Chapter Text
The early June heat settled into the tiny town of Jericho with only a note of warning. It was a balmy sort of heat, the kind that felt like a physical weight on one’s shoulders, and it left everyone in town to suffer in its glory. Though usually one in favor of torture, even Wednesday Addams had found that the stifling heat, though similar to that of the summers of her childhood, was nearly unbearable. Perhaps this was why she found herself joining Enid and the others on a trip to the public pool one afternoon after classes had finished.
Nobody was more surprised at this than Enid, who looked at Wednesday weirdly at first as she packed a bag for the pool–being sure to include things like sunscreen, earbuds, and chapstick. She turned to Wednesday after a moment, eyebrows furrowed, and asked, “What are you playing at?”
Wednesday blinked, and shifted slightly from where she stood on her side of the room. “I assumed it would be cooler by the water than it is in here, But if you’d rather I stay behind, I could use this time to work on editing my novel. Thing is acting as my copy editor.”
On the desk behind her, Thing tapped his fingers impatiently as if to say, Come on, let’s get to work.
“No!” Enid blurted out, “You’re like, totally welcome to come with us. Do you have a swimsuit? You could–”
The phrase borrow one of mine fell off of Enid’s tongue the moment it crossed her mind and she remembered who she was speaking to. Enid cleared her throat and recovered quickly. “If not, I’m sure we could find you something. Maybe Yoko has one you can borrow?”
“I’ve brought my own,” Wednesday said, the slightest hint of discomfort edging its way into her voice. “I’m not sure why I have, I don’t–”
She stopped, lips pursed as she deliberated whether or not to tell Enid about her situation. She came to her decision shortly thereafter, figuring that if Enid was going to make fun of her, she may as well get it over with now.
Wednesday cleared her throat. “... I don’t… know how to swim.“
“Oh,” Enid chirped. She looked surprised for a fraction of a second and then blinked. A neutral expression slid into its place. “Well that’s okay, you can just stay in the shallow end! Or you could chill by the poolside, work on your tan.” Following her last words, she giggled a little. It was a subtle dig at Wednesday’s paleness, though it wasn’t done maliciously. At least, Wednesday didn’t think so. It was just Enid teasing.
“You still wanna go, though?” Enid asked, hesitant. “Thing looks like he could use your help.”
Wednesday cast a look back at Thing, who waited on the desk. She seemed to be weighing her decision, but she’d said it, so she may as well go now.
“Thing does good work on his own,” She said finally. “Let me get dressed.”
Enid squealed out of excitement, clenching her hands into fists and bouncing in place before she returned to pack the remainder of her things.
Wednesday hoped she wouldn’t come to regret this.
–
Once the seven of them–Enid, Yoko, Divina, Kent, Xavier, Bianca, and Wednesday– arrived at the public pool, they took the place by storm. None of them were particularly disruptive, but they were a large group of outcasts, so people started to glance sideways at them no matter what they did. Wednesday noticed each of the townies that stared particularly long and hard and would intentionally make eye contact with them. Most of the time, it made them stop looking. Wednesday’s piercing stare was something she was rather proud of, and something that many feared. She would use it time and time again if it meant protecting her friends from unnecessary scorn. It was the least she could do.
They stayed in a pack together, finding a line of chairs that hadn’t yet been claimed and settled their stuff on them before they dispersed. Wednesday followed them over and hung out along the edge of the pool, her legs in the water and the pavement burning the skin under her thighs. The others played games like Marco Polo and hot potato with a beach ball they’d found and while it was somewhat entertaining to watch them have their fun, Wednesday’s attention was eventually caught by the sandy haired lifeguard that kept looking over in her direction.
It made her skin crawl, really. It was like someone could see right through her. She was almost certain that if he were in range, he would make idle chitchat like, “How come you’re not in the pool with your friends?” And she was not about to explain to some stranger that she couldn’t swim. Not because it was embarrassing, but because it was none of his business. End of story.
So she stayed by the side of the pool until she couldn’t bear to take the heat of the sun on her any longer and stood up to head for some shade. She noticed, almost distantly, that there were some young boys–a little younger than Pugsley, maybe–who were roughhousing around the edge of the pool, fighting over something. As she relayed to her friends that she was going to sit in the shade, the lifeguard blew his whistle and told the kids to be careful. It drew Wednesday’s eyes back to him for only a moment before Enid asked, “Whadidyousay?”
