The Three R's of Summer Break

Summer break is always something people look forward to, whether you hate the scorching, ultraviolet beams torturing the best feature of your body or like the warm rays of sunshine gracing your beautiful face. Either way, it’s a time for relaxation, renewal, and road trips- or any other r-word that fits in the third spot though this is definitely a perfect weekend for each.

"I...just don't get it..." A 20 year old, college junior hangs his head, curly black locks falling over his face. He walks with three of his other friends who playfully punch his arms as they stroll towards his cottage, enjoying the stretch of their legs after a long road trip to almost-middle of nowhere.

A woman of 21 turns to him, smiling, "Blake, dude, you don't have to get it. You just believe us!" She whirls around and pushes two of the group out of the way to reach the front where she makes a crouching stance, talking dramatically. "Three deranged teenagers...out in the deepest of the night...searching for," suddenly lifting her hands in mock shock, "The House of Terror! Ooh-" She realises too late that she was on her long, umber hair and falls sideways on her shoulder. The friends she pushed out the way come to help her up.

"Bro, don't listen to her. Lilith is trying to get a scare out of you," The only ginger and       oldest of all five friends says, thumping Lilith on her forehead as he helps her.

“Dearil!” Another woman whisper-screeches at him, tossing her head to the side so her thick, kinky hair won’t get in the way of her glare.

“Raven!” He sarcastically snaps back and rolls his eyes. “What? No one wants to hear about that boring video. It was cheesy and cringe-worthy and never deserved that award. What even were the teachers thinking? That crap needed to be burned, and sent down a river…”

“I wasn’t talking about that, dummy. Go pick up her bags over there,” Raven points to the spot where Lilith was before she separated the two line leaders. Dearil sloths over to the location, and dramatically bends over to pull the luggage off the ground. Blake lightheartedly slaps the backpack on his back, and goes to the front door to unlock it.

Dearil quickly straightens, lazily whipping his head towards the car when he hears the trunk close and lock. He goes to the guy by the trunk, and handles the cooler himself. “I’ll help ya, Maurice,” he grins. Adjusting the bag on his arm, Maurice runs a hand through his dreads and grins back. Being left outside, they rush inside.

After room arrangements were made, and everyone settled down in the living room, Blake stood up. “So, please don’t trash everything, my parents would hate it ‘cause I just got this place, okay?” Everyone nods. “There’s a river, like, half a mile away with an area we could go swimming in later, if everyone’s down?”

“That’ll be cool. We need to make the most of this weekend. We only have three days so let’s have some fun!” exclaims Maurice with excitement. Lilith piped in and the two ended up rooting, making everyone laugh. 

About three hours later they were ready to go swimming after eating lunch, and got in the car once again. On the way, the energy in the group was one that they missed. Listening to blasting music, sharing moments that happened when they weren’t together, gazing at nature outside the window, missing directions and getting lost, they enjoyed every second of the mini road trip.

Finally, they reach the water and don’t hesitate to refresh themselves. The beautiful, cooling water splashing around everyone, creating a fun and loving atmosphere, accentuating the strong friendship connecting them.

Raven suggests they play Chicken fight and they separate into teams. Dearil acts as the referee as Lilith and Raven try to push each other off of the shoulders of Maurice and Blake. Blake and Raven reign victorious in the end, with a score of five to three, Lilith’s hair length being the disadvantage when she untied it.

“Why didn’t you just put it in a bun?” laughs Raven as she pushes her wet and puffy hair into a ponytail holder. Lilith ruffles through her bag looking for a headband while pushing her wet hair from her eyes.

“I swear I’m going to chop it off…” she grumbles and turns her attention back to Raven. “I did! It was just a rubber band so it snapped…” She grabs another rubber band from her bag, but it’s snatched from her hand and replaced with a stronger one. “Thanks.”

