Summer Storms, Part 1 of 5
Summary: An accident at crew practice sends our gang on a hazardous journey into the woods in a rainstorm, where a wrong turn becomes a life and death situation for Jake and Hamilton.
Rating: PG-13. Not for the faint-hearted. If you're squeamish, I recommend skipping the chapter entitled "Blood and Rain."
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters but use them solely for the entertainment of my fellow residents of Denialville. What do you mean, "Cancelled"?
Thanks: To the Silver Oar Award voters and everyone who emailed me about this story and asked me to bring it back, especially Amanda, who got me to hurry up. And thanks most of all to Steve Antin for giving us the summer we would never forget.
Author's notes: This takes place after Episode 7 "Free Will," sort of an alternate season finale. So Scout and Will do not yet know that Jake's a girl, but Bella does. This was the first fanfic I ever posted, and remains my sentimental favorite, but it needed a serious rewrite before I could bring myself to republish it, and I added a couple scenes. (It's also the only fic I ever wrote that featured the entire cast of characters from YA.) These notes are already longer than my senior thesis, so I will just add that if you're not familiar with YA, please read my profile or the a/n for "Winter Wonderland." Now here it is, the new and improved "Summer Storms"...
... Sometimes you have to love someone enough to let them save your life ...
As the eight rowers and their coxswain gathered on the dock under a few rays of morning sunlight filtering through thickening clouds, Hamilton tried not to look at Jake. This was nearly impossible, since she stood right in front of him when they lined up along the shell that rested in the water parallel to the dock. But looking at her made it impossible to think about anything but her, impossible to focus on the rowing he would be doing momentarily. Not that he cared about the rowing, but whenever he slacked off he was chastised by Finn, and when it got back to his father it meant a lecture on how he wasn't setting a good example of sportsmanship for the other students, as if Hamilton existed to be some kind of example.
A cold gust of wind blew toward them across the lake, dispersing the last tendrils of fog that crept along the bank and sought shelter in the crevices between the jagged rocks along the shore. Hamilton saw Jake shiver, her navy blue sweatshirt failing to protect her from the dropping temperature, and he had to fight the urge to reach out and pull her to him, wrap his arms around her and warm her. Her eyes met his, and she smiled, as if she'd read his thoughts and was silently thanking him for that unrealized gesture.
The moment was broken by Finn, who strutted the length of the dock eyeing them like a drill sergeant.
"We're not doing a full run today, men, because as you can tell from the sky, there's a storm due to hit within a couple hours. Jake knows the lap I want you to do, and I'll see you back here in twenty minutes."
As Finn started to walk back up the dock, Ryder observed, "Twenty minutes isn't much of a practice."
"Maybe we should skip it altogether," Hamilton suggested.
In a low voice, Ryder sneered at him, "You won't have to worry about it much longer, sonny boy. Summer's almost over, and there's no way you'll make the varsity team."
"Can it, Ryder," said Finn, overhearing.
Hamilton rolled his eyes and said nothing. He stared straight ahead, not giving Ryder the satisfaction of seeing him react. But he could hear the other guys snickering.
One of them was a thick-necked rower named Biggs, who was Ryder's latest henchman. "Yeah, Ryder," Biggs chimed in. "Fleming doesn't have to qualify for varsity. That's what Daddy's for."
Unable to restrain herself, Jake called to him, "Hey, Biggs..." Hamilton shot her a look that said to stay out of it, but she ignored him and continued, "I wonder if your daddy will be able to get you back on varsity after you get that F in Chemistry."
Biggs swiveled his wide head on his thick neck to gawk at Jake. "How the hell did you know about that?"
A tiny, involuntary smile curved Hamilton's lips as he raised his eyebrows at her, wondering if she had finally managed to hack into the transcripts database. She answered him with a proud grin and her fingers typing on an imaginary keyboard.
Finn diffused any further squabbling by ushering them into the shell, which rocked in the choppy water as they all settled onto their seats and grasped the oars. Scout and Will took the middle seats, forming a buffer between the combatants. Jake took her place facing Hamilton, who was silently grateful for the coming storm if it meant that this would all be over in twenty minutes and then he'd be in a hot shower and then have the rest of his Saturday to spend with Jake.
