Miss Marvelous: Chaotic Summer

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” I hollered, jogging down Stonehouse Lane with my Australian shark towel and my puffy dark blue life jacket in my pool flip flops.

It’s a hot Friday afternoon and after playing basketball with the boys (James, Kyle and Brody), they invited me to go tubing with them on West Lake.

Of course I said yes, because I love to go tubing and because I need to cool off from sweat dripping heat.

“What took you so long?” asked James, as he was carrying a giant three seater couch tube over his head with both hands, once I caught up with the boys.

“Sorry, I thought I lost my bathing suit, but I forgot that I hung it on the drying rack outside my trailer” I apologized, walking in pace with James.

“That’s understandable. Sometimes we focus on the big things so much that we forget about the little things”.

Within a couple of minutes, me and the boys arrived at Kyle’s uncle Dave’s boat dock, where he and Kyle’s young sister were waiting for us.

The four us slipped on our life jackets (I was already wearing mine) and took off our flip flops, before each of us stepped carefully into the expansive white speed boat with 200 horsepower.

Once aboard, I tucked my towel, flip flops and cover up in a small storage space under the cushion of my seat, while everyone else was deciding who should get on first.

“Can I go alone first?” piped up the younger girl who looked like she was in grade 6, pleading to her uncle.

“Oh alright, since no one else is volunteering to go first, you may-” uncle Dave glanced at the three boys before looking at Kyle’s sister again.

“-But then Vanessa and the boys get to go next”.

Carly jumped onto the floating couch tube on the water’s surface, before uncle Dave started the boat engine and began to tow the tube behind it.

What felt like a half an hour of pulling the tube in slow circles and watching a laughing kid be launched into the air with a smile from ear to ear, was only a fifthteen minute ride.

After Carly crawled back into the boat, it was now time for me and the boys to go on.

I claimed the middle seat, since it’s the best spot to sit if you don’t want to fly off the side (unless you’re a big person).

James sat in the seat to my right and Kyle sat in the other to my left.

Since there were only 3 seats, Brody had to stay in the boat to be the spotter.

Once settled in our seats, the boat motor roared back to life and the couch tube started to glide across the sparkling glassy surface of the lake.

Then uncle Dave began to do all kinds of crazy turns from figure eights to a wrecking ball, including going over our own waves.

Everything felt right for once.

I laughed with my friends as the tube skipped across the surface, with the rough water hurting our gluteus maximuses as we glided across it.

Then, an unexpected huge wave came underneath us and hit the tube hard, sending the three of us soaring off of it.

As we all were tumbling down fast towards the lake water (with me being closest to it since I’m a lot smaller than James and Kyle), my right wrist was the first part of me to hit the water and out of nowhere a thick layer of ice formed on top of the water.

I smacked down onto the cold (and refreshing) ice as I heard the boat motor die and the ice completely covered the entire lake within a matter of seconds.

I landed on the ice back first, but I shifted my weight as I slid; So I wouldn’t badly injure it.

James did the same, except when he was sliding he collided into me and we both rolled a few meters until we stopped, with him accidently laying on top of me.

We both stared at each other with wide eyes before James apologized, got off of me and helped me up to my feet.

The ice was a good way to cool me down, but staying on it in one place for too long made me shiver.

Once James helped Kyle up, together we walked to the speed boat, which froze in an upright angle, with the nose pointing up towards the sky.

“Wow, ice on a hot summer day!” exclaimed Carly as he leaned over the edge of the boat, sticking out her hand to touch the cold surface.

“So cool!“.

“No, it is not cool. My four thousand dollar speed boat is trapped in ice that’s not even supposed to be here until the winter. What’s mother nature even thinking!?!? This boat isn’t-“.

While Dave was blabbing his mouth off, I climbed back into the boat to grab my towel, cover up and flip flops from under my seat when I noticed that I was wearing the ice diamond bracelet.

Did I accidently freeze the lake? I thought, as I passed by James and Kyle, before I put on my foot wear and stepped out onto the slippery ice.

“I’m going to head back to my trailer, I’ll catch you guys later” I said to the boys before I turned the opposite direction and began to walk away.

“Wait Vanessa, you’re not going to stay and wait until the ice melts?” asked James, as he leaned over the side of the boat.

“No, I rather not” I sighed, turning back to face him.

“I’ve got...some other things I need to do, but I’ll see you later,” I said, waving them goodbye before I started to walk back to the dock.

I certainly don’t want to wait since the ice is unmeltable I thought, remembering some of the research I’ve done on the bracelet.

It didn’t take very long to get back to the land, since Dave didn’t drive too far away from the dock.

Once I stepped onto the shore, I almost forgot to take a piece of ice with me to show my dad.

I bent down over the edge of the frozen water and reached out to break a piece off when the area below my hovering hand was, began to crack.

I stopped my hand when it was only a few inches above the ice and paused, until the thick ice stopped cracking.

Then I dug my fingernails down into the cracks and pulled up a small piece of ice, about the size of a small mason jar.

From there I continued to walk back to Buchanan road, where I can change back into my clothes in my trailer

Later I arrived at the SRC Center in my casual clothes; A t-shirt and black jean shorts., along with the ice sample zipped up in a zip lock bag in a small red cooler (so that my dad wouldn’t question me on how I brought the ice sample successfully without it melting along the way).

I took the elevator up to the first floor and looked in the computer area, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Excuse me sir, do you know where I can find Mr. Riverock?” I asked, tapping the shoulder of a tall muscular man standing in front of a large printer. He turned to me and asked if I had checked his workspace first.

“Yes I did”.

“Did you check the basement?” asked the man, raising an eyebrow at me.

There’s a basement???I thought, before responding with “No I haven’t; I’ll check there now”.

I speed walked back to the elevator and the button to go down to the basement.

My foster dad never told me about the basement. I wonder what they keep down there. Maybe old files or antique things or-.

When the elevator door opened, in front of me was what seemed like an endless hallway, with large bedroom sized cages lined up on both sides.

Echoing through the hallway, was low groans and growls.

“Hello? Is anyone down here?” I called out, cautiously walking out of the elevator and began to descend down the hallway.

No response, just the strange low pitches echoing from inside the cages

Out of curiosity, I peered into one of the cages to see what animals they cooped up in there.

At first I didn’t see anything because of how dark it was in the cage itself, but then eight red small eyes beamed at me, before a muscular humanish arm with long curly fingernails shot out, attempting to grab me.

I instantly yelped and jumped back, before pivoting around in one spot to see my dad.

“Vanessa, what are you doing down here?!?!“.