Once a year, to celebrate their graduation, every single senior attending Montgomery High School goes to The Lake. It's a day of glorious fun, a swimming race to the island and the world's biggest chicken fight, followed by a night of camping under...
The traditional chicken fight at the island isn't like any other. Rather than being just two couples in a ring, every single couple enters the water, and there's just a massive scrum. Last couple standing wins - but couples who fall can just get back on each other's shoulders and start again, so it can go on indefinitely.
It sounded ridiculously fun.
"Coming?" said Noah, and I followed him to where all the other couples are gathering. The sandy beach was gently sloped, going for nearly 25 metres before it got too deep to walk. It was a perfect venue for chicken fights.
"Ready?" Noah asked, and I nodded.
He knelt down and I climbed onto his broad shoulders, trying my hardest to touch as little as him as possible. Not touching him whilst sitting on his shoulders proved to be difficult.
He suddenly rose to his feet, and I let out an involuntary shriek. He snorted with laughter.
I was used to being pretty high up, at nearly 5"10, but Noah must've be at least 6"2 and suddenly I found myself miles up in the air. I'm pretty sure I must've be heavy as well, especially compared to the tiny, skinny cheerleaders around us, but he showed no sign of strain.
The loudspeaker boomed again, "PLEASE BE AWARE THE THE CHICKEN FIGHT WILL BEGIN IN THIRTY SECONDS. PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY INTO THE WATER."
Noah moved off at a light jog, and I had to clutch at his head to stay on board. His hands wrapped around my calves, anchoring me. I wished I'd spent more time at the gym, working up some core muscles. But I never really saw the point of gyms. I had a perfectly good rowboat, bicycle and pair of feet, why did I need a rowing machine, stationary bike and treadmill? It was much prettier outdoors.
But anyway, engaging core muscles. Pretend you have a six-pack like Noah's.
Wait- Noah has a six-pack?
Yep. Drool-worthy.
Why were you looking at Noah's abs anyway??!
umm...
Ignoring my inner dialogue, I turned my attention to the couples around us. They were all a good head shorter than us, probably my fault. The average height for a woman was 5"5, I was definitely weirdly tall. Still, it was useful for things like climbing, so I wasn't complaining.
"EVERYBODY, GET READY! THE FIGHTS BEGIN..... NOW!!!"
The couple beside us charged. I almost fell off Noah's shoulders in the first five seconds, but just regained my balance and grabbed the other girl's arm. She shoved at me, but a twist had her falling. The look on her face as she tumbled was hilarious.
"Good work!" called Noah, and I felt a massive grin spread across my features. But we didn't have long to celebrate, the next couple was already squaring off against us.
***
We'd beaten around six couples when I felt a hand latch into my hair. I let out an involuntary yelp, trying to pull away.
She had a tight grip though, and I realised that to pull harder was only going to tug both me and Noah over. So I tucked my feet behind his back and arched backwards, until I was almost upside-down.
"Whoa!" The girl hardly had time to react before Noah stepped backwards, towards her, and I headbutted her right in the stomach. She grabbed hold of her partner's face for support, but it was too late. They both fell with a splash.
Not our cleanest kill yet, but pretty cool.
"How the hell does your back bend that far??"
I laughed. "Stella's into gymnastics and she taught me a few tricks when we were bored one day."
"Huh, cool- WATCH OUT!"
Three couples came out of nowhere, and we were in the midst of extreme warfare for the next few minutes. Somehow though, we managed to stay upright, and as the last girl fell, I looked around to see most of the fighting had broken up. In fact, about half of the couples had given up and were just kissing or making out in the water. Uhhg. Some serious PDA going on, that I didn't need to see.
"Hey, do you reckon I could stand on your shoulders?"
"No way," said Noah, "try, though. I want to see you fall."
"Wow, thanks," I shifted around until I was kneeling, my hands wound into his thick, dark hair for support. I got one foot onto his shoulder, then the other, still crouching and clinging onto his head.
"Ok, three, two, one, go!"
I stood in one motion, suddenly three metres tall. The water stretched out endlessly, sparkling below me. I balanced for a second, before Noah wobbled and I collapsed with a shriek, crashing down into the water.
Spitting out water and flipping hair away from my eyes, I struggled upright to see Noah smirking.
That meant splash war.
***
"I might go find my friends,"
"Sure," said Noah, "See you around!"
He headed off and so did I, wading up onto the beach and looking around for my friends. I finally spotted Aliya, then Stella and Sarah appeared. I ran over to join them.
"Kenzie!" Stella shrieked, "I can't believe you won! I mean, we all thought you might, but you actually did it! And your partner was Noah Armstrong!! That it so amazing!!"
I found myself grinning again. "At least it meant I didn't have to ask a boy out..."
They all laughed.
"How did you guys do?"
"We were all out pretty quick," Sarah said, but then..." she trailed off suggestively and I took it that they had joined the PDA couples.
I smiled. "Good times."
"What do you guys wanna do?" Aliya asked, "The boys all went to play water polo, or something about a rope swing."
"How about we go round the back of the island? There's some nice rocks for bouldering or sunbathing?"
"Sounds perfect," said Stella, linking her arm with mine, and we set off.
a/n: I hope I portrayed the chicken fight well enough, I've never actually been in one so I was working from other book material.... anyway just comment or something to tell me how I did! XD
thanks for reading, as usual.
I'm writing this whilst it's pouring with rain and blowing a gale (scottish weather for you, folks) and I wish I was at the lake!
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