she was on shore.

"What the hell were you thinking?" I spat out. "Why didn't you turn back when you saw the currents?"

She answered by jumping at me and hugging me. "Thank you! I thought I was a goner!" She paused a moment, possibly wondering why I wasn't hugging her back. "I, uh, I thought for a moment that you were going to just let me die..."

"The way you treat me, don't think I didn't consider it." I said, hearing her start to cry against my shoulder. "Why were you swimming after me anyway?"

"I needed to know how you got through the falls so easily..."

"And that was worth risking your life?" I asked trying to push her away, but she only held me tighter. "I know you're scared but you're safe now. Let go!"

She nodded and slowly backed away slightly. That's when I noticed her for the first time. She was dressed in a bikini, the first time I'd ever seen her that way because she never swam in the pool when I was around at the house. It was red, almost matching her hair, and clinging to her large breasts. She'd lost the extra weight I thought she had when we first met, no doubt because of her time on the squad. She had quite a nice body, for a tormenter.

The scratches across her belly and arms told the story of her time in the currents. "Are you all right?" I asked pointing to them.

She looked down and realized they were there for the first time. She pawed at them a little, assessing her situation. "No blood. I'll be fine," she responded. "They're nothing compared to what could have happened if you didn't save me," she pouted. "I owe you big time."

I started gathering up the rope. "You're just lucky I heard you and that you held on as long as you did. Boats come through here to do whitewater rafting, so it's pretty dangerous a bit down river. I'm surprised they didn't come out to help, but I suppose they're all out right now," I said walking back to the dock to put the rope back.

"How do we get back?" Sarah asked, looking at the river fearfully.

"We can get in here and swim back. There's very little current here," I said seeing Sarah back away. "Or we can walk the path over here," I said pointing to our left.

"Let's do that, please," she said nicely.

In fact it was the first time that I noticed her not using her normally derogatory tone with me. I wasn't about to tempt fate by asking. On the way back I answered her question about the falls, and by the time we neared she was calm enough to want to try.

"But how did you get away from me?" she asked. "I couldn't find you anywhere along the river."

We were on the bank opposite the blind so I pointed it out. "You went right past me."

"Oh. I suppose I was being quite a pest, right?"

"Sure were," I replied evenly.

"Yeah, I guess I don't blame you," she said looking away. We were rounding the bend and saw the falls again. Sarah eyed the water cautiously, but was determined. "Take me through the falls."

"You can do it yourself," I said wondering why she wanted me to go with her.

"I need your bravery after..." she said looking away.

"Ok, fine," I said walking to the water line and diving in since it was a drop at that point. I surfaced and looked back to see her still afraid to move. "Coming or not?"

A moment later she nodded and jumped in, surfacing near me.

"Just do what I told you and don't think about anything else. You'll be fine. Let's go," I said swimming forward, hoping she was following like she wanted. I hit the falls and came back up on the other side like normal, wading in place for a few seconds before she popped up a few feet away with a smile.

"That was easy!" she said diving back for another go. I went back to a spot on the ledge and watched her surface again a moment later looking around for me.

When she saw me she swam straight for me and jumped up to sit on the ledge again. "Thank you. That's really fun!"

"Sure." I considered my next words carefully, but was too curious not to ask. "I... I notice you're not calling me names..." I asked hesitantly, hoping it didn't kick start her normal personality.

Sarah just smiled at me and looked away. "After what you just did I figure you deserve a break," she said looking back at me.

The couple of people near us shot us a look like they knew what she was talking about. I chuckled before responding. "I appreciate the break and hope you don't make me do that again any time soon!"

The looks on the others' faces were worth my retort! Sarah gave me a kiss on the cheek before jumping off of the rock like I did earlier, heading under the falls again.

I was getting a break for saving her, but for how long? Even a few minutes was going to be worth it, so I wasn't about to look the gift horse in the mouth! I had to look up the meaning of that saying when I got back to my phone, although I was sure Pepper knew.

Soon enough, Dad was calling out to us for lunch so we swam to shore and joined our parents.

Letta was distressed when she saw the scratches. "What happened to you?" she asked quickly closing the few feet toward her daughter to look over the marks.

"It's nothing, Mom. I got scratched by a couple of tree branches while swimming in the river," she said leaving out the pertinent details. Her face showed some of the fear from earlier.

"Are you sure that's all it was?"

"Yeah, Mom. I'm fine," Sarah said smiling at me. "No big deal!"

"Well if you're sure. They don't look like they'll scar or be there long, but you may want to switch to a one-piece suit for a while," Letta said stepping back.

Sarah looked down at the scratches again and shrugged. "Even if I had one I wouldn't bother. They're not that bad." She looked up at the picnic table. "What're we eating?"

It was a fun afternoon with food, swimming, and sunning, but it eventually came to an end when we headed back to the cabin. I helped Dad cook out our dinner while the ladies were inside preparing the non-grilled portion.

"You and Sarah seem to be getting along better, what happened out there today?" Dad asked.

