In the town of Thicket Valley, opportunities to enjoy mainstream aquatic recreation are few and far between. For the local children, a secluded lake deep in a nearby woods serves as a swimming hole during the summer season.

These are their stories.

(Lulu, Shanna, and Noreen: Anywhere but Here)

Noreen sighed luxuriously as she quickly flipped off her sunglasses and checked the time on her phone; half past noon on a balmy day in early July. Clicking open the MyGram app on her phone, whatever contentment she had over the day dissipated into resentment and jealousy with each photo she scrolls through beachside photographs posted by the small collections of models, influencers, and pop stars she follows (both via verified and fan accounts).

"They're so lucky." She mumbles.

"Huh?"

Lulu turns onto her side and slowly removes her pair of sunglasses before scootching her towel next to her fashion-savvy friend.

"Dita Lule, lime 2-piece Aphrodite bikini, France..."

"…Mani Yarosh, MimiMelon Caftan, Monte Carlo…"

"…Carina Canosa, Elisabeth's Unmentionables halter top and matching leggings, Rio…"

Noreen's voice suddenly becomes bitter as she gently tosses her phone onto the grass and flops on her back.

"…And I Noreen, in a garish one-piece monstrosity from Bull's Eye lounging about this swamp in the middle of freaking nowhere! I mean seriously Lu, look at this!"

Noreen rolls a strap off her shoulder to show Lulu the awkward farmer's tan she had accrued after a summer of sunbathing on the bank of their swimming hole. In deep contrast to the swarthy and sun-kissed arms and legs, everything the bathing suit had covered was left unbearably milky.

"Yeesh. That's oh so pale."

"I know right? I just don't know what else to do about it."

"Well, If you're really that self-conscious." Lulu began. "From where I'm sitting it's the peak of the day, the lake is about fifty feet in that direction…(she jerks her thumb behind her)…and all our friends are oh so busy swimming-"

"What are you saying?" Noreen began hesitantly.

"That this is the oh so perfect time and place to get some sunbathing in."

Before her friend could respond, Lulu rose herself up and stepped behind the large tree. Less than five minutes later, she returned wearing a green two-piece swimsuit that would give the models Noreen followed a run for their money. Grabbing a drawstring bag from underneath her towel, the redhead grabbed a bottle of spray-on sunscreen before giving it a toss to her friend.

"I keep a second swimsuit on hand."

After spraying her body with a fair quantity of sunscreen, the redhead sighed luxuriously as she sprawled herself upon her towel; her face breaking into a smug smile as she surrendered herself to the sun.

Noreen could feel her inhibitions start to waver and dissolve as she reset her towel next to Lulu's. Yet a layer of envy danced in her stomach; the Finn girl was always had a coquettishly brash disposition with which she carried herself. Yet whatever scorn she earned from it seemed to roll of her like water from the backside of a duck. Taking one final glance in the direction of the swimming hole and seeing that her peer group was indeed too busy cooling off in the water, Noreen let out one final sigh and slowly fished her friends standby swimming attire out of the bag and strolled toward one of the few trees in the area large enough to provide her some privacy.

Suddenly a water balloon whizzed down from the branches; striking Noreen square in the face. With a surprised and heartfelt yelp, she loses her footing for a moment and tumbles down one of the many nearby small hills. Breaking Noreen's fall was a muddy and shallow creek brimming with a knot of toads at least three dozen strong. The sight of Noreen face first in their home naturally sent them into a frenzy which further added to the nature loathing lass' white-hot rage over this turn of events.

"Ack! ALRIGHT! Who the-"

Wiping the mud from her body, Noreen turns to the direction of the tree she had aimed to change beneath. An all too familiar nasty chortle fills the air followed by a triumphant roar of 'TEN POINTS!' In the wake of this outburst, scores of terrified songbirds take to the air in search of safer and more silent pastures.

"Dammit Shanna, that wasn't funny!"

"Well, that's all a matter of perspective." Shanna replied. "Up here, I think it's HI-FRIGGIN'-LARIOUS!"

"I'M COVERED IN MUD!"

"Oh please, weren't you just huffing and puffing last month about how you want to take a mud bath at some swanky SoHo spa? Well, I gave ya what ya wanted and saved you about $1000 in the process… But let it never be said that I'm all that heartless."

