"Come on back!" I heard Hayley call. I scrabbled up the bank and away from the crocodile, which blinked and examined me closely. I stayed as still as I could. Despite that, the crocodile leisurely lugged itself up onto the bank and started to crawl towards me. Scrambling to my feet, I let go of all caution and screamed. Unbelievably fast, Avae emerged from the mist in the old rowboat, her arm muscles rippling as she pulled the oars back and forth. The ripples scared the croc, which slid back into the water and disappeared. Coughing and choking, I clambered into the boat.
"Are you okay?" Avae's normally impassive facade was full of concern.
"I'm fine," I choked. "Just get me out of here." Curling up in the bottom of the splintery boat, spitting out water occasionally, not daring to close my eyes or move for fear a crocodile would leap out of the water or come out of my mind to haunt me. When the boat finally bumped onto the bank, I stayed curled at the bottom, too afraid to step out or move.
"What do we do?" Leilani's anxious voice asked. Someone stepped into the boat beside me.
"Come on, Adelaide." Thea said coaxingly. She touched my arm, pulling away as I flinched.
"What's wrong with her?" Hayley asked. I was shaking too hard to answer. The girls were incredibly patient, though. Hayley brought towels from her car; Leilani and Thea sat by me while Avae tied a rope, which was fastened to the boat to the dock. We all dried off, Leilani draping a towel around my shoulders as a chilly breeze blew through the marsh. As the night wore on, my muscles released their tension, my breathing grew easier and my pulse slowed. As I stretched out my legs and slowly sat up, Thea gently took my arm, faint lines of worry marring her forehead. I allowed her to pull me up and off the boat, then lead me to Hayley's car, where she sat me down in the back seat and covered me with a fluffy towel. As I waited, Hayley came to the car, followed by Avae and Leilani. The ride home was absolutely silent, everyone sitting stiffly and not talking. Arriving at the warehouse, we pulled our clothes on again, and idled outside, wondering whether we should participate in the next challenge. Gulping down tears, I confessed, in a blessedly steady voice, that I was not eager to risk my life again, lest I end up in the jaws of another croc, or worse, a shark. Leilani gave everyone the biggest, smuggest, smirkiest I-told-you-so look in the entire world that I doubted that even Dr. Evil from Star Trek couldn't make a better one. Maybe because of that, Hayley insisted that we would participate in the next challenge, earning two venomous glares from Leilani and myself. Three overpowered two, though, and Leilani and I both gave in grudgingly. When I arrived at home, the house was silent, weak beams of sunlight reflecting off the windows. Slipping inside, I managed to snatch a few hours of sleep before my mom opened my door to wake me up. Grabbing a bundle of clothes, I hurried past her to the bathroom and took a much-needed shower, scrubbing off the swampy smell, dried mud, and pond weeds. At school, I doodled a bit in my notebook, daydreaming while staring out of the window, twiddling aimlessly with a tassel on my notebook. At lunchtime, when I went to my locker to grab my lunch bag, a yellow post-it note was stuck to the front of the red metal door. Meet TSFDG in the library. We'll have lunch there. Hayley. The note said, in clear print. I hustled along the halls, being bumped and jostled by students, but I managed to get into the library without difficulty. There, the rest of the girls were waiting; Avae leaned against the wall with one black boot propped up on the white wall, Hayley munched on a salami sandwich while scanning a book; Thea absently played with her rice and baked lemon chicken; Leilani looked haunted while sitting rigidly in front of her mini steak and fries. I sat down across from Leilani and unpack my lunch; a toasted BLT on whole-wheat.
"Why are we here?" I questioned, biting into my sandwich and glancing at the rest of the girls.
"Avae, Thea and I devised an escape plan from a lot of places if we ever get caught in there for a challenge," Hayley explained in an undertone, putting her sandwich down. Avae nodded, her spiky blueish-black hair flipping back and forth. Thea stabbed a piece of chicken and added softly,
"Leilani refused to participate."
"For a good reason!" Leilani snaps, momentarily out of her trance. "Are you all crazy? Why the fu-" She got cut off as Thea threw her a lethal glare. "-Are we even doing these challenges?" Thea, Avae and Hayley all instantly glanced at each other.
"There might be something that I didn't tell you guys…" Hayley said, as Avae and Thea nodded vigorously, egging her on. "Well, I got a letter when the three of us were having lunch together in the cafeteria- it was in my lunchbox- no, I interrogated my mom into the ground- and it said that if we all finished the challenges, we'd get a grand prize of five million."
"Five million?" I shrieked, squashing my bread in the process.
"Five million." Hayley confirmed grimly.
"So we thought, yeah, let's continue doing these challenges!" I snapped sarcastically. "All that happened was one of us broke an arm and one was almost eaten by a crocodile. Also, we could've gotten caught by all the times we sneaked out."
"Come on!" Avae exclaimed "Five million dollars!"
"Come on?" Leilani screeched. "What is wrong with you all?"
"Nothing's wrong with me!" I respond defensively. "I don't want to do the challenges anymore either!"
"Five million!" Thea hollered, so loudly that it shut Leilani and I up.
"What are you guys? Parrots? Recording machines?" Leilani curled her lip snarkily. As they bickered, I started to ponder the choices that could come out from one million dollars. For one, I could fix my breathing problem. Mom and I could move to the city, or renovate the old house that we lived in. We could get a dog, or something.
"Wait," I said suddenly. "When did you get the letter?"
"Um, the day after I'd gotten my letter. Why?" Hayley was puzzled.
"But that was before we got the first challenge, right? So how did the person know that Emma was going to break her arm? Because the letter said five million, then it would divide evenly between the five of us. If there were six…" I trailed off and turned to Thea for help; Leilani still sat stony-faced with an I-will-rip-your-face-off expression, Avae was masking her fear with a furious glare, and Hayley looked horrified. Thea did some quick math on her calculator.
"Eight thirty-three three hundred thirty-three point three three three three." She reported. Hayley frowned slightly, but she still hammered her point in: This was five million dollars we were talking about. Anyway, how much more dangerous could the challenges get? Although Leilani and I furiously fought back, Avae and Hayley were both adamant; Thea declaring that she was neutral. Hayley was surprisingly persistent; I'd always made her out to be a mild person. Finally, I sat back in defeat, and although Leilani valiantly tried to turn them away from the idea, they were terribly stubborn. Finally, Leilani and I both gave in, partially from the fact that we would each get a million dollars, but also from the fact that Hayley was so persistent. We spent the rest of lunchtime in the library, absently chewing on our food, mostly in silent thought of the next challenge.