Strong hands grabbed me under my arms and dragged me to the surface. They lifted me out of the water and onto the hard cement beside the pool. A cool breeze caressed my skin, causing me to shiver with delight. I was alive! I opened my eyes and saw the beautiful face of Tyler Price hovering over me.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

I choked, unable to answer. The chlorinated water burned my nose and throat. Tyler rolled me on to my side, and I coughed all the unwanted liquid out of my lungs.

Exhausted from my efforts, I gazed into Tyler's dark blue eyes. "You saved my life," I wheezed. "Thank you."

"How do you feel?" Tyler asked, sounding as impersonal as a doctor questioning a patient.

"Fine," I said automatically.

I sat up and instantly regretted the motion. My head throbbed with such intensity I assumed a jackhammer was drilling a hole through it. I touched the back of my skull to check and found a large lump.

Someone threw a beach towel over me.

"You better cover up," Mimi said with a sneer.

Underneath the towel, I realized my bikini strings weren't tied up, but were dangling down, pulling my top down with them, a few millimeters from total exposure. My whole body turned red hot with embarrassment as I readjusted my top and retied the strings around my neck. A crowd of curious eyes stared at me while I attempted to regain my composure. My arms and legs felt like millions of pins and needles had pricked them.

A tall, tanned blonde with a whistle around his throat and a walkie-talkie in his hand stood beside Mimi. He had to be one of the life guards for the pool. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine now. Thank you." I lied, because if he realized I was hurt, he would be required to call The 'Rents. They would be furious if they found out I went swimming with Dean.

"Please let me know if you need anything. I'll be right over there." He pointed to the lifeguard's stand by the side of the pool.

"I definitely will." I lied again and breathed a sigh of relief when he walked away.

Dean emerged from the pool and approached Tyler. "Hey man. Thanks for rescuing my sister."

I glared at Dean and tried to stand, but my knees buckled. Tyler caught me before I fell over. Dean attempted to help me too, but I growled, "Stay away from me!"

I sat back down with Tyler's careful assistance, and he had to notice the lump protruding from my skull.

"I'm so sorry, Jasmine. It was an accident," Dean alleged, but his guilty face betrayed him.

He was such a liar. While I considered which nasty words to call him, Melaney and Shawn arrived at the scene.

Melaney rushed to my side. "Oh my, Jasmine. Are you okay?"

"I have a slight headache, but I'm alive."

"She has a huge lump on the back of her head. She should see a doctor," Tyler said with clinical concern.

"No way! I don't need a doctor. I'll be fine. I just need to get out of the sun and have a cold drink."

"You could have a concussion. If your vision gets blurry or you start to vomit, you should go to the hospital," Tyler advised.

"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks. Please don't make a big deal out of a little lump," I pleaded, hoping Tyler would understand my reluctance to seek medical attention and not inform the life guards on duty about my injury.

His midnight-blue eyes locked with my emerald-green ones for a few seconds, and then he shrugged. "Okay."

I tossed Mimi her towel. I wrapped one arm around Melaney's neck and the other around Shawn's, and they carefully escorted me to my lounge chair. Dean followed behind us.

I slowly sat down, scowling at Dean. "What is wrong with you?"

"I. Am. So. Sorry." Dean stressed each word. He took out his wallet and gave Shawn a twenty dollar bill. "Can you and Melaney get four lemonades while I talk to Jasmine?"

"Thanks. I am thirsty," I admitted. "But I want an iced tea."

"Sure," Shawn agreed. He and Melaney left to get the drinks. The line at the snack bar was short, so Dean and I wouldn't have much time to talk. Dean sat in the chair next to mine.

"The plan was for Tyler to notice I was alive, so why did you try to kill me?" I asked as indignation burned a hole in my gut and heated my face.

Dean looked me straight in the eye. "I'm really sorry for not warning you about the Rescue part of the Operation, but the fall had to be real, not staged." His eyes were more gray than blue. They turned gray whenever he was sad or sorry, so I knew he meant what he said.

"Was the large lump on my skull part of the plan, too?" I tapped my tender lump and winced.

"No!" he insisted with a quick twist of his head. "I never imagined you would get hurt."

"For future reference, pushing people down four story water slides may result in serious bodily injury."

"If you disregard your head bump, you have to admit Operation Rescue Bathsheba was an enormous success!" Dean bragged, tilting his head in Tyler's direction. "Tyler hasn't been able to keep his eyes off of you. He and his friends keep looking over here."

"That's because they saw me half-naked!" My cheeks flamed with embarrassment now overlapping the anger.

He grimaced. "Again, I'm sorry. That wasn't part of the plan, but . . ." He grinned wickedly. "Bathsheba was a bathing beauty."

"This is not amusing."

"No. It's not," he concurred as Shawn and Melaney got back with our drinks.

I thanked them for my iced tea and sipped it. My headache was agonizing, but Dean was probably more uncomfortable than I, because now Shawn and Melaney were glaring at him from their chairs. Dean chugged his lemonade. When the liquid was gone, he dumped the ice cubes in his shirt which he tied in a knot to make an ice pack. He carefully placed the makeshift ice pack on top of the lump on my head.

"Do you want anything else from the snack bar?" he asked me.

