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The pool was the last place Sophia wanted to be.

Her biggest fear was drowning, and it was only developed because of her aunt. When Sophia was younger, her aunt wanted to teach her to swim. Normally, when someone is learning to swim, they use floaties to keep them from plunging to the bottom. But not for Sophia. Only at ten years old, her aunt tossed her into the deep end of a public pool, and instead of helping her from drowning, she kept screaming at her to try harder.

If it wasn't for the lifeguard that was scouting the deep end that day, she would have died. Ever since that dreadful day, Sophia never swam again. As Sophia entered the outside public pool with Sonny and the other guys, she already felt uncomfortable. Her fear seemed silly to her, so she always kept it to herself, which meant that Sonny was unaware of the fact that she hated swimming.

She just gave the excuse that she didn't feel like it. Sonny knew not to push her to do things or else bad things would happen to him, so he maintained his distance. After all the guys put their stuff in their usual spot at the pool, they all separated to go do their swimming. Sophia stayed behind and sat on the benches to watch everyone have their fun. 

"The rumors are true, aren't they?"

Sophia turned her head to the side, only to make eye contact with the beautiful brown eyes of one of her old buddies back when she lived on the block. Vanessa. For someone she never knew the last name of, Vanessa and Sophia clicked instantly.

"Still lookin' like a model I see Vanessa?" Sophia greeted, standing up to approach her. Vanessa squealed before running into Sophia's arms for a tight hug. "You still workin' at the neighborhood salon?"

"That I am," Vanessa answered, her facial expression not as happy as Sophia expected. Sophia was going to ask what was going on, but Vanessa continued before she got the chance. "Anyways, Nina is throwing a party at her house tonight," Vanessa said, reaching into the purse she was carrying. She withdrew an envelope. "You're invited."

Sophia thanked Vanessa as she retrieved the envelope. Vanessa said her goodbyes before departing to go and put her swimsuit on. Sophia stared at the letter. She didn't know exactly if she wanted to see everyone again. Especially when she knew that she was going to have to leave again. She didn't want to get too attached to anyone.

Sophia went ahead and ripped open the envelope, revealing a very fancy looking invitation. She read the information and saw that it was a celebration or the return of Nina. Sophia wasn't aware of Nina attending Stanford, but now that she knew, she was extremely proud of her. Sophia always knew that Nina was a genius.

Sophia slid the invitation back into the envelope and put it with Sonny's stuff. She looked around the area, seeing everyone laughing and splashing one another. Sophia had to admit, it felt like a billion degrees outside, and it would be nice to cool off. Maybe just taking off her shoes and socks and dipping her legs in the pool would be enough.

She searched around until she spotted Sonny. She nodded, locking his location in her mind. She jogged over to where Sonny put his towels, sandals and other stuff. Sophia slipped off her shoes, and then her socks. She bent down and rolled up her jeans high enough to where it wouldn't get her pants wet if she were to put her legs in the water.

Sophia turned around to see that a young lady had joined Sonny in the pool. Sophia narrowed her eyes. She didn't recognize her, therefore, she didn't trust it. Sophia started to understand the protective feeling that Sonny gets whenever she brought up guys. Sophia quickly started to make her way to the part of the pool that Sonny and the stranger were at. Sonny was laughing loudly when she arrived, but turned his attention to Sophia when she arrived.

"Oh, look who decided to join us for a swim."

"I'm not swimming," Sophia said, lowering herself to the concrete. She scooted up to dip her legs into the water, immediately feeling more cooler. "I'm just going to hanging around here for a bit."

"Well, I have to warn you," Sonny said, swimming up to the edge. He grabbed onto the edge and leaned onto the ground, looking up at Sophia. "This part of the pool is pretty deep, so try not to fall in, aight?"

"I'll try," Sophia replied with a cheeky smile. Her eyes traveled over to the unrecognizable face. The girl looked around Sonny's age. Beautiful brown hair, eyes and fair-skinned. "So...Who might you be?"

"I'm Marta," The pretty girl responded, swimming up to be next to Sonny. "I would shake your hand, but it looks like you don't want to be too wet."

