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Chapter 8: In Too Deep

Chapter 8: In Too Deep

"It's not too late to turn around," Leban mocks me, watching me hesitantly enter into the freezing cold lake with Jay just in front of me.

"Yes, it is!" I argue for the important sake of arguing. "I'm in too deep! Literally!" I shout at him, my feet no longer touching the soft lakebed. Instead, I'm clinging to Jay's surfboard like a beautiful baby as he pulls me out further.

"You could stand if you let go of the board. We're not even that far from land," Jay says before watching something in the distance. "Incoming wave, dive under," he tells me in nonchalance, unfazed by it.

My eyes widen in bewilderment. "Wait, what? I just got in the water," I state but decide to get into action anyway. I'm a girl of few words.... I immediately lay on my stomach and begin paddling for the wave.

"What are you doing?" I hear Jay ask with an amused chuckle. "You're too late. That wave has broken already."

"Then allow me to break it more!" I shout, refusing to dive under the white bubbles when he does. If we were playing 'Simo Says', I would fail in pride.

"You're using your surfboard the wrong way," Jay warns me, coming up for a breath of air on the other side just as the wave hits me with full force. "You're riding it backward!" Jay hollers after me just as the wave pulls me under.

Suddenly, I'm doing underwater cartwheels, flipped over from side-to-side as the wave continues to tumble over me. Fortunately, I see the light shining through the cold water. When I try to reach the surface, another fierce wave rolls over me. 

It's a good thing I'm made of stone.

I summon up my immense power and kick up toward the white light, convinced I'm dead. However, I let out a breath of relief when my head breaks the surface. To be quite honest, my head feels broken.

I don't even know where the heck Jay's surfboard is. Instead, I find myself lying face-down on the shore. I enjoy the second of peace before feeling the powerful water surging past me, trying to pull me back into its deathly claws.

"She's dead!" I hear Troy yell before feeling his foot softly kick my side as if to make sure. "Finally!" He rejoices.

I lift my head to glare at him, spitting out a mouthful of sand and water before coughing like a lunatic. "I'll kill you," I try to scramble to my feet, limply reaching forward in a futile attempt to grab his ankles and trip him down to my level.

He jumps back and lets out a girly screech. "It's alive!" He squeals again like a four-year-old. "It's also disgusting-looking and covered in algae! I thought mermaids were supposed to be pretty! Told you guys that lake monsters exist!"

"I'll get you!" I slide on my belly, a foot away from him when the water starts to pull me in again, and with more brutality this time. "Oh no, Troy! It's got me!" I panic, stretching out both my hands in front of me, seeking help. "The current is pulling me into my death! The riptide has got me!"

"I will not be taken in with you!" Troy runs back up the shore to the others, leaving me stranded like a beached whale.

"You're literally not even touching the water right now," Leban says before reluctantly grabbing my hands and pulling me further up the shore, allowing me to slide on my stomach like a penguin all the way there. "You're freaken heavy, you know that, right?" He says, leaving me to flop back down in front of my so-called friends who are all laughing at me, not taking me seriously.