Another hour of horse play and glistening water went by before they rode back to the cottage. When they finished taking showers, getting into pajamas, and eating dinner, everyone fell asleep watching a movie, looking forward to the next day together.

Maurice is the first to wake up and decides to make breakfast food. He goes around the kitchen grabbing tools and ingredients, opening the refrigerator and scanning the shelves. He chooses to make a general breakfast because they could only fit so much in the cooler. Turning to the counter to set everything down, he grabs a bowl from the cabinet and starts whisking eggs. He pours them into a heated pan, scrambling them and placing the eggs on a large plate. As he washes the pan for reuse, he spots a wooden banner above the sink window:

Relaxation

“You should relax. Be well and be happy that you have a lot of time ahead, for your life is only in your hands.”

             By Unknown

Maurice smiles softly and thinks of all of the movies and stories where it turns out they weren’t in charge. He spins on his heel to place some bacon on an oven pan and place bread in the toaster. He spins again and is greeted by Blake staring at the banner and scoffing.

“My mom got it from a random small shop on a trip, and made me memorise this...But I was fine with it because after I recited it, we would talk about who ‘Unknown’ could be and it was the cutest thing ever,” he smiles warmly as he looks away and grabs some juice and milk from the refrigerator. He grabs glasses, plates, napkins, and silverware for setting the table. He aids his friend in cooking and they wait for the other three to wake up.

Dearil is the last to wake up even though he didn’t swim much, but his friends don’t eat without him. That makes him exaggerate on how touched he is and he wastes no more time in starting on their brunch. 

They go swimming again after a while, enjoying themselves. The radio plays on a relaxing station and the day turns to one where they just enjoy each other’s presence. Lilith made sure to put her hair in a bun this time and she swims around, catching small fish and letting them go. Dearil and Maurice climb on rocks in the higher part of the river, playfully shoving each other, but not too hard as to knock the other over. Raven wades over to the side of the river where Blake sat, feet swirling in the water. She lays on her side and looks up to him, lightly punching his forearm. “What’s up with you? Nothing above your ankles have touched the water,” she says with concern laced in her voice.

Blake snaps out of his trance, and sets his eyes on Lilith with his eyes squinting because of the ultraviolet beams of the sun torturing his grey eyes. His tongue clicks, “I’m not feeling too well about swimming today. I just think it was too much food or something…” He looks down at the one beside him, seeing her enjoying the warm rays of sunshine gracing her shimmering, dark skin.

“Well, just don’t get too sick. We’ll hate for you to not be having fun with us!” She pouts then cheekily grins as she surprises him with a splash of refreshment. They giggle and splash fight until everyone here’s a loud “Woah!”

All heads turn towards Lilith, the only thing being seen is her bun. Maurice and Dearil freak out while the relaxing ones run down to where Lilith was last seen. “Lilith!”

Said woman splashes to the surface, a goofy smirk on her face. “This river is, like, nine feet deep, you guys!” She exaggerates the nine feet with hand gestures, and everyone sighs in relief. They decide to head back for the day, and relish in their time together.

Lilith gawks at the cloud outside the living room window the next morning. She pulls out her phone to check the weather and fist bumps the air. “Yes! Safe!” She whispers to herself and dresses in her swimsuit with her hair down, listening to the light rain outside and waiting for the others after she calls for them.

Getting into the car, everyone sighs knowing that it was their last full day together. They want to make the most of it so they play around more than they ever have. They do so much in so little time, like they have a shared checklist in their minds. They roam the forest, stare at animals, and play like children, but when it was time for the water, Blake’s guts once again don’t agree with him. He sits down in his nausea while looking at his friends, who had to be convinced to not worry over him. A few moments pass by and Blake feels well enough to capture scenes of his friends while walking on the rocks at the upper part of the river.

