(Alright!)
Cory had come to the pool with her family; she had just come back from a long trip to visit extended family in Europe, and was dressed in a two piece swim set with a plain cotton t-shirt pulled over top, her dark hair pulled back into a small ponytail. Her younger siblings were wrestling and playing around, though they weren't even in the water yet.
Jax sighed from his perch in the lifeguard chair, resting his chin on his hand. All his friends got jobs at amusement parks, and other fun jobs, but Jax? He was stuck lifeguarding at the public pool. The only perk was that he got to swim after the pool closed.
"Hey, kiddos?" he called over to some kids running alongside the pool, "don't run, please!"
Jax settled back into his seat with another sigh. His eyes flicked back and forth, settling on a family who had just arrived.
"Hey, let's not roughhouse, okay?" Another lifeguard, who Jax wasn't acquainted with yet, called down to the family's younger children.
One of Cory's younger brothers stuck his tongue out at the lifeguards, and darted past Cory to put his stuff down where their parents had already sat down. Cory, thrown off-balance by this, stumbled, her foot slipping in a pool of water. "Mark!" she shouted, grabbing at her brother to try and regain her balance.
"Let go of me!" Mark exclaimed, not understanding why his sister was grabbing at him, pushing her away and into the pool.
Unluckily, they had been near to the deep end, where Cory's feet couldn't touch the bottom, and she had enough momentum that her arms couldn't reach the edge.
"Kid," Jax shouted to Mark, "no pushing!"
Turning his attention to the girl who had fallen in the pool, he noticed her struggling to reach the surface. Quickly taking action, he dove into the deep end, pulling the girl up and treading water, keeping a tight grip.
"Are you alright?"
(Please note, I have zero clue about how lifeguarding works, I attempted to do my research, which failed)
Cory was coughing, having inhaled the water by mistake. When she could breathe enough to speak, she blinked at Jax. "Ah…I think so?" she replied, voice strained from the chlorine she had inhaled. "I don't…" the wet shirt clung to her body, strands of dark hair sticking to her skin.
(haha, it's fine!)
Jax smiled, swimming with the girl to the side of the pool. "That's good." He helped her out of the pool, and followed suit himself.
"That was your brother who pushed you in, right? I'll talk to 'im and make sure you don't fall in again."
Jax shook his head, trying to get some of the water out of his hair.
She nodded. "I don't think he meant to." she clarified, coughing again and taking in a deep breath. "He's just…excited." she offered up a wan smile. "Besides, it's not his fault that I can't swim."
Jax nodded, raising his eyebrows. "You want me to teach you t' swim sometime?" He glanced up to another lifeguard's chair, where its occupant was eyeing him.
"I gotta go back to work now, but I can come down on my break!"
She blinked. "Oh, I…" she trailed off, thinking. "It depends on when, I've got a job and I can't just quit that…but I'd love it if you could teach me at least the basics?"
Jax grinned, standing up as he prepared to head back to his spot. "My break's in an hour, will you still be there then? We can arrange it more from there. Oh, and I don't think I got your name? I'm Jax."
Cory nodded a little bit, pushing herself up to a standing position. "I'm pretty sure I will, yeah." she replied, glancing over at where her family was setting up their stuff. "I'm Cordelia. Cory is fine, though." she smiled a bit.