(13) Back into the Whirlpool

I hear a huge splash behind me in the pool as I walk eagerly towards the huge glass container of my aunt's most famous chocolate mousse. My dad and my uncle Jake are manning the grill with hotdogs, hamburgers, and chicken sizzling underneath the large black barbecue lid and my mom is talking to my father's mother in the corner in the shade.

As I grab the serving spoon and dump a huge delicious pile onto the red paper plate, I turn and watch my Uncle Kevin
throwing water balloons at my cousins as if he were a little kid again. His hair is plastered to his thin face and his cargo
shorts and plaid button down boxers are soaked. I laugh as he dodges away from an orange colored balloon sent from my

Uncle Don, but gets hit directly in the face by Eddie, his eight-year-old son.

It's Labor Day, a bittersweet holiday that tricks you into thinking it's the glorious summer again, just to wake up the next morning to go back to your tiresome second week of high school. Somehow this year Olivia had escaped the traditional extended family Labor Day pool party. For some reason my parents think it is more important for my sister to make sure J. Crew doesn't have anything left from their summer clearance sale than to spend time with her own flesh and blood. I, on the other hand, have begged my parents to let me go to the beach with all of my friends and they act all ashamed of me that I would even ask such a thing.

These kinds of parties really aren't that bad. The food is really good, the pool is refreshing, and it's always fun to watch Uncle Kevin jump in the pool with all of his clothes on. It's just that I'm forever stuck between being an adult and being a kid. The oldest cousin I have for company is twelve.

My thoughts are interrupted as my Aunt Meredith, always the perfect hostess in her signature red polo tee-shirt dress sidles over to a plate of brownies.

"Daria, would you mind running upstairs to make sure the girls haven't drowned yet? I told Lillian she could take her friends up to the Jacuzzi as long as she cleaned up afterwards. I just want to be sure their not under two feet of water up there."
I laugh a "sure," and put down my towering pile of mousse and head into the house. Lillian is known to be quite daring and mischievous, even though she is the most adorable little girl I know. Who knows what she could be doing up there with her other little fan club.

As I climb the steps everything seems to be quiet as I approach my aunt and uncle's bedroom. I put my ear to the door and don't hear a peep. As 1 slowly open their door, I can hear faint laughter coming from the door across the room. I make my way to the bathroom, and now I can definitely hear music and splashing. As I jiggle the doorknob, I realize that of course it's locked. I knock harder.

"Who is itT' I hear Lillian shout above the music. There are unmistakable squeals in the background.

"Daria!" I shout into the door. Then Lillian's reddened face appears as she shouts to her friends that it's me and that I am free to enter.

At first I can't see anything. It's like walking into a cloud in the sky. I am afraid to continue walking, having lost Lillian in the blur and not having any clue where the Jacuzzi is located. Finally the steam dissipates and 1 can see the disaster inside.

Three girls are stretched out in the tub; their swim suited bodies covered in suds as if they are some kind of animals with a coast of bubbles. Another girl is in the shower and all I can see is her bright tankini. Britney Spears, of course, is blasting from a stereo and soapsuds are everywhere. They crown the faucets in the tub and frame all the corners of the floor. White fuzzy piles hang off the counters and drip off the walls. All the mirrors are completely fogged up and all metal surfaces are sweating. It looks like a huge soap bomb exploded. I am speechless.

Lillian jumps back into the hot tub, causing a wave of water and more suds to soak the floor. My first inclination is to start shouting at them like a parent, but then I remember what it was like being twelve and not having any responsibility or, for that matter, a care in the world, My shock must have been obvious, because after a couple of seconds of me surveying the room, Lillian looks at me nervously.

“Don't worry, Daria, we'll clean it up, we promise." I watch three uneasy, soapy faces nod in unison. The fourth is still in the shower. I feel my face ease a little bit and 1 smile back at them.

"I know you guys will." Then I glance in the mirror that is slowly able to give back my reflection and I look at myself in my khaki shorts and blue sleeveless shirt. My skin is tanned and my hair is sun bleached and my teeth are good and straight. I look more and more like a fifteen-and-a half-year-old, when I suddenly want to just be a twelve-year-old, where your worst fear is that Justin Timberlake might just marry Britney Spears and not you, even when you pride yourself on having every poster of him ever made and know every NSync song by heart.

Suddenly I am taking off my shorts and top and remain only in my light blue tankini. I tell them all to make room and I jump in. I turn up the volume on the stereo to the song "Lucky" and dance around for them as they clap and roar with laughter. Then I dive in, as another wave of bath water falls onto the floor. I don't even think about it because I am lost in the moment of being young and having fun. We sit there as the jets propel bubbles all around us and I listen to them squeal about JC, Joey, and of course Justin and which one will be their husband. They beg me to tell them everything I know about Jeff Waters. We are lost in time. Suddenly I look at my soapy watch and tell them that we had better start cleaning up.

I grab an already soaked green towel and start to mop up the water on the floor. Lillian and her other friends follow suit, polishing the faucets, killing the overpowering soapsuds, and making sure all of the mirrors are sparkling clean.

As I wipe down the bottom of the tub, I think about how easy it must be to be so young and naive. I realize how important it is to still act like a kid and get lost in moments of spontaneity, for it eases the burden of age and brings more simplicity to life. The next day will start a solid month of high school. My soggy epiphany, courtesy of Lillian and her friends, is a powerful reminder that Labor Day has me caught in two worlds; the carefree days of summer and my youth, and the challenges of a new year at DHS as I step back into the whirlpool of life.