The Lake, by Kristen Hamel 8th grade

My back was on fire. I could almost feel the sun slowly cooking my back. I should have put on sunscreen. My lungs were dying. If lungs could sweat, mine would be drenched with perspiration. They were getting one heck of a workout. It was one of those days. One I had no patience for. My toes twitched impatiently.
“HURRY UP!”
My voice carried across the water to the dark trees on the other side. I wonder what lives in those trees, just beyond my line of vision. There was a sudden BANG, and Sarah appeared from the cabin, the wooden screen slamming behind her. She raced over to the dock I was standing on. I saw a swimsuit and some blond hair flash by, and she was gone. Only the sudden waves on the surface of the lake showed were she had disappeared.
“EEEEEEK!” Sarah’s head popped up. “C-C-COLD!” she managed to squeak. I laughed.
“Don’t get hypothermia!” I teased.
“I-I-I w-won’t!” she chattered. I snickered.
“C-come on in!” she challenged, a daring look in her eyes. Rolling my eyes, I stood on the edge of the dock and looked down. The surface of the water was no longer smooth from the waves Sarah was making, so I couldn’t make out the rocky bottom. The wood on the dock felt old and battered as I tightened my legs to jump. The dock over-loved by the wilderness. I released the tension of my legs, and I was flying. The cold water waited patiently below me as I was suspended into space. Too soon, I was forced to come down to earth. Stupid gravity. I could stay up here in the sky forever. Gravity, of course, didn’t listen. My cheeks bulged as I filled them with air. My big toe was first, then my feet, then my legs… The world was suddenly clouded. I blinked, but that improved little. It was a beautiful blue. That enough I could tell. The rocks down there seemed to be glowing as the filtered sunlight hit them. The glowing rocks chained to their roots, some seaweed rocked in the eternal dance of the wave. In the murky distance, I could make out a flash of silver. A fish. Living the life of avoiding the fishhooks of fishermen. I had to force myself not to breathe water in my lungs as I took in the beauty of the lake. And the cold. It was like jumping in a pool in wintertime, one memory I’d like to forget. Suddenly, I was in the world of light, color, and air. I erupted from the waves with a shriek.
“C-C-COLD!”
Sarah laughed. “Don’t get hypothermia!”
I smiled at her blond, wet hair still dripping with water. The face of my best friend.
“I-I-I w-won’t.”