From that certain line, that made Sonny laugh in a way that Sophia had never heard. But it wasn't hard to see that Sonny was crushing on this Marta girl. Sophia has heard Sonny laugh pretty weirdly, but nothing compared to the noise that left his mouth at that very moment.

"Well, nice to meet you Marta, I'm Sophia," Sophia introduced, nodding at her in the water. "You new to the block?"

"Um, yeah, everyone here has been so welcoming," Marta answered, looking over at Sonny. "Especially Sonny. Him and I share a lot of things in common."

The two teenagers started going off with their own conversation, which excluded Sophia. Sophia glared at Marta. Something about her seemed off. It wasn't long until Marta wanted to go somewhere, and invited Sonny to go along. Sonny accepted her invitation and said a quick goodbye to Sophia before swimming off with Marta.

Sophia blew out a long breath of air as she watched Sonny swim off with Marta. She always felt like a big sister to him, and seeing that he might be developing a love life, didn't sit too well with her. She needed to know about this girl and approve of her before she considered Sonny even hanging out with her.

Sophia just brushed it off and just leaned back on her hands. She looked up at the beautiful blue sky, admiring how beautiful it looked. 

"Ayo Sophia!" A familiar voice called out. She looked to the side, seeing Usnavi from a far distance, frantically pointing a certain direction. She raised an eyebrow. "Benny is going to push you in the pool!"

Sophia's eyes widened and whipped around, already too late to react. Benny was already there, and reaching out to shove Sophia. Sophia shrieked at Benny as he forcefully pushed her into the water, her scream getting cut off by the gurgles of the water. Benny laughed, but was able to maintain his balance to stay on the surface. Usnavi came running up next to Benny shortly after, slapping his buddy in the arm.

"You asshole, Sophia didn't want to go swimming," Usnavi chastised, looking over into the pool. Usnavi furrowed his eyebrows. "Man, where'd she go? She ain't comin' up."

"She's probably just pulling your chain," Benny joked, patting Usnavi on the back. "I'm sure she's fine."

Usnavi grunted in frustration, seeing that Sophia still hadn't come back up to the surface. Usnavi shoved Benny out of the way and dove into the deep end of the pool. Benny fell quiet as he saw that Usnavi was taking quite the time below the water too. Maybe pushing Sophia into the deep end wasn't the best idea. Benny released a sigh of relief as he saw Usnavi return to the surface, but he was dragging Sophia.

She was passed out. Usnavi swam over to the edge of the pool, calling out for Benny to give him a hand. Benny walked up to the edge and hoisted Sophia's unconscious body up onto the surface first. Usnavi raised himself back up onto the surface and walked up to look down at Sophia who was knocked out.

"Shit man, I didn't mean to drown her," Benny fretted, staring worryingly down at Sophia. Usnavi got down onto his knees, which started to draw a crowd. Everyone around him began to murmur. "You've got to do mouth to mouth Usnavi, put some oxygen into her lungs."

"Move out of the way!" A masculine voice bellowed, capturing the attention of everyone in the crowd. Even Usnavi. Usnavi looked to the side and up, his eyes widening at a tall handsome young man entering the scene. "I'm the lifeguard here! I know what to do!!"

Usnavi was forced out of the way as the stranger made his way up to Sophia. Usnavi scrambled up to his feet and watched as the attractive lifeguard started leaning in toward Sophia's mouth. Usnavi clenched his jaw as he saw the rescuer put his lips onto Sophia's. The lifeguard performed the mouth to mouth resuscitation on Sophia, awakening her after the amount of times expected.

The lifeguard backed away as Sophia spat out the water that was in her lungs. The entire crowd began to cheer, all except Usnavi. Sophia inhaled deeply, looking over to meet a pair of gorgeous dirt brown eyes. The stranger flashed his pearly whites her way, causing Sophia's heart to skip a beat. He was outrageously cute, and Usnavi could see the admiration that Sophia had for him through her eyes that were sparkling with delight.

Usnavi didn't like that one bit.