On Jake's command, oars lifted out of the water and sliced down into the gray waves, thrusting them out of their berth. As they carved a swath out into the lake, Hamilton saw something that made his stomach twist.
His mother, Kate, came walking toward the dock. Unfortunately, his teammates saw her, too.
Ryder spoke up first. "Oh, look, Munchie. There's Mommy, come to make kissy-wissy with Finn and make sure you get to stay on the team another week."
Hamilton gripped his oar so tightly the wood grain dug into his hands. If Ryder had been seated right behind him, the Brit would've got a big faceful of American elbow. But once again Hamilton found himself with no option but to swallow his pride. And he swallowed hard.
Jake had her back to the shore and couldn't understand what was going on until Ryder spoke up and Hamilton's face reddened. She couldn't do anything but yell, "Stroke!" even louder, hoping to drown out any further comments from the back row.
As Kate waved to the rowers, Hamilton rolled his eyes and grumbled, "There's nothing like getting up early on Saturday morning to be humiliated in front of your peers." He knew that Jake couldn't hear him over the ripping wind, but it didn't matter. In this particular humiliation, he was all alone.
Bella wasn't sure why she found herself wandering down to the river every morning that summer. She'd gone down there from time to time for years -- a quiet place to cool off and clear her head as she watched the ducks glide by. But part of her suspected it wasn't the ducks she was watching these days; a deep part of her knew she went to the river to see the Rawley crew team row by. She went to the river to see Scout, to see his strong arms tug at the oars. She would never admit it to herself, but that's why she'd been there every morning that week.
But not this morning. This particularly chilly morning she pedaled quickly on her bike, the wind biting her face, whipping through her hair. She had to get there. She had to get there precisely because her father had told her not to go down to the river today. He had warned her that a huge storm was rolling in, and they'd said on the radio that they were releasing the dam on the river to prevent flooding upstream, and that meant that the river would be swelling. Bella was sure that they'd already warned the rowers, but just in case... It could be dangerous, and she had to make sure Scout -- and the others -- didn't go too far upstream.
Finn stood on the dock with Kate, discussing their plans for the fall curriculum. But they were talking around something, and they both knew it.
He cocked his head toward the merger of the river and the lake, where the crew team had disappeared around the bend. "They won't be gone long," he told her, wanting her to go ahead and say what he knew she was inevitably going to say.
Kate looked out at the water, because she couldn't bring herself to look at Finn as she informed him, "I can't do this again."
"I'm not asking you to do anything."
"That's not what it sounded like from your poem."
Finn raised his eyebrows. "What poem?"
"Don't get coy with me, Finn. I know you wrote it."
"You do? You know because you don't have any other secret admirers, or you know because your husband couldn't possibly have written it?"
Kate turned away from him. "Leave Steven out of this."
"You're a romantic spirit, Kate. You need romance in your life. I'm just trying to feed someone who I can see is starving."
"You wrote that poem to be an appetizer, and it just left me feeling hungry."
"It's better than nothing."
She shook her head, laughed softly. "I must say, though, I was impressed that you gave me something original rather than borrowing from the Bard."
"It's not hard to be inspired when I'm thinking about you. About us." Finn put a hand on her shoulder and turned her around to face him. "You and I have something really special. You have nothing like that with your husband."
"I beg your pardon. Steven and I have something very special together. His name's Hamilton."
"So that's the only thing that's holding you here?"
"What do you want me to do, Finn, run away with you? If I leave, it'll be a scandal. I can't do that to Hamilton. It's been weird enough for him growing up in this place."
The first pale flash of far-off lightning backlit the clouds and turned the lake to a pool of mercury. Finn looked up at the opaque sky. "Go. It's gonna rain soon."
Kate looked up as well. "Should they be out in this?"
"They're tough boys. A little rain won't hurt them."
Kate nodded, unconvinced. The thought of her Munchie out in a storm didn't sit well with her. Without another word to Finn, she turned and walked away.
"He's a good kid," Finn called after her as she retreated.
She looked back at him.
"Hamilton," he explained. "Has a bit of an attitude, but he's a good kid."
"Yes." She paused. "I guess he takes after his father."
