College Pool Party (with Story)

1200 word story included with this one - hope you all enjoy it! Would love your opinions on Hayley, the picture, story and these kind of one-shot posts in general.

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It was the hottest day of the year so far, and college students were celebrating their newfound freedom from a year of exams, coursework, partying and drinking with much more partying and drinking. Today, the place to be was the Cheer Captain's back yard pool party - the quiet, upper class neighbourhood had been taken over by hoards of students in their teens and twenties.

As soon as Hayley stepped out of her car she was struck by it. The yard was awash with groups enjoying the weather and water, with the sound of splashing and chatter all around. She smelled something as thoroughly appealing as it was unfamiliar and knew it must have been a barbecue somewhere. This was a first for her, and she was very much out of her element. Hayley had found very little time for socialising during her first year of college - what little time wasn't spent studying to midnight for her biochemistry degree was spent at the gymnastics club, whether in the day or doing after hours conditioning drills. It was a sport that she had refused to give up as she left school, and her study and her training combined had made her too busy for even the social outings for either of those groups.

This was much more nerve wracking than a competition floor, but she hesitantly stepped out of her car - she had a cute t-shirt with her favourite sci-fi show on it, a pair of jean shorts and sandals. For somebody so athletic with dark hair, she was very fair skinned. She had of course, rubbed in plenty of sunscreen in advance.

As she walked through the side entrance to the pool, she tried to pretend she belonged. She was the shortest person here by a solid margin, and the only one not in shorts and a bikini. And judging from those bikinis, her suspicion that she had picked her own badly set off a familiar self-consciousness in the back of her mind. She almost felt her ear jerk as she heard a snippet of conversation from nearby.

"-only invited her 'cause you feel sorry for her."

"Shush. Hey, Hayley!"

Hayley turned to the familiar girl, the cheerleading captain who could have doubled as an underwear model - blonde, long legs and slim, firm waist. The brunette next to her was almost as flawless. And Hayley could feel herself start to blush a she saw a couple of shirtless boys behind them. She was starting to feel like an undersized gremlin. Just as she met the eye of a particularly tall guy by the barbecue, the cheer captain waved a hand in front of her.

"Um, it is Hayley, right?"

"Yes!" she squeaked in response. "Thanks for inviting me!"

The brunette girl gave her certain look that made her feel like shrivelling up, but if the cheer captain felt the same kind of cringe, she didn't let it show. "Any time! Just relax, have some food, try the pool. You got a swimsuit?"

"Yeah." Hayley tugged the neck of her shirt aside to show the pink strap, as though she needed to see it. The cheer captain folded her arms with a smug and knowing smile.

"Welp - I've seen this before. If you don't get out of those clothes now, you're never gonna. Chop chop." she made a gesture for Hayley to hand them over. In other contexts, it could have been mean, or intimidating. But within Hayley's limited skills of reading social interactions, she couldn't see anything but friendly encouragement. She looked around nervously.

"Everyone else is." the other girl piped up.

It was true. She sighed. Kicked off her sandals. Unzipped her shorts and wiggled out of them. Lastly, she grabbed the bottom of her shirt and hastily lifted it over her head.

Then all Hell broke loose.

"Oh my God!"

Hayley's heart sank. Was she too flat? Was it her bikini? The horrid heat of embarrassment filled her face. She wondered why she hadn't bought a new bikini instead of used the one from holiday ten years ago - she hadn't grown much since. Her affection for the frills and pink polka dots seemed ill advised now.

It was the brunette girl who had made the exclamation. The cheer captain was staring open mouthed. By the time Hayley had wrested her head from her shirt, there were several more people looking in her direction, some of them approaching. She froze like a deer in the headlights.

"Your abs!" the cheer captain eventually screeched.

"Um.. yeah?" Hayley was hunched forward a little as she shrugged and dared a nervous smile. She didn't realise how the pose only cast deeper shadows on the rippling eight pack ab muscles that had been carved on her for half her life. More people were gathering. More voices.

"You're like - you're like a statue!"

"What a washboard."

"Mommy?"

"Do you do workouts for that?"

"Nah, that kinda thing is all diet."

That broke through Hayley's nerves and she leaned forward with a snort of laughter. Another wave of gleeful shock passed over the dozen or so onlookers as the sharp laugh snatched in her waist and made her clear ab blocks squeeze together.

All diet. Tell that to the hundredth worn-out, sweat soaked gym mat by her bed.

The praise only continued to pour in, and to Hayley, to her great surprise, it all seemed completely genuine.

Over the next few minutes, the so-called introvert learned something about herself that she never knew before:

She liked attention.

Belly rolls, vacuums, she could show off the works. Standing split. Then, drunk with all the fun she was having, she got another idea.

"Okay, okay.. I got one more think. Step back." she waved her arms a little and they gave her some space. Hayley took a deep breath, swung her arms, crouched and leapt into a double backflip. A risky manoeuvre, but one that should be fine on the soft grass.

As her foot landed, it hit the slippery concrete surrounding the pool. She had been further back than she expected, and her feet flew out from under her. Her stomach sank, the cheer of the crowd turned into a multi-layered scream, and she felt water all around her.

Panic.

For a moment she didn't know which way was up - but nothing hurt, and it was momentary. She broke the surface and coughed up the touch of sickly chlorinated water she bad swallowed.

"Are you okay!?" she was still pulling wet hair from her eyes as she treaded water, so didn't know who said that.

"I'm fine, I'm fine!" she gasped. It had been nice while it lasted - she had known for a few sweet moments what it had been like to be cool before her former fans started laughing.

But again, she had misjudged. The laughter turned into cheering, which became splashes all around her as the others joined her in the pool. The relief, the feeling of belonging was as euphoric as anything she had felt on nailing a gymnastics routine or acing a biochem test.

Later, after making a dozen or so new friends, Hayley rested by the side of the pool, basking in the sun, the warmth and her satisfaction. A shadow passing over her made her look behind her. It was the tall boy whose eye she caught before, and up close, she recognised him from her classes - and how surprisingly good he looked with no shirt on.

"Hey." he said. He looked nervous.

"Hey!" Hayley replied happily, beaming.