New Explorers - 3rd book in "The Island" series

Sunday Night

At exactly 7:30, Annie, Asher, Kenzie, Johnny, Lauren and Hayley were at Klai and Rykel's cabin. Hayley had insisted on being there on the exact second. Hayley knocked on their door. Rykel opened the door while smiling excitedly. "Ready to figure out the mystery of the South Dock?" She asked them. They all nodded silently, except for Hayley who jumped up and squealed. "Why aren't you guys more excited about this!?" She questioned to the rest of the group. Annie rolled her eyes. "Oh! Here's Klai." Rykel announced. Klai appeared beside her sister. "Let's do this." Rykel said happily, mostly to Hayley.
They closed the door behind them, and walked towards the small, round cabin. Rykel forced Klai to knock.
An woman who looked around her mid 60s opened the door. "Hello." She greeted. "Hi, Ms. Kingsteen." Klai replied. "Im Klai, and this is my sister Rykel, our family just bought the cabin here." She explained. "Oh, right! Your mother and father are lovely, it's so nice to meet you. So, what brings you here?" She asked them. "And who are your friends?" Klai smiled. "These are our friends Annie, Asher, Hayley, Johnny, Kenzie and Lauren. And we were wondering if you knew anything about the dock here. We went down to the beach the other day, but we had to climb over a bunch of rocks and it was quite hard to get down and back up. We were looking at some of the old photos of the construction of the dock, and noticed that there used to be stairs..." "back in 1992." Hayley interjected. The woman's smile faded. "Why don't you come inside for a few minutes. I can make us some tea." She told them. Hayley and Lauren met eyes, smiling at how this seemed to always happen, and knowing that the mystery would soon be explained.
As she brought over a tray with a tea pot and some cups and a small box of cookies, Ms. Kingsteen sat down in worn chair, and took a deep breath.
"My husband, son and I moved to this island in 1991, we built this place to crash in until the cabin your family owns now was finished." She said as she looked at Rykel. Ryan went to school over on the other island, the one you can see across the water from here. He had many friends, and often they would hang around here, they liked the solitude, of no stores and very few people, who all seemed to be hidden anyways." She remembered. "One day, when he was about 16, he and a few of his friends decided to dare each other to swim all the way across, over to the other island." Kenzie cringed, starting to catch on to where this was going. "The current is very strong in that spot, and the water gets very cold, very fast." She paused as she swallowed her tea, she closed her eyes for a moment, as if she could see it all in her head, like a movie theatre, that she had trying to get out of for years. "One of his friends came running up here, the other swimming over to him, by the time he got in the water, Ryan was under. We called the coastguard, and they sped over here, after all, they were just across at the island. They sent scuba divers and everything, but by the time they found him, he was gone." She wipes a tear from her eye, and Annie could see her straining to keep herself together. "I begged them to put up a sign or something, they told me that they couldn't remove the ladder off the dock, in case someone fell in. They couldn't remove the dock, because people use it for their boats, but they removed the stairs down the beach, so as to deter people from going down to them beach, and swimming." She finished. "I'm so sorry." Annie said after a few moments. "That's... Alright. After a while you learn to stop thinking about what could've been, because it doesn't change anything, it only makes you more upset." Mrs.Kingsteen explained to them. "Writing that one down." Lauren said under her breath. "I'm so sorry, but thank you so much for telling us, I-I never would've asked if I'd known it was something like this." Rykel told her. Mrs. Kingsteen shook her head. "It's all fine. Now, it's getting late. You kids should be getting back." She told them. "Ugh, we're leaving tomorrow, and then we have to go back to school!" Hayley exclaimed. Mrs. Kingsteen chuckled. "Ah, yes. The end of the summer. Believe me, the next one will come before you know it." "I guess..."
They waved goodbye as they stepped down the stairs. "Well I say we solved that pretty well." Hayley announced. "Not really, Hay. I feel bad for getting into her business like that." Annie said. "It's okay, Annie. I'm sure she gets asked about that kind of thing all the time." Asher tried to comfort her. "Really, Asher? On an island with less than 45 people on it." Annie rolled her eyes. "Maybe they all know each other?" He continued. "Look, man. It's nice and all, but, when it comes to Annie, just leave her alone when she feels bad or upset. I would know." Hayley told him. Asher crosses his arms slowly continued to walk back the cabin.
"Hey guys? Wanna go down to the beach one last night?" Johnny suggested. "Sure, but let's go down the West one, just out of respect, you know?" Lauren replied. They all agreed and walked across over to the hill that led down to the beach.
They watched as the sun set. "I can't believe summer's over." Klai voiced. "Yeah, but, I have a feeling we'll all meet again here, maybe next summer, and it'll all have gone so fast." Hayley told them. "Woah, that's deep." Kenzie said. They all laughed. "I gotta say, I'm really glad we got to meet you guys." Lauren told Klai And Rykel. "Me too." Rykel replied. "So you guys all live in L.A, don't you?" Klai asked. "We do." Kenzie said as she motioned to herself, Asher, Hayley and Annie. "We live in Toronto." Lauren said on behalf of her and Johnny. "It's a shame we won't get to see you guys after tomorrow." Klai told them. "Yeah, you guys have phones though, right?" Johnny questioned. "Yep. Except for when our mom takes them for some 24 challenge." Rykel explained. "What do you mean?" Kenzie asked. "You know, for our YouTube channel." Rykel told them. "The Ohana Adventure." Klai stated. "Awesome! We will all subscribe to that!" Hayley said enthusiastically. "Oh, great." Klai said sarcastically as she smacked her hand to her forehead. "Hey, it's okay. You guys watch Chicken Girls and find my most embarrassing moments in a second in Bratayley." Annie said. They all laughed. "I'm sure you could find basically all of  our embarrassing moments on the internet." Lauren told them. They all laughed once more. "Come on guys, it's getting dark. And we have to leave tomorrow." Asher reminded them. "Oh, Asher. Always the responsible one." Hayley teased. He shook his head and stood up. He offered his hand to Annie and helped her up. Then they all walked back to their cabins.