Juvenile Delinquent

"Told you I would catch you," Ryan says wrapping his arms around me, and lowering me to the surface, letting go when he gets me close enough to the water.

I let myself drop under for the cool water for a few seconds and breathe out slowly, letting the bubbles fill my eyes before resurfacing. By then Ryan has already reached the other side of the pond to fool around with the others.

We mess around for a bit and then head home as the sunset touches the edge of the murky pond water, and even though all I want to do right now is wash my hair, I still have to admit it's beautiful.

-

The next morning it feels like I haven't slept for more then ten minutes before Reese comes barreling into my room and onto my bed. I yawn and flip over, not even bothering looking at the time because I know that I won't like it.

"Do you sleep all night, or secretly eat a ton of candy while everyone else sleeps?" I mumble through the sheets, my blankets had been thrown off sometime in the night due to the summer heat.

"We wanted to go somewhere," She says, ignoring the question and ripping the sheet off that I had wrapped around my ears when I had heard her walking down the hallway.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd day that you guys had this stuff planned all along," I say sitting up and stretching, but I stop mid way when I spot Reese's guilty face.

"What?" I ask, "Is my hair all over the place?" I run my fingers through my hair in hopes to tame the beast but it doesn't behave, so I tie it up with a ponytail from my wrist, "There, better?" I ask but her still guilty looking eyes meet mine.

"What's wrong? I've never heard you not say anything for more then two minutes before and now I want you to talk and you've gone mute?" I ask, hopping out of bed in hopes to reach the bathroom before one of the guys do.

She turns to face me, "Well, you see," She swallows slowly, "We kind of did have it planned the whole time, well, just some things." She mumbles the last part into the fist that she's using to prop her face up.

"Okayy, that's what you're worried about, that you planned ahead?" I ask now hopping from foot to foot so as not to pee myself, man I have to go.

"Not exactly, the judge warned us to keep you busy. He said that if you got any free time you would try another one of your pranks," Her eyes stayed away from mine as she twisted my sheet into a giant fabric knot.

"So they don't trust me?" I sigh and glance up to the ceiling for answers. "Did they tell you what I did?" I ask, not sure since she hadn't mentioned it yet.

"Sort of, I know that you pulled a fire alarm at your school, then things got crazy booking your flight and everything and no one really told me the rest."

"It's not bad, I pulled the alarm and soaked the entire school. It was literally resting in inches of water," I sighed happily, "It was great,"

She laughs, "I think that's why they told us to keep you busy, oh and don't tell anyone I told you, we weren't supposed to make it obvious that we were trying to distract you," She says smiling once more.

"The only time I get to myself is when I'm sleeping and in the bathroom anyway..." I pause, "Speaking of which, if I don't go now, I'm going to pee myself," She laughs, waving me off and I go sprinting down the hallway to the blessed empty bathroom.

--

"You could have told me we were going zip lining," I grumble, staring up at the platform that is somehow stuck to a tree forty feet above my head.

"Would you have come?" Ryan asks sarcastically, strapping his helmet on, I slam it down so it doesn't look like he had suddenly grown a second head, well and partially because it felt like good payback.

I shake my head, "No chance in hell," I say, once again staring up at the platform.

"Who's up?" The instructor yells down to us. I step back to gladly give one of the others first ups.

"Where do you think you're going?" Ryan asks firmly steering me to the bottom of the ladder.

"Anywhere but up there," I reply, "I couldn't even drop from a rope that was ten feet up from water. How am I supposed to willingly throw myself a hundred feet into the air?"

"It's only like thirtyish feet from the ground," Reese says, trying to be helpful but I shoot her a glare. "forty," I grumble in reply.

"She'll be right up," Ryan calls up and the instructor shrugs, "You're going up if I have to carry you," He says turning back to me.

"You wouldn't" But I hesitate when he steps towards from me, "Fine, fine." I grab the first rung and pull myself up hand over hand without looking down.

Finally I reach the top and the instructor grabs my hand and pulls me up till I'm standing safely on the little platform.

"Couldn't we, you know, just chill up here for a couple of minutes?" I ask him, gulping as I look down."

"Sorry," He grins, snapping my harness to the line. "You're friends are waiting for their turns,"

"They're not my friends," I say, plopping down to sit on the edge, gripping tightly to the cord.

"Give her a good push," Chris yells from below and I turn to glare just as the guy complies.

"KIIILLLLL YOOOOUUU," They told me later that that was all they could hear as I was zipping across the tops of trees shrieking for dear life.

"Holy cheese crackers," I gasp when I make it to the next platform still in one piece. "Well that was riveting,"

The new guy just laughs and unstraps me from the old zip line to the new one.

"Ready for the next one?" He asks stepping back to glance at the zip line I had just rode.

"Well, not really," I say with a small laugh, shuffling back from the edge again before i sit down.

"I think I hear one of your friends screaming, so that must mean they're close," He pauses and then I feel my lower back be given a sharp push, "Off you go," He yells merrily.

I look back in time to see Reese still shrieking zoom lightly onto the platform, I laugh and tip my head up so that I can see the trees that are still many feet above my head.

"It's not so bad up here," I think, the wind whipping my untied hair across my cheeks. The helmets itchy and gross but the scenery makes up for it. My feet dangle happily and I consider picking my feet up but don't risk it, maybe next time... or never.

We do two more smaller zip lines and then head home, getting in ten minutes before Aunt Jackie comes in through the back door.

"How was it guys?" She asks, throwing her keys into a bowl on a side table and slipping off her shoes.

"Great," I say with slight sarcasm, my eyes still trained on an old episode of Spongebob Squarepants.

"The instructor told her that he would be deaf in his right ear after pushing her off of the platform," Reese says laughing and grabs a handful of my warm popcorn.

"Well, he learned his lesson not to take advantage of small girls who are terribly afraid of heights."

Chris nudges me, "Admit it, you had fun."

"Not willingly," But I smile and look around at all of them. "Thanks for everything, guys," I say, pulling Reese into a hug.

"Wait till you see what's next," She whispers so no one can hear.

My eyes widen and I pull back fast but she refuses to answer, shaking her head whenever i start to say anything.

So I sigh, put my feet up, and enjoy the idiocy of Spongebob and friends.