Sorry if this comes up as an update, just editing my cringe-worthy writing.

Sami again and surprise surprise, I've written a new story, but I promise to keep updates frequently. This is based from a book I read long ago and I just had to write it, same beginning, but different plot.

CREDIT: Title from "A Drop in the Ocean" by Ron Pope

…..

Rule #1: Avoid the Gods, at all cost.

Between the large trees of Westchester, New York, stood the infamous large majestic river known as Birch Falls. Birch Falls was the "Greasy Lake" to Briarwood, everyone who attended the prestigious school hung out there.

Back on the shore of the river were the Briarwood Gods (or what most people had called them), huddling around a bonfire and if Massie could recall, she was pretty sure that Cam had been drinking beer that night, or at least he had reeked of the toxic smell when he had tried to kiss her. She remembered that she had seen Josh, his wingman, and Plovert, his sidekick, tossing the empty aluminum cans into the fire, and heard them making bets on which can would melt first, and if Massie had heard correctly, Josh had won considering his distinctive shouting.

The Briarwood Gods consisted of Cam Fisher, Josh Hotz, and Chris Plovert. Most people had called them that, but Massie and Alicia had come up with the name because they acted as if they were the Gods at their school. They were Soccer champs, they were good-looking, and they were seniors, a year older than Alicia and Massie.

It was bizarre, however, because when Alicia and Massie were thirteen, it was like they didn't even know they were alive. They had never taken a single glance at them. They were too hung up with the seniors and juniors probably trying to cop a feel, but Alicia and Massie had intense crushes on them. Everyone did. Especially Cam Fisher, but the Briarwood Gods had constantly ignored them, which is probably why they had given them their name, they were considered godlike.

But then all of a sudden, in the spring of sophomore year, the Gods had wanted to sit by Alicia and Massie at lunch, invited them down to the launch, threw soccer balls for them to catch as if they were on the team with them. Alicia had considered it as spring fever, but Massie had thought differently; she thought that maybe they had just suddenly gotten tired of – or run out of – the junior and senior girls. Westchester was a small town located in New York, but it was nothing like New York City and there weren't many potential dates to choose from.

But then somehow last April, Cam Fisher had asked Massie out for ice cream, then a movie, and she remembered panicking and had to ask Alicia to come with her because she didn't know how to act around the Briarwood Gods on her own. She had always been shy. It was all right that she had brought Alicia in the end however, because Cam had asked Josh and Plovert to come. Massie had guessed none of them were all that good at being alone.

But, that was last year.

This year, Alicia and Massie never considered them as Gods anymore, but it was hard to break the habit of calling them that.

And if Cam had kissed Massie this time last year, she would have kissed him back. She would have been so excited throughout the kiss and at the same time been dying to tell Alicia the next day. But not now. Not ever anymore. So, Massie did what any other person would do from a sloppy kiss, she wriggled out of his tight grasp and wiped her disgusted mouth with the back of her hand and yelled, "Cut it out!" Before running across the wooded forest to look for Alicia, who was (of course) hanging out with some juniors Massie didn't know. Alicia (of course) didn't know them either, but that didn't stop her the way it would have stopped Massie.

Alicia and Massie took a hold of an old boat after running for what seemed like miles. It was a small aluminum rowboat that seemed to have been abandoned for quite a while. They dragged it into the green murky water and quickly dashed into it to make their escape from the Briarwood Gods. Of course, Massie was never one to steal someone's rowboat on her own – it was Alicia's idea. Everything was Alicia's idea, including coming down to the boat launch that night, when they hadn't been there in months.

"You know I can't actually swim," Alicia remarked, peering over the bow of the rowboat into the river.

"Yes, you do," Massie replied.

"Not well, anyway." Alicia started to chuckle and next thing they knew; they were both in a fit of laughter. Massie had recalled the last time she saw Alicia dog paddle in her neighbor's lake. She could hardly stop complaining about why her neighbors hadn't gotten a pool where it was safer and not filled with 'contagious insects'. Alicia was too busy talking to even swim; she ended up inhaling the murky water and then coughing her way through.

