Piper Morgan Makes a Splash

by Stephanie Faris

  I’d have to blow one up. Like a balloon. Mom always said I was “full of hot air,” so maybe that would help. I opened the little plastic thing, took a deep breath, and started blowing.

  It only budged a little. Then a little more. But it seemed like every time I stopped to take a breath, some of the air came back out again. I was getting nowhere.

  I needed a blower-upper thing. They had them at the swimming pool where I took lessons with the other Guppies. I saw the lifeguards use it sometimes when one of the inner tubes was too flimsy. I kept blowing into the tube while I walked around looking.

  There it was! I saw it! It was a hosey-thing over by one of the pools. All I had to do was push the hose up to the inner tube and air would come out.

  I walked over to the hose, which was hanging over the top of one of the pools. I pulled on it and reached for my inner tube. I yanked and yanked and finally it came out of the pool. Too fast. The entire hose came out at once.

  That was when I saw it wasn’t a hose at all. It was the vacuum thing that the lifeguards at my swimming pool used to suck up dirt. One of them had shown us how it worked just a couple of days ago.

  “Ahhhh,” I yelled. I tripped and fell backward right into the pool, bringing a long pole crashing to the ground with a loud thud.

  The store had seemed empty before, but now it seemed like people came from everywhere. All of a sudden lots and lots of people were staring at me. And they did not look happy.

  Splash Fact #5

  Did you know at one time there was no such thing as a bathing suit? Then they started making laws that you had to wear something if you were going to swim.

  At first, bathing suits for women were long dresses. They were made so that you couldn’t see through them when they were wet.

  During the 1900s bathing suits started showing arms and legs. Some people didn’t like that style at first, but they probably remembered that it was really hot outside. And nobody wants to be on the beach in a long-sleeved dress when it’s hot outside. Now there are all kinds of bathing suits to choose from for both men and women!

  CHAPTER

  6

  Mom and I drove home in silence. I could tell Mom was thinking about how “not” responsible I was the entire ride.

  After dinner Nanna waited until Mom had left the room to ask what had happened at the pool shop. I’d been mostly quiet as I ate, while Mom and Nanna talked about boring grown-up stuff. But the second Mom had gone to the bathroom, Nanna moved in.

  “What happened?” she whispered.

  “There was a pool vacuum,” I said. “I knocked it over and fell in the pool. Mom got upset.”

  “Was it by accident?” Nanna asked.

  I thought about that for a second. I didn’t knock the vacuum over on purpose. But it wasn’t really an accident.

  “I needed an inner tube,” I explained. “They were all flat.”

  I pressed my palms together to show her what “flat” meant.

  “Why did you need an inner tube?” Nanna asked. “Were you playing?”

  “I wanted to swim,” I said.

  Nanna gasped. “Swim?” she asked. “At your mom’s work?”

  “Yes,” I said. “It’s a pool shop.”

  Maybe she’d forgotten that part.

  “Piper, you don’t swim at a pool shop,” she explained. “The pools don’t even have water in them, do they?”

  “Just one,” I said. “I saw it.”

  “You do understand why it wouldn’t be a smart idea to do that, though, right?”

  I thought about that one. Nanna was right. Someone who was “responsible” wouldn’t sneak into a pool to swim. It was dangerous. Plus, it could get Mom in trouble with her boss.

  “It wasn’t very responsible,” I admitted. “I should say I’m sorry to Mom and her boss.”

  “You should,” Nanna agreed. “But you should do more than that. You should prove to your mom that you’re going to try really hard to do better.”

  I sighed. I was supposed to already be showing that I was trying hard. Now I had to start all over again.

  I’d never be on TV again at this rate.

  Splash Fact #6

  Some kids like to take a bath. Some kids don’t. But in the 1900s people took baths about once a week. The bathtub was in the kitchen, where moms heated up water on the fire to make bathwater.

  Most families had bath time on Saturday night. Many dads worked all week and took Sundays off, so Saturday nights were for getting clean. The whole family usually took a bath in the same bathwater.

  Think about that the next time your parents ask you if you’ve taken a bath or shower today.

  CHAPTER

  7

  “My nanna says it wasn’t a very responsible thing to do,” I told Erin and Annabelle at swim practice the next day. Our swim teacher was running a little late, so we were chatting until he arrived.

  “It kinda wasn’t,” Erin said, wrapping her fluffy blue towel around her arms. “You shouldn’t have grabbed the hose without an adult around.”

  “There were lots of adults around,” I protested. “There were managers and employees all over the place.”

  “There were?” Annabelle asked.

  “Well . . . there would have been once I was in the pool,” I said.

  I frowned. Now that I was telling my new BFFs about it, it didn’t make much sense. All I’d wanted to do was get a tube and show what I could do with it. I didn’t think for a second about what could go wrong.

  “Now I have to show my mom I can be responsible,” I said. “And I have to do it fast. The TV commercial starts filming this week sometime, I think.”

  “This week?” Erin asked.

  “That’s too soon,” Annabelle said. “You need more time.”

  “I don’t have it,” I said.

