“I'll do my best to make sure you get back to land safely,” she says with a wince. 

“Good, I'll do my best too,” I reply with a smile and give her the second pair of goggles. 

“Only one person from each team of two will dive and the other will keep an eye on them. Thumbs down if you need help underwater. It will get dark while we're in the water, so take good care of yourselves,” says Mr. Enzo.

I look over at Anne to make sure she's really teaming up with me. Anne gives me a thumbs-up and smiles. A small laugh line appears between her eyebrows. I've never noticed it before. I quickly look away again. 

“Let's see who comes out again,” laughs Sam and looks directly at me. 

“Quiet!” shouts Mr. Pinto.

I walk slowly to the edge of the water and can already feel myself getting cold as the water hits my feet for the first time. Hopefully this wetsuit will help, I think to myself. 

“Take a deep breath and just go step by by step,” says Anne, who is suddenly standing next to me in the water. “Then the cold won't be so bad. We got this, Lily”. 

Anne holds out her hand to me. I hesitate briefly and then take her hand. 

“We can do this,” she whispers to me. Hand in hand, we walk step by step into the water. Because of the pleasant feeling of her warm hand in mine, I can't concentrate on how cold the water is anymore. 

“Buddy, we have to swim from here.” She lets go of my hand and starts swimming. 

Suddenly I realize how the ground disappears from under my feet and the coldness of the water returns. I look ahead to Anne and start swimming. When we all reach Mr. Enzo, he tells us what we are about to see and that we will each have three dives. After that, we are supposed to swim back to land. 

“Do you want to go first?” Anne asks me. 

”No, you go first. I'll be spotting you,” I reply. 

The thought of dipping my head into the cold water makes me feel queasy. 

“Okay, watch out,” says Anne and she's already submerged. 

Pretty soon all I can see is her legs and she dives deeper and deeper. What if I can't see her thumb? Suddenly I panic and try to calm myself down with deep breaths. But it doesn't really work. I put on my swimming goggles and plunge my face into the water to see if I can see any better. 

At first my vision is blurred but as my eyes adjust, I can see Anne swimming around curiously at the bottom of the sea. Okay, I can see her signs, I think to myself and surface again briefly to catch my breath. As I look around, I see that everyone else is already on the second dive. I put my face back under the water and see nothing! Where is she? I quickly look up again to calm myself down. 

“Anne?” I call into the twilight. 

“Yes, right behind you.” 

When I turn around, Anne is swimming right behind me. 

“Are you okay?” she asks me worriedly. “You don't look well, Lily.”

“Yes, everything's fine” I say quietly and my heart slowly calms down again. “I just lost sight of you for a moment and got worried,” I say louder. 

“Don't worry. I always had you in my sights,” Anne says and smiles. 

“Oh, okay, thanks?” I reply. Thank you? Why thank you? How embarrassing of me. 

“It's your turn. Do you need any help?” Anne brings me back to the present. 

“No, thanks. I actually swim well, it's just the cold water that gets to me. But I'll try,” I answer her and get ready to go under. 

“Step by step,” Anne says and briefly puts her hand on my shoulder. 

Despite the coldness of the water, her touch is warm, which confuses and reassures me at the same time. My gaze goes to her and before she can say anything else, I dive under. Step by step, just keep swimming down, I motivate myself. As the sky got darker and darker, I couldn't see much under the water at first. But suddenly I notice how it becomes very bright underwater at short intervals. The lighthouse! The light helps me to see the anials and plants under the water. I spot three starfish on a rock and a fish swims past. 

As I slowly run out of air, I look up and see Anne. She too is repeatedly caught by the light from the lighthouse. She waves to me and signals me to come up. I slowly swim up from the dark seabed towards the light and Anne. 

“Wow!” I gasp as I surface again. “The light of the lighthouse helped me to be the beauty of the sea in the dark,” I say to Anne. 

She grins at me. “You didn't look cold at all Lily. Are you ready for a second round, dive buddy?”. 

And she dives off again. The next two dives went without any further problems and when we had both finished, we swam back to the beach together, where most of them were already waiting. 

“Lily, if you swim any slower, we'll never get out of here,” Sam shouts to me as we come out of the water.

 “Nobody cares what you think!” Anne shouts back and then looks over at me. “Nobody messes with my buddy.” she says quietly to me and I have to smile. 

As the light from the lighthouse hits us once more, I ask Anne, “Shall we meet on the balcony again?”.