Title: Summer Storms, Part 2 of 5

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I don't own them. Why people who did own them and could broadcast them would give them up is completely beyond me.

Summary: An accident at crew practice leads 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.

Chapter 2: Into the Woods

Scout, Will, and the other rowers obeyed Jake's command and scrambled to their feet. Stepping carefully, they managed to keep the boat in balance as they all jumped out between the oars and plunged into the raging water. With a deep breath, Jake leapt from her end of the shell and Hamilton followed right behind her.

The water was freezing - and tasted like dead fish, which Jake discovered as she kicked to the surface and inadvertently swallowed a gulp as she gasped for breath. A wave crashed down on her and she went under again, kicking and beating against the turbulent water to climb her away back upward to air. Her lungs collapsing as the last of her breath burned away, she searched for a surface that was impossible to find amid tumbling waves. The thought crossed her mind that she might not make it to the surface again.

And then from somewhere in the nightmarish abyss a hand reached out to her, a strong hand that grasped her arm just below her shoulder and yanked her to the surface. She broke through and was finally able to open her mouth and gasp the sweet, sweet air.

"Jake!"

She heard Hamilton's voice before she could see him amidst the swirling water, finally spotting his wet head near her own, his eyes wide with worry. He let go of her arm so that she could swim, but he reached out to her again when she answered his call with a fit of coughing.

"Jake, are you OK?"

Fortunately, the water began to calm as the torrent passed on downstream, and Jake found that she could stay afloat now if she just kept kicking. She saw the other rowers holding their own against the rushing current as they headed for the shore.

"I'm fine," she answered finally. "I'm a total idiot, but I'm fine."

"What?"

"This is my fault, Hamilton."

"No, it's not, Jake. Don't say that."

Jake spotted the empty boat as it was tossed in the current and sucked on downstream. "Idiot," she chastised herself again. Hamilton reached out underneath the water and gently pulled on her sweatshirt.

"Come on," he said, starting to swim ashore before the current could carry them even farther away from where their teammates were converging on the bank. Jake swam after him, but Hamilton's strong arms plowed through the water much faster than she could follow. He stopped several yards ahead of her and waited for her to catch up.

The other boys all quickly covered the distance to the edge of the river, where it abruptly met a steep embankment. Scout was the first to scale the side and climb out.

Bella ran up to help him. "Scout! Are you OK?"

"Yeah, Bella," he replied as he stood dripping before her, catching his breath. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard about the dam. I came to warn you."

As the others crawled up onto the riverbank, Ryder stepped up to Bella and glared at her as he ran his hands over his head to squeeze the water from his blonde mop. "All you did was distract us so we didn't notice what was happening."

Bella was taken aback by this abrupt attack. "I was trying to help."

"Leave her alone, Ryder," Scout warned. Wringing out his crew jersey, Will walked over to back him up.

"Who is this little bird?" Ryder demanded, jutting a thumb at Bella.

"Nobody I would introduce you to," replied Scout.

Ryder eyed Bella with a sly smile. "You're Gracie's sister, aren't you? Your baby sis is a good girl."

Behind them, Hamilton and Jake finally reached the shore. As he climbed up on the bank, Hamilton turned and held out a hand to Jake, but she ignored it and lifted herself out. Hamilton started to shake off and wring out his shirt.

Jake put her hands on her head and realized that her carefully-gelled boy hair had melted into a wet mop. "Oh, God," she groaned.

"You lost your cap," Hamilton pointed out.

"That's the least of my problems." She ran her fingers over her hair and slicked it all straight back. "Does this look OK?"

"Yeah." Hamilton smiled. "You've got kind of a slimy little Italian gangster thing going on."

Jake rolled her eyes then shook her head. "I'm such a disaster. I can't believe I did this."

"Jake --"

"I wasn't paying attention! This is my job, Hamilton. To make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen."

Ryder overheard this and interjected, "Yeah, you're right. It is your job, Pratt. Or was. Finn's not gonna be too happy that we lost a boat."

Jake and Hamilton ignored him and walked over to Will and Scout.

"Are you guys OK?" asked Jake.

"Yeah," Will replied.

"I'm really sorry about this. I didn't - "

"Jake, don't worry about it," Scout insisted. "I wouldn't have known what the hell to do."

"What exactly happened?" Hamilton asked.

"They opened the floodgate, or part of it," Bella explained, "Because there's a huge rainstorm flooding the towns upriver. And it's headed our way, which is why you guys should get out of here, before it starts pouring."

Scout laughed. "We're already soaked. What harm can a little rain do?"

But Bella wasn't laughing. "You obviously haven't been through a summer storm in New Rawley, Scout."