I thought quickly. "Well, she saw how effortlessly I swam under the falls and nagged me until I told her how I did it. She agreed to lay off me a while," I said likewise leaving out the pertinent details. It was true to a point.

"I see," he said unconvinced. "Are you sure nothing else happened that you should tell us about? You two were gone down river for quite a while..." he asked with one eye cocked.

"Geez no! Nothing happened!" I quickly answered with a disgusted face, thinking he might be referring to... I didn't even want to think about that!

He clapped me on the back. "Ok. But just remember, she's your sister!"

"Gross, Dad!" I said with a sour face. "I wanna be able to keep my dinner down!"

Dad laughed and went back to flipping burgers.

My phone went off and I asked Dad if I could take a moment to talk with Pepper. He said sure so I answered before even turning away. I told her the partial/made up story we told our parents.

"She's treating you like a human being? I don't believe it!"

"Believe it. It feels stranger than it sounds," I said.

"Hmmm... I wonder if she'll give me a break when you get back home..."

I laughed. "Don't count on it. I'm sure she'll be back to her normal self soon enough! I feel like I'm gonna wake up tomorrow and realize it was all a nightmare."

"Don't you mean dream?"

"No, nightmare. To think she could be nice to me for one day and then never again..." I shook and made the chilled noise into the phone.

In fact she wasn't back to her normal self for the rest of the night at least. Dad started another fire, and while Dad and Letta went inside to get refreshments I finished the job of getting it going.

I heard a voice behind me. "You can take the bedroom tonight, Bryce."

I just about fell into the fire hearing Sarah use my name. "But I'm supposed to get it tomorrow."

"I know, but after today I figured I should be nicer to you," she said sweetly.

My brow furrowed while I tried to figure her out. "I frankly didn't know you had this side to you, but it's nice. I, uh, assume you don't want our parents knowing what happened?"

She shook her head. "No way! I don't want Mom worrying too much."

"Well then giving up the bedroom a day early would make them really suspicious. In fact, as much as I appreciate you being nice to me, maybe you should be your normal self around them."

"You want me to be mean to you?" Sarah asked unbelievingly.

"NO!" I said a little too loudly and looked toward the cabin. "No I don't want that, but if you don't want them asking questions..."

"Oh, I see. So what do I say if they ask why I was nice to you today?"

"Tell them you pestered me to tell you the secret of swimming under the falls. I already told Dad you agreed to be nice to me for a day in payment."

"Ok, that works!" Sarah said smiling. "But I still owe you..." she added in hushed tones because our parents were back.

It was a good thing we discussed her behavior, because Dad and Letta asked Sarah why she was so different around me again. The excuse sated them and Sarah smiled at me in thanks.

Sarah excused herself at one point to go inside. She didn't come back out for a while, but when she did she had a smile on her face. When we all went in for the night I found out why.

"What's this?" I asked. In my corner of the living room a rope was tied to light fixtures at either end. Draped over that was a blanket.

"If I'm going to sleep there tomorrow I want some privacy and not be woken up with the birds! Tell me if it helps you in the morning," she said.

Even Dad and Letta didn't really believe it, but they shrugged it off and went to bed. This new side of Sarah was weirding me out, but I too shook it off because I was hoping it would help.

I woke refreshed the next morning, the first time since we arrived at the cabin. I stretched and reached over to my phone to discover it was 8 am. "Wow," I said scratching my head. "I wish I had that partition up the first two nights!" I mumbled aloud.

"So it worked?" I heard from the foot of the air mattress.

I jumped at the sound and saw Sarah sitting there. "What the hell...?" I asked pulling the covers over me.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," she said uncharacteristically nicely. "I couldn't sleep and didn't want to just lie in bed."

"So you creep in on me?"

"Yeah, I guess that is a bit much," Sarah said, embarrassed. "Sorry again." She looked toward the kitchen area. "I was going to make breakfast for everyone. Any requests?"

Still waking up, I wasn't ready to think about that. "It doesn't matter to me." Sarah nodded and stood.

I quickly showered and got ready for the day. When I was back out into the main area of the cabin our parents were out, and I was a dweeb again. It was odd, but I swear I saw our parents relax when she called me that!

The next couple of days were strange. Sarah was back to her old self most of the time. She even put up a stink when she had to switch to the air mattress, although she had no choice but to relent. But the few moments we were alone she was still nice to me. It was a lot easier to take her bitchy moments when I knew it was a façade, even if it was likely to be a short lived one.

The last full day we were there, however, Sarah's secret almost came out.

"How about white water rafting today, kids?" Dad asked us.

Sarah's face instantly showed panic as all color drained from it and she looked at me. "No, I don't think so," she said timidly shaking her head.

"Why not? You've done it before and you loved it!" Letta asked.

I could see Sarah was at a loss for words and searching for an excuse, so I threw her a bone with whatever I could think of. "I think she's freaking out because of her friend Gretchen." Gretchen? "She nearly drowned doing it last summer."

Sarah relaxed but sold it with an upset look toward me. "Yeah. What she told me about the whole thing still has me on edge," she said to her mom.

