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CHARLOTTE Well?!
Anais is reminded and turns to a stack of posterboard cards next to her. She shuffles through them until she find the ones she wants and holds up Charlotte's score...
As Charlotte pulls herself out of the pool and wraps a towel around herself, she doesn't take her eyes off Anais whose gestures communicate Charlotte's imperfection more than adequately...CHARLOTTE Nine-point-nine?! What was wrong with it?!
Anais throws her towel onto the chaise and races up the steps of the diving board. As she stands and collects herself, imitating Charlotte's technique for self-composure , she is unaware of the look of pure joy in Charlotte's eyes as the young woman watches her protoge with a great deal more affection than the average coach would have. Clearly, she adores the girl who is not only poised to dive into the deep end of the Cliff's Olympic-sized pool, but also into the deepend of her impending adolescence. Charlotte is torn between the critical pride of a well-pleased teacher and the reflexive fear of a protective guardian as Anais fearlessly executes a complicated dive. It needs work, but Charlotte is already holding up a "10" by the time Anais' head breaks the water.CHARLOTTE Oh... a little overlap on my feet. Okay. I'll work on it. Now it's your turn.
CHARLOTTE A perfect dive to end a perfect day's work. C'mon... let's go in and change.
Upstairs, in Charlotte's suite of rooms within the mansion, she is just finishing braiding Anais' hair.
Anais looks curiously at this woman whose generosity to her has always been enormous.CHARLOTTE I have a present for you.
CHARLOTTE It's something special, but I checked with Lizzie and Maud first to make sure it was okay with them...
Anais nods approvingly. She and Charlotte both know that Anais' foster mothers have been known to disapprove of their friend's limitless benificence toward their daughter. The girl accepts the box Charlotte hands her and carefully unwraps it to find a velevt jewel box within. She snaps open the box and beholds a beautiful necklace on a gold chain.
CHARLOTTE It's Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. I bought it in Greece ten years ago. It's always reminded me of you and now you're old enough to wear it yourself.
It is an exceptionally piece and the girl, whose sensitivity to all things has always been acute, is moved to tears by the beauty of the brooch, but even more by the love expressed in the giving of the gift. As soon as Charlotte has fastened the clasp around Anais' neck,the girl spins around to throw her arms around her benefactor. They hug one another hard and Charlotte whispers to the girl...
Anais pulls back, though not out of Charlotte's embrace, and signs a reminder that her birthday isn't for a month. Exactly a month...CHARLOTTE Happy Tenth Birthday, sweetheart.
The girl's sincere and tight hug says "Thanks" and bespeaks Anais' genuine love which is, judging from the tears streaming into the woman's smile, all that Charlotte really wants from life.CHARLOTTE Well, that's when we've always celebrated it since that's the date we found you. But I just had this feeling today. You know, after your dive and all, it just seemed to be a perfect 10 kind of day...? Anyway, this way you get two birthdays instead of one. August 19th with me and September 19th with the rest of the world. What do you say?