"Let's go back," Alicia stated, grabbing the paddle and steering the boat into the direction they had started.

"I was actually already trying to do that," Massie bluntly added and pulled on the oars to get them beaded back towards the shore, but the small rowboat kept spinning around, making a circle. Massie glanced at the dark water beneath them, she should have known not to come here, the water wasn't even clear enough to see how deep or shallow the lake was. She should have been at her house watching her collection of 80's movies or a movie at Alicia's house like they usually did on Friday nights. They were never allowed out on their own after dark, it was the city's law that teenagers under the age 21 have a curfew before 10, except for school events. So they did what cliché rebellious teenagers did, they had created a lie and invented a Valentine's Day school dance, even though it was a week past Valentine's Day, but Massie knew her father would never notice a detail like that.

"A dance?" her father had said, incredulously. "I thought you hated school dances."

"We're trying to be like normal teenagers," Alicia had told him. "It starts with going to crap like this."

Massie's father had laughed and agreed that she could go, and then Massie had explained that she was staying over at Alicia's after, like they usually did on Friday nights. It was so easy to lie to Massie's father, and it made her wonder why she hadn't done it sooner.

"Massie! I swear we're heading straight for the falls I can hear them," Alicia shouted nervously.

"No, we're not. We're a mile away," Massie said, exaggerating just a little. "Don't worry, we have time." But Massie couldn't steer the boat to the correct direction herself, she was usually good at boats, or at least she thought she was. Her father had always been the over-protective dad and had insisted on teaching her about the river so she could swim to safety when she needed to. He had even made her bail water out of a sinking canoe, treat water for ten minutes, and had taught her how to perform CPR and pump out someone else's lungs just in case.

Massie had guessed her father was such an over-protective dad was because his own father had sold insurance. He was obsessed with what might happen and what a person needed to be prepared for. Massie had never known what he had thought would happen, but he probably hadn't expected that she and Alicia would be in an old, broken–down rowboat at ten o'clock at night, just to escape from Cam Fisher and the other Gods. As far as he knew, she was still dating Cam; she was at the school dance with Cam, even though it had been months since they broken up. Her dad didn't keep up like he used to, he never seemed to pay attention anymore.

Alicia shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. She was wearing her Ralph Lauren short-sleeve shirt and jeans with her usual Steve Madden combat boots. At least Massie had a large heavy wool sweater, Ralph Lauren cashmere long sleeved shirt underneath, her dark denim jeans, and boots. Alicia and Massie had always dressed for completely different seasons, because Alicia was always hot and Massie was always cold.

"It's freezing out here and we're up a creek without a paddle," Alicia whined as she grabbed her two long legs and huddled them and then suddenly dropped them.

"No," Massie quietly shouted before correcting her. "We're up a creek with two different sized oars. I guess that's what you get for stealing someone's boat."

"Borrowing. Not stealing. Hey, see those lights? I think that's the bonfire."

"I know."

"It's getting really far away, oh my god we're headed straight for the falls aren't we? Massie I knew this was a terrible, terrible idea.

"Stop. Just give the paddle a little more muscle." Alicia demanded. Massie set the oars on her thighs and pushed a loss strand of her auburn curls to her ear.

"Come on," Alicia urged. "Please. This is making me really nervous."

Alicia, nervous was basically an oxymoron. Massie tilted the mismatched oars so that she could see the blades in the moonlights. Then she slid the oars back through the locks and scooted forward on the tiny bench like seat in the boat. She pulled as hard as she could. The oarlocks screeched as the metal oar and lock scraped against each other, then suddenly there was a loud snap on the left side. Massie reached out to catch the lock, but unfortunately it splashed into the river fore she could grab it.

Alicia screamed, reaching overboard to fish for the broken lock. "It sank. Massie it sank it sank it sank, what are we going to do now?"

