Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
Riley turns over in her bed and grunts while trying to find her phone. "Stupid alarm." She quickly dismisses the alarm and throws the covers back over her head.
"Riley!" The bedroom door flies open while Coral blasts into their room and jumps on the bed!
Riley throws the blanket off their head and looks shockingly at their best friend. "Coral!" Screams Riley, "You woke me up. Why don't you go back to bed! It's the first day of summer. We should be sleeping until lunchtime."
"Your mom is making pancakes and bacon downstairs. So, you're welcome."
Riley sticks out their tongue at Coral. "I thought I was going to be able to sleep in on the first day of summer. Apparently not." Riley notices their hair is a mess and brushes the hair out of their face. "At least it is summer. I do love summer."
"Me too," Coral bursts out." I am so excited about summer. We are going to have the best summer. What do you think we should do?"
Riley smiles. "Well, we're going to hang out with friends, go to the beach, and eat loads of ice cream. And go to parties."
"Absolutely," Coral starts. Then she pauses. Then in a very animated way, she jumps off her bed, grabs something on the ground, and jumps up while saying, "I also want to use my new fishing pole, so let's go fishing too."
"Fishing? When?" Riley asks.
"Today, of course!" Coral replies. Then she droops a little and speaks somewhat slower, "Well, I didn't get to go fishing on the first day of spring with my family, so I have been thinking that I would like to go today. It might help me reconnect with them."
"Oh, of course. We should go fishing today, and hiking," Riley suggests. "It will be so good for you. I still have my backpack and hiking gear you bought me for our last trip. I had a fun time."
Coral brightens up, "Me too. For now, I'm hungry. Let's go eat."
"Let me do my hair first and brush my teeth."
"Okay," Coral replies, "I'll be downstairs. Don't take too long, or I'll eat your food too."
"You wouldn't dare."
"I would, so hurry." Coral says.
*****
As Riley walks down the stairs, her mom, Tiffany, looks at them and says, "Breakfast is served."
"Thanks Mom. It smells really good," Riley says as she walks over to the table. "Good morning Dad."
"Good morning hun," Jim says before putting his newspaper up and starts reading it again."
Riley sits next to Coral, bumps her elbow, and fills up her plate with food. Coral sticks her tongue out at Riley.
Tiffany looks at the two and asks, "So what are your plans for today?"
"Well," Riley starts, "we're thinking about going hiking. Coral wanted to try our her new fishing pole."
"Well that sounds fun," Tiffany says. "Are you going right after breakfast?"
Coral looks up and says, "Yes, Riley suggested that we should go right away since she already had her camping gear packed. It won't take me long to get ready too.
Riley puts her bacon down. "Yeah, most of my hiking gear is ready. I just need to grab an extra set of clothes, a towel, and my swimsuit, so we can enjoy the lake while we're there. And my new journal for my summer adventures. It will be nice to write by the lake."
Jim pipes up, "That does sound nice. Make sure you are safe and come home in one piece."
"Of course we will," Coral responds. "Maybe we can catch a trout and enjoy it with our lunch."
"Well," Jim says as he folds up his newspaper, "it sounds like you two are going to have loads of fun this afternoon. I look forward to hearing all about it when I get home from work."
"How about tomorrow night?" Coral asks. "I'd like to stay the night by the lake."
Jim looks up from his empty plate. "Overnight? Remember the last time you two did that? That's when the two of you almost drowned in the lake?"
"It is," Riley responds, "but that's when we swam across it in the middle of the night. Our muscles got really cold, which made it that much harder for us to swim back. We won't do that again. We promise."
"Yes, we promise." Coral agrees quickly.
"Hmm. You two did get good grades this year, so maybe you are a bit more responsible this time. There isn't going to be a party on the lake with lots of other teenagers, will there? I don't want to see you two coming home in a police car, drunk, and having a baby on the way."
Riley speaks up, "No, there isn't going to be any of that. We're going to be safe."
"Hmm, "Jim starts. "Make sure you bring both of your two-way GMRS radios. Your mom and I will both will keep one with us in case there is an emergency." Jim then looked at Tiffany.
Tiffany looked back at her husband. "I think they will be okay. If not, we can always ground them for the summer," she said with a smile.
Jim looked at the two girls, "Remember that. You two have a very long summer ahead of you, and I'm sure you don't want to lose some of your privileges. And that goes for you too Coral, since your living with us now."
