I turned around from where I was standing thigh deep in the lake, to face the shore.
"Is anyone done yet?" I called out to Maya, Remus, Cassie, Sirius, Ellie and James who were all still eating pizza.
"Yep." James stuffed his last bit of pizza crust into his mouth and ran into the water. As he reached me he bent down grabbing me by the waist and gently slinging me over his shoulder.
"James! Let me down!" I screeched.
"C'mon Lily, admit it. You're loving it." I could hear James grin.
"Am not!" I struggled to get down. James flipped me around so that I was cradled in his arms like a baby.
"Let me go! Or I swear I'll… I'll…" I struggled to think of something suitably horrid. "I'll turn you into a frog!"
"And then will you kiss me so I can turn into a prince?" James asked.
"Eww! Not even for you, would I kiss a frog!"
"Would you kiss me if I was, let's say, a toad?"
"Aaarrg! You are impossible."
"So you would kiss me if I was a toad!" James said triumphantly.
"You two are so cute when you fight." Maya commented.
"Are not!" I protested.
"Are too!"
"Are not!"
"Are too!"
I took that opportunity to wriggle out of James' arms and swim a few feet away.
"You know. I think I remember Sirius saying something about you, being ticklish? Does that sound correct?" James asked me.
Oh no. Damn Sirius! I was going to kill him. As soon as I was finished getting tortured by James.
"No. Doesn't sound correct at all."
"Really? Because I recall Sirius saying you're extremely ticklish…"
"Man, I've never seen anyone as ticklish as Lily." Sirius commented from the shore.
"Interesting. I'd really like to find exactly how ticklish you are…" James said, a grin slowly spreading over his obnoxiously handsome face.
"Noo!" I giggled helplessly as James tickled me. "Stop stop"
"Okay, I think that's enough punishment for right now." James set me down.
I glared at Maya, Cassie, Ellie, Jon, Sirius, and Remus who were still on shore.
"Why didn't you help me?" I demanded crossly.
"Sorry Lily." Cassie said apologetically. "Next time we'll help you."
"What? And miss out on the fun of seeing her turn purple from laughing so hard!" asked Ellie incredulously.
"Well. Then I'll have to take matters into my own hands." I said haughtily. "Sirius. I. Am. Going. To. Kill. You." I started walking slowly out of the water, keeping an eye on James in case he decided to start tickling me again.
When I was about ten feet away from Sirius, Ellie leaned towards him and said in a loud whisper.
"Sirius, if I were you, I'd run. Very fast."
This seemed to connect with Sirius for he leaped up and took off running. I chased after him.
While I am rather fast, unfortunately Sirius was faster. I was lucky however when he tripped over his own two feet, and went sprawling onto the grass.
I tackled him, and pinning him down said. "You'd better apologize right now!"
"You know, after being best friends with James for years and years, you do learn some handy tricks." Sirius said thoughtfully. He suddenly twisted around and rolled out of my grasp.
"Prongs, she's all yours."
James came up behind me and pinned my arms behind my back.
"You don't seriously think that you're going to get away without punishment, do you?" Sirius asked me.
"Actually, I was hoping to avoid it." Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Cassie sneaking up behind James. Behind her, Maya had gotten a hold of Remus and Jon while Ellie was tackling Sirius.
"Yeah well –" James was cut off by a full body-bind spell done by Cassie.
"Good job!" I congratulated Cassie, Maya, and Ellie. All four guys were fully binded by long pieces of rope.
"We should have a name for ourselves, kind of like the Marauders but way catchier." Ellie suggested.
"What about… The anti-Marauder's?" I suggested.
"That's a good one!" laughed Maya.
"But what about the…. Crazy Lively Energetic Matchless-mischief-makers? C for Cassie, L for Lily, E for Ellie, and M for Maya!" Maya looked triumphant.
"That's a great idea!" I exclaimed.
"Yep. From now on we're the Clem's!" Ellie bounced up and down on the balls of her feet.
"Okay, group! Hands in!" everybody put their hands in the middle.
"What's our mission?" asked Maya.
"To beat the Marauders!" the rest of us yelled (minus the tied up Marauders of course).
"How are we going to do it?"
"Any way we want!"
"The Clems!" everybody shouted and lifted their hands up. We then all looked victoriously at the Marauders, who were looking uncomfortable and on the verge of laughter at the same time.
"Are you going to leave us here all day?" asked Remus.
"Because we have things we'd much rather do besides this." Added James.
"Okay okay. We'll let you go. But next time, you won't be so lucky!" Cassie said and preformed the counter-curse to the spell.
"Ummpf." James hit the ground and stretched out on the grass. "You "Clems" as you call yourself now, are evil, you know that?"
"Yes, James. We have all realized long ago that we were evil. We decided to stop the pretense of being good little girls, and let our true evil colors show." I stated.
"As long as you realize that you're evil, and will accept the consequences."
"There are no consequences we can't beat!" Maya boasted.
"Yeah right. You'll see that the Marauders are a force to be reckoned with!"
"Does this mean what I think it means?" Sirius asked James.
"Yep. This calls for some serious Marauders troublemaking planning."
"Well, while we wait for you to come up, and then execute a brilliant plan of humiliating action that only a Marauder could come up with, let's go for another swim!" Cassie said.
We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and enjoying the beautiful lake and weather.
Finally when everyone was all tired out, we decided it was time to head back to the house.
"I dibs the shower first!" Sirius yelled as he ran up to the front door.
"No fair! I should get the shower first! You and James always take forever!" protested Remus.
"Yeah, but-"
"No "buts" about it. I'm getting the shower first!"
"You do realize that there are multiple showers right?" Maya asked.
"Really? Well then, I get first dibs on which shower I get to use!" said Sirius.
"Sirius, you are so immature." Maya commented. "I don't know how you put up with them, Jon."
Jon laughed. "It's not easy!"
Sorry it took so long! I wrote something, didn't like it, and then it took me a while to find something I did like.
I hope you liked it! The next chapter is still going to be about that day, but I promise it does lead somewhere (not somewhere humongosly big but…).
I love reviewers!
Rachel