My back garden erupted into total chaos after Allison went down into the murky canal water and didn't come up. Ryder pushed her. Of course, Ryder pushed her. Was it right? No. Was it necessary? Probably not. But that's Ryder for you- impulsive as ever.
"I'm going home, don't call the moms," is all Allison spat out before disappearing. Panicking, we tried to find her at first, honoring her request of not including the mums in this mess. Katie jumped in after two seconds of her not resurfacing, as she was the best swimmer of the three of us and arguably the most kindhearted. Ryder and I waited with bated breath as we watched Katie make laps back and forth with surprisingly calm, strong strokes. Nothing. Her legs were like scissors above the water as she dove down as far as she could, which was pretty far considering her father was a free diver. Still nothing.
We were dead, so dead. Hell, Allison was probably dead. Only literally. Katie wasn't making any progress and Ryder was going to go to prison for murder.
I spoke up. "Guys, we've got to ask for help."
Katie treaded water as she looked up at me defeated. "You're right."
Ryder sighed. "I'll do it." She paused for a moment to muster up the courage, then marched her way up to my backdoor. My house was nothing exciting. It was two stories and a bland shade of beige, but the door was interesting. Mum had painted it a brilliant blue and had done her own rendition of a coral reef on it during one of her art phases. Sometimes Max and I drove her so mad that she had to go to art classes before she killed us. She'd probably be enrolling in another one after tonight. Ryder went through it, and I turned back to the canal.
I walked down closer to the water's edge and offered Katie my hand. "C'mon, there's no use," I said feeling sick to my stomach. She grasped it, clambering up the bank, and together we sunk to the ground. "This is why you don't break the rules," I muttered.
"She did say she was going home," Katie offered. "Awfully strange way of getting there, but she said it."
"She looked scared."
"I'm sure she lives nearby. Her mum'll know what to do."
As if on cue, all four of the women came running out into the garden with Allison's mother leading the pack.
"What happened?!" Her eyes were wide with panic.
"Allison erm-" I attempted an answer.
"Spit it out- hey," Aunt Rikki interjected.
"She fell," Ryder said with conviction. Katie and I glanced her way and she raised her eyebrows, begging us to play along.
I hated lying to authority. I hated breaking the rules. But Ryder and Katie came first in my life and I had to have their backs.
"Yeah, uh, tripped on the bank and fell right in," I confirmed, my voice quivering. I was a terrible liar, but they were all too focused on finding Allison to notice.
The mums huddled together, making some sort of gameplan at a level we couldn't hear, as if they were the freaking Suns. After a moment or two of conferring, Mum broke out of the circle. "C'mon girls, we'll take care of this. Let's get you back to your sleepover," she eyeballed a drenched Katie before placing a hand on mine and Ryder's backs and ushering us toward the door.
We stumbled through the grass, confused but grateful that the situation was in better hands. As Mum reached for the doorknob, there was a splash. When I turned to investigate, Aunt Rikki and Aunt Bella were gone. That was all I could glimpse before I was shoved into the house.
Mum marched us down the hall, her hands steering us, until we reached the living room. "Sit," she commanded.
I lowered myself onto the sectional, as did Ryder. When Katie moved to do the same, she was stopped. "You, dry off," Mum said, flicking her head up the stairs.
Katie squished her way across the room and made her exit.
What once was a cozy living room quickly started to change into an interrogation chamber. Ryder and I remained on the edge of the sofa, whose cold leather might as well have been the cold metal of a folding chair. Mum flicked on the floor lamp, usually only reserved for when Dad was having a hard time reading the forecasts in the newspaper. Its effect was blinding. Mum began to pace. The shag carpet muffled her footsteps, but they intimidated us all the same. She wrung out her hands- never a good sign.
My heart started to pound, hoping she wouldn't catch us in our lie. I prayed Ryder would take over for the two of us because my talents for spinning stories were subpar, and I always had an awful time trying to lie to Mum.
Thankfully, she did. "I'm sorry, are we in trouble?" Ryder asked. She might have been feigning incredulousness, or perhaps she was delusional enough to believe we are in the right.
Mum halted her movement, and narrowed her eyebrows. The question had stumped her. "Yes." I took a sharp breath and braced myself. She turned to face us. "No." I let out a sigh of relief.
"Yes," she began pacing again.
Clearly the mothers had not reached a consensus before springing into action. If we were telling the truth, the only thing we could be at fault for would be not asking for help sooner. They hadn't convened to decide on the validity of our claims, and now Mum had been thrust into dealing with us. Ryder took notice, and nudged my knee with hers, claiming victory. God, did she have to be so obvious? She did it again. Maybe she had meant it was my turn to talk.
"Which one is it, Mum?" I asked. "I hardly think we did anything wrong. It was Allison who slipped, we were only trying to help." I swallowed back my guilt and hoped my voice did not shake on the falsehood.
