48 hours ✔️

4| Canoeing

     I headed outside, my heart pounding heavy in my chest as I thought of ways to tell them.

     "Hey guys, how's your day been? Autumn watches and takes pictures of my face while I sleep.  She may or may not be a threat to us.  She's insane and obsessed with me, and we should kick her out." I then realized something. She could kill me!  There's no doubt she murdered Brian and just destroyed the evidence . . . 

What if she killed my friends and Aunt Ellie?  What if she killed everyone I care about?  Mom? Dad?  The rest of my family? I stopped on the front porch and my thoughts drifted back to reality.  What am I doing?  Argh!  I ran my fingers through my golden-brown hair and tried to think.

     Just then, I heard echoes of laughter coming from the lake.  I ran over and found my friends fishing up water in their hands, and then splashing each other.  They were near the shore, paddling around in canoes.  I winced at the sight of their bright orange life jackets, since I had just awakened from a dark room.

     "I wish Kyle was—"  Will began, but stopped mid-sentence when he saw me.

     "There he is!  Mister Sleepy-Pants has finally awakened from his slumber!"  Emma teased.  I smiled, but realized I forgot to check my hair before leaving my room.  Shoot!  I probably look terrible.  I hurried to the shore to check my reflection, hoping my friends would think I was just looking at something in the water.  Phew, it's good.  What a relief.  I walked over and grabbed the second-to-last life jacket and joined Will in his canoe.

     We canoed and played racing games for almost an hour, and I completely forgot to tell them about Autumn.  We had so much fun, I lost all my worries.  I love my friends, and I would never trust anyone better than them.  Just as we were about to call it quits, Emma lightly splashed my back.

     "Oh, is that how it is?"  I said playfully.

     "I guess so."  She said with a grin, splashing me again.  I splashed her back and she yelled, "War! I declare war!"

     We kept on splashing each other until Emma paused.  "Stop." 

I couldn't tell the emotion in her voice, whether she was hurt or joking or what, but she looked up at Staci who was already out of her canoe and on the dock.  "Staci, please?  The bucket."

     Staci seemed to have known exactly what she meant by that, and tossed her a bucket that apparently had been sitting next to her.  Emma caught it and grinned evilly at me.  She submerged it into the water until it was completely filled.

     "You wouldn't dare."  I smiled, but hoped she wasn't really gonna pour it on me.  She was probably just messing around.

     "Or would I?"  And then all of a sudden, I was soaked in cold, salty lake water.  "Hey!"  I laughed.  Staci and Will lost it. 

     Emma started to wobble, so I gripped the side of her canoe.  "Oh no you—"  Emma began, but she was too late, and got flipped over into the lake.

     "That's what you get!"  I laughed as Emma came up.

     She peeled the strips of hair that stuck to her forehead off and slipped them behind her ear.  Her face darkened.  "I can't believe you did that!" She screamed, and put her hands over her face.

     My expression changed immediately.  "Emma, hey, I didn't—"  She took me by surprise and tackled me, making my canoe flip over, which sent us both underwater.  We came up laughing, then came out and dried off.

     Aunt Ellie had been in the garden, and Autumn had probably been watching me through the window.  Little did I know about the anger and jealousy building up inside of her . . .  But not at me.  At Emma.