Suddenly, it starts raining hard. Blake looks to the sky in surprise and tries to somewhat shield the camera. He shakes some falling water from his eyes and says to himself, “What the-” He gets cut off by the sound of rushing water and snaps his head to the other side of the water, internally panicking when he saw a surge of water and branches coming at an alarming rate from the head of the river. He whips his head around to see that Maurice and Raven, who are closest to him, take notice. Maurice swims over to Dearil and Lilith, who don’t even seem to take notice of the heavy rain while they splash in the deep waters. When they do notice, they wade back to the more shallow end. 

Everything goes down river from here.

The water that charged towards the friends arrive, and it’s a powerful wave, bringing debris with it and flooding the nicer side of the river. Blake is knocked off his feet, falling into the wave. He manages through his shock to get a hold on the rocks and catch his breath, hacking up a lung. He holds his head in pain as he feels the effect of water going in his nose. Behind him, Raven tries to dodge running logs and twigs to reach the side of the river by shuffling her feet. A huge stick almost whacks her and she shuffles backwards quickly, getting her ankle lodged in between some stones in the process. She lets out a sound of shock and distress, making Dearil turn to her and struggle to reach her. He tells her to try not to move too much as he goes under to free her, much to the woman’s dismay. She watches him under the water, and shoves passing sticks. When Dearil finally resurfaces, a loud crackle and boom sounds causing a further panic. A creaking of old wood follows the boom, and everyone looks to see where it came from too late. A shrill scream leaves Lilith’s mouth as she sees the base of the tree fall on Maurice, not expecting a harsh pull on her scalp as the branches of the tree ensnare her in it’s trap pulling deeper into the water. Dearil yells out while he splashes towards his dear friends, but Raven warns him late of the log speeding towards him and it knocks him hard on the head, snagging his trunks, making the fight for him to come up for even a breath of air impossible.

As Raven tries to make it to the edge of the water to reach a phone, her ankle is yet again trapped between the stones of the lake. She whines as she tries to dislodge her foot from above the surface, but just as she attempts to get rid of her problem underwater, another wave of wood-filled water comes and traps her underneath. She flails to try to take in some oxygen, but the last thing she sees is a traumatised Blake.

It all happened so fast! What do I do! What do I do! My friends! Oh, my friends! I can’t just let them go like this and not do anything! What am I doing! What are you doing you stupid coward! I gasp in shock at what just happened in front of me, and I shudder as I cry hysterically. I look around desperately for anyone and realise I’m alone. All of my friends executed in moments, in the blink of an eye.

I swallow hard and see if another wave is coming, and I pull myself fully onto the rocks. I stand and furrow my eyebrows when I try to balance myself on top of the rocks, trapeze-walking to get to the car. Another sound is heard out of nowhere and I look just as a large branch smacks me in my temple, causing me to fall back hard on the rocks. I clutch my head, feeling a warm mix of liquid added to the water pouring on my skin. I huddle in a ball, screwing my eyes shut, wishing for everything to be over. “No! No! No! Please, I just want this to be over! I just want my friends back!I just want them back please!” I plead over and over and over again. I shut my eyes tighter when I hear another rush coming towards me and my mind fades to darkness.

My eyes snap open. I feel around, and sigh in relief that I’m in my cottage bed. I don’t know why though.

I swing my legs around the edge of the bed, and stumble out of the room, seeing that my four other friends are doing the same. We all share looks of confusion.

“So-” Lilith starts. “Why are we all confused?”

“I’m confused because you’re confused,” Dearil nervously laughs. We all head to the kitchen to eat, not recalling what happened the night before.

When it’s time to leave, and head back to town, I see Maurice staring at the wooden banner above the sink window. I ask him what’s wrong.

“It changed.” He states bluntly. I look at him in confusion and realise he’s right because it now read:

Renewal

“You are renewed. Be well and be grateful that your story is not over yet, for you have been written again.”

By the Writer

I’m so confused. Did we change it last night? How did it even change? These questions, and many more run through my head as I ride home with my best friends.

One thing is clear though:

My friends and I will definitely do this again.