"No, thank you."

He escaped to get another drink. The line was very long this time.

"I'm so mad at him. He is so careless. You could have broken your neck or drowned," Melaney fumed.

"He didn't mean to hurt me." I didn't know why I was defending Dean. Sometimes old habits were hard to break, unlike my head.

"He never means to, but somehow someone always gets hurt. How are you feeling?" Melaney always tried to be sympathetic, even when she was furious.

"I'm okay, really," I assured her. "Please go swimming. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. The ice pack helps."

"We'll stay with you until Dean comes back to make sure you don't fall asleep. You could have a concussion."

"But I'm alive. Thanks to my knight in shiny swim trunks." My head injury was seriously disrupting my sense of humor. I smirked at my bad joke and then smiled for real when I stole a peek in Tyler's direction. He was still staring at me!

Now I needed to summon enough courage to overcome the humiliation of my wardrobe malfunction and properly thank him for rescuing me. I took the ice pack off my head and tried to stand up. A wave of nausea swept over me, and I sat back down.

"It's not fair." I groaned. "Tyler finally realizes I'm alive, and I feel like I'm going to vomit. What was Dean thinking?"

"He wasn't. He never thinks before . . ." Melaney stopped in mid sentence. "This is what Dean was helping you with? Are you suicidal?" She shook her head in disbelief. "I can't believe you are so obsessed with-"

"Please stop shouting," I begged, interrupting her tirade. "Shawn, could you please tell Dean that I've changed my mind? I would like some crackers."

"Okay." Shawn consented to the task and left to find Dean.

"No one else needs to know how I feel about Tyler," I whispered. "Dean was supposed to help me get Tyler's attention today. That's all."

"Since Dean knows Tyler is a lifeguard, he decides to drown you so Tyler will save you. He's completely insane! You know that, right?"

"Yes, but his plan worked. Tyler rescued me. I just wish I would've properly introduced myself." I batted my eyelashes and spoke with a Southern belle accent. "Hi. I'm Jasmine. I think you have the most beautiful blue eyes."

Melaney laughed. Thank goodness, she wasn't angry with me anymore.

She watched me with a worried expression on her face as I placed the ice pack back on my head. If only she knew the real reason why I wanted to date Tyler and gain his trust, then she would understand why my silly schoolgirl crush had become a crazy obsession.

But I wasn't ready to reveal my secret to anyone, yet.

Dean and Shawn returned from the snack bar. Dean handed me the peanut butter crackers. He had lemonade and barbecue chips for himself.

"Thanks. These should help." I opened the wrapper and nibbled on a cracker, hoping to ease my queasy stomach.

Dean sat in the lounge chair beside mine, opened the bag, and ate his chips while Melaney watched him with a disapproving frown on her face. He finished eating, took a few sips of his lemonade, and then put the cup down. "Okay, Melaney. What's wrong?"

"You've gone too far this time. I can't believe you would jeopardize Jasmine's safety with one of your insane plans!"

Dean turned to me for an explanation.

I shrugged. "Don't look at me like that. She guessed. Melaney is very intuitive."

"Then she should know I would never intentionally hurt you."

"But you did hurt her," Melaney argued. "Jasmine has a bump bigger than a golf ball on her head."

"Accidents happen," Dean muttered.

"When you're around," Melaney accused through gritted teeth.

"Jasmine, do you want me to leave?" Dean asked.

"No. I don't want anyone to leave. We are supposed to be having fun, not arguing."

Melaney took a deep breath, in and out. "I'm sorry, Jasmine. Would you mind if Shawn and I go on rides?"

"No." I sighed. "Go. Have fun. We'll see you later at the concert."

Melaney stood and stuffed her towel into her bag. "Shawn has to work tonight, but I'll save you an end seat. I hope that you feel better by then."

"Thanks. Have fun," I repeated.

"We will." Shawn and Melaney walked toward the locker rooms.

"That was awkward," Dean stated the obvious. "Jasmine, you really need to work on your poker face."

I scowled at my toes. "I know. I just hate keeping secrets from Melaney."

"If you think she's angry now, tell her that you paid me to spy on Tyler," he dared.

"No way!" I protested, shooting my scowl at Dean. "She already accused me of being obsessed with him."

"Well, aren't you?"

I stuck out my chin. "I prefer to think of myself as determined. I'll do whatever it takes to get a date with Tyler. As soon as this lump on my head goes down, I intend to go talk to my rescuer."

"Unfortunately, your rescuer and his friends are heading toward the exit." Dean pointed his hand in the direction of the men's locker room.

"Maybe, he'll be at the concert." I could only hope so as I watched Tyler disappear behind the closing door. I had to talk to Tyler again, or this nauseating, goose egg and the embarrassing, almost-topless spectacle were all in vain.

A/N: This chapter is re-dedicated to Jenna_lives because I accidentally deleted this chapter and Wattpad restored it for me! 

Video above is You're Not Alone by Owl City and Britt Nicole and should be titled You Rescued Me.

"You rescued me, 

 and I believe that 

 God is LOVE,

 and He is all I need

 from this day forth

 for all eternity."

Who rescued you? Let me know in the comments.

Forever Remember to Live, Laugh, and LOVE! - 3L