"Let's each take an oar and paddle. I'll steer," Massie said, hanging Alicia the longer oar this time.

"This is worst than that canoe trip, I hope you know that." Alicia whined, before doing as Massie demanded and grabbing an oar. "You know I hate how calm you are in this situation."

"This isn't a canoe," Massie remarked before attempting to steer the boat to safety, She stopped as she head a boat coming towards them. She could make out a small green light on its starboard side.

"What's that?" Alicia questioned. "Do we have coast guards here?"

"This isn't the coast," Massie responded, quite annoyed.

The boat's engine revved, the bow bouncing on the water, carving the river as it plowed ahead. A large headlight on the front of the boat shone into the two girl's eyes.

"Here, I have some matches!" Alicia yelled with relief, dropping the shortest oar to the bottom of the boat and rifled through the pockets of her tight jeans.

"Why do you have matches?" Massie questioned as Alicia frantically tried to get one lit and Massie had suddenly seen the large figure start to approach them.

"I stole them from my Mom so she couldn't smoke tonight." Mrs. Rivera had been trying to quit for the past year, but it seemed as if she was smoking even more than before.

"Doesn't she have a lighter?" Massie asked. "Or she'll just use your stove or something."

"Of course, I'm not dumb, I thought of that. She can light it a thousand different ways, but at least this makes her think about it first. That's the genius of it."

"Hey, I think it's a boat approaching us. Hey!" Massie yelled, standing up as the boat came nearer, not slowing down. Massie waved her arms frantically in the air.

"Massie I think it's going to ram –" And at the last second, the boat whirled around them and made a wide circle before coming towards their old rowboat. Massie heard the loud voices coming from the boat, then laughing and recognized Cam shouting to Josh to catch their boat the next time they went past.

"I knew it was them," Alicia scoffed. "Losers."

The motorboat came to a halt and stopped behind Alicia and Massie. Cam was sitting in the back, steering, and Josh and Plovert were sitting in the middle on a small bench seat.

"Need a lift ladies?" Josh slightly chuckled and reached out to the grab the small rowboat as they cruised slowly past them, but he had stumbled, bumping into the side of the boat. "Woah," he said, falling back onto the bench seat.

"No, but I think you do." Alicia remarked.

"Shut up, Rivera," Josh said, slurring her last name into an unrecognizable jumble.

Cam circled back around, and this time Plovert leaned over the bow to the grab the rowboat as Cam cut the motor. They slowly drifted towards them. "What the hell are you guys doing out here?" Plovert asked.

"We're on a cruise. What do you think?" Alicia sneered as Plovert threaded a thick rope through the ring in the prow of the rowboat and knotted it so they could tow them back to shore.

"That you're insane." Plovert stated grinning at them.

"That you shouldn't be out here. That you don't know what you're doing at all." Cam stated, looking intently at Massie. "Next time, I'll go out with you."

Him and Plovert pulled the bow of the rowboat up onto shore ten minutes later, with Massie and Alicia still sitting in it. "You seriously shouldn't have tried that by yourselves."

Massie glanced at Cam's face as she quickly climbed out of the rowboat, one foot landing in the water and the other on mud. She noticed his concerned face as his eye brows furrowed towards each other and his blue and green eyes dull. "We didn't need you this time," Massie responded.

"Yeah right. Your boat was drifting. You were hopeless against the current," Josh explained. He was always kind of know-it-all and that had always bothered Massie. He was the captain of Briarwood's soccer team, so she had guessed that he was used to telling people what to do.

"Only because our oars were two different sizes." Alicia ridiculed. "We would have easily made it back under different circumstances." She hated being told what she could or couldn't do.

Josh just laughed and shook his head. "Yeah, sure thing, Rivera."

"Listen. The day we have to rely on you guys – especially you?" Alicia reached out and pushed her index finger against Josh's chiseled chest. "Is the day that we're in serious trouble and dying."

