Katie’s boyfriend had arrived at the house at 11am and Elle, Lizzie and Jade all piled into his car as they went to pick up Keji. He was excitedly waiting on the porch and ran to the car. “Let’s go!! I’m so excited!!” He kept rambling in the car about never being in a professional photo shoot before and how he was so glad the photographer was a cute guy in a swimsuit.

                At the pool, Shelby was already waiting in the parking lot. “Hey guys! Cyrus is already inside doing photographer stuff.” The girls all went into the locker room to change into their suits. Jade had put her suit on at the house and waited for everyone else. Elle changed into her black one piece. It looked like a vintage swimsuit with a ruffled skirt. Lizzie and Shelby both put on a pair of male swim trunks and bikini tops. Shelby put a tank top over it and Lizzie put a long white t-shirt over hers. Jade laughed at imagining Cyrus and Keji’s reactions.

                They went out by the pool and saw Cyrus and Katie’s boyfriend off in a corner messing with their photography equipment and checking the lighting. Keji came out of the boys locker room and burst out laughing. He leaned on Jade’s shoulders. “I now see why you were laughing.” Keji was shirtless and was wearing a pair of black swim trunks with pink designs on it. He grinned as he looked at himself. “Do you think this will get me some fan boys?”

                The girls laughed at him as they all went over by the two photographers. Keji clapped his hands. “Hyung! We’re here!” Cyrus turned and looked them over and the girls noticed his shock as he tried to hide it. “You all look great.”

                Elle looked at him a bit worried. “We don’t have to take pictures in the deep water do we?” He shook his head. “No, we are going to do a few posed pictures under the fountains and stuff and then a few of you guys playing in water that goes up to your waists.” She sighed in relief. She knew how to swim but wasn’t a strong swimmer.

                They began the shoot with a few group shots in the ankle deep water by the kids fountains and toys. Katie’s boyfriend was taking behind the scene photos for the web site. The pool had provided them with some water guns, floaties and beach balls. Soon it was time for individual and pair shots. First up was Jade and Lizzie. Keji and Elle were very intent on staring at the shirtless Cyrus. He had thin muscles and you could see the faint outline of his abs. Keji almost fell off the beach ball he was sitting on when Cyrus stretched his arms up.

                Then Shelby, Elle and Keji were next for photos. Jade was playing on her phone and Lizzie was laughing at Keji trying too hard at looking y. Cyrus had to keep telling him to save it for his solo shots.

                Cyrus changed the lens on his camera and smiled over at Jade. “Jade, I want to do your solo shots first since you have done modeling before. I want the solo shots to be standing near the edge of the pool on the deep end so that I can get the entire lap pool behind you guys. You won’t be in the water.” Jade nodded and went over where he wanted her to stand and everyone intently watched her work.

                Next up was Elle, she excitedly went over and stood where Jade had been standing. She began modeling sweetly for the camera. She didn’t watch where she was stepping and she fell into the deep end of the pool. Before anyone could react, Jade had already jumped in after her. The younger girl quickly swam over to her and pulled her to the edge of the pool where Lizzie and Shelby pulled their friend out of the water.

                Elle coughed up some water. She was alright, more scared than anything. Keji quickly brought her a towel and draped it over her shoulders. Cyrus felt really bad. “Elle, are you sure you are alright? Should we forget about the shoot?” Elle smiled as she was still shaking. “No, don’t end the shoot. Let’s keep going. This is technically work isn’t it? You can’t get off work early just for getting scared.” She kept insisting that she was alright now and that they should just continue.

                They reluctantly went back to work, Keji was taking his solo shots this time. The rest of the girls stayed near Elle. After everyone finished their solo shoots, Cyrus asked “Are you sure that you still want to do this last part? You are supposed to be playing in the water.” She smiled and stood up. “I am fine now. I will do fine in shallow water.”

                Everyone went back over to the shallow pool and all got into the water. “Now, just play around and have fun. Make it look natural without cutting off the camera.” They understood and everyone played around in the water, splashing each other and spraying each other with water guns. Elle had grabbed some floaties and was pretending to beat Lizzie with them. Shelby and Jade had resorted to playing with the beach ball. Keji was going around spraying them with a super soaker.

                Soon they had all stopped feeling nervous about Elle falling into the pool and finished the photo shoot without any other problems. They decided to stay at the pool for a bit longer to actually play without worrying about the cameras. Elle had decided to sit in the chairs off to the side of the pool and just watch everyone else play. They had decided to play chicken since there were three boys and girls in the pool. The teams got chosen as Keji and Jade, Cyrus and Lizzie, and Shelby with Katie’s boyfriend.