“I said, I’m going back to the shade–” Wednesday said, a bit more forcefully than she’d meant to. The boys were still screaming and running around and the sound was far too shrill for her ears. She was tempted to whirl on them and tell them to knock it off just as the lifeguard had done, but restrained herself. She remembered that she was still a student at Nevermore, and if she behaved poorly in town, it would reflect poorly on the school–or so Principal Weems had explained to her once upon a time. And Wednesday had figured that she'd done enough. So she waited until Enid gave her a thumbs up and a smile before turning away. However, right as she turned to make her way back to their lawn chairs, one of the boys ran past her, and then another. The third one, the most unexpected, slammed into Wednesday from the side and, in a moment’s notice, sent her flying into the pool.
The water boomed in her ears as her body collided with the surface, slamming into the side of her face like a slap. Water flooded her nose and mouth until she quickly clamped the latter shut. Panic seized her chest. As she sank towards the bottom of the pool, she could see the lower halves of her friends treading water halfway across the pool as the bubbles dissipated from around her, and then they were moving, swimming in her direction. Once she finally hit the bottom of the pool nine feet down, she scrambled to put her feet against solid ground and pushed up towards the surface. Wednesday clawed through the water in thrashes, trying more than anything to reach the surface until she did, and with it, she gasped, pulling in a gulp of air and even more water.
Wednesday could hear the panicked voices of her friends, but only faintly–barely heard over the blood rushing through her head in thrums, the violent thrash of her limbs. She kicked and flailed and tried to stay afloat but it was like something other than gravity kept pulling her down, and she went under yet again.
Before she knew it, someone was at her side, one arm around her midsection as they pulled her up to the surface of the water and started swimming for the poolside. Wednesday coughed and hacked as she found herself hauled out of the pool and onto the warm concrete.
The mysterious figure, who Wednesday quickly realized was not one of her friends, laid her on her side and allowed her to cough up the rest of the water that hadn’t yet been expunged from her system. When she was done, she rolled over onto her back to see who had been her unwitting savior.
The lifeguard, the boy from before that kept stealing glances at her, hung over her haloed by sunlight. He had a half-hearted, crooked smile on his face, presumably because he saw that she was okay, or at least alive, but the sight made Wednesday wince and cover her eyes with her arm.
“Oh thank god,” He said finally, “Are you alright?”
“Yes. Fine,” Wednesday grumbled. She made a move to sit up but every muscle in her body fought against it, like it had gone into shock.
“Whoa, slow down there,” The lifeguard warned. His face was covered in a dozen birthmarks. Wednesday noticed them as she stared up at him. “You fell pretty hard. You’re going to be okay but I would just give it a minute, alright?”
She nodded, the movement stiff. He still hovered over her, watching carefully like she might drown on dry land. Wednesday grew uncomfortable with the attention and looked away, anywhere but his face.
“Wednesday!”
It was Xavier, calling out to her. She lolled her head to the side and saw her friends making their way towards her. Xavier was at the front of the pack and was the first to reach her as he stumbled out of the pool to come and kneel beside her.
The lifeguard backed off with a disbelieving chuckle as he regarded Xavier, then muttered something under his breath. Wednesday sat up slowly now, Xavier's hand on her clothed back helping her until she was fully upright. She turned to look at the boy who had stopped her from drowning.
"Thank you," She said, speaking through her teeth like it pained her to say.
"Don't mention it."
"Wednesday, I'm so glad you're okay!" Enid gushed upon arrival. "We saw you fall in and we were coming to help you when this lifeguard kid–"
"Yeah, name's Tyler, hi."
"Yeah, sure. Whatever your name is," Enid continued on, bulldozing past the remark. "--came and jumped in and pulled you away before we could get to you. I'm so sorry. We were so worried. Are you okay? Did you hit your head? Are you hurt?"
Wednesday slowly shook her head, mentally checking off all of the places in her body now that she'd sat up and could take better stock of herself. "I'm alright, Enid, really."
