My Almost Epic Summer Read Online Free

foot size, average flyaway brown hair and average eyes an average color that everyone has seen a thousand times before. I’ve probably understood this all my life, but today, inside this electric moment, the knowledge feels new and cruel.
    Then the girl blows her whistle. I watch as she skims rung by rung down the lifeguard chair. Racing and diving into the water and then into a perfect freestyle. Wow, she’s a really good swimmer. She moves so fast that she shrinks into a mini-lifeguard right before our eyes. Because we are all watching her, but it isn’t until Lainie jumps up, screaming like she’s been poked with a pitchfork, that I connect what the girl is doing with what’s going on out in the water.
    “Evan!” Lainie’s voice is pure panic.
    Only then do I pull back to take in the horizon, and now I see the spot of froth and foam. Evan? It couldn’t be —Evan! Even as my mind clicks it together, the girl is already there, one long arm out, taking expert hold of Evan, flipping onto her back and hooking her elbow so that it picture-frames his face.
    “Evan!” I shout, popping to my feet.
    Other people are looking up, startled, and the next moment is mayhem as some of us dash to the edge of the water. I watch on tiptoe, my heart in my throat, as the girl smoothly, calmly brings in Evan. His eyes are closed and his body is sagging. My shock is like the ocean roaring in my ears. Was his skin always so zombie pale? Why isn’t he moving?
    “Evan!” I shout again. His eyes don’t open. This is bad, this is bad, oh, this is so, so bad.
    “Is he dead?” Lainie is running back and forth, her fingers sucked into her mouth.
    “Space, space!” The girl half-carries, half-drags Evan onto the bank. She positions him flat on his back and drops to her knees beside him. Then she pinches his nose and dips her head to his face. Her lips press over his, before she turns and expels. And again. And again. My own breath hurts where it’s sucked up in my lungs.
    Finally, Evan coughs, jerking to life like Frankenstein’s monster.
    There’s a spatter of clapping, a cheer, and everyone backs off a little—everyone except for Lainie, who flings herself face-down next her brother. “Oh!” she sobs. “I thought my very own brudder was drownd-ed!”
    Evan squirms and turns away from her.
    “Give him room,” says the girl. “He’s okay. You’re okay, right?”
    “Yeah,” wheezes Evan. “Caught a cramp, no big deal.”
    “A’right, folks. Back to normal.” The girl stands and waves off some of the younger kids. “You,” she says to Evan. “Take it easy the rest of the day, huh?”
    “Sure.” Evan is staring at the lifeguard in awe and love.
    She nods and turns to walk away.
    I force my attention from her. “Are you really okay, Evan?” I ask.
    His crooked-tooth smile appears on his face. “That lifeguard is super, super hot,” he whispers.
    “Hey. Wait a minute.” I sit back on my heels and scowl at him. “Were you faking?”
    “Faking? Me? No way.” But his eyes flicker and his smile is impish, leaving me in doubt.
    “Ev,” says Zaps, who has crept up on Evan’s side. “Ev, did you think you were dead?”
    “Only for a minute. I mighta felt my heart stop.”
    The crowd has dispersed. The girl is back up on her wooden throne, hands behind her head, watching the water in a way that now seems just a teeny bit showoff-y.
    I approach the lifeguard tower. I feel like I should say an extra thanks, even if I also feel like a feudal serf, talking up to her. “Thanks for doing that.”
    She hardly looks down. “My job.”
    Her job: a beautiful lifeguard who knows CPR. My job: a dorky babysitter who has narrowly escaped a wrongful-death lawsuit. The girl squints out at the water and slips on her wraparound sunglasses. She wants me to go, I can feel it. “I’m Irene,” I say.
    “Okay.”
    “I’m that kid’s babysitter. Evan. So if anything had happened to him today . . .”
    “Then we’d both be out