Whipping out a pair of super soakers, Shanna laughs maniacally as she squeezed the trigger with all her might thus causing the jets of water hose down her classmate. Finally hitting her breaking point, Noreen tosses a pine cone at the aggressive adolescent. But it was the dead-eyed stare of disappointment from Lulu (who had come to see what all the commotion was about) and the four-word response she gave that left any lasting damage in its wake.

"Honestly, Shanna? Grow. Up."

Dropping her water cannons at the base of the tree and reclining ruefully on her branch, Shanna casts the daggers of her eyes upon her peers as they resumed their basking. Despite the sneer on her face, the cruel coed could feel herself being emptied of whatever malicious mirth that once resided in her spirit, and plummeting like a punctured balloon back to earth at breakneck speed only to crash in an amorphous and useless mess.

"Oh Lulu…" she whispered to herself. "Why you? Why do you of all people do this to me; slice through my seemingly impenetrable armor of antagonism and make me feel things in that pesky little conscience of mine. Especially considering your penchant for toying with the wormy, simpering male members of our class who all too happily throw themselves under your thumb?"

Suddenly something dark gripped at Shanna's psyche. She had always been a paragon of pugnaciousness as far as her peers were concerned, but true hate in its most unfiltered form was never something she could say she experienced. Yet as a deep and disgusted noise came from her mouth while casting the daggers of her eyes upon Noreen and Lulu sunbathing, that feeling of hate squirmed violently in her heart and soul; burrowing about like a clam digging itself deeper and deeper into the wet sand at low tide.

"For too long my I have lived in loath and confusion o'er you in this matter has been a leash on my otherwise unbridled wrath…"

Slowly Shanna raised her water pistol in the two girls' general direction. Even though she knew the jet of water had a snowball's chance of reaching them, she pulled the trigger as if to symbolically wash away whatever burgeoning and perplexing feelings she may have felt over the redhead.

"…but no more."

(Stumpy, Fifi, and Brawny: Third Wheel)

They had spent the afternoon frolicking among the swimming hole. Naturally, as nearly 90 minutes had passed since the crack of noon, Fifi Henderson and Stumpy Paulson found themselves quite famished. Spread about the checkered blanket a stone's throw from the water was a scrumptious feast for two, maybe three depending on how hungry they felt; chicken, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw, potato salad, a pitcher of water and iced tea, and for dessert a large seedless watermelon.

Munching on his portion of poultry, Stumpy couldn't help but longingly smile at the company before him. It had been months since he and Fifi were tossed together at the whim of their ex-principal, yet that meeting and the rapport the two of them forged from it still went strong. On paper it defied logic; him the brainiac and she a slow learner, but love, in whatever personification one might want to give it, never was a force that played by the rules.

"Sum'thin' wrong?"

Stumpy shook his head vigorously.

"Oh! I…well, It's…" he stammered. "It's your maillot."

"May-yo? What th'heck does that mean St'umpy?" She inquired while scratching her head.

"It's French for bathing suit."

"Oh." She replied. "For uh minnit there I was like 'did I forget somethin' for our picnic?'"

Stumpy let out a quiet chuckle.

"No…but like I was saying, I can't help but admire the shade of blue. It's quite pacifi…I mean peaceful."

The diminutive boy in brown swimwear divided his optical attention between the vertically blessed girl before him and the lovely mid-July day they shared. The longing smile on his face only got harder and harder to conceal as thoughts of Fifi and the future only continued to dance in his mind's eye. Yet at the same time, Stumpy was all too aware that his ecstasy soared on wings of wax; and just like Icarus of old, so too did he emotionally plummet when these fantasies faced the blinding and unyielding sun of reality.

"COWABUNGA!"

From the top of the hill serving as a makeshift diving board, Brawny curled his body into a cannonball as he plummeted into the cold water; which rose like a mushroom cloud of liquid upon colliding with his frame. If his boisterous yelp didn't shatter their otherwise intimate moment, the torrent of droplets flying in their general direction sure did. But in spite of Stumpy salvaging what he could of the situation, Fifi politely gave him a hug and thanked him for the day they spent as she had errands to run…thus leaving him behind with Brawny, chuckling and musing to himself over his awesome display.