"Yeah, Aunt Cleo," Ryder chimed in. "You can't blame us for trying to rescue her! Besides we hardly know the girl, how were we supposed to know something like this would happen?"
"You three could've at least called for help! What were you doing in the back garden in the first place?"
"We did call for help, Mum! We just didn't want to scare you if we could get her out ourselves," I glazed over her question about our whereabouts.
Fortunately, she didn't notice. She turned to us again and crossed her arms. "Fine," she said, her tone clearly indicating things were not fine. "You're free to go for now. Back up to your room," she waited a beat and neither of us made a move. "Go!"
Ryder and I scrambled to our feet and headed to the stairs. "And no more funny business with this girl, do you hear me?" Mum called after us. "She's new here, she doesn't need you giving her trouble."
I paused at the foot of the stairs, my hand resting on the bannister, and very nearly turned around. Allison seemed like such a sweet girl and it was our fault she was missing. Maybe the real story would be of use to them in looking for her. At the very least we could offer our help in the search. My mother knew how easily I let guilt eat at me. Well, not tonight. I straightened my shoulders and thundered up the stairs behind Ryder. I was 15 now, my mum didn't get to just manipulate me like that.
We reached my room to find Katie in a fluffy bathrobe. Clearly she had had no intention of returning to the mess Ryder and I had been left in downstairs.
"Seriously?" Ryder rolled her eyes, gesturing to the outfit.
"I figured a third person didn't need to sit through that," Katie said, plopping down on my bed. "That was pretty short, though, what happened?"
"We may or may not be in trouble. She can't decide at the moment," I filled her in.
"So we're all good for now," Ryder shrugged, sitting down next to Katie.
The two of them were so calm. The three of us might've just killed a girl! "Are you guys for real?" I shouted (or whisper-shouted. Didn't need Mum hearing). "Allison could be floating around out there dead at the moment, and we're happy we're not in trouble? We deserve to be in trouble!" Katie and Ryder sat back, shocked. Outbursts weren't usually my thing.
"Look, Ellie, the mums are on it. You heard them. They'll take care of it," Katie attempted a voice that was supposed to be soothing.
"The mums are on it?!" I asked with a sardonic laugh.
"You saw them jump in," Ryder added.
"The mums can't swim, you guys!" My mouth was acting entirely on its own accord at this point. I whipped around to try and take a more impressive stance to go with my killer line, and promptly tripped on the notebook we had thrown at the beginning of the evening.
The combination of the truth of my statement and the hilarity of my clumsiness brought the other girls around. "You're right," Ryder whispered.
I grabbed the book from underfoot and sat down between them, the others scooting to make room. I set my palm on its cover and repeated myself slowly. "The mums can't swim."
"You know," said Katie quietly in her sweet voice, "My mum can."
There was a collective "What?" as Ryder and I turned to her.
"Yeah, I've seen her in the water before. Never swum with her, but that doesn't mean I haven't seen her paddling around. We go to Fiji all the time, how could you go to Fiji and not swim?"
"Why didn't you say this when we were talking about the whole water mystery between our mums?!" I asked, rifling through the couple of pages we had filled earlier.
"Oh, were we serious about that? I thought that was just a new game you had come up with."
"Katie we're 15 we're too old for- well I suppose it was a game but it was a real one!" I had been excited for our summer adventure and was hurt she had not taken it seriously.
"No matter," Ryder butted in. "The mysteries been solved. There's no secret about them not swimming if they jumped in tonight. Plus, Aunt Bella's been in the water before, so there's no use for arguing."
"Okay but what about Allison?" I brought up our new friend once again.
"She'll be fine! You heard her, 'I'm going home'," Ryder flung her arms back and her body followed as she sprawled out on my bed. She sighed, "She went back to her house and her mum'll find her there soon. Until then, there's no use in stressing."
"But what do we say to her when we go camping on Friday-"
"Ellie, it's probably best if she doesn't come." I was taken aback. I expected Ryder to argue but never Katie. How could she be okay with leaving the poor new girl half-drowned and friendless in her first week in Australia?
"Katie?" I asked, my voice shaking. "What did that girl do?'
"Katie just means that something bad already happened on our first day with her. We don't need that bad luck on a desert island," Ryder lazily threw out as she lounged.
"Ryder that wasn't bad luck- it was you pushing her!"
"Well if she hadn't been around, I would've pushed you instead. And you would've flailed for awhile, sure, but you would've gotten out once we had had our fun."
"I-"
"Wouldn't you have?"
"I guess," I resigned, "But-"
"If there's a problem on Mako, we can count on each other. You don't know that girl, Ellie, none of us do. It's better not to run the risk."
"She's right," Katie whispered, patting my back.
"I know," I grumbled, coming round to their side.
Katie and Ellie came before everything else. Before our parents, before the truth, and definitely before the new girl, no matter how nice she might be.
