The Lost Pirate

Chapter Thirteen - The Lake

Lara POV

Liam had stopped whittling some time later and had invited me and a couple other boys on a walk with him; Peter, Felix and Ace. I of course agreed, being bored out of my damn mind, so did the other three boys and so we set off on our walk to god knows where.

I spotted a pretty looking flower and crouched down to pick it up, causing the boys to stop walking and look at me. The flower had pink and purple petals, which was weird because aren't flowers normally one colour? I could practically feel Peter smirking at me,

"That's not a normal flower, love. Nothing here is normal, haven't you noticed?" He suddenly started speaking, making me jump slightly.

"Yeah. I've noticed." I plucked the flower out of the ground and smelled it, it smelled.. weird. Nothing like any flower I've smelt before.

"Odd." I stood back up fully and they continued walking, Peter still had his damn smug smirk on his face.

We got to a small lake, the water was a mix of light blues and greens, there were multi coloured flowers in bunches, with tall grass surrounding the outskirts of the lake, I could hear the crickets' obnoxious chirping, butterflies and bees were swarming the flowers, it was beautiful.

"Woah" I muttered to myself, Felix snickered before running towards the lake, jumping in. His jump disrupted the animals surrounding the lake, I rolled my eyes at him and sat around the edge of the lake.

The other three boys jumped in after him, effectively splashing me. I let out the girliest shriek and the boys started laughing at me.

"Boys.." I spoke barely above a whisper, but I knew they could hear me.

"What?" Liam asked, clearly not getting what I was saying.

"Nothing, Liam." I chuckled softly and Peter and Ace started walking in the water towards me, my stupid self thought they was just going to get out, but they both grabbed one of my wrists and dragged me into the water.

My head went under and on instinct I tried to inhale, effectively filling my lungs with water and panicking.

I felt arms wrap around my waist and lifting my top half out of the water, water was in my eyes and I couldn't breathe, choking and coughing like crazy, I could hear the boys talking but I wasn't really paying attention.

After I could breathe again I wiped the water out of my eyes and exhaled heavily, hiccuping for literally no reason.

"You good there?" Peter spoke, removing his arms from my waist.

"I'm great. Totally.." I rubbed my eyes again, my throat was burning and scratchy, very uncomfortable.

I looked around, noticing the other boys were staring at me, I felt myself go red, turning away and covering my face.

I walk-swam back to the edge of the lake, pulling myself out and still breathing heavily. I laid down on the grass, basking in the sunlight.

The boys started playing in the water, splashing and tackling each other. I sat up and looked at them, physically offended that they'd even pulled me in in the first place.

Peter turned to me and smirked, "You'll live, princess."

I cringed at yet again another weird pet name. "I know I will, still annoyed that you tried to drown me though." I smiled back at him.

He rolled his eyes and went back to playing with his boys, being honest it was nice seeing them playing, especially Peter. He's stone-cold. It's ridiculous, really.

"You coming?" Ace turned to me, I glared at the audacity of him,
"Fuck no." I laid back down and he chuckled.

"Cmon, we won't try drown you again, promise."

I sat up, again. I mumbled a 'fine' before sliding back into the water, I think Liam nudged Ace but I didn't really care, nor did I know why he even did it.

I walk-swam over to them, they shared a look.
Oh god. Was all I could even think before a huge wave of water hit me, I fell back but quickly regained my balance, wiping my eyes I soon realised it was them that had caused the wave, more so Peter. Considering waves don't exist in a fucking lake.

I glared at them all, turning around to go back to the edge.
I felt a hand wrap around my wrist, pulling me back toward them.

I turned my head, it was Felix. I raised an eyebrow, deadass expecting it to be ANYONE else.

"Excuse you?" I pulled my hand out of his grip. "What are yous even doing." I looked to them,

"We're just playing, a game a girl clearly can't handle" Ace smirked. Damn I feel targeted right now.

My glare fixed on Ace, "What. Game."
The boys whistled at me, all except for Ace.

"Nothing in particular, just with the water." He replied, the tension was visible.

"Sure." I wadded away from Felix and to the rest of them.

I wasn't going to be the one to tell them I couldn't swim, but that wasn't a necessary detail, was it?

Peter breathed out a laugh, to which I sighed.

"What?" Liam looked at him, "Lara here can't swim." Peter smirked at me, the rest of the boys starting to laugh.

I let out a groan, turning red for probably the 80th time today.

"No worries, this game doesn't include swimming. Let's just hope you know how to not drown." Liam spoke, still softly laughing.

I waded over to him, the lake getting gradually deeper, treading on my toes before I tackled him under.
He flipped me off him and I let out a screech, he stood up and so did I.. eventually.

They started laughing at me again, and frankly I was getting sick of it.
"Right that's it I'm going back to camp." I huffed before realising my feet weren't touching the bottom of the lake anymore, god knows how I was still afloat.

I looked down at my feet and blinked twice, eventually clocking that I couldn't get out of the spot I was currently in.

Great. Just what I need right now.

"You going back to camp or..?" Liam and the rest of the boys looked at me confused, all except for Peter. He was staring at me with his GOD.DAMN.SMIRK on his face.

"Y'know I quite like this spot." I was softly moving my feet below me, trying to not panic and ruin the floating.

"She's stuck."

Peter I swear. He just laughed at me before walking in the water towards me, grabbing my hand and pulling me to where my feet would touch the bottom.

I looked at him for a moment, purely surprised at the fact he didn't just leave me there.
"Thanks..?" I smiled awkwardly at him before wading over to the edge and climbing out again,

It took me about 3 seconds tops before I realised I had absolutely no idea where I was going.

"Um." I turned to face them, they were still staring at me. "Just follow the path to your left, it'll take you to camp." Ace spoke, I nodded and followed the path I was instructed to follow.

About 5 minutes later I heard rustling in some bushes near me, I turned to face them, doing the most stereotypical thing ever;

"Who's there?"

My father walked out.

Hey, I'm alive lmao. I thought I'd give y'all a chapter but this doesn't mean I'm gonna be back to my normal updates, sorry if there's any disappointment. Love you all!!

26th August 2023