Lagoon High 1.rtf

Principal Kelly didn’t know what to do about the mutant lagoon that used to be the school pool. And he didn’t know what to do about the kid who called him a white prick, Brendan Kerschl, or about calling the kid a white prick back. He was sure he shouldn’t have said that. He was telling himself to remember it and look for a time to show leniency. The problem was, there was no telling which kid would be a prick when and they were all trying to figure out how to press his buttons all the time, and some of them had shit home lives so you don’t want them to have shit school lives too, but shit, most kids’ school lives are shit. Damn standardized testing makes it worse every year and so do the god damn budgets being ripped to shit, taking away all the fun stuff like glee club and that larp thing and fucking French class. Shit.

Principal Kelly felt like his head was filling up with foam insulation, up to and out his ears. He realized he was supposed to be talking to the guy from Oasis Boys Pool Cleaning and Modelling about the school pool situation. He’d gotten distracted while thinking, What the fuck is pool modeling and how the fuck can you show up at a school to perform a service with your company name misspelled, and Jesus, this fucking budget.

The Guy from Oasis Boys Pool Cleaning and Modelling kept adjusting his hat and crimping the bill as he said, “Well, Mr. Kelly. I gotta tell you, I’m stumped. I’ve never seen anything like this. I don’t know how it’s got all this moss around it or the steam and heat since the heater’s been turned off. And the green-blue or whatever the hell glow it’s got? Man, I’ve just never seen anything like it.”

The change happened a few weeks ago. It’d been a while since they had it cleaned professionally, and it was starting to seem a little scummy. Kind of weird, but not really, cause it’s a fucking pool. Pools are gross. Especially pools that get lots of kids in them doing all sorts of gross things. But the scum wouldn’t quit.

One of the janitors that had tried to clean the pool went blind for about a day. Everyone thought she put too much chemicals in or something. After resting a few days, she came back and everything was fine. Day or so later, she tries to clean it again after she’s convinced the chemicals should’ve died down. No issue. Two days later, she’s in my office quitting so she can move to Arizona to be with her grandmother.

Principal Kelly asked, “Is it…Was it the thing with the pool? Cause we can get Shirley or Edgar to do it, it doesn’t have to be you. You don’t have to go back in there.”

“It…no. But yeah. But…it’s different,” she said. She looked nervous, exasperated. Like she was rushing to get somewhere.

“I mean, are you sure I can’t get you to stay? Is this about money? You know how the budget is, but I can see what I can do since you’ve always been good here. I mean, when a kid pukes around here and you come to clean it up, they say sorry and try to help. Anyone else comes, the kids are taping shit to their backs while they’re bent over cleaning up the damn puke.”

“It’s…I saw my mother. I saw my mother last night in the pool.”

“I don’t…understand. Your mom was there? What…how’d she get in? I mean, you’re not supposed to bring visitors here to use the pool. I’ll look past it, of course, but--”

“She’s dead, Ken.”

“Shit…Shit. You’re telling me…God, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for your loss. I am. But are you telling me you brought and unregistered visitor into this school to use the pool, and you brought your mom, and she died in the pool? Why didn’t you tell me about this? What--”

“No, Ken, shut up for a second. She’s dead. She’s been dead, for about seven years now. Last night, I was finishing up mopping the area around the pool. It was…bright. It was weird, the pool was bright, brighter than it shoulda been. But I had this feeling like someone was in there in the pool room. I looked up and there was my mom. Just standing and staring at me. She said that my gran was gonna die soon. In just a few months, maybe longer if she had some help, but she don’t have any help. She don’t have anyone out there with her. I blinked and my mom was gone, but I could feel it in my body. I could feel this was real. So I gotta get out there to help.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

“Uh…shit.”

“Yeah. Shit.”