Jake tried not to look at Hamilton... Tried but failed miserably. It was all she could do to keep to her rhythm of shouting "Stroke!" knowing that the word had so many other connotations that she liked to associate with her secret boyfriend. She tried to focus her attention on the oars dipping into the water. She then tried looking past Hamilton, over his shoulder, but then she met a gaze from Will, and she felt he was looking at her strangely. Did he know? Could he tell that her mind wasn't in the game? Her eyes rested back on Hamilton. He pursed his lips seductively, and she was sure that if it weren't for the wind whistling in her ears she would hear him growling. She tried not to smile, but it erupted on her face. He smiled too and gazed at her, locking her in with those deep blue eyes that were like a vice grip on her soul.
She gazed back.
She didn't see the sign posted on the shore.
WARNING: NEW RAWLEY DAM TO BE RELEASED SATURDAY, AUGUST 19. NO SWIMMING OR BOATING
She didn't notice as the boat jiggled slightly, and the water swirled underneath them.
Bella maneuvered her bike down the narrow path into the trees, which grew even narrower until she finally ditched the bike and walked. There was something eerie about the woods that morning, and it wasn't just the lack of sunlight; the birds were quiet, and even the ubiquitous mosquitoes seemed to have disappeared. But that trepidation only made her move faster.
She knew the crew team's schedule well enough that she was fairly certain they would not yet have passed the patch of shore where the trail she followed met the river, if indeed the rowers had set out at all, which she prayed they hadn't. Her heart pounding from exertion and worry, Bella emerged from the woods and jogged down to the riverbank. She looked up at the sky, which had darkened quickly from an apathetic gray to a menacing charcoal. She scrambled up a rise in the bank, and in the distance she could see the long, narrow boat coming. It crept toward her like a stealthy insect, its eight long oars like spindly legs that rhythmically stroked the water and propelled its body smoothly against the current, as if nothing were amiss.
The sight would have brought her some relief had she not then turned to look upstream. Her stomach sank as she witnessed the full rush of the released water come barreling toward the rowers, churning the peaceful river into white water rapids.
"Oh, no!" she cried.
She was too late.
Jake sensed that something was wrong. The shell was rocking more than it should, and she could tell that the rowers weren't causing it. By an act of sheer will, she was able to pull her eyes from Hamilton's face and turn her attention back to their progress up the river. And that's when she noticed a posted sign. She tried to read it as they rowed past, but they were going too fast.
"Whoa -- hold up, guys," she called out to her team.
They interrupted their stroke, and the boat slowed.
"Is this where Finn told you to stop?" asked Hamilton.
"I just want to read this -- Wait, what's that?" She saw a figure running toward them.
The others turned around to look. They saw a blonde girl waving her arms at them.
"Is that Bella?" Scout asked.
They were about to pass her. She called out, "Stop, you guys! The floodgate is open! The water's coming!" She pointed upstream.
With the combination of trying to read the sign and trying to hear what Bella was screaming, Jake was completely oblivious to what was churning toward them up ahead.
Suddenly the water rose beneath them, and the shell was thrust up several inches. Jake felt her stomach do a flip-flop.
Will was the first to say something. "What the hell —"
The narrow boat listed to one side, and now several shouts of "Hey!" came from the other rowers.
Ryder glared at the bewildered coxswain. "What's going on, Pratt?"
Jake looked up over the heads of the rowers before her and finally saw the waves tumbling downstream toward them. What they had just encountered was the surge before it.
For a moment she was too stunned to even react, but then she got her wits about her and realized that she was the one who had to get them out of this. "Whoa! Whoa!" Jake cried. "Turn around! Left oars down!"
Oars went in the water on her command. The shell spun in a quarter-circle, and they were now perpendicular to the crushing current. The water rushed up against the side of the boat, tipping it further and rendering it impossible to complete the turn. Jake knew the vessel wasn't designed to take that kind of pressure, and she knew that if they capsized, people could get trapped underneath. She took one final look at Hamilton. He was wide-eyed, wondering what the hell was going on, but waiting for her to call the shots.
"Abandon ship!" Jake shouted. "Everybody out! Get to the shore!"
END OF PART ONE
