SMOSH THROUGH TIME: The Exciting Middle Part (Book Two)

Chapter Seven - Follow the Leader

Ian Hecox

We were suspended in midair, my hands firmly grasping the boy's red shirt. A bright orange light came from the sky, an awesome and peaceful view, then a gust of cold wind blew against my face, giving me shivers. The images of houses grew larger, we were landing.

"Ian?" The kid coughed, "You're choking me." I noticed that I tugged on his shirt so hard that the collar went to his neck.

"Oh sorry." I let go of his shirt, but I realized that my hands were still cuffed. Wrong decision, idiot.

I fell, but my yells were cut short as the kid caught me by my left foot, holding me upside-down. Again.

"IAN!" Anthony panicked and he quickly drove the car faster down.

But then I felt my foot slipping off. "Oh No! NO NO!" I screamed as my foot slowly slipped off my shoe.

"Whoa!" The kid exclaimed, "Hold on!"

"HOW CAN I HOLD ON WHEN I'M CUFFED?!" I shouted back.

And then, POP! There goes my foot.

"NOOOOO!" Anthony let out the loudest yell he had as I fell headlong back to the earth. The images of houses grew bigger, there was no stopping it. This is it, I closed my eyes, scared to look at where I was gonna hit.

Then a wet feeling covered my entire body.

Water.

I opened my eyes and water came rushing in, preventing me from seeing clearly, I was swimming in it. My foot touched the very bottom: it was made of tiles. Some water got into my mouth and I tasted chlorine: a pool.

I was relieved that this pool was here or Anthony would have been scraping my remains from the pavement.

My lungs were running out of breath, I kicked on the tiled floor and swam upwards with my cuffed hands struggling to pull myself to the top. My head rose to the surface, and I took in a huge gasp of air. My hair ended up covering my eyes, I parted them with my hands to be able to see through, it was a backyard swimming pool.

I felt a pull on my pants below, and before I knew it I was back underwater, something was pulling on my pants, I was hooked on something. I tried swimming away from it, but it was too powerful. It pulled me back to the surface, feet first.

"Look, Benny Jean! I caught a live mermaid!" I heard someone say. My view was upside down, my arms and my unhooked leg hanging like a ragdoll. I shook the water from my head and looked at the man: he was wearing faded a cap on his head, blue jeans, army boots, a blue vest and a long sleeved camouflage shirt underneath.

Another guy entered the scene, this one I recognized easily, a man with a pink lawn flamingo in his arms, Benny Jean, Anthony's former movie partner.

"What is it Cletus?" Benny Jean asked.

"Look, a Mermaid!" This Cletus guy pointed to me, Benny Jean looked at me.

"M-mermaid? I'm a man." I said.

"More like an underwater mushroom!" He laughed, "—wait, you look familiar, it's Lan, right?"

"It's IAN." I sighed. Why do some people misread my name as 'Lan'?! I mean, come on, it has those little horns on the side to make it look like the letter 'I'.

Benny Jean slapped Cletus. "You idiot, that's not a mermaid! Let him down." He commanded. Cletus fumbled his fishing rod and pressed a button, dropping me back in the water. I swam to the gutter and climbed out of the pool, "What are you doing in my pool?" Benny Jean questioned my sudden appearance.