"We promise." Riley said.
"Yes, we promise." Coral chimed in.
Jim studies them carefully. "Fine. You two can go then. Just be careful. I don't want anything to happen to you two."
"Thanks Dad. Thanks Mom." Riley said.
"Thank you." Coral replied.
Riley then turned to her mom. "Mom, can you make us some food? That will help us to start the day earlier." Riley asks while smiles and fluttering her eyelashes to her mom.
Tiffany paused and the slowly said, "Of course, honey. I'll have it ready in thirty minutes." She paused again. "As long as you take out the trash from every room in the house before you leave."
Riley frowns. "Oh, alright. Deal." Turning to Coral, "I'll be down soon. How long will you need to pack?"
Coral grins, "Yay! We're going! It won't take me long. See you soon." Coral jumps out of her chair, puts her dishes in the dishwasher, and bounds up the stairs to her room."
"Wow! She's excited," Riley says. "I guess I'll start packing too. Have a nice day at work Dad. I'll see you tomorrow." Riley walks over and hugs her dad and kisses his cheek.
Jim puts his arm around her. "Sounds good hun. Oh, I almost forgot. I have a utility belt with some extra tools I wanted to give to you for this summer for when you go camping. I'll leave it on the coffee table for you before I go to work."
"Thanks Dad." Riley says as she hugs him.
Then she embraces her mom and says, "Thank you again."
"You're welcome," her mom replied.
Finally, Riley walks over to put her dirty dishes away and goes upstairs to pack.
*****
Coral looks at Riley as they walk on the path in the forest to the lake. "Maybe we'll find some boys at the lake?"
Riley's face shines. "I hope so. That would make for a very interesting night."
As they walk closer to the lake, they see a few people fishing around the larger lake. Riley looks around. "No boys yet. I'm surprised. Maybe they'll show up later today."
"Well," Coral starts, "let's throw out a line before eating lunch."
"Help me with the blanket, so I can get the lunch ready while you throw out your fishing line."
After getting everything ready, and after Coral throws out the line and sticks the fishing pole in the ground, the two girls start eating their chicken salad sandwiches. Coral speaks up, "Your mom makes really good food. These figs smell sweet too."
"I know, right? So, how have you been adjusting since you moved in with us?"
"I have appreciated it so much, but I am still having nightmares of the car crash."
Riley put her arm around Coral. "I'm so sorry that happened to you. Nightmares can be tough. Did you have another one last night?"
"No, but I am still getting them at least three or four nights a week." Coral sits for a moment. Then she starts sobbing in Riley's shoulder. "I miss them so much Riley. My mom. My dad. My brother."
"I know you do. I am here for you." Riley says while holding Coral and rubbing her back.
After a little bit, Coral opened her eyes and saw the tip of her fishing pole move up and down. "A fish," she exclaims.
"Go get it," Riley replies.
Coral jumped up and ran to the fishing pole. She quickly reeled it in. "A trout!"
"Yay! Here's the string."
Coral unhooks the fish and puts the string into the mouth and out the gill. "Where's the bucket?"
"Here it is."
As soon as they put the fish in the bucket, a loud sound like something crashing into a tree happened somewhere behind them. Coral freezes.
*****
"Watch out Dad!" Coral yells. Coral's dad swerves just a bit, but the car still hits the deer. Coral's chest hits the seat belt. She sees the trees whizzing by her window. A few breaths later, she feels some weightlessness. She sees the ground come into view through the front window. She freezes, because she knows that the front of the car is about to crash into the ground. "Don't let me die!" The car crashes into the ground.
*****
Riley notices Coral starting to shake and sob again. Riley hugs Coral while looking over her shoulder. "There's two men," Riley whispers. "I don't like how they look. Let's get out of here."
Coral nods. Wiping away her tears, Coral stands and helps Riley fold up the blanket. Then Riley quickly packs everything up while Coral gets the fishing rod. When Coral tries to reel in the line, it gets stuck. She tries pulling the pole back while hoping not to break it or snap the hook off the line. Finally, she manages to start reeling the line again.
"I got our packs ready," Riley says. Riley looks back again and sees the two men looking their way and starts coming closer. Speaking a little lower, "Hurry up."
Coral looks over her shoulder and sees the men. "I am. The line got stuck." When she looks back, she sees a small pouch at the end of her line. Still worrying about the men, she quickly grabs it and unhooks it. Then she grabs her pack and tackle box. "Let's get out of here."
