Today I am at the community pool with my best friend Brittany and Brittany's new friend Drew.

I'm wearing my favorite tangerine orange bikini. I also just had my favorite snack, which is an ice-cream taco. This should be a really fun time. Only, it's not. At least not for me.

"WATCH ME DO A CARTWHEEL!" shouts Drew.

We're over on the grassy part, by the fence. I watch Drew do a perfect cartwheel in her pink and purple striped bathing-suit.

"BRAVO! BRAVO!" Brittany cries, clapping her hands. "MY TURN!"

Then I watch Brittany do a perfect cartwheel in her new hot pink bathing-suit with the ruffles in the front.

"YAY!" Drew shouts, jumping up and down. "YOUR TURN, CARALYNN!"

Both Drew and Brittany turn and look at me.

"THAT'S NOT FAIR!" I cry. "YOU KNOW I CAN'T DO A CARTWHEEL!"

"JUST TRY!" Brittany shouts.

"YEA, COME ON, CARALYNN!" yells Drew.

"No...I have a stomach ache," I lie.

"You didn't have a stomach ache when you were eating that ice-cream taco!" Drew points out.

"Well, maybe there was something wrong with it," I say. "Maybe it had a tapeworm in it."

"I don't believe you!" says Brittany. "You're just making that up!"

"OHHH!" I groan, grabbing my stomach. "I THINK I SWALLOWED A TAPE WORM!"

A lady in a polk-a-dot bathing suit walks by giving me a dirty look.

"SHE'S FINE!" Brittany shouts at the woman. "SHE'S JUST PRETENDING!"

The woman walks by faster.

Brittany and Drew march over to my orange towel with the yellow fish swimming across it.

Suddenly, I realize just how different I am from the two of them. I mean, besides the cartwheel thing.

First of all, Brittany and Drew are pink fans.

I am an orange fan.

Second of all, Drew and Brittany both like to wear their hair in neat blonde pony-tails. I never wear a pony-tail, and my hair never looks neat. It has all these weird waves in it so it always looks sort of lumpy. Even after I brush it.

I tried putting it up in a pony-tail. But the pony-tail just looked like a big giant lump. So I went back to wearing my hair the way I like it. With an orange butterfly barrett stuck in one side.

Besides, my hair's not blonde. It's brown.

Drew and Brittany flop down on my towel.

"Caralynn, Caralynn!" says Brittany. "What are we going to do with you?"

"Stop asking me to do cartwheels, that's what," I say. "Let's go swimming. It's so hot! I mean, isn't that why we're here?"

Now swimming is something I'm good at. That's because my mom made me take swimming lessons from the time I was four years old.

I like to tell people I was a fish in a former life.

"I was a fish in my former life, you know!" I announce.

"You're weird," Drew giggles.

"No I'm not!" I cry.

Drew always looks at me like I'm weird. And now Brittany looks at me that way, too. She never looked at me that way before.

"I have an idea!" Brittany suddenly exclaims. "Let's do cartwheels in the pool!"

"YEA!" shouts Drew.

"Oh brother," I grumble.

Suddenly, going swimming isn't even fun any more.

I remember last summer, when it was just me and Brittany. We would spend hours in the pool having dolphin dive races. Sometimes we even put on water ballet shows, which I thought was a very creative thing to do.

Those were the good old days.

Before cartwheels came along and ruined my life.

And also, before Drew.

"Come on, Caralynn!" Brittany cries. "You can do a cartwheel in the water. It's easy!"

"Yea. Even you can do it!" Drew adds.

Drew and Brittany run across the grass, onto the cement,and past their moms who are also good friends now. Then they run straight into the shallow end of the pool.

TOOOOOOOOT! goes the lifeguard's whistle.

"NO RUNNING!" the lifeguard shouts.

I don't have to worry about the lifeguard blowing his whistle at me.

That's because I am walking very, very slowly.

And why am I walking so slowly?

Because I am not looking forward to doing cartwheels in the pool, that's why!