Prank Date [✔]

Part 14

Apples bobbed up and down in the water. Four women and one man knelt in front of the pool.

"Would you hold this for a second?" Lisa handed me her saber.

Nikki pushed Lisa down between two of the women, and someone tossed her a pair of handcuffs, which she snapped shut around Lisa's wrists, shackling them behind her back.

"Is that really necessary?" I asked, still watching Lisa. "If she or one of the others falls in ..."

"Oh, don't worry." Nikki pointed at the guests standing directly behind the contestants, hovering with their hands just above the kneeling people's shoulders. "They will keep an eye on them. And I'll keep an especially close eye on Lisa." She winked at me.

It seemed Lisa's relationship with Nikki wasn't all in the past.

"Ready?" Nikki asked, looking at the six contestants.

They leaned forward with their hands cuffed behind their backs and bent over the swimming pool.

"Go!" Nikki shouted and clapped her hands. Chaos broke out.

Water splashed. A few drops hit me in the face.

All around me, women screamed and whistled, each rooting for a friend or girlfriend.

Jesus. I took a step back.

A few of the contestants tried to snag an apple without getting their faces wet, but Lisa dove in with her whole head. She caught an apple between her teeth, but when she tried to lift it out of the water, the apple slipped out of her grasp.

"Deanna!" someone shouted next to my ear. "Come on, you can beat her!"

I nearly whacked her with the saber. "Lisa!" I shouted in encouragement.

Lisa came up, a green apple clenched between her teeth.

A loud cheer erupted from my mouth, and I pressed my hand against my lips.

The other contestants battled for second place.

Hands still bound, Lisa stumbled to her feet and spat out the apple. Her bandana dripped with water.

Someone handed me a towel, and I stepped up to Lisa without hesitation.

"Come here. You're a mess." I pulled up Lisa's eye patch, untied the soaked bandana, and rubbed the towel over Lisa's hair, which fell into her face in wet curls.

Lisa bent her head and held still.

"You're really competitive. Did anyone ever tell you that?" I shook my head. "I don't think you're supposed to dive in with your entire head."

"It's the best technique," Lisa mumbled from beneath the towel. "You need to push the apple against the bottom of the pool to get a good grip on it."