Bratfest at Tiffany's by Lisi Harrison Page A

black-and-gray hair, then unzipped her white warm-up jacket and tossed it by the bench, revealing a sleek black one-piece that accentuated her Jessica Biel shoulders. “We’re gonna warm up with ten minutes of power-treading.”
    Puuuuuuuuuurpppp. Puuuuuuuuuurpppp
.
    “Yeaaaaah,” whooped Kemp, the notorious perv, as he dive-bombed into the pool. He quickly surfaced, wiped the mass of dark curly waves away from his close-set brown eyes, and shouted, “Come on, girls, show us what you’ve got!”
    “Ew!” giggled Strawberry, Kori, and Olivia. Alicia’s cheeks burned. How was she going to take off her cover-up and get in the water without the soccer boys staring at her C-cups?
    “Whoooooo!” shouted Chris Plovert during his front-flip entry. “Come on in!” He splashed the girls, who were trying to buy time, fiddling with their waterproof watches and over-tightening their ponytails.
    Six more boys hurried in. Thankfully, Josh was not one of them. He sat patiently on his end of the bench, occasionally side-glancing at Alicia as if waiting to escort her.
    Puuuuuuuuuurpppp
.
Puuuuuuuuuurpppp
.
    “Evv-rryone in!” Miss Kuznick shouted from the silver lifeguard tower.
    Cam and Olivia, who were blowing up a pair of tiny pink water wings, held up their fingers to show the teacher that they would be in as soon as they could. Besides, it wasn’t like Olivia had any reason to stall. Her lemon yellow Juicy one-piece popped against her buttery brown skin. And her legs had been freshly shaved and slicked with glitter-infused body oil. Her boobs were A’s and her butt was an A+ … and she stood with the carefree confidence of someone who knew it.
    Not that Alicia was worried that her body was worse than Olivia’s.
Hardly!
It was that she knew it was better. More moisturized. More tanned. More cleavage. And
that
was the problem. She didn’t
want
the attention, not when it came to her boobs. And especially not without Massie, who had always been there in the past to fire off a round of protective comebacks on her behalf.
    Puuuuuuuuuurpppp
.
Puuuuuuuuuurpppp
.
    Three LBRs shed their nubby white towels and tiptoed to the concrete lip of the pool. “Ready?” asked the one in the purple racer-back Speedo.
    “Ready,” answered her friends as they pinched their noses and stepped in.
    A swell of guy-cheers exploded from the water when they entered.
    “Do I look fat?” Strawberry whispered from the side of her mouth.
    “No. Do I?” Kori asked.
    “Impossible.”
    Puuuuuuuuuurpppp
.
Puuuuuuuuuurpppp
.
    They joined hands and stood. Strawberry held one out for Alicia, who politely refused it with a subtle headshake.
    “One … two … three!” shouted Kori. And the two girls raced into the steamy pool.
    Puuuuuuuuuurpppp
.
    “No running!” shouted Miss Kuznick, who could barely be heard above the echoing screams of the treading pervs.
    Aside from Cam and Olivia, who had been granted unofficial permission to dress baby Kate, Alicia and Josh were the only dry ones left. And there was no
way
Alicia was going to take off her cover-up while he was standing right in front of her. There was only one way out of this.
    Puuuuuuuuuurpppp
.
    She sat up straight and kicked off her black flip-flops.
    Josh removed his blue New York Yankees cap.
    She placed her conditioner on the floor.
    He retied his burgundy-and-blue madras swim trunks.
    She stood.
    He stood.
    She walked toward the pool’s edge.
    He followed.
    “Take. It. Off!” shouted Kemp. “Take. It. Offffffffff!”
    Alicia grinned like a girl with a plan.
    Josh snicker-blushed, trapped somewhere between wanting to laugh with his friend and wanting to kill him for harassing his crush.
    It was time.
    “See
ya
!” Alicia shoved him, purposely using just enough force to jostle him, but not quite enough to knock him in.
    “Hey!” He grabbed her wrists and forced her to the edge.
    “Stop it!” she fake-screamed.
    Puuuuuuuuurpppp
.
Puuuuuuuuurpppp
.
Puuuuuuuuurpppp
.
    “No