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CHAPTER SEVEN - Has Pacey Learned

His Lessons?

The next morning, Dawson took his video camera to the beach. He was going to meet Sheila there. Today, he was going to make his documentary about Sheila’s life as a nanny.

Sheila was waiting for him. Dawson asked her lots of questions. He filmed her as she answered his questions.

“Do you miss Australia?” he asked.

“I miss lots of things about my country,” she told him. “But there are some things that I don’t miss. It isn’t a perfect place.”

“Did you come to the U.S. alone?” he asked.

“Oh, yes,” she replied. “Australians are great travelers. We often travel around the world alone.”

But when Dawson asked Sheila about her time in Boston, she changed the subject.

“Why won’t she talk about Boston?” Dawson asked himself. “What happened to her there?”

Dawson looked through the viewfinder of his camera again.

“I’ll take some shots of the beach,” he told Sheila. “Then I’ll use those shots between the shots of you talking.”

He pointed the camera at some of the groups of people who were near the beach. Suddenly, he saw Joey’s face in the viewfinder…

Joey was sitting with Jeremy Fields. They were looking at each other very seriously. Then they were kissing!

“That’s terrible!” Dawson shouted. “They’re kissing on the beach, in front of all these people!”

“Who are kissing?” Sheila asked. “Where are they? And what’s wrong with kissing, Dawson?” She laughed and she took the camera from him.

A moment later she was looking through the viewfinder.

“Oh, it’s the girl who’s in all your films,” she said. “It’s the girl who isn’t your girlfriend. It’s Joey.”

She laughed and laughed.

“What’s funny?” Dawson said.

“You’re funny,” Sheila replied. “You’re jealous. Joey kissed someone who isn’t you. And you’re angry about it.”

“You’re wrong!” he said quickly. And he grabbed Sheila’s shoulders and kissed her on the lips. He kissed her for a long time. But he didn’t feel excited. He didn’t feel anything.

“Well, that was a good try, Dawson,” Sheila said gently. “But you need Joey, not me.”

After that, they talked about other things, and Dawson shot some more film. But when he told her about his idea for the television report, she surprised him. He wanted Sheila to be very pleased about the idea. But she wasn’t pleased.

They talked about his mother and her job as an anchor person at the TV station. But Sheila refused to be in the film report. She was very angry about the idea.

“This film is practice for you, Dawson,” she said. “We agreed about that. Nobody else must see it!”

Then she got up and left the beach.

That Sunday morning, Pacey didn’t meet Jen before the lifeguarding class. She didn’t get her coffee. She felt unhappy.

“Why did Pacey behave so stupidly?” she asked herself. “He’s a fool. I wanted to be friends with him. But now he won’t talk to me, because I don’t want him as my boyfriend. And now he won’t even try to be a good student. He won’t learn to be a good lifeguard.”

When she arrived at the pool, Pacey was already there. He was talking to the twins. He didn’t wave to Jen, and he didn’t talk to her.

Pacey swam slowly that morning. He only swam half as far as the other students. Jen didn’t speak to him. But she was angry. Good lifeguards had to be strong swimmers - she understood that. Tim wasn’t the nicest person in the whole world - he wasn’t perfect. But he was right about the things that the students needed to learn. He made the students work hard. They needed to learn the right things to do. If someone was drowning, there wasn’t time to read a manual. A lifeguard had to know what to do. Pacey wasn’t interested in learning the right things. He didn’t really listen to Tim’s words. He stood by the pool and he smiled at the twins.

“It is difficult to save a person who is in trouble in the water,” Tim told the students that morning. “A drowning person will not help you to save them. If they’re conscious, a drowning person is frightened. They will try to fight you. Then you will both drown. You mustn’t get too close to someone who is in trouble in the water. You must not try to grab them. If they’re conscious, you mustn’t try to touch them. You must always take a life buoy when you go to help someone in the water.” He pointed at the orange floats which were hanging from the walls, all around the pool.

“When you reach the person who is in trouble, push the life buoy to them,” he continued. “Let them grab the life buoy. Then bring them to the beach by pulling the life buoy. Do you all understand?”

Jen had been writing down everything that Tim said. Pacey had written nothing. He wasn’t interested.

“Do you understand, Witter?” Tim asked.

“Yes, I understand,” Pacey replied.

But Tim didn’t believe him - Jen could see that.

After lunch, Tim spoke to the class again.

“You’ve all read about lifeguarding in your manuals,” he said. “And you’ve all listened to me talking about lifeguarding. This afternoon, we’re going to practice lifeguarding.”

“I’ll get into the pool and I’ll pretend to be in trouble,” he continued. “Then one of you will jump into the water and rescue me. Who’s going to save my life?”

He looked around the group of students.

“Witter,” he said. “You can rescue me. Remember everything that you’ve read and heard.”

Suddenly, the instructor jumped into the water. He swam to the middle of the pool and he stopped there. He moved his legs slowly up and down - he was “treading water.”

Pacey jumped into the pool and swam towards the instructor. But Tim told him to go back to the side of the pool. When they had both climbed out, Tim spoke to the class.

“What did Witter do wrong?” he asked them.

“You weren’t in trouble,” one of the twins said. “You were treading water. You were fine. You didn’t need help.”

“That’s right,” Tim said. “Witter behaved stupidly. He didn’t look and think before he jumped.”

Everybody laughed.

“OK, Witter, we’ll try it again,” the instructor said.

Tim got back into the pool and swam around for a minute. Then he started to wave his arms and kick his legs wildly.

Pacey jumped into the pool and swam towards Tim. He tried to grab the instructor’s arms. But Tim kicked more wildly and he pushed Pacey away. Finally, Pacey swam to the side of the pool and climbed out.

“Well, you didn’t want to be saved,” he said angrily to Tim.

“Witter hasn’t listened to anything that I said,” Tim told the class. “And he hasn’t understood anything that he read. Now Miss Lindley will try to rescue me. Maybe she has understood.”

Tim jumped back into the pool. When he started to kick his legs and wave his arms, Jen ran to a life buoy. She took the life buoy from the wail and she jumped into the pool with it. She swam to Tim and pushed the life buoy toward him. Tim grabbed it and he stopped kicking. Slowly, Jen pulled the life buoy and the instructor to the side of the pool.

“That was very good,” said Tim, when he had climbed out of the pool. “Miss Lindley did everything correctly. She will be a very fine lifeguard.”

Everyone in the class cheered and clapped their hands.

“Now, Miss Lindley,” Tim went on. “If I had been unconscious, what would you have done?”

Jen told him the answer.