Learning to Breathe Read Free Page A

half-eleven so I drained my cappuccino and headed back home to get ready to meet Harriet.
    Once home, I quickly explained to my mother my plans for lunch. She looked pleasantly surprised but didn’t ask any questions.
    “Okay honey, have fun” was all she said while I ran upstairs and got changed into long denim shorts, a strappy vest top and my sneakers. I grabbed a towel as an afterthought – I figured that I would probably need something to sit on. I ran downstairs, put some packets of crisps and fruit into a bag, and headed out the door.
    Harriet was waiting for me in her car – a little VW Bug – and smiled at me when I got into the passenger side.
    “Hey, you look great. There should be a good crowd here so you’ll get to meet a lot of people. I hope you don’t mind?” She glanced at me unsurely.
    I shook my head. “No, it’ll be good for me to get to know some people before school starts in September.”
    She grinned. “Well, after you meet this lot, you might not want to know them!”
    S he chuckled and I smiled at her but I couldn’t help ponder about what I had let myself in for.
     
    We arrived at the spring and discovered that we weren’t the only ones who were early. I took a deep breath, got out of the car, and followed Harriet as she made her way over to a group of guys who were standing by a fancy Honda Civic.
    “Hey guys! ” Harriet waved at them as she approached. “This is Darcie, she just moved next door.”
    The guys all gave me a lazy, half wave which I returned while I muttered “hey” at them all.
    Harriet sighed. “Guys, the least you could do is introduce yourselves!”
    They all chuckled and a particu larly good-looking guy piped up. “Yeah, well why bother … we know you’ll do it for us!”
    Harriet laughed. “True, okay Darcie, that’s James, Elijah and my boyfriend, Samuel.” She pointed each of them out in turn and I nodded obediently.
    Harriet smiled and then turned her attention back to the boys . “So, are you guys going down to the water or what?”
    Samuel nodded . “Yeah, we were just waiting for some of you chicks to turn up – no point in showing off our fancy diving moves if nobody’s there to appreciate them.” He winked at me and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
    Harriet rolled her e yes. “You and your ego Samuel! Well, come on then … let’s see if you can compete with your girlfriend.”
     
    A short while later and more people had arrived. Harriet introduced me to them all but I knew I wouldn’t be able to remember all of their names. I happily watched them all splash about and race each other, trying out various strokes. However, I was constantly dreading someone asking me why I wasn’t joining in … I really hoped that I could avoid explaining my reason – it was a rather lengthy story.
    I was just starting to relax when another group of guys arrived – I wa s horrified when I found there was one face that I already knew. Harriet quickly bounded over to me so that she could introduce me. However, when she came to Danny, he interrupted her.
    “It’s okay Harri … Darcie and I go way back.” He winked at me and I tried not to roll my eyes at his arrogance.
    Harriet threw me a curious look but never said anything – she just walked off to compete with Samuel who was insisting on doing a butterfly stroke race.
    The group of guys quickly dispersed until it was just Danny remaining. I sighed heavily and began to walk off when he started to follow me.
    “So Darcie, I think my phone’s broken …” He trailed off, obviously waiting for me to respond.
    I decided to humour him. “Is that so?”
    He nodded. “Yeah, you see I didn’t get any calls from you.”
    I tried my best to look puzzled. “Call you? Why would I call you? I don’t remember you telling me to. From what I can remember, we barely spoke to each other.” I bit back a smirk when he looked confused.
    “Didn’t you look at the receipt?”
    I shook my head. “No,