"Aw, Dude, that was some serious air…"

"YOU… LUMMOX! YOU FEEB! YOU…YOU INTELLECTUALLY VACUOUS MOUNTAIN OF SINEW! MY PICNIC IS SPOILED CURTOUSY OF YOU AND YOUR 'SERIOUS AIR'! SERIOUSLY! IF YOU'RE THIS MUCH OF A MORON OUT OF SCHOOL, NO WONDER I WAS DRAFTED TO HOLD YOUR HAND IN SCHOOL THIS YEAR!"

As dense as Brawny was academically, he knew enough socially to know when and how much he had stepped in the proverbial turd. Even with his stature, the fury coursing through Stumpy was a frightful spectacle; and the ten-dollar words he lobbed at Brawny in his fit of rage only added salt to the wound. It wasn't enough that the little guy insulted him, but he did so at a level that only highlighted the academic chasm between them both.

With his rage excised, Stumpy felt good…for a fleeting second. The sight of Brawny looking crestfallen and hurt in the wake of his tirade filled the little lad with guilt. But before he could say sorry, Brawny forlornly and contritely exited the swimming hole. Deep down Stumpy knew his friend didn't do what he did out of spite. Heck, as far as he was concerned, the area around the swimming hole was empty. Nonetheless, Stumpy gathered together what remained of his picnic with Fifi and prepared a peace offering for his swole schoolmate.

"Hey…" Stumpy began as he found Brawny sitting a distance away. "I want to apologize for…that."

Brawny looked up at the plate of chicken and pasta. Deep down he knew he couldn't be mad at him.

"Nah. I should've watched where I was jumping." He replied.

"Still, that was a tirade I shouldn't have doled out on you."

"Yet you did."

"And normally, I would have let it slide…I mean, yeah it was pretty…well (clears throat)…but really more than anything, I was mad at everything else."

"-And I was just the last thing to push you over the edge."

"The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back."

"I'm right here if you wanna talk about it…Just try not to use all those college-y words, ok?"

Stumpy gave his friend a small smile as if to agree before laying on the grass and looking up at the afternoon sky.

"People think that because I'm smart and do so well at school that this time of year must be a massive bummer, but they're wrong. I'm just like any other kid; I really love summer vacation, and the chance to get a reprieve from all the books and tests throughout the school year."

"Y'mean like a break?" Brawny asked.

"Exactly. Especially this year, after everything with Canker, you know?"

"Yeah." The larger of the two lads said while finishing his helping of macaroni and cheese. "That sure was an episode with him being all arrested and all."

"I mean, as much as I should feel slighted and offended…" Stumpy began. "…I really can't."

"What makes 'ya say that?"

"On the one hand, he exploited me. Took advantage, you know? Misused my intelligence by starting that program…and yet, if it weren't for that, I…well, this may come as a surprise, but I'm not exactly someone who socializes all too easily-"

"But you got Fifi and I." Brawny said hopefully.

"Exactly." Stumpy said. "And it never would have happened if it weren't for me being a pawn in Canker's game. And like I was saying, any rational-thinking person should be deeply offended, but I'm not! Friendship, meaningful and deep friendship was always a door I believed to be welded shut all this time. And now it's blown clear off the hinges you know?"

Stumpy then got quiet. His mouth crooked into a slightly bashful grin.

"You know…it's quite…interesting you mention Fifi…because, well, there's a lot of other feelings lately that up to now I've always believed to be-"

"You like Fifi don't you?" Brawny said flatly.

Stumpy sat agape at his friend.

"I do…a lot actually." Stumpy began. "I mean, I mean how many times do you hear some couple in love always go on and on about how one feels complete in the presence of another? All this time, the use of those words regarding such a sensation has been elusive to me, like catching an eel with your bare hands."

"But that's darn near impossible. They're so slippery." Brawny said.

"Then in meeting Fifi that day, and hearing how she wanted more than anything to read Othello because she thought it would help her get over the grief of losing her grandfather it me in a way I long since assumed had been eroded and anaesthetized by a childhood of scholarly toil."

"In English please." Brawny reminded him.

"It touched me. Then after she got the passing grade, it was like time froze and everything melted away. Leaving just us two, in the whole world…On the other hand…"

"On the other hand?"

"On the other hand, what an odd couple we'd make!" Brawny said. "Sure, when you're young and in love you think such things don't matter, but then there's the future to think about. Assuming for a moment that I want to build a life with her down the line, what will that mean? Relationships of all kinds need all involved to pull their weight to make it work, and sometimes I want to know how much pulling one of us will be doing on the other. Will I be mad at her for not being able to balance a checkbook or pay taxes or not know how to handle the adversities life throws…or just simply one day waking up and finding myself souring on her child-like demeanor and resent her in the process?"

