Miss Marvelous: Chaotic Summer

Chapter 11

  "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.