"Honestly Wednesday, if I didn't know any better, I would have thought you didn't know how to swim," Kent said from towards the back of the group, earning an immediate glare from Wednesday as Yoko and Divina chuckled. They stopped at the sight of Wednesday's expression, then began whispering among themselves.
Enid jumped in before Wednesday, or anyone for that matter, could say another thing. "Well, I'd forget how to swim too if I got knocked in like that. I can't believe those kids. Ooh if I didn't know better I would go after them so fast –"
"Enid, it's okay," Bianca interjected softly, putting her hand on Enid's arm. "Wednesday's fine. We're all fine. Right?"
Wednesday nodded again, her eyes settled on the two of them for a moment. "Fine."
"You didn't hit your head?" Xavier double-checked.
"I don't believe so, no."
"Good," He agreed.
"Hey, um, not to be a total downer here," The lifeguard–Tyler–began, "But us lifeguards have to do, like, an accident report after something like this happens. Would it be alright if I, uh, ask you a few questions?"
"Okay." Wednesday said, then turned to the group at large. "I'm alright. You all can go back to swimming."
Xavier sighed but nodded, then stood up. He headed back to the pool and the others followed closely behind, even though Wednesday could feel at least one set of eyes on the two that remained.
"Okay, um," Tyler started, unsure of where to begin. "First of all, can I get your name?"
"Wednesday Addams," She replied, then paused. Wednesday asked, rather dryly, "Shouldn't you be writing this down for your report?”
"Oh, uh, right," Tyler said awkwardly, chuckling to himself. "Can you stand? We can go into the office, I can get you a towel."
"Fine." She said, then started to stand. She swayed a little but Tyler was, fortunately or not, right there to help balance her out. Once she was confident in her ability to not wobble like a newborn deer, she hardened her expression and stepped away from his guiding touch. Tyler’s nervous smile wilted a little bit.
“Um, here,” Tyler said, gesturing towards the office. “It’s this way.”
–
Soon enough, Wednesday stood wrapped in a white towel taken from the facility’s linen closet as she answered questions about the accident. The office was freezing cold compared to the outdoor heat, but to Wednesday, it was as refreshing–like being in an ice bath. There was almost a satisfying afterburn to the chill.
“So–In your own words, can you describe the situation?” Tyler prompted, squinting down at the paper. He looked like he needed reading glasses, but Wednesday left it without comment.
“Three young boys were playing around the pool, they took off running and one of them pushed me into the pool.”
Tyler paused. “Pushed?”
Wednesday shifted on her feet, not used to her word choice being scrutinized. “I don’t believe he did it on purpose, but it was a push.”
“But push means…” Tyler started, then trailed off, thinking better of it. “Nevermind, don’t worry about it.” He said, followed by something under his breath.
“Do you always talk to yourself like that?” Wednesday asked rather bluntly, though not unkindly. “The mumbling.”
“Oh, um,” Tyler stammered, flushing pink at being called out on it. “N-No, I don’t.”
“I’ve noticed that you’ve done it twice so far, once by the pool and again just now.”
“Can I say you caught me on a bad day?” Tyler asked, then chuckled nervously. He paused, then added cautiously as though he were afraid to spook her with an observation of his own, “You’re very… Astute.”
Wednesday nodded, then said nothing else as she waited for him to finish writing down her answer on the sheet of paper he’d been filling out. “Okay… Uh, are you planning on pursuing legal action?”
“No.”
“Are you injured? Require hospitalization?”
Wednesday shuddered at the idea of going to the hospital. “No.”
“Okay, I… Think we’re done.” Tyler said, his eyes scanning over the paper. “Well, uh, thank you again Miss Addams, for your time.”
“Call me Wednesday,” She corrected.
“Okay. Wednesday, then,” He said with a smile. “I’m Ty–”
“Tyler, I know,” She said. “I heard you earlier.”
He nodded, and suddenly his attention on her was softer, like he was touched that she’d heard, let alone remembered his name. She fought the sudden urge to shudder.
There was a moment of silence between them before Wednesday asked, “Am I free to go?”
“Yes! Yeah, sorry, you’re free to go.”
Wednesday nodded for the final time and disappeared through the door to return to the poolside. She couldn’t stand to have him looking at her like that for another second.