                Cyrus did want Jade on his team but he was taller than Keji so he had to have the taller girl. Jade and Keji dominated. They stayed at the pool till late in the afternoon. It was almost dinner time when they decided to go home.

                Once outside of the locker room, Cyrus had asked Jade to talk to him for a moment. He pulled her off to the side where no one else could hear them. “Jade, I know that you don’t have a boyfriend. Keji told me. So why won’t you date me? Your friends all think you should.” Jade smiled awkwardly. “I just can’t date anyone right now. It won’t work. I can’t feel that way about you. I thought you were done trying to get me to go out with you?”

                He nodded sadly and ruffled up his wet hair and looked up at the ceiling. “I did say that didn’t I…” He took a deep breath and looked at her, still smiling sadly. “Don’t move… please…” Jade was about to ask what he was talking about when he suddenly leaned forwards and kissed her. She heard her friends all gasp as she opened her eyes wide and pushed him away.

                He immediately apologized and grabbed his bags and left. Jade and her friends all just stared at each other in shock. They rode home in silence.

                Jade went straight to her room and changed her clothes and went to brush her teeth and then shut herself in her room. No one bothered her for a couple hours.

                Eventually Keji came into her room. “Jade, I brought all my stuff over already. Elle and Lizzie helped me bring it all in. Are you alright?” He couldn’t see her.  Jade was laying under her bed with her phone, listening to UKISS. Keji almost didn’t find her, but she had coughed.

                He climbed under the bed with her. She removed one of her ear buds and looked at him. “Why are you down here?” he asked as he put the other ear bud in his ear. She sighed. “Today was hard… Elle could have drowned, but she stayed strong because she thought that she had to. Then we all had the nerve to continue to play in the water after, leaving her on the side. Then worst of all, that man kissed me. What am I supposed to tell Eli? What if he hates me?”

                Keji smacked her upside the back of the head. “He is your Eli, he will not hate you. I will take care of Cyrus for you and Elle really is fine. She has wanted to thank you since we got home but was too scared to come in here and bother you.” He grabbed her phone and slid out from under the bed. “You can have this back when you come out from down there.”

                She groaned and climbed out from under her bed and sat on the floor. He grinned at her. “Now, it is almost 11pm, you need to go eat something. Also, go talk to Elle so she can thank you properly.” She sighed and stood up and walked into the kitchen. Elle was sitting at the kitchen table with a plate full of food. She stood up excitedly. “Jade! Are you alright?” She nodded and sat across from her. The older girl pushed the plate of food towards her. “I made you dinner. I really wanted to thank you for helping me.”

                Jade smiled at her friend and nodded. “It was natural. You have to watch out for your friends.” Elle grinned as Jade began eating. “Thank you again. I will let you eat. I’m a bit tired and think I will go lay down.” Jade’s smile disappeared as she noticed Elle’s hands were shaking as she walked away. She really was scared today. She sighed and finished the food on her plate, even though she had no more appetite, just because Elle had made it for her.

                She went into Keji’s room and realized that he didn’t have a bed yet. He was digging through his boxes and unpacking things on the shelves and the dresser that Shelby had left behind. “Where are you planning on sleeping?” She asked, scaring the new resident diva. He laughed it off. “I will sleep on the couch till my bed gets delivered.” She nodded and sat in the middle of his floor and opened a random box in front of her and started handing Keji his shirts. He put them in the dresser and smiled at her. “So did you talk to Elle? I told you that she was fine.” She nodded. “Her hands are still shaking…”

                Keji stopped what he was doing and sat on the floor. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know. I never would have made Cyrus go to the pool. It’s my fault…” Jade put her hand on his knee. “Don’t say that. It was an accident.” She felt it was her fault too. She was the one that Cyrus really wanted to see and she was the one who ran into him at the bus stop. She kind of wished that she had never thrown her phone that day.

                Keji smiled awkwardly and stood up and continued unpacking his clothes. Jade just sat there silently until he finished. He pushed her with his foot. “Yah… Stop moping. Eli won’t be mad at you. Just tell him everything. You know that you feel better when you finish talking to him.” He looked at his alarm clock. It was 3 am. “It’s almost time for you to go to bed, just a couple more hours. Let’s go watch a movie.”

                They watched Speed Racer. Keji was hoping to cheer her up by laughing at the cheesy movie with Bi Rain in it. She laughed a couple times but still seemed down. After the movie, Keji pushed her into her room. “Now, go to sleep and talk to Eli and I want you to be happy when you wake up. Got it?” She laughed a bit and nodded. “I got it…”

                She sighed as she climbed into bed and fell asleep. There was nothing.