Josh simply put his arm around Alicia's lean shoulders and squeezed her as if he were to wrestle her to the ground. "You're funny. A real kicker, you know that, right, Rivera?" He sounded sort of offended by her remark, but also impressed by her comeback. Alicia could say anything to anybody. She wasn't afraid of anything.

"Look, we don't want any trouble." Cam started, putting his hands up. "Do you both need a ride or something?"

"No, thanks. We'll walk," Alicia instantly retorted.

"Don't be stupid, it's late." Cam said.

"We're not being stupid, we know you guys are wasted," Alicia pointed out. "You shouldn't have been steering the boat."

"They are. I'm not." Cam quickly replied.

"Hmm… Yeah. Well. We're still not taking our chances thank you."

Cam came closer to Massie. "You look cold. You want my jacket?" He shrugged out of his signature leather jacket, which was covered in his Drakkar Noir cologne and Massie had thought of all the times she had worn that stupid jacket. She recalled clutching the scratchy wool fabric against her delicate face, trying to burrow inside it, and trying to bury herself in it, but then she remembered how love struck she was and shook her auburns locks to hide her embarrassment.

"I'm not cold," Massie stated. She had been shivering a little, but stopped immediately after Cam had suggested the option. "Anyway, we really have to go, thanks for the tow though."

"Anytime." Cam smiled at her, and for a second she had remembered why she once thought he was the most attractive guy she had laid her eyes on. He had those killer different colored orbs, those chiseled check bones, and perfectly structured nose. Last year this would have been the most meaningful thing that had ever happened to her. Last year she would probably be doing cartwheels all across town and back, but things were different now.

Massie smiled in return and started walking beside Alicia up from the boat launch to the main road.

"We should have made them give us Cam's truck," Alicia exclaimed, hitting herself in the head as to why she hadn't thought of it sooner.

Massie laughed. "Yeah, but we don't even have our license yet."

"How hard can it be? If we can drive a boat, we can drive a car."

"But we've never driven a boat," Massie reminded her. "Not the kind with an engine at least."

"Mass, you always get hung up with technicalities. My mom lets me steer sometimes in the morning, while she's putting on her mascara. I mean, that's somewhat practice." Alicia rubbed her arms. "Notice how Cam didn't offer me his jacket. You know, he really likes you, still. Why didn't you let him drive us home? I mean, what's wrong with him?"

"I don't know. Nothing," Massie said. "He just… he bores me that's all." Massie quickly added, she never liked talking about this subject. She couldn't tell her that it wasn't what was wrong with him, that it was her. But then again, Alicia probably already knew the reason.

.&.

Mrs. Rivera was chuckling at something on TV before the two girls had walked in. "Hey, where have you guys been?" she asked before grabbing a spoonful of ice cream and chucking it into her mouth.

"Nowhere, Mom. Just hanging out," Alicia replied. "Mom, it smells like fruits in here. What did you do?"

"Oh, I bought some of that orange oil cleaning stuff. I was trying to get ahead on the Saturday cleaning."

"No, you were covering up the smell of smoke. Weren't you?" Alicia asked, obviously annoyed with her mother's behavior.

Mrs. Rivera huffed a sigh. "Okay, fine." She said before clearing her knotted up throat. "Massie? I saw your father at the store tonight."

"When you went to go purchase some more smokes?" Alicia scoffed.

"No sweetie, when I went to buy groceries." She turned off the television and started cleaning the TV screen with Windex. "He looked very tired. Do you think he's sleeping well?"

"Sure," Massie said simply, however she tried remembering what he had looked like in the morning when she passed him in the kitchen on the way out. In a way, she never really kept track of him anymore than he had kept track of her.

"You missed a spot," Massie added, attempting to change the subject and pointing to the smudge on the TV screen, but then realized what an obnoxious thing that was to say and quickly apologized, "Sorry."

…..

This is a Cassie/Massington (aka let me know which one you want)

Derrington will be in the next chapter (insert yay!)

Hope you enjoyed it; sorry it's such a rough story atm!