Stumpy pauses for a moment.

"But on the OTHER, other hand…" he suddenly interjects. "Were I to fall in love and consider courting someone more in my intellectual league, would that person make me feel like I do now with Fifi?"

"You think too much." Brawny suddenly interjected.

Stumpy paused for a moment as his friend's remark. What struck him the most was the sudden shift in tone Brawny took when delivering his assessment; his inflection, once inquisitive and almost pleading, took a sudden downward turn thus adding a new level of weight and finality to his assessment.

"Not just you personally, smart people in general. You're always looking too far and too deep into things and that's why you're not all that happy. I know book wise I'm not the brainiest of the bunch, and that getting grades was like going up to…(he snaps his fingers)…oh, those mechanical French axes you see in paintings-"

"Guillotines?" Stumpy asked.

"Yeah. But it ain't like the space between my ears is completely made of cement. I've seen how happy Fifi makes you. Little things like your breath becoming quicker and that small seasick grin you get around her. Honestly, it was the first time I could ever recall a smile on your face."

The shorter of the two lads raised his eyebrows in contemplation. RS-59 was by no means a large school, but even then there was balkanization between the grades.

"Oh yeah. I remember passing you every now'nd again in the hall; getting worked up over your assignments, or getting the snot kicked out of you by Shanna and the others… You and other smart people You make people think, and when people think, they get headaches and stop smiling…and so they take their unhappiness out on you because of it."

Stumpy sat bereft of speech over his friend's epiphany. His jaw swayed in the light breeze that passed them and his eyes widened with all the awe and majesty of witnessing an atomic explosion...he had endured, in colloquial vernacular, a truth bomb. Nonetheless, Brawny continued.

"You clearly feel something for Fifi. Now what? And that's gonna take some serious thinking on your part. Not in there-"

Brawny points gently at Stumpy's forehead before gently sliding it to the shorter boy's pectoral region and giving it three gentle taps for good measure.

"…but here."

(Eustace and Hilda: Poems)

"Well, well, it appears the lunar deities have favored us."

With a Mona Lisa smile, Eustace hands Hilda back the book containing her poem for the MYOPES. With a week left to go, she found it difficult to pick one particular angle to go with and instead filled two sets of journals with idea after idea before highlighting the best of the best. Until she chose which verses to submit, her somber schoolmate would be the sole audience for the full and unedited epic to that which she simply christened Breakup.

"It was crazy." The blonde girl replied. "Like, I had all these ideas suddenly bursting through me. All because of that moon, the same moon underneath which I'd muse and ponder…well…shame though there's a limit on how long the poem can be."

"Well, maybe you can parcel everything out and make a whole book about it when you get older." Eustace said with a dry chuckle. "I'd buy it for the Lulu chapter alone."

"Ah yes..." Hilda said wistfully. "Trollop robed in emerald. Hussy of the halls, she who has no shame when playing with boy's…feelings. To me how you resembled, a lizard on the walls. You glide and slither whilst going 'bout your dealings. The lustful grin upon your face, lures scores of lads in haste to waste affections for which the prize is actions bawdy and unchaste…Yeah, put some bongos behind this and I'm sure it'll kill at a local coffee shop."

"Assuming some culture decides to grace this no-horse town of ours." Muttered Eustace.

"And what of you good sir?" Hilda inquired. "Surely a muse has made you its vessel this year."

"As a matter of fact, yes it has. Right after you left, I managed to break into Theatre 3 and found this."

The lad reaches into his N'SydeOut Pupp13z courier bag and pulls out a dented and scuffed stainless-steel flask with the words New York Film Academy engraved onto it.

"Gee…" Hilda began. "That's quite a find…who would even have one of those."

"Farnsworth the Film Snob."

"You mean that guy from Gerard's story?"

"The same."

"And I'm guessing your poem is about…"

Before Hilda could finish her question, it was Eustace's turn to present. Clearing his throat and pulling his notebook out, he takes a deep breath and begins to read for her his magnum opus:

Feral, haggard of body and weary of soul is the man who stumbles about the unkempt movie house.

An empty, barking laugh he emits as his only attempt at respite from the asinine children's picture show.

