❝ when i looked at her, things
looked normal to me. the smile
on our faces were inextricable
from our young souls. i could
say that i was stupid to not ask
about her more personal life. ❞
I made my grip tight on the branch and peered at the bottom of the lake to see if I was getting far on the bottom. Beside me, Camila was giggling because she accidentally let two cans with ropes and branches fall out of her grasp. I laughed with her. I taught her how to hold it properly without having to be clumsy and I was glad that she got the hang of it.
I felt the can reach the bottom for it wouldn't go anymore lower. “Yes! Now I'll have to drag it!”
Camila turned her head to me and smiled, too. She pulled the handle closer to her chest and looked to my side of the lake and saw that it was far enough below and she looked very excited.
“That's great! Keep going, Y/N!” Her high-pitched voice made me laugh and I followed her instructions and went around the lake, dragging the stick around with a rope and I was glad that it didn't break, her father must've been working hard to get a good quality rope like this one that Camila brought. At one point, the can on the bottom of the lake got stuck and I was able to retrieve it back.
When I finished one round around the lake, stopping at Camila's left—I pulled the can up and Camila silently watched me but I knew that she couldn't hold in all of her squeals. Once I got it up, the can had a few dirt and a ton of coins. Those coins were from the ones who visited the forest. They threw in coins for whatever reason they did for.
“Camila, look!” I was so excited and overjoyed. I was so happy. So young. So happy.
She looked at it with wide eyes. “My turn now!”
She ran around the lake the same way I did and it surprised me that she hasn't gotten the can stuck on a pile of dirt down below. It took her longer than I did, though. After that, she ended up beside me as she tried catching up with her breath. She pulled the can up at the surface and she collected more coins than I did.
“You did great! Let's clean it.”