"Yeah, come on, mates," barked Ryder, assuming the lead. He turned back to Jake and added, "You're fired, coxsuck."

"Bite me, Draco," Jake retorted.

"Yeah, Ryder," said Hamilton. "Without a coxswain we don't have a crew team, and good luck finding another guy who weighs 115 pounds."

"How do you know how much he weighs, Fleming?" Ryder inquired. "Maybe had him on your back?"

Hamilton clenched his jaw and bellied up to Ryder. "Say that again," he challenged. The Brit was a good four inches taller than he was, but Hamilton made it very clear that he wasn't accepting snide comments from anyone.

Ryder started right back at him with a raised a fist, but Biggs grabbed him, and Will pulled Hamilton back.

Scout raised his hands between them and played mediator. "All right, guys, there's no cause for fisticuffs here. Let's just head back."

"That was quite a display of manliness, Fleming," Ryder sneered. "I'm sure your girlfriend was impressed."

Bella looked at Jake and vice versa, not quite sure which one of them Ryder was talking about.

Before the posturing could escalate to a brawl, a distant crack of thunder rumbled overhead. Ryder's buddies motioned on down the river.

"Let's go, Ryder," said Biggs. "These losers already got us wet once today."

Ryder grinned with a delicious idea and then quickly shook his head back and forth like a wet dog, spraying Hamilton, Scout, and Will with the water from his hair. With a parting sneer, Ryder turned and trudged off with his posse along the riverbank.

Will turned to Hamilton and quipped, "You know what they say about guys who are really homophobic..."

This broke the tension a bit, and Hamilton and Jake both laughed.

Bella shook her head, watching Ryder walk away. "What an asshole."

The others nodded their agreement.

"Come on," said Jake. "We really should get out of here." She started to walk off in the same direction as Ryder and the others.

"No, not that way," Hamilton called after her. "The river twists all around. It'll take 'em over an hour to get home if they follow the river back." He pointed into the trees. "School's straight over that hill."

"You want to go through the woods?" Scout asked, less than thrilled.

"What are you so worried about, city boy?"

Jake raised her hand. "Well, here's one city boy who's not so keen on the whole nature tour thing."

"Come on, I grew up here," Hamilton insisted. "I know the way."

"I don't know," said Will, watching the others walk off into the gray mist. "Do you think it's a good idea to split up? Finn wouldn't like that."

"Personally, I think it's a great idea," Hamilton replied.

"Hamilton's right," Bella chimed in. "It'll take half as long if we go straight up, and that storm's rolling in pretty quick."

Scout looked at her. "Does that mean you're coming with us?"

"No, I -- Well, my bike's up there. I'll walk back with you that far."

Steven Fleming was so angry he could not sit down. He stood at his desk, looking out at the dark clouds rolling ominously over the campus, and yelled into the telephone, "If you decided to release the gate three hours ago, why am I just hearing about it now?"

On the other end of the conversation, the director at the Department of Emergency Services stammered, "We -- It was broadcast on the radio and on --"

"I wasn't listening to the radio," Steven interrupted, losing his patience. "I've got a crew team on that river every morning. I'm supposed to get a call!"

He slammed down the phone and pondered his next move. He was in his office, but because it was Saturday, his assistant Maureen was not in. He walked out to her desk, searching for the Rolodex. Would it be faster to find Finn's cell phone number or head down to the river himself?

He looked at the clock, and it was after nine. The boys would have set out by now, because Finn knew the storm was coming and the practice had to be quick.

Steven grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair and slipped it on as he left his office. Yes, he'd known about the storm, but he couldn't have known about the dam. It hadn't been released in years, and the last time they'd had plenty of warning.

But there was no warning this time because no one had expected the flash floods in the towns up the river. Because no one had expected the storm to be that bad.

Steven took a deep breath and decided that today was not the day to get anyone at County Services fired. He made up his mind that it was nobody's fault, and that thought helped him to relax.

And it wasn't until he relaxed that he remembered that it wasn't just a crew team out on that river. It was his son.

And no one had expected the storm to be this bad.

Clouds completely obliterated the rising sun as Jake, Hamilton, Bella, Scout, and Will trekked up the hill through the woods. With the exception of Bella, they were all soaking wet, and the trees did little to protect them from the cold wind that rustled the thick branches overhead and sent shrieking birds flying off for calmer territory.

"You guys must be freezing," said Bella. Hamilton and Jake nodded vigorously.

Scout walked close to Bella. "It was nice of you to come out here to warn us," he said.

"I wish it had helped."

"How'd you know exactly when we'd be out?"

"I've lived here all my life, Scout. I know what time the rowers come down the river."