Ride did he once upon a time from one coast to the next, seeking immortality and grandeur.

Never thinking he'd be stuck here forever beneath the marquee's nagging neon glow.

Sodas fizzed, popcorn heated, but this worker bold and conceited, finally made all he dealt with grouse

When works by his pretentious hand played on the screen to an irate and cheated audience below.

Oh fortune, by what cold, capricious hand must this budding auteur

Rot into a delirium one would be loath to wish o'er their worst foe?

The toast of NYFA, now hauled away like a rabid dog; stripped of every dignity known to man

His colleagues from the shadows smirk for victorious was their plan.

A chill ran down the blonde girl's spine. The fate of Farnsworth the Film Snob was the town's most prized ghost story, one whose constant retelling over the years blunted the impact and power the story had over those who heard it. Yet Eustace's rendition bought new life.

"Wow…" She replied.

"Not my darkest, I'll admit." Eustace said with a shrug. "But the challenge I put upon myself was to come up with something palatable to the brain-dead masses AND represent this no-horse town. All that's left now is to send them in. And since it's finished before submissions open, I'd say there's a good chance I might even get mine in first."

"Perhaps." Hilda said suppressing a small smile. "But you gotta beat me to the mailbox first!"

(Corkscrew: Things That go Splash in the Night)

Night had fallen over the swimming hole. Only the moon, that radiant and pock-marked alabaster sphere, stood a silent sentry to the body of water beneath it. The choir of nocturnal fauna filled the air with their respective ambient contributions to nature's soundtrack.

Suddenly, the tall grass begins to part. Out from the night, from the midst, steps a boy agitated and fighting the urge to succumb to slumber at one hour past midnight. Taking a deep breath, he scrolls disgustedly with alarm at the bevy of texts he's received from the past two days…all of which coming from Rhoda:

Corkscrew. Come down. I bought this wild bikini.

Corkscrew. Lulu and Arnie don't need to be the only couple worth fawning over at the swimming hole today.

The videos she sent the boy were no different…or better. If it wasn't flirtatious winks and kisses it was surely her attempts to coyly and confidently pose for the camera like a model, thinking such displays would have him come to the yard. Instead, he avoided the swimming hole like the plague…which was sad given how he loved to swim.

"Tonight's the night." The pompadoured lad thinks to himself. "And it's gonna happen again and again. It has to happen. The swimming hole is a joy for me. It's not WankyLand or anything, but the oneness with nature one feels while cavorting around the water is something money can't buy-"

A loud rustle derail's Corkscrew's train of thought followed by an irate hiss. A rather plump skunk raises its tail and wriggles its hind quarters menacingly at Corkscrew. But as it quickly dawns on the boy how much he's messed up royally, the lad can feel droplets landing on his ankles and shins, followed by the telltale odor one associates with such a creature.

"Aaaach! I'm dead for sure."

A crunching noise, followed by an angry buzzing fills the air. One by one, Corkscrew now feels sting after sting prod all about his body with no rhyme or reason. And the swatting in an attempt to stave these creatures off only made the situation worse. But the most frightening was yet to come.

Having finally made it to the bank of the lake, Corkscrew finally felt fulfilled. Here he was at the proverbial finish line after an ugly nocturnal race from mother nature. But what the lad didn't count on was that Mother Nature rarely played fair. As Corkscrew bolted, a he felt a jutting rock suddenly come out of nowhere came the most blood-curdling sound to ever be emitted:

"SQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQUUUUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!"

The ominous oinking proved to be the final straw. Practically knocked off his feet, Corkscrew came face to face with Arnie's giant ugly and angry pet boar (calling Abagail a pig was far too charitable). In the throes of fear, he could feel himself falling and falling before splashing into the lake backside first. Soaked, sore, and now missing his phone, Corkscrew cut his losses and began the ignominious march back to his home where he no doubt had to answer for his recklessness. But one ray of hope for the lad came as he found himself finally reaching the outskirts of town, an all too familiar snarfing noise filled the night.

"Arnie!" Corkscrew exclaimed. "I never thought I'd say this, but boy am I glad to see you!"

"Yeah, I get that." The dullard dude acknowledged with a second sickening snort.. "Abagail got out again and…(sniff)…You got into it with one skunk, he was ten inches away from you. And some yellow jacket stings as well. One…two…three…four…"