"Oh really? Why didn't you ever mention her before?"

"It was something I found out at competition this summer. She's from my old school," Sarah said screwing her face up.

Letta looked at me. "How did you hear about it?" she asked not seeming to believe the story.

"I overheard her on the phone when she got back," I said.

"You were snooping again? Knock that off dweeb!"

"Oh... Well what should we do instead?" Letta asked, showing her disappointment.

"You guys go ahead. I don't wanna spoil your day. I'll just get some sun on the beach," Sarah said smiling.

"But we wanted to do something together on our last day here..." Letta started saying.

"We've done so much together already. One day without me won't be so bad!" Sarah said.

"All right, if you're sure. Are you sure you'll be ok alone?"

"Mo-o-om," Sarah elongated, "I'm 17 not 7! So duh! I'm going to spend the time catching up with the girls back home!" she said shaking her phone in the air.

The rest of us prepared to leave. Sarah almost seemed to be begging me to stay behind with her eyes, but there was no way I was going to miss a day out on the rapids! It was a blast!

When we arrived back at the SUV, my phone had several texts and phone messages from Pepper. Dad and Letta chatted the way back while I texted back and forth with Pepper. She wouldn't tell me what she was so excited about in writing, so I promised to call her when I got back to the cabin and was alone.

"What's got you so excited?" I asked when she answered.

"Oh my god! You won't believe what happened!" Pepper blurted.

"I gathered that from your excitement, so start blowing my mind!"

"Sarah called me and apologized for being such a bitch to me! She's not going to try to block me from joining this year!"

I had to feign ignorance because I had no idea if Sarah was going to tell anyone what actually happened. "That's great! Did she say why?"

"Not really. She just said she got to know you on this trip a little better and decided to stop being so mean to us!"

I chuckled quietly. "Well, she has been a little nicer these last few days. Whatever it is, I guess we should just thank our lucky stars."

"Yeah!" Pepper said, pausing. "I miss you a lot! You don't call enough."

"We're all doing so much together. When you're not working I don't have much time to get away. But we get home tomorrow around 7."

"I'll be there," she blurted. "I need to see you and find out if Sarah is really going to be nice in person!"

"Well, let's hope so..."

Dad took us all out to eat at the nicest restaurant in town that night. He must have had it planned all along because he had reservations. It was a nice way to end the vacation, especially one that turned my home life around even a little.

~~~

The next day Sarah did indeed treat Pepper civilly. In fact, they made up and became friends! It was odd, but nice. The shock came when I found out that Sarah told Pepper what happened. I didn't think she'd trust anyone with the secret.

But there was this prickly feeling on the back of my neck, like something was looming over us and waiting to pounce. I really didn't want to stir the pot, but a few days after we got back I was overcome with the need to find out why Sarah changed so much, and so was Pepper.

Sarah said, "Well, I was in the river holding on for dear life to that branch, too afraid to move because I slipped a couple of times. When I yelled out I had no idea if anyone would even hear me, but a couple of minutes later YOU were there looking for me. The way I treated the both of you flashed before my eyes ... and even still you were trying to save me," she said sadly.

"Well yeah, you're my sister, no matter how we treated each other. I couldn't live with the guilt of you getting seriously hurt if I ignored you," I said.

"Right," she said. "If you were the one in the river..." she mumbled, shaking thoughts away.

I heard her. "What? You wouldn't have saved me?" I asked not believing the question myself.

Sarah's face went pale white while staring at my chin. "I..." she started, looking into my eyes with tears starting to form. "I don't know..." she said looking away.

Pepper gasped.

"That's why it all snapped," she said with her tears flowing and still looking away. "How could I be such a bitch to you? I mean, you just asked me out once. That's no reason..." she said crying and burying her head in her hands.

Pepper and I both put a hand on each of Sarah's shoulders and waited.

She sniffled. "That was no reason for me to treat you like that."

"Or me just for dating him?" Pepper asked.

"Yeah," Sarah said nodding, sharing a sympathetic smile with her.

"We were both pretty mean to each other," I said.

"But if I wasn't such a bitch to you... if I'd just nicely said no and forgot about it..." she said, incoherently mumbling something else at the end.

"Did you get a bump on the head while you were out there?" I asked with a chuckle.

Sarah shook her head and looked at me. "No. A bump on the conscience maybe."

I screwed up my face, hoping I wasn't about to mess it all up. "So this is... dare I ask..." I took a quick, deep breath, "permanent?"

"Yeah. I hope the old me is gone. It's the least I can do to pay you back for what you did."

"I hope so, too," I said feeling the weight of the last two years lifting. "But I'd have settled for a few gold bars or 20% of your income for the rest of your life," I said as seriously as I could, seeing Sarah concentrate on it. "Eh, I think this is better than that stuff," I added smiling.

"Me too!" Pepper added.

Sarah smiled. "Well good because you're not getting the other stuff!" she said with a weak laugh.

"Ok, so how're you gonna lead the squad this year then?" I asked.