After about an hour and a half of our boat ride, Mom cuts the engine and lets the boat idle among the waves. A calm serenity washes over me and I close my eyes in contentment.

"Look, honey," Mom says. "There's a boat right there. Do you see it?" I realize Mom is talking to David because of the desperation in her voice.

David has always liked me better than Mom because I'm gentler with him. I know him better than Mom does and I know what he likes and I know what he doesn't like. Mom has no patience, and handling David requires patience. While Mom spanks him and takes away his things when he doesn't do what he's told, I just scold him. He hates displeasing me and he tries hard not to.

But now that we've realized that David really has a problem, Mom is trying to get better at taking care of him. She always wanted a little boy and it killed her to hear the news.

I still remember the look on her face when we heard the doctor's diagnosis. To say she looked devastated would be an understatement. Our little family was torn apart by the news. I'd suspected it for a long time, but Mom refused to believe that David was anything but normal. Eventually, I took him to the doctor behind Mom's back just to see if I was right about his symptoms.

At first Mom was angry, but when we found out the truth she focused all of her energy on looking for the best programs to help David. The truth is, David is severely autistic.

I started noticing his symptoms at about age one. He wouldn't look me in the eye, he didn't smile when I smiled, he stopped responding when I called his name, and he stopped speaking.

I showed the list of symptoms to Mom, but she brushed them off and told me I was only imagining things. I knew I was not imagining things, however. I may have only been twelve at the time, but I knew I was right.

As the years flew past, David grew worse and worse. At age four, I finally went to the doctor with my concerns. He examined David and concluded that he was severely autistic.

Since then, Mom has been head over heels in finding the best treatment possible for David's condition. Right now, she's got him enrolled in a top notch school that seems to be helping. However, she isn't convinced.

"Isn't that our neighbor and his daughter?" Mom asks, jarring me from my thoughts. I snap my head up, looking where her finger is pointing.

Off in the distance, I can see a large pontoon boat. There are two people inside, a man and a girl. The man is driving; the girl is standing by the side, watching us. I immediately recognize her as the girl I was so drawn to at the campground. Her white-blonde hair dancing in the wind, she turns to meet my eye.

I look away, refusing to give in to the urge to smile at her. "Yes, that's them," I tell Mom. She nods and says, "Do you think we should go over and say hi?" My pulse races at the idea of saying hi to the girl, so I nod and say, "I think we should."

I turn back to the pontoon, looking back at the girl. She smiles flirtatiously and sends a wink my way. I gasp and my hands fly to my face to cover my blushing cheeks. My legs twitch and before I know it, they're carrying me towards the back of the boat.

"Where are you going, Sierra?" Mom cries, reaching for my arm. Ducking out of her grasp, I climb over the seats to get to the swim platform on the back of the boat.

Stop! I command myself. I don't even know where I'm going! All I know is that my legs are moving on their own and I can't stop them. Well, the truth is that I don't want to stop them.

So I let them stumble onto the swim platform. I grab a swimming noodle from the basket and I launch myself off of the platform, hitting the water hard.

Ignoring Mom's cries, I swim towards the pontoon boat as fast as I can. The girl sees me coming and signals her dad to stop. He pulls a lever and the boat stops moving.

I don't even know why I'm swimming towards the boat, nor do I have any idea what I'm going to say when I get there, or how I'm going to explain this to my mom. I only know that my impulses and my instincts are carrying me towards the boat and I'm not stopping them.

Splashing furiously, I heave great strokes as I swim. The water slaps my face in cold bursts as I move, and the fish bite my ankles, but I don't stop. Instead, I swim harder.

Adjusting the noodle, I'm struck with a terrifying thought. What if the girl teases me for grabbing the noodle? I certainly don't want to tell her that I can't swim.

Gasping, I raise my head to check the distance to the pontoon. I see that it's not far away! Looking behind me, I see Mom trying in vain to restrain David from jumping over the edge of our boat to come after me.

He's made it to the swim platform, and I know Mom won't be able to hold him much longer, so I stop swimming for an instant to turn around and shout at my brother. "David! Stay there! I'll take you swimming soon, just stay there!"

He hesitates, then steps back into Mom's arms instead of launching himself off of the back of the boat. Satisfied, I keep swimming towards the pontoon.

Soon, I reach it, and I haul myself up from the water and onto their swim platform. Dripping and panting, I stand there in silence for a second.

The girl and her father rush towards me, hauling me to a seat and giving me a towel. The girl waves her father away and he goes back behind the wheel. He starts the engine again and starts to drive us back towards my mom.

My hands are shaking as I struggle to dry myself. "Here." The words rush out of the girl's mouth, and they're so gentle and kind, I wonder if she's the same girl. "Here. Let me." She takes my towel and dries me off, top to bottom, rubbing softly on my hair.

I watch her, mesmerized by the movement. When she finishes, she tosses the towel away and stares at me. We sit that way for a few seconds, staring into each other's eyes. Then, she breaks the silence. "What's your name?"

I blink twice. Of all the questions I thought she'd ask, What's your name? isn't one of them. Finally, I unglue my wooden lips long enough to say, "Sierra."

She giggles, as if my name amuses her. It's a high-pitched, girly sound and I shiver involuntarily. She smiles and says, "I'm Cleo, nice to meet you."

"Cleo," I whisper to myself, testing the name on my tongue. A blush tints my cheeks. Cleo looks over at me, shamelessly checking me out. I almost gasp aloud as I find myself doing the same to her.

She's wearing a pretty lime green bikini with white stripes running across it, and her hair is falling loose. Her blue eyes seem to sparkle as I stare into them.

"So, why are you here, Sierra?" Cleo asks. I blush. I completely forgot that I did just randomly jump off of my boat and swim over to hers with no explanation whatsoever. I honestly don't know what to say to that, because I'm not sure myself, so I say the first thing that pops into my mind.

"Sorry, I have really poor impulse control."