Only You

Chapter 3- The Leap

As we neared the first proper rapid, Frankie taught us how to sit down in the boat when he told us to, but not on this next rapid. We paddled normally until he gave us some commands, like left forward, right backward, all forward, stop!

On the first rapid, our raft got stuck on a rock and Frankie had to get out and push us down, the raft behind us getting nearer.

Our raft went through rapid number two easily enough, bashing into the wall only once. To be fair, it was Justin's fault that time, whenever he talked, he'd stop paddling, and he talked a lot.

Now, we'd come to a halt in a small lake area surrounded by trees, little blue dragonflies buzzing over our heads, birds soaring through the canyons above, everyone laughing about India's pretend posh accent. 'Everyone, listen, two more rapids then done, no more,' Frankie grinned.

'Rapid number three, normal, just listen to me, but rapid number four however,' Frankie stared ahead thoughtfully. 'I tell you all to sit down. When I do that, you all sit in the raft and make sure your paddle is out of the water and still held in both hands. Okay? Okay!'

Then we were off down rapid number 3, a slow paced rapid that splashed everyone on the right side. Luckily, I was sat to the left, so remained quite dry. Then we continued to rapid number four, where we all began rowing normally.

'Right side backwards, left side stop!' yelled Frankie over the sound of the roaring water. I heard a distant splash and wondered what it was. I began paddling again when Frankie called, 'All forward!'

We were all awaiting the sit down command now as we bobbed down the violent rapids. 'Sit down!' Frankie called out and we all slid slowly off the seats and crouched down, lifting our paddles out of the water.

The waves splashed into the raft and filled up the bottom of the vehicle, getting quite alarmingly high up. 'Ooh, my bum's freezing!' yelled India, echoing everyone else's thoughts. We all laughed and sat back up when Frankie told us to.

The slow forward paddling continued until we stopped the boat at the side of another wide clearing in the trees, the water more refreshing than before. There was a long queue of people waiting to jump off a high rock jutting over the edge of an area of water that Frankie informed us was 15 metres deep, the rock its self only 5m above the surface.

'So, who wants to jump?' Frankie smiled and a few people put their hands up. Justin, India, Grace, Isaac, Imogen and I all let our hands fly into the air and we got off the boat. The climb to the top over jagged rocks in river shoes and heavy, wet clothes was difficult, especially with the extreme heat.

But we all got there, nobody backed out like we could see some people from the boat in front of us, including the grumpy Hungarians, doing. We all queued up, Grace, then me, then Justin followed by Isaac, India and Imogen.

My mum looked up from below nervously as Grace prepared to jump. She looked like she was about to turn back when Justin yelled something from behind us. 'Come on Grace, you can do it!' he called out, then started counting down for her to jump. 'Five, four...' More people joined in with the countdown. 'Three, two...' by the time we were almost at the end of the countdown, everyone had joined in. 'One!'

Grace didn't really have a choice after all the build-up, so she closed her eyes and step off the edge, splashing into the water below and giving me a thumbs up.

So I stepped up to the edge and curled my toes over the rock, staring into the black water below me. 'You don't need a countdown too, do you?' Justin mocked. I shook my head and looked around for support, seeing Ollie getting out of his raft and grinning at me.

'You can do this!' he yelled, and I smiled back, jumping off the edge. After a few more minutes of hyping everyone else up then watching them jump, everyone bobbed in the water a bit longer, chatting and laughing like we'd been friends for years.

When we were told to climb back on to our rafts, I made sure to hang behind, so I didn't have to sit anywhere near the adults. When I stepped closer to the raft, I felt something soft and stringy on my feet. 'Ugh,' I shuddered. 'I hate seaweed.'

Seconds later, as I was still climbing onto the raft, struggling to keep my balance as I made my way over a slippery rock, a wet blob of something soft and stringy hit me on the back of the neck, sliding down under my life jacket.

I fished it out, looking around for the culprit and saw Ollie grinning. I threw the seaweed into the water and climbed back onto the boat, still annoyed from earlier. I'd get him back at some point. I had to.

The rafts set off downstream once again, and Frankie instructed us to get changed and get on the transport back to Omiš as soon as quickly as we could once we arrived at the rafting centre, where he assured us everything would be waiting for us.

This time, nothing was awkward, and conversation was easy. India was already talking to her dad about everyone meeting up after they'd eaten lunch. Everyone on our raft agreed with this idea and all the parents were okay with it too.

When we arrived, we had to carry the raft and help lift it on top of the van, which everyone found difficult. Then people headed off into the tiny changing rooms to get ready. Once the whole group was ready, we all piled into the coach, Imogen, India, Isaac, Ollie and I piling onto the back row.

India told Maisie, Ella, Ollie and Tim the idea to meet up at the place where we all had breakfast at 4 o'clock, and they all agreed. We talked about what we'd do when we got there. 'Isaac, you need to bring Dwan, okay?' India reminded her brother and we all laughed.

When the coach stopped at the car park near to the holidays office and everyone went back to stand with their families, everyone asked their parents if meeting up was okay. When we met up, we all needed to bring our phones to make a group chat of all of us.

Every parent said yes, and we all headed to the local shop together to get some supplies for lunch. The family with the two older boys said they wouldn't come, but the family where the girl didn't show up to rafting would come.

Everyone got what they needed for lunch and walked back to their apartments. We found out that we were in the same apartment building as the Rhodes family, and we hadn't seen them there before now somehow.

For lunch we at chorizo sandwiches, nothing fancy, then sat out on the balcony drinking a bottle of Pipi that we bought as a joke but actually turned out to be delicious.

I scrolled through social media and saw my two best friends had posted a tonne of photos of them on a beach trip together and tried not to be jealous. After all, they weren't the ones who got to go to Croatia.

I didn't know how, but I already had a feeling that this was going to be the best holiday in my life.