When Sportacus stepped into the house that evening he sensed something wasn't quite right. Bounding up the stairs two at a time he stopped outside the bedroom and listened, his heart was clenched oh god not again, please! The thought was racing through his mind. He opened the door slowly and took a look around, nothing seemed out of place, nothing tipped over, no dark shadows. The only thing that didn't quite fit was Sophie being asleep on the window seat. Not only was it strange for her to be asleep (as it was only 6pm) it was strange that she was sleeping at the window. Usually she would lay on the couch if she wanted a nap. He then noticed her book laying on the floor and came to the conclusion that she had been reading and drifted off. He smiled softly, as menial as it was sometimes, he loved taking care of her like this. He tried waking her up, just to have her grumble in her sleep and shift, falling off the seat in the process and almost hitting the floor if his quick reflexes hadn't caught her. He chuckled, lifted her up and got her changed into a tank top amd shorts, her most comfortable nightwear. He was a little worried about her missing dinner but he resolved to make her a sandwich if she woke up. Tucking her into bed and kissing her forehead he headed back out to do another patrol of the Town.


When he returned at 8pm to find her still asleep, he started to wonder if she was coming down with something. She never sleeps this long' He thought. He shrugged it off, maybe it was heat stroke or something, he would have to keep an eye on her. He showered and changed into his sweatpants, something she had bought him with the purpose of her being able to feel his chest at night, curled up behind her and drifted off to sleep.


Sophie woke with a stretch, looking at the time it was clearly morning. Wait! morning... I've slept for a solid 18 hours! that never happens...Blue wasn't there and she wondered if he had been before she realised he must of as she was in bed and not on the window seat.

She got up and showered, it was the weekend so no school for the kids. She thought about starting a baseball game for them all, Stephanie especially loved the game when she noticed a letter come through the letterbox. She didn't recognise the writing, but she shrugged that off. Smiling slightly when she opened it to find Stephanie's signature pink paper she read the note, frowning more with each line she read. By the end of it she had dropped the letter, run out the door and tore off up the hill towards the lake.


Robbie Rotten was having a rotten day. Make that a rotten year. He had scaled back his attempts to get rid of Sportacook and the pink cheerleader once Sparkle came back to town. He couldn't bare to hurt her, especially after she and the blue elf starting dating, Robbie was glad she didn't live near his lair, he shuddered to think how loud they might been when they got up to things! He had to admit, he was glad she was happy. She deserved it and after she spent an afternoon with him explaining what happened 12 years ago he couldn't bring himself to cause trouble. So he concentrated on his inventions, sometimes annoyed the kids but nothing serious and enjoyed his weekly tea with Sparkle. Speaking of Sparkle. He happened to be looking out of his North West periscope to see somebody posting a letter through her door. This in itself didn't cause him to feel uneasy, people got post every day. No what made him anxious was that this person was trying very hard to stay hidden. He was all dressed in black with a black hood over his face. Even Robbie couldn't see any features of this person except that they were slight build and medium height. He bit his lip and turned away. Maybe he would go and see her. He ummed and Ahhed, but in the end decided he wanted to check on her. His questioning of himself had taken about 10 minutes, so once he arrived up there the person was long gone. Just as he was about to knock the door the blue elf arrived, raising his eyebrow at him.

'Robbie? are you okay? I haven't seen you for months.'

' I'm fine Sportacook, I just want to talk to Sparkle quickly.' He must have caught the apprehension because he rushed into the house saying,

' is she alright?' He looked around but couldnt see her. Robbie saw a pink letter on the floor and picked it up, as he read it he frowned. Sportacus, seeing his frown went to stand next to him and read the letter over his shoulder. He was also confused by what he read.

Sissi,I need your help really really bad. I didn't want to come to the house in case Sportacus was there, I just can't talk about girl things in front of him, it's weird. But I'm scared and I really need you. Can you come to the lake to talk please? I know your scared of it there but please I really need you and its the most secluded space in town! I'm going up there now so please hurry.I love you,Steph xoxJust then Trixie walked into the house. This day was getting stranger and stranger.

'Hi Trixie have you seen Stephanie?' Sportacus asked.

'Pinkie? yeah she's at Pixels, I'm heading over there but she asked if I could collect a book for her school project from Sophie on my way there.' Trixie looked confused. The silence was stifling, you could hear a pin drop. The two men looked at each other and horror appeared on their faces. Suddenly they both bolted out of the door and up the hill ignoring Trxies exclamation of

'Eurgh Men!'


Sophie was worried, what could be wrong with her daughter and why couldn't it be said in the house? She hoped nothing had happened. Despite her crippling fear of the Lake she would do anything for her sister and that included standing next to the nightmare that engulfed her since she was 6 years old. Slowing down as she reached the small pier she noticed a young girl stood at the end all dressed in pink.

Stephanie! She ran forward and gripped her shoulders spun her round quickly but stopped and stepped back slightly. Why on earth is she wearing a mask? hang on, she doesn't have brown hair and Stephanie isn't as tall as this girl... who is this?! Before Sophie could open her mouth the girl pushed her hard off the pier and into the icy waters of the lake. She heard footsteps on the wood as whoever it was ran away. Sophie couldn't breathe, somewhere in the back of her mind she knew she needed to stop panicking, but she couldn't,

it was happening again, and this time there was no Robbie and her dad to save her. Unbidden memories flashed before her, garbled shouts of her name were called out, slowly her limbs were feeling heavy and she couldnt keep her eyes open. just before they closed, she thought she heard a splash