Novel # 7,835
an excerpt

In a few moments they’d changed, and were walking down to the lake, all five. Lydia and Nelson predictably looked fat, while Paul and Jamie, from opposite ends of the age spectrum, looked scrawny, and Ursula, just as predictably, made her shorts and sports bra look as though they were being advertised in an outdoor equipment catalog. But no one was taking notes. When they reached the water there was general hesitation, as if there might have been a man-eating squid out there and each hoped not to be the dispensible cast member to entice it to show itself. They’d brought the 3 towels they could muster amongst them, and piled those, along with a few other items people hadn’t cared to leave in the campsite, on a granite shelf that leaned out over the water. Paul perched there in the sun. “I’ll just wait to get hot enough to face this snowmelt.” He draped his lean shanks into the clear shallows, where tiny fish crowded round.

Jamie waded out to above his knees before the coldness of the water appeared to catch up with him. Possibly embarrassed by her size and wanting to get it out of sight, Lydia followed close behind him, and passed when he halted. To Ursula’s surprise she laid herself into the icy water and swam a few strokes. Tried to stand and discovered she was out over her head; made a quick clumsy recovery and side stroked back to Jamie. Expertly side handed a sluice of water over him, and backed away as he screeched in protest and plunged after her.

Nelson was worrying about how he looked to Ursula. Without liking her, he couldn’t free himself of the desire to appear attractive and he couldn’t avoid contrasting his slack abdomen unfavorably with Paul’s slightly hairy, entirely unflabby midriff. At least he could prove himself a good swimmer, and unfazed by cold water. He waded boldly past the battling young people and stroked smoothly toward a wedge of granite that protruded from the water 50 feet out.

The water was cold, and Jamie and Lydia soon had enough of it and retreated to the pleasant granite slab where Paul was still undecided.

“I’d share my towel with you if you hadn’t splashed me,” Jamie said. It was Ursula who had packed one for him, and who now lent hers to Lydia. With all quiet in the water, she waded out and stood thigh-deep, undecided. When Paul joined her, Jamie had a chance to ask Lydia, “So what’s your real name?”

For a moment he was afraid she was offended; that she wanted to forget that they were allies, that he knew her secret, or at least one of her secrets. But she sighed and answered. “Libby. I wish I could just tell them. Your mom’s so nice. They’re all nice. Do you think they guess?”

“I don’t think so. I don’t know. I just met them myself the day before you did. Except my ma, but you know, I can’t even figure her out half the time.”

“Anyhow, I’m Lydia now, seems like. It’s cool. I always thought it would be nice to be Lydia. And I do want to go to college in California, that part is true. Just not right away, or even next year.”

“And your dad is there.”

“My dad is there,” Libby repeated, but when she said it this time, it sounded like a wish.