Revenge and Its Thrills

Jack’s POV

It wasn’t exactly a big surprise when Alex’s group didn’t return from lunch. In fact, I was expecting it. And I had better things to do than worry about his pathetic ass.

Jenna, Vic and I were sitting on my bed in our half-hour of free time before water sports, playing ‘Fuck, Kill, Marry.’ It wasn’t exactly a normal version of the game, seeing as Jenna kept naming various vegetables and inanimate objects, and Vic seemed to be obsessed with asking me if I would fuck a bagel.

“Okay, my turn!” Jenna squealed after I finally admitted that yes, I would fuck a bagel if it was a choice of that, Alex Gaskarth, or an earthworm. “A lamp, me, or Mr Armstrong.”

“Well, I’d kill you, obviously,” I stated immediately, earning a scoff and a punch on the arm from a very offended looking Jenna. “I’d fuck the lamp, and marry Mr Armstrong.”

“I’m with Jack,” Vic agreed.

Jenna threw up her arms. “I hate you both! Personally, I think I’m very fuckable.”

Vic and I burst out laughing, while Jenna just scowled. “I wasn’t joking.”

“Okay, okay, my turn,” I said. “Tay, me, or Vic?”

“Of course, I’d fuck myself,” Vic stated matter-of-factly. “I’d marry Tay because she’s pretty, and I’d kill you, Jack, because you’re not pretty.”

“Excuse you, Fuentes. I am the prettiest princess in all the land!” I exclaimed, pushing Vic off the bed.

He landed with a thump and a loud vow for my death. Ah, friendship.

Jenna was silent, deep in thought. Eventually she said, “I’m going to fuck and marry Tay, and murder both of you with a celery stick. Hope you like your graves.”

Eventually it was time for water sports. Both schools met up at the beach - minus, of course, the group that had gone to Larnaca with Alex. But seriously, no one cares about them.

The Rectors told us to pair up, and immediately Vic and Jenna walked off in separate directions.

“Fuck you guys, then!” I yelled after them. Vic ignored me, but Jenna turned and poked her tongue out. Then she headed over to Tay.

I was left stranded in the middle of the beach, with all the decent people rapidly pairing up with other people. Well then. I swear, if I get paired with a teacher, Vic and Jenna will wish they were never born.

An embarrassed looking Jeremy appeared in front of me. “Uh, do you mind if we, um, pair up?”
He wouldn’t be my first choice, but he wasn’t bad, so I agreed. I knew him a little when he used to attend Millburn Academy, and he wasn’t a douche, at least. And we’d been in a group together for the hotel tour. Honestly, he seemed so out of place with the IRA kids, I felt bad for him.

The teachers put our pairs into four bigger groups, which would all be working with different instructors. Jeremy and I headed over to our station, which happened to be raft building with instructor Rick. Vic, Kellin, Jenna and Tay were in our group, but I made a big show of turning my head the other way and pretending Jenna didn’t exist when she tried to talk to me. I wasn’t ready to forgive her for ungracefully abandoning me in a crisis.

Rick told us that to build our rafts we had to scour the beach for anything float-able, then attempt to
make a raft out of it. Jeremy and I found some good stuff, even some rope which I suspected had been put there by an instructor to make things easier. Not that I was complaining.

It turns out Jeremy was rather competitive, which was just fine by me, since so was I. He seemed to be quite a decent guy, as well - definitely someone I would hang around with.

Around half way through building our raft, I felt a heavy rock hit me on the side of the head, followed by an shout of “Faggot!”

“Shit,” I swore, clutching my head.

“Shit, are you okay?” Jeremy exclaimed, running over to me from the other side of the raft.

I pulled my hand away from my head. There was no blood, but it hurt like hell. “Yeah, I’m good. I think.”

Jeremy turned towards the direction of where the rock had come from. “Fuck off, Austin!” he yelled.

“Are you sure you should be doing that?” I asked him. Grateful as I was, I didn’t want him to get beaten up or anything when he went back to school.

Jeremy waved his hand submissively. “Whatever, I don’t care. Are you sure you’re okay, though? That was a pretty big rock.”

I nodded, and immediately regretted it, because it send a wave of throbbing pain through my head. Nonetheless, I still told Jeremy I was okay. My competitive nature would not allow me to give up on the raft.

Eventually we finished, and took a step back to admire our work. Well, it wasn’t exactly a Luxury Cruiser, but at least it wouldn’t sink straight away.

“It’s majestic,” I commented.

“Fabulous,” Jeremy agreed.

Once everyone else had finished their rafts we headed back to Rick, who told us what to do next. Basically, one partner was meant to sit on the raft, whilst the other dragged it out to sea. Whichever pair got the furthest without falling off won.

The pairs lined up at the edge of the waves. We’d decided that Jeremy would ride on the raft and I would pull, since Jeremy had better balance - or, so he claimed. We’d better not loose.

“Where should we stand?” Jeremy asked.

I glanced at Jenna, who was shooting me evil looks from merciless blue eyes.

“As far away from Jenna as possible,” I concluded.

So we got in line, Jeremy squatting on the raft and me holding the rope attached to it, tensely awaiting the start whistle.

Rick counted down. “Three . . . Two . . . One . . .”

The whistle blew sharply and I exploded into the water. I ran as fast as I could whilst half submerged in water and pulling a 17 year old male behind me - which, to be honest, wasn’t very fast.

A loud ‘manly’ shriek announced that Jeremy had almost fallen in, and I tried to be less jerky with my movements. But when I saw Jenna and Tay heading towards us at a diagonal, tipping over everyone in their wake, I abandoned all attempts at smoothness and started to run flat out.

“Dammit, Jack, be careful!” Jeremy yelled, as I slipped on a bit of seaweed and he almost fell in again.

“Sorry!” I shouted back, but not really paying attention. Jenna would never let me forget it if she beat me.

Suddenly, I felt a weight on my shoulders and I was forced under. I emerged again, gasping for breath and trying desperately to blink salt water out of my eyes. I caught a glimpse of Vic, before I was shoved under again.

Dammit! I focused all my attention on Jenna and Tay, and forgot about Vic and Kellin.

The next time I surfaced, Jeremy was in the water next to me. We exchanged grim looks, and came to a silent decision - we might have lost, but we weren’t going to let Vic and Kellin win at any cost.
So, as they were gloating over their victory of defeating us, we launched our own brutal attack on Kellin. Brutal meaning we shoved him off his raft. So brutal. Very hardcore. Wow. (A/N I know, I know, I know, Dodge is old. But I couldn’t resist)

Vic hit me. “I hate you Jack!”

“Well, maybe if you hadn’t abandoned me, you wouldn’t be in this situation!”

He rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Let’s go sabotage Jenna and Tay’s raft.”

“Agreed.”

Kellin, Jeremy, Vic and I quickly formed a battle plan. But, just as we were about to execute it, we heard a whoop of joy from none other than Jenna.

“We won!” She yelled, and her voice was quickly joined by Tay’s.

Vic and I exchanged horrified glances. Oh, no. Not this. Anything but this.