"Oh, come on. The schedule must change from time to time. Have you been coming down here a lot lately?"

"Well... maybe lately more often than usual."

"Why?"

Bella just looked at him, and her look said, You know why.

"I know," Scout continued. "But I just wanted to hear you say it."

"I can't."

Jake and Hamilton overheard this and exchanged a look. Jake was curious about Scout and Bella, but a sign she saw posted on a tree ahead of them diverted her attention. From now on, she was paying great heed to posted signs.

"Hey, Fleming, are you sure we should be here?" she asked. "That sign says 'Private Property.'"

"We're fine," Hamilton insisted. "A half mile and we're on school grounds. I'm telling you, this is like my back yard."

"It's a pretty big back yard," Will commented.

Hamilton eyed the sign. "Weird, though. They never used to post signs around here."

They reached a small clearing where the path widened and split in two. Bella stopped and pointed to the diverging trail. "My bike's that way."

"I'll walk you there," said Scout.

"No, you guys need to get back. I'm sure people are wondering what happened to you."

"Well, that's what they get for not letting us take our cell phones on the boat."

Bella smiled at this but then turned serious. "Please, Scout. I've gotta go." She turned to the others and said, "Have a fun hike. I'm sorry if I made you lose your boat."

"Hey," Jake argued, "That was totally mea culpa."

Bella smiled at Jake as if they shared some private joke, which in a sense they did. She shook her head and just said, "Jake..." For a moment the girl and the boy who was actually a girl shared a look that no one else understood. Then Bella started off toward her bike as Scout stared forlornly after her.

Sensing the tension, Hamilton walked up to Scout and put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, if you two need a minute of alone time, we can hang here and chill for a sec. I gotta pee."

Scout shook his head. "I don't know what else I can say."

"There's always a way, man," Hamilton insisted. "You just gotta follow your heart, as lame as that sounds."

"God, you're starting to sound just like Finn."

"Maybe he's right."

"No, there's more to it than that. We've got major obstacles."

Hamilton laughed softly. "Yeah, I wouldn't know anything about that."

Scout smiled at him, but then grew uncomfortable. Was Hamilton telling him something?

"Go for it," Hamilton urged, with no idea what he was in reality telling Scout to do.

Scout shook his head again. "No, she's right. We can't." He watched Bella weave her way up the other path. She couldn't help but glance back at him.

Hamilton shrugged and walked off into a thick cluster of trees. "I'll be right back," he called over his shoulder.

Jake looked at the sky, sure that she felt a drop of rain. "Crap," she said under her breath. She desperately wanted to take off her soggy sweatshirt and wring it out, but she knew that the corset strapping her breasts down would be too visible under a wet T-shirt. She turned to look in the direction Hamilton had walked off, hoping he was already on his way back and they could get a move on.

And then Jake noticed another 'No Trespassing' sign. This one also said, in very large letters, 'POACHERS WILL BE PROSECUTED.' A true creature of the city, Jake had to think back to the Steinbeck novel they'd read in Lit class in order to recall what a poacher was. Hunters. People with guns. Jake was really not digging this scene.

"Hamilton?" she called into the thicket.

His voice echoed back. "I'm coming."

She looked over at Will and Scout, who were quietly discussing something while kicking rocks into the trees. She crinkled her brow as she eyed the ground around her, then off the trail, toward the cluster of trees that Hamilton had wandered into. She spotted something strange - one of the trees had a chain attached to its trunk. Her eyes followed the chain to its other end, where it attached to something gray that she thought at first was a small pile of rocks. It was a good twenty feet away and partially obscured by leaves and twigs, so she slowly stepped a bit closer to get a better look.

It wasn't rock. It was metal, a large steel ring with a flat piece in the middle. As Jake edged towards it, she heard a few twigs snap in the thicket just behind it, and she jumped back.

Hamilton emerged from behind a tree, and she sighed with relief. But her relief quickly vanished when she realized that he was headed straight for that strange contraption...

"Hamilton, wait! Watch out!"

"What?" he called back. He didn't stop. Jake rushed toward him and managed to catch up to him just as his foot was coming down on it.

"Stop!" she yelled.

She threw herself at him and tried to push him out of the way, but it was too late -- he'd already sprung the trap. A crushing jaw ten inches wide, it leapt up off of the ground in a vicious bite, as if it were a live and hungry animal. Its rusty joints screeched and clanged as it snapped shut.

They both fell to the ground as it sprung. Hamilton landed safely out of reach -- but the jaw and its razor teeth had caught the middle of Jake's foot. She cried out in pain.

"Jake!" Hamilton screamed.

END OF PART TWO