Riley agrees. The two girls quickly leave, but the two men start change direction and starts following them. The girls notice this and quicken their pace.
As they go around a small hill to get away from the men, Riley glances over at Coral and sees a pouch in Coral's hand. "What's that your hand?"
"Huh? Oh, this? It was caught on the hook." Coral answers while looking back over her shoulder still worried about being followed.
"But why is it glowing?" Riley asks.
"Glowing? Huh?" Coral then looked down at the pouch and noticed the brown, leather pouch seemed to be glowing. "Huh. It is glowing. Here take it and open it. My hands are full.
Riley takes the pouch from between Coral's fingers. She quickly opens it while keeping her pace and takes out two bracelets. "Bracelets? They look nice. Are these made from real gold? Wait, I see writing on one of them. It says, 'Find the key to save me.' I wonder what that means."
Coral glances over at the bracelet. "What about the writing on the other bracelet?"
"I don't see any writing," Riley responds.
"Let me see it," Coral says while shifting her tackle box to the same hand as her fishing rod. When Riley gives it to her, Coral looks at it and reads the words on it: If you'll help, put these on."
"I don't see it," Riley quips.
"Well I do," Coral retorts.
One of the men drunkenly yells, "Hey, what're those shiny things? Come back and give it to us."
The two girls look back and look at each other. Coral says, "I'll help, if it gets if away from these men."
"Me too," replies Riley.
As soon as the girls put on the bracelets, they become dizzy and fall to the ground.
*****
The first thing that Riley noticed is the feel of the ground. Where did the soft dirt go? The twigs? The pebbles? Why is it grass? Why is the grass purple? Why does it smell like it's been freshly watered. Riley looked around. Why is there mist everywhere? And what is that tall spire in front of her? It must be the only building as far as the eye can see. A tall, skinny, spirally, purple spire that seems to have no end to its height. And the sky is dark purple with dark rain clouds. "Where am I?"
*Cough, cough, cough* Riley turns her head. At least she can see that Coral is with her and is okay.
"Where are we?" Coral asks. Coral looks behind her shoulders. "And where are those two, creepy men?"
"I don't know. Everything is different here." Riley stands up and slides her backpack off her shoulders. "At least we still have everything with us."
Coral stands up. She looks at Riley. She widens her eyes. "The two-way radios! Let's radio your dad!"
"Yeah!"
Riley grabbed her radio. "Dad." Static. "Dad, can you hear us?" Static. "Mom, can you hear us?" Static. Riley and Coral stare at each other.
Coral suggests, "Try another channel."
Riley tries another channel. And another. And another. After trying all the channels, she asks Coral to try with her radio, which she does to no avail.
"Riley asks, "What are we going to do?"
Coral looks around and then at her bracelet. "Well, let's try to save this person. Maybe by doing so, we can go home?" Coral says with a weak smile.
Riley looks around. "But I don't think I can do it. I don't know how we are going to survive."
After a moment of silence, Coral smiles and says, "Well,we have all this camping, hiking, and fishing gear. Perhaps we can make do with what we have. We're smart. We can figure it out."
"I don't know," Riley says quietly.
Coral stands a bit taller and says, "If you can do this, then you can do anything you want. I know you can do this. You just have to believe in yourself like how you believe that you can get into any party you want and date any guy you want."
Riley smiles and says "Thank you for your vote of confidence. Now if only I can be as confident as you are, then maybe we can get out of here." Riley then looks down and loses her smile. Then she looks up. "I'm scared. I'm scared we won't be able to do it."
"I am scared too,but I believe we can do it," Coral starts. "But you have to believe we can too. And if you can't, then perhaps over time you will. But we to try."
"Yeah, you're right. We do need to try. How about starting with getting to that spire?"
"That's the spirit!" Coral looks at the building. "Well, it is quite a walk from here, so let's drink some water and start walking."
"Yeah, let's do it!"
As the two walk closer to the spire, Riley looks at her bracelet. "Look! My bracelet is growing brighter."
Coral looks down at hers. "Mine too. I wonder why."
Riley pipes up, "Perhaps it is because we are getting closer to that building."
Coral says,"Yes, that must be it. See, you can do this. We'll make it in the end. You'll see."
Riley agrees, "Yeah, maybe we can." So the two set off for the spire.