  There would be more commercials, I knew. But we might be at a different job by that time. If I wanted to be in a TV commercial, it had to be now.

  “You have to be at the store when they’re there,” Annabelle said. “That’s the first step.”

  “Yep,” Erin said. “And you wait for your perfect chance. It’ll happen.”

  “But you have to figure out a way to get your mom to take you to work first,” Annabelle pointed out. “And you have to do it fast.”

  “My mom always likes it when I help Nanna clean up after dinner,” I said. “And take my bath without being told. And go to bed without asking to read just one more chapter.”

  “Do that,” Erin said. “But more, too. Help your mom with . . . other mom things.”

  “I help clean the house sometimes,” Annabelle suggested. “My mom really likes that.”

  I thought about that. My new friends were right. If I showed how hard I could work at home, my mom would see that I would be a great helper at the pool shop. Then I could go and be a good little girl and maybe they’d put me in the commercial.

  I smiled to myself. I liked my new plan. My new friends were the best!

  Splash Fact #7

  Making a TV commercial isn’t easy. It takes a lot of people to put together what you see on TV. Here are a few things you have to do if you want to get a commercial on TV:

  #1 Come up with a great idea: something that people will like and want to buy!

  #2 Get someone to write it. This person should be good enough to come up with interesting things to say about your awesome idea!

  #3 Hire a great spokesperson who loves your idea and will tell everyone about it!

  CHAPTER

  8

  On Wednesdays Nanna plays old-people cards. It’s called “peanut-cul” or something like that. I wanted to ask if they eat lots of peanuts while they’re playing, but I was trying to be super, super, supergood.

  Nanna’s card game was good news for me because that means she couldn’t watch me while Mom went to work, since it was summer. Mom didn’t have a babysitter for me yet, and swim lessons weren’t on Wednesdays. Plus, I was being extra good. S
he had to take me to work.

  “Oh my!” Nanna said when she came into the bathroom and saw me shining the knobs on the sink with a paper towel. I couldn’t find the window cleaner stuff, so I was doing it with water. “You are on quite a cleaning spree, young lady.”

  I didn’t know what a “spree” was, but that sounded like a good thing. Mom watched me last night after dinner while I helped clean up after and put all my toys away. I even took Oreo out for walks last night and this morning.

  “I think I know what this is all about,” Nanna said. “You want to be on that TV commercial, right?”

  I stopped wiping. “How did you know about the commercial?” I asked.

  “Your mom told me,” Nanna said.

  Uh-oh. Mom knew I wanted to be in the commercial? And she told Nanna? That wasn’t a good thing.

  “Your mom said there was another commercial this week,” Nanna said. “And you were so interested in going to work with her. I put two and two together.”

  “And that equals four,” I announced proudly.

  “Yes, it does,” Nanna said, laughing.

  “I’ve been really responsible like you said,” I told her. “Do you think Mom will take me?”

  Nanna came over to stand next to me, leaning against the counter. “If she does, do you know what that means?” she asked.

  I was pretty sure I did, but I wanted to hear what Nanna would say.

  “You have to be extra good,” she said. “The kind of good you’ve been here, only the opposite. Instead of running around cleaning and doing things, you have to sit really still where she tells you to sit. And you need to do your summer reading and not sneak off, even if there are TV cameras.”

  I swallowed, but it felt like there was a knot in my throat. Nanna was right. If I went to work with Mom, I couldn’t be in the commercial. I had to be a good girl like I was supposed to be. I could feel my dreams of being on TV disappearing while I stood there.

  “I understand,” I said, nodding.

  And that was when I realized something. If there was a choice between staying with a babysitter and not being in the commercial or going to work with Mom and not being in the commercial, I’d pick going to work with Mom. I wanted to go to work with Mom to show her I was a big girl. You know why?

  Because that was why I wanted to be in the TV commercial. So Mom would see me on TV and be proud of me. But I just now figured out that she’d be prouder of me if I was good and did what she wanted. And she wouldn’t be proud of me if I jumped into the commercial and was on TV for it.

  So I’d go to work with Mom. I’d be good. And maybe I would never, ever be in a commercial, and I was A-okay with that.

  Splash Fact #8

  Lifeguards know how to keep people safe around water.

  When you go to the pool, you probably see lifeguards sitting on those high-up seats and think, That looks like an easy job. It’s not. Lifeguards are super strong and have to watch for someone who needs to be saved. When they see that, they have to be quick.

  Lifeguards do more out of the water too. They blow the whistle at kids who run, because we could fall and hurt ourselves. They can also help with sunburns and wounds—in case you do fall while you’re running by the pool.

  It’s important to keep us safe while having fun!

  CHAPTER

  9

  I didn’t mind reading. I had lots and lots of books to read. Mom would be proud of me if I read all the books in my backpack. That would show I was super responsible.

  I was sitting behind a very big desk in the middle of the sales floor. That was more fun than the little room, and it meant the salespeople could keep an eye on me. One saleswoman named Judy kept me company when she didn’t have customers. She even brought me water when I looked thirsty.

  From here I could see the TV commercial being filmed, even though it was happening way on the other side of the store. Judy was watching me watch the cameras and people over there. She watched me for a long time before she got an idea.

