The Dark Zone

Chapter 2: Summer Vacation

"Yay! Alisa! Alisa! Hurry down the slide!" shouted my little brother. "Don't be scared, it's not that high"

Shut up Timothy, people might start to stare at me.

It's so embarrassing that my little brother is more fearless that I when it comes to these things. Sure I loved the water; sure the age gap wasn't that big-sixteen to fourteen- he's only two years younger than me.  Therefore, I should be able to master this water slide in no time.

So with new found determination, I went down the slide and regretted every second of it, at least for the first two times, it felt as though my stomach was going to fall out. This is exactly why I hated heights.  I closed my eyes and covered my nose as I made contact with the  pool.

Swimming over to me while grinning,  Timothy asked, "See? That wasn't so bad was it?"

"No...not really. In fact, let's go down again! :D"

My brother and I spent most of that day playing and laughing in the pool. My mother and little sister, Alana, relaxed by the poolside splashing around water with their feet.

Alana was not feeling too well at the time, so she missed out on the fun Timothy and I had that year...before it all changed.

Later that day, the entire family went out for dinner - junk food style. Pizzas on top of pizzas, with breadsticks.
After that we went for a short stroll near the hotel where we were staying and we ended the night with a movie.

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"Hurry up kids" my mom's voice echoed across the hotel room.
It was coming down to the day we all waited for - a visit to the beach. My best friend, Meena , calls me a mermaid, because I love swimming and playing in the water every chance I got.

Walking out dressed in short pants and a jersey, I turned to my mother giving her a thumbs up,"Ready to hit the road; oh and p.s. I'm not a kid anymore"

My mother laughed, eyed my jersey with a smug look and said, "Sure..says the girl wearing a Pokémon jersey."

"I'd have you know that Squirtle is an amazing Pokémon and that's nothing to be ashamed of," I folded my arms and pouted at her.

Timothy then joined in the convo with his matching jersey, "I agree with Alisa, high five sis". We high fived and started to sing the Pokémon theme song.

Finally giving in, my mom replied, "Ok, ok I get it. Squirtle's  just the cutest and greatest there is. Now, you can sing at the beach; your father and sister are already downstairs waiting. Let's go."

The beach was beautiful as always, people were everywhere and the water, refreshing as always.
Untill it ends up in your mouth, that is.
After swimming around, I felt a bit hungry and decided to go on a food hunt.

I was basically all alone; since my brother ditched me to go find new beach buddies, something he does every year.

My little sister was building sandcastles with mom, and dad disappeared to the bar to watch sports. 'I cannot afford to miss this game; I'll be back as soon as it's finished, I promise' Yea right I thought to myself. Whether his team wins or loses, he'd stay either to celebrate the win or to  debate how they lost.

Finally reaching my destination - the hot dog stand - I was forced to fight my way through the crowd, and get my hot dog, only to have it knocked out of my hands by a stupid volleyball.

"Ugh!" I shouted looking around for who'll come for the ball. Searching for the ball, I was angry and out for blood now.

"Sorry sorry sorry! I-I'll buy another one for you...it was an accident" said a panicking voice, "my cousins forced me to play..I-I didn't mean to...um, Alisa?"

Hearing my name I looked up from my angry search session and realized who the voice belonged to, "oh my goodness! Nicholas, I can't believe it. What are 'you' of all people doing by the beach?" I gave him a tight hug out of excitement.

Nicholas was my then friend and classmate during art classes; usually we'd hang out together and talk about the latest anime shows. He spends most of his time indoors either drawing, playing online games or watching anime, so seeing him out here really shocked me.

"A-Alisa, you're crushing my lungs," Nicholas finally managed to choke out.

Laughing I released him for my killer hug, "Sorry about that, I'm just so excited that you're actually playing an outdoor game!"

Giving me a weak laugh, he replied sarcastically, "Whoopie, so much fun;you can thank my cousins for that", looking over the volleyball section I see a mixture of boys and girls waving at us.

I pat him on the back, "There, there you troubled soul. Want me to get you out of playing with them?"

Nicholas' face lit up like a child on Christmas morning, "Yes! Please, anything!" He looked at me, then to the sky,  "Thank God for me hitting down your hotdog."

"Um...about that," my stomach growled a bit, "you still need to buy it back."

Bowing towards me he said, "Why of course, your Highness."

We returned the ball, then went back to the hot dog stand and stuffed our faces. Afterwards, we strolled the beach looking for shells.

"So, how long have you been here, Nick? "

"Only for about two days now. My aunt lives not too far from here, so my cousins made it their duty to get me out of the house today." He sighed.

"You're so lucky to have family living near the beach! Imagine getting to swim almost every weekend, if possible every afternoon; I'm jealous."

"That's not anything to be jealous about. Besides, I don't even know how to swi-"

Cutting him, I dropped my shells and exclaimed loudly "What?!" A few people looked around at us.

A bit embarrassed at all the attention, I covered my mouth and give the folks a shy wave. I  turned to Nick, "I can't believe you were about to say that!"

He laughed at me a bit then said "I was only speaking the truth though, I just never found the time to learn how."

I looked at my invisible watch and said, "well...you have plenty of time soo, want to learn how to swim right now? "

Backing away from me, he said "Alisa no...I'm not."

"But th-"

Shaking his head he immediately refused, "No no no no no no"

Smirking I said, "You know I think I recall a certain someone saying 'Yes! Please! Anything! ' a few minutes ago."

"The past is in the past; let bygones be bygones, please?" He begged.

"Hmm...you know what you're right", I agreed with him "I shouldn't be asking you to do something you don't want to, I'm sorry."

"R-really?" He said in total disbelief, I nodded yes to him, "honestly Alisa I'm shocked right now at how understanding you're bei-"

"That's why I'm not asking, you're going to learn to swim by force!" I quickly grabbed his hands and head straight towards the water.

That day my father showed up in time to snap a picture of me teaching Nicholas how to swim on summer vacation...

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Greetings folks

Updates every Tuesday night (idk what hour it'll be for you folks though). So unless something happens to the author's Internet access (or the author :p), look forward to Tuesdays (aka Monday's equally-annoying twin sister)

☆SD☆ out :)