Holden Peters expects nothing exciting to happen during the summer before his final year of high school. But in a spontaneous act of bravery, he saves his pretty next door neighbour from drowning and is deemed as a local hero.
Thanks to his newfound...
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Flo spent a lot more time with us over the next week, to a point where our trio had developed into a quartet of mixed interests and originality. I liked to think of us as an invincible superhero squad. Quinton was the funny one, Tess was the playful one, Flo was the classic and I was the underdog, accidentally mistaken for a hero.
I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep up the whole clueless act about the local champion who saved a drowning girl at the public pool. During my most recent training session, Dean announced it was time for me to have a half-day duty at the annual Splash. The Splash was the one day in the year where if you arrived between nine and twelve in the morning, you could get a day pass for free. All facilities were available, including the water slides and swimming equipment, like floaties for kids. It was a huge event and I wasn't sure if I was ready for exposure or the weighted responsibility.
Especially since it was one of the busiest days of the year.
After confiding to Tess about my concerns, she called the gang –and George- and drove us to True North, the rural version of Starbucks in our sleepy, country town. It was the ultimate hang out for teens, mostly because of their free Wi-Fi, air conditioning and epic menu.
Tess' answer to any problem was food, so she ordered us a large pepperoni pizza with extra mozzarella cheese and five tall glasses of peach-flavoured iced tea.
"Why iced tea?" Quinton complained, grumbling as the waitress placed the drinks onto our table.
"Because they were half price and claimed to come with a hidden object per serving."
His eyebrows rose. "What kind of hidden object?"
She simply shrugged. "Drink and find out."
For a moment, we all just exchanged looks, unsure of whether to believe it or not. But eventually, we realised we didn't have anything to lose, so all at once, we started drinking, each of us attempting to be the person who finished first.
At one point, it got extremely competitive. Quinton and I exchanged looks from opposite sides of the table and together, threw our straws away to start gulping down huge chucks of ice and sweet, chilled tea.
I was the first to finish and also the first to struggle breathing from my intense drinking session. But once all the liquid was drained from my glass, sitting within the chipped pieces of ice, was a capsule. It was the same shape as the case that holds your plastic toy that hides within a Kinder Surprise, but smaller. I tipped my glass at an angle and gently shook, allowing the pill shaped object to fall into my hand. The whole group leaned forward and examined the piece of plastic that sat in my palm.
"What a great prize," Flo said slowly.
Tess picked it up from my hand and further investigated. "You open it."
We watched as she took both ends and gently pulled. An opening appeared in the middle and the shell split into two, showcasing a piece of rolled paper. I quickly swiped it before Tess had a chance to read it and straightened out the piece of textured parchment.
