The Summer I Turned Pretty

My mother and I picked Taylor up at the airport. She walked off the plane in a pair of short shorts and a tank top I'd never seen before. Hugging her, I tried not to sound jealous when I said, "When'd you get that?"

"My mom took me shopping for beach stuff right before I left," she said, handing me one of her duffel bags. "Cute, right?"

"Yeah, cute." Her bag was heavy. I wondered if she'd forgotten she was only staying a week.

"She feels bad she and Daddy are getting a divorce so she's buying me all kinds of stuff," Taylor continued, rolling her eyes. "We even got mani-pedis together. Look!" Taylor lifted up her right hand. Her nails were painted a raspberry color, and they were long and square.

"Are those real?"

"Yeah! Duh. I don't wear fake, Belly." "But I thought you had to keep your nails short for violin."

"Oh, that. Mommy finally let me quit violin. Divorce guilt," she said knowingly. "You know how it is."

Taylor was the only girl I knew our age who still called her mother Mommy. She was the only one who could get away with it too.

The boys came to attention right away. Right away they looked at her, checked out her smallish B-cups and her blond hair. It's a Miracle Bra, I wanted to tell them. That's half a bottle of Sun-In. Her hair isn't usually that yellow. Not that they would've cared either way.

My brother, on the other hand, barely looked up from the TV. Taylor irritated him, always had. I wondered if he'd already warned Conrad and Jeremiah about her.<

"Hi, Ste-ven," she said in a singsong voice. "Hey," he mumbled.

Taylor looked at me and crossed her eyes. Grump , she mouthed, emphasis on the p.

I laughed. "Taylor, this is Conrad and Jeremiah. Steven you know." I was curious about who she'd pick, who she'd think was cuter, fu

"Hey," she said, sizing them up, and right away I could tell Conrad was the one. And I was glad. Because I knew that Conrad would never, ever go for her.

"Hey," they said.

Then Conrad turned back to the TV just like I knew he would. Jeremiah treated her to one of his lopsided smiles and said, "So you're Belly's friend, huh? We thought she didn't have any friends."

I waited for him to grin at me to show he was just joking, but he didn't even look my way. "Shut up, Jeremiah," I said, and he gri

"Belly has tons of friends "Taylor informed him in her breezy way. "Do I look like someone who would hang with a loser?"

"Yes," my brother said from the couch. His head popped up. "You do."

Taylor glared at him. "Go back to jacking off, Steven." She turned to me and said, "Why don't you show me our room?"

"Yes, why don't you do that, Belly? Why don't you go be Tay-Tay's slave?" Steven said. Then he lay back down again.

I ignored him. "Come on, Taylor."

As soon as we got to my room, Taylor flung herself onto the bed by the window, my bed, the one I always slept in. "Oh my God, he is so cute."

"Which one?" I said, even though I knew.

"The dark one, of course. I love my men dark."

Inwardly I rolled my eyes. Men? Taylor had only ever gone out with two boys, neither of them anything close to being men.

"I doubt it will happen," I told her. "Conrad doesn't care about girls." I knew that wasn't true; he did care about girls. He'd cared enough about that girl Angie from last summer to go to second with her, hadn't he?

Taylor's brown eyes gleamed. "I love a challenge. Didn't I win class president last year? And class secretary the year before that?"

"Of course I remember. I was your campaign manager. But Conrad's different. He's ..." I hesitated, searching for just the right word to scare Taylor off. "Almost, like, disturbed."

"What?" she shrieked.

Quickly I backtracked. Maybe "disturbed" had been too strong a word. "I don't mean "disturbed," exactly, but he can be really intense. Serious. You should go for Jeremiah. I think he's more your type."

"And just what does that mean, Belly?" Taylor demanded. "That I'm not deep?"

"Well--" She was about as deep as an inflatable kiddie pool.

"Don't answer that." Taylor opened up her duffel bag and started pulling things out. "Jeremiah is cute, but Conrad's the one I want. I am go

"Don't say I didn't warn you." I was already looking forward to saying I told you so, whenever that moment should arrive. Hopefully sooner than later.

She lifted up a yellow polka-dot bikini. "Itsy-bitsy enough for Conrad, do you think?"

"That bikini wouldn't fit Bridget," I said. Her little sister Bridget was seven, and she was small for her age.

"Exactly."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't say I didn't warn you. And that's my bed you're sitting on."

The two of us changed into our suits right away-- Taylor into her tiny yellow bikini and me into my black tankini with the support bra and the really high neckline. As we changed, she looked me over and said, "Belly, your boobs have really gotten big!"

I threw my T-shirt over my head and said, "Not really."

But it was true, they had. Overnight, almost. I didn't have them the summer before, that was for sure. I hated them. They slowed me down: I couldn't run fast anymore--it was too embarrassing. It was why I wore baggy T-shirts and one-pieces. I couldn't stand to hear what the boys would say about it. They would tease me for sure, and Steven would tell me to go put some clothes on, which would make me want to die.

"What size are you now?" she asked accusingly.

"B," I lied. It was more like a C.

Taylor looked relieved. "Oh, well we're still the same, then, because I'm practically a B. Why don't you wear one of my bikinis? You look like you're trying out for the swim team in that one-piece." She lifted up a blue-and-white striped one with red bows on the sides.

"I am on the swim team," I reminded her. I'd done winter swim with my neighborhood swim team. I couldn't compete in summer because I was always at Cousins. Being on the swim team made me feel co

"Ugh, don't remind me," Taylor said. She dangled the bikini from side to side. "This would be so cute on you, with your brown hair and your new boobs."

I made a face and pushed the bikini away.

Part of me did want to show off and wow them with how much I had grown, how I was a real girl now, but the other more sane part knew it would be a death wish.

Steven would throw a towel over my head, and I would feel ten years old again instead of thirteen. "But why?"

"I like to do laps in the pool," I said. Which was true. I did.

She shrugged. "Okay, but don't blame me when the guys don't talk to you."

I shrugged right back at her. "I don't care if they talk to me or not, I don't think of them that way."

"Yeah, right! You've been, like, obsessed with Conrad for as long as I've known you! You wouldn't even talk to any of the guys at school last year."

"Taylor, that was a really long time ago. They're like brothers to me, just like Steven," I said, pulling on a pair of gym shorts. "Talk to them all you want."