  “Can you take this to Mr. Rapp?” Judy asked. She was holding up a cup of water.

  I frowned. “Who is Mr. Rapp?”

  “The guy with the tie,” she said, pointing to the commercial people.

  Mr. Rapp was the yelly guy from the TV commercial. The guy who said they have inground pools, aboveground pools, hot tubs, and tanning beds!

  “Are you sure it’s okay?” I asked. “My mom told me to sit right here and not to move.”

  Judy smiled. “Of course, it’s okay,” she said. “You’re saving me a trip all the way over there. I need to keep an eye on things. I’ll watch you the whole time.”

  I took the water and walked carefully toward the commercial people. I didn’t want to trip on anything or knock anything over. That wouldn’t be something a responsible young lady did.

  “Okay, ready to go?” I heard some woman saying as I got closer. “One more time, from the top. Ready in three, two, one!”

  That was when Mr. Rapp started talking. He spoke fast and excitedly, like I spoke when I was telling Mom a story about school. It didn’t even sound like he took a breath in between each sentence.

  “Cut!” the woman shouted when the yelly guy was in the middle of a sentence. “This isn’t working. Something’s off.”

  I didn’t get it. It sounded good to me.

  “Let’s break for five,” the woman said. “I need to think.”

  I made a frowny face at the woman’s back as she turned to walk away. Then I remembered why I was there. I turned back to the tie guy, who also had a frowny face.

  “You’re Piper, right?” the man said. “I’m Mr. Rapp.”

  He knew my name? I wondered why.

  “Yup, that’s me!” I said. “And I have water for you.”

  I held out the cup. The man didn’t take it. He just laughed.

  “You’re quite a little charmer,” he said. “Maybe you should do this commercial.”

  I started to get all excited about that, but then I remembered I was just here to hand over water. That was it.

  “You do it better,” I said. Then I imitated his voice, yelling, “We have inground pools, aboveground pools, hot tubs, and tanning beds!”

  That brought a big laugh from the man. “Yes, I remember when you said that live on the air last week,” he said. “You wouldn’t believe how many people come in here asking about the little girl from TV.”

  I pulled the water back toward me, since he wasn’t going to take it. “People ask about me?”

  “Sure,” he said. “That’s why you’d be the perfect person to save this commercial. Valerie?”

  The woman who had walked away suddenly reappeared. She was talking into her phone and looking annoyed.

  “This is Piper Morgan,” he said. “She has something to say.”

  He nudged my back. I thought for a second and finally figured out what he wanted me to do.

  “We have inground pools, aboveground pools, hot tubs, and tanning beds!” I shouted with all the enthusiasm I could muster.

  The woman named Valerie said, “I have to call you back,” into the phone, then shoved it into her pocket. “I think we can work with this,” she said with a smile. “What’s your name?”

  “Piper Morgan.”

  “Is your mom around?” she asked.

  I looked at Mr. Rapp. What if telling him who my mom was got me fired? But I had to tell the truth. Not only because telling fibs always got me in trouble, but because to be in a commercial, they’d need my mom.

  “Her mom works here,” Mr. Rapp said. “Could you go get Ms. Morgan?”

  He said that to a guy standing nearby, who nodded and rushed off. I didn’t want to get in trouble with Mom. I was just delivering water and this happened!

  By the time the guy returned with Mom, my heart was beating super fast. It felt like it might pound right out of my chest. I took deep breaths and gave Mom my best “this isn’t my fault at all” look.

  “Your little girl
was kind enough to bring me some water,” Mr. Rapp said.

  “Judy told me to!” I told Mom.

  “Piper, don’t interrupt,” Mom said.

  I pressed my lips tight so no more words could come out.

  “And we were just won over by her charm,” Mr. Rapp continued. “Valerie and I were thinking she might be the perfect person for our commercial.”

  Mom looked from Mr. Rapp to me. I couldn’t tell if she was upset or happy. She was making no faces at all.

  “Piper, may I speak with you a second?” Mom asked.

  Uh-oh. That probably meant I was in trouble. I had experience with speaking with Mom for a second. Lots of experience.

  We went over to the corner, where Mr. Rapp and Valerie and the other TV people couldn’t hear us. Mom leaned over to be closer to me.

  “Do you want to be in the commercial?” she asked.

  I nodded very hard. “Yes!” I added, just in case the nod wasn’t enough.

  “And are you going to be careful and do what they say?”

  Again I nodded and said yes at the same time.

  “Okay,” she said with a big grin. “Let’s go make this happen.”

  Splash Fact #9

  All you have to do is look around the pool to see that kids swim more than grown-ups. But it’s important to know how to swim. Here are a few fun facts about swimming:

  #1 Almost half of America can’t swim.

  #2 The fastest human can swim about two meters per second, which equals about 4.5 miles per hour.

  #3 The White House has only had an outdoor swimming pool since 1975. President Gerald Ford added it.

  CHAPTER

  10

  I thought I’d know when my commercial was going to be on TV the first time. They’d call and tell us or something. They didn’t.