Though she'd had no brothers to guilt into getting her way, Tara was good at pouting. She was the best at pouting. In her opinion, anyway. Probably soon to be John's opinion as well.
As soon as John began pitying her (and looked as disarmed as he did in that exact moment), Tara knew that her opportunity had come to bring the tide back over to her side.
"Ha-HA!" she yelled as she chucked her second-to-last balloon at John. Without any further ammunition in her fantastic towel fort, the decision was easy to make a run for it. She turned and took off in a quick walk out of her fort and down the side of the pool.
After all, you aren't allowed to run on the pool deck. That's rule number one of swimming.