The Halfseas: Three Missing

Chapter Five

LILY

The sound of people running around and screaming woke me up from my nap. I looked around and saw Leo sitting up as well. We both wiped our faces which had gotten dirty from the desks with our sleeves and looked around. Leo got up from his desk and walked towards the door.

"Should I risk it?" He asked, putting his hand on the doorknob. 

"I don't know. If Mr. Beard's around he could shove us in detention for the rest of our trip." I tell him.

"You thought he had a big beard too?" Leo asked me, chuckling, and opened the door just a crack. The room immediately filled with even more noise. I could hear at least thirty voices, but could only make out a few fragments of what they were saying. "Did the sharks eat him?" I heard someone say. "I hope he's okay," another voice says, sounding conserned.

"What's going on out there?" I asked Leo.

"I have no clue, but I'm going to go see what all of the commotion is about." Leo told me, and got ready to open the door.

Suddenly, the man who had put us in detention opened the door and jumped in. Leo jumped back and pretended to have been looking out the dirty window. 

"What do you think you're doing, talking and standing up? Didn't I tell you that that wasn't allowed in detention!" The man questioned us.

"I was just asking Lily if she knew what was going on out there" Leo said in a serious tone, "You know, with all of that commotion."

"Well, I'll tell you what happened so you troublemakers don't cause something this bad yourselves." The bearded man told us, "Some kid was going swimming and crossed the boundaries during a storm instead of coming back in. The guards are looking for him now, but who knows where he is.  I bet you a hundred bucks that that kid is gone for good. Anyway, that just goes to prove why you don't go crossing boundaries. You should be thankful I put you in detention, or you might have ended up like him."

"What was his name?" I asked, half hoping that it was that Conner kid who Leo had described as an idiot and a jerk.

"Sammy or Samuel or something. Doesn't matter. You won't be seeing him anytime if he gets found because by then he'd be home and never coming back. After something liked this if he ever got back he would certainly be expelled." The man told us and left the room chuckling as he walked.

"Are you still a good swimmer?" Leo asked me, suddenly changing the topic.

"Good, how 'bout you?" I answered.

"I'm like lighting," Leo told me, "My parents won't let me do swim team, but I'm still faster than all of the other kids on my city's team combined."

"Oh. I still do swim team and I'm the fastest out of everyone on mine." I told him, and then added, "Not to brag or anything."

"Are you still faster than the swim coaches?" Leo asked me and I remembered when the swim coaches had had a race with Leo and I back in fourth grade when Leo and I had been on a co-ed swim team. Since we were both just in fourth grade, the coaches started out easy, and then went faster and faster until they were swimming at their fastest. To there suprise, Leo and I were almost twice as fast as them.

"Yeah," I answer Leo's question. Now that I am older, I am even better at swimming then I was in fourth grade.

"I am too," Leo told me, "You know, I don't think that the lifeguards are going to be able to find Sammy or whatever his name is."

"And..." I asked wondering what Leo was getting at.

"And we have a much better chance." Leo said in a matter of factly way.

"What do you mean we have a better chance? Those lifeguards have had a two year training program, a whole lot of testing, experience in the ocean, and they are adults. We are just a couple of eleven year olds who do swim team." I yelled at him. him, "Plus, neither of us have ever swum in the ocean and there are huge waves that could literally kill us."

"Yeah, but we were faster swimmers than the swim coaches in fourth grades, and some of them swam in the Olympics." Leo argued.

"So what, that was in a swimming pool. I bet you've never seen ocean waves. They could crush a person and kill them." I told him.

"They could crush a lifeguard too," Leo told me, and then seeing something added, "Hey, look out the window." Both of us walked over to it and struggled to look through the smudge stains and cob-webs. Leo grabbed the cobwebs and ripped them off, causing a sean outside to come into focus. Three of the lifeguards were walking towards the ocean, hauling a load of rescue supplies. Just bairley, we could them talking.

"Feel sorry for him," The tallest one said, talking about the boy who had gone out of the boundaries.

"Yeah," A shorter one agreed, "Lost to the ocean on his first day of school."

"Well, you know the drill." The third one added as they neared the ocean, "Try to find him. If not, we'll look for the body tomorrow." He sounded emotionless, as though finding a dead body was nothing out of the ordinary.

I couldn't listen to them anymore. My heart was pounding. I looked over at Leo and saw that he had a disgusted expression on his face like I did. 

"Look for the body?" I asked him, "Seriously, if they can't find him they are just going to look for his dead body."

"Yep," Leo said, "Now do you agree we should go look for him?"

"No! If the lifeguards didn't find him, then we probably won't either."

"Still, if I could do something that might help save a person's life, then I would do it. Plus we're good at swimming. I don't want to let him die for nothing." Leo told me. This made me start to change my mind. Afterall, I was a pretty good swimmer, and if I could do something to stop an innocent person from dying, then I would.

"How are we going to get out of here?" I asked Leo.

"So you're in?"

"Yeah. Like you said we don't want someone to die for no reason."

"So, I think the best way to get out of here is to climb out of the window. I'll distract the teachers and then catch up to you." Leo explained.

"Great!" I said, grabbing the book I had found and walking towards the window.

"Hey," Leo asked me, pointing towards the book I was holding. "What are you doing with that? It's going to get wet."

"I told you. It came from the ocean. Nothings going to happen to it.." I explained to him. I knew that it sounded irrational, but for some reason, I was certain about my idea.

"You're just going to mess it up and then we're never going to get to read it," Leo told me.

"No, I'm not." I argued, "Plus we'll find out who's right when I put it in the water. Anyway we can't read it now anyway."

"I wouldn't risk it," Leo told me.

"Don't worry about it. Everything will be fine with it," I assured him, "Anyway, help me open up the window."

The window was rusted shut, so Leo and I had twist the lock around for a long time to get it unstuck. Leo pulled the window open and I climbed out holding the book, immediately finding a hiding spot behind a bush so none of the lifeguards could see me. Then, Leo closed the window behind me and opened the door to the detention room.

"Wish me luck" He called out to me, and ran out of the door.

I waited silently for Leo, hoping that he wouldn't get caught. After it seemed like it had been hours, Leo came running out of the front door, three teachers chasing after him. The three lifeguards I had seen earlier started to run after Leo too, but he was faster than all of them. I sprang out of hiding and sprinted towards Leo. The lifeguards almost grabbed on to him as he started to run through the ocean, but Leo was still faster. I ran into the ocean too catching upto him. The ocean was up to our waists. Leo yelled 1-2-3, and we both dove into the ocean.

Hello to anyone who is reading this. Please comment any suggestions you have or what your favorite part is.
Thank you so much.