Surviving High School

locker?” asked Ben, smiling.
    “Compared to swimming a fifty-meter backstroke in under twenty-nine seconds, breaking into your locker was easy.”
    “Spence, give us a minute,” said Ben.
    “Sure thing,” Spencer said with a wink.
    As Spencer took off down the hall, he shot them a double thumbs-up.
    “Thanks for the roses,” said Ben. “They’re pretty—and unexpected.”
    “My mom helped me pick them out.”
    “How nice of her.”
    “So, I heard this rumor that your terrible ex-girlfriend may have dumped you, and that now you don’t have a homecoming date.”
    Ben shrugged. “You know how rumors are. Truth is, she’s not as bad as everyone says. In fact, I might still kind of like her.”
    “So if she were, hypothetically, to ask you to the dance—”
    “Hypothetically?”
    In answer, she leaned forward and kissed him, pressing him up against his locker. She hadn’t planned to. But it was something she had to do. Clearly Ben hadn’t prepared, either. His lips were tight at first, and his face was scratchy with two-day-old stubble. After a second, though, his lips relaxed and turned soft against hers, and she could feel him there, entirely present, his whole essence concentrated in his mouth against hers.
    “Emily,” he said, “I—I thought you wanted to wait for, you know, the right moment.”
    She smiled. “I did.”
    “So then—we’re going to the dance?”
    She leaned in once again and kissed him softly. “You’ve got yourself a date.”
    Emily and Ben weren’t the only couple to get together just in time for homecoming. In the locker room after school that day, Samantha stopped by the bench where Emily was changing and told her she was going to the dance with Nick Brown.
    “Just as friends,” she added. “He told me that the two of you got a chance to talk about a few things the other day. That’s good. I figure it’s senior year. Time to let go of some old grudges. Of course, you’re just a freshman. I guess you’re three years ahead of the game.”
    “That’s sweet,” said Emily. “I’m happy for you guys.”
    “Cool. Anyway, I’d better get changed. Hey, aren’t you usually already in your swimsuit by now? What gives?”
    “I’m not on such a tight schedule anymore. It’s time for me to start changing with the rest of you.”
    “Cool,” said Samantha, opening her locker. “Well, I’ll see you out in the pool.”
    For the first time in weeks, Emily’s arms and legs didn’t ache as she swam. She’d gotten to bed early the night before, after talking things out with her mom, and instead of tossing and turning as she worried about her messed-up life, she’d gone to sleep the moment her head touched the pillow. She’d woken up this morning feeling lucid and rested for the first time since she’d started her late-night dates with Ben.
    As she swam up and down the length of the pool, she realized that for the first time in a long time, she was actually enjoying it.
    When she got home that night, Emily walked into her room to find her computer on her desk, just as if it had never left. Sitting next to it was a brand-new phone.
    “I, uh, may have taken my frustrations out on your old one,” said her dad. “Sorry about that.”
    “You’re apologizing for giving me a new phone?”
    He rubbed the small bald spot at the back of his head and looked at his shoes.
    “Look, Em. Your mother and I have been talking, and I guess you could say—I guess you could say I overreacted.Don’t get me wrong, it kills me seeing you give up on our dream like this. Really kills me. But it has to be our dream. It’s like your mom said. I can’t relive my swimming days through you.”
    “So, we’re okay?”
    He walked toward her and gave her an awkward one-arm hug. It was a start.
    “I should probably hit the hay,” he said. “But you—you go to sleep when you want. Not after midnight or anything, but it doesn’t have to be ten thirty anymore. We can be—flexible.”
    “Thanks, Dad.”
    “Oh, I, uh, almost forgot,” he said. He brought his left arm around from behind his back to reveal that it was draped with shimmering blue fabric: her dress.
    A surge of happiness filled Emily’s chest, and a smile broke out on her face.
    “I thought you would have torn it to shreds,” she said.
    “I wanted to. Your mother practically pried it out of my hands.” He hesitated for a moment, then added, “I have to confess, I’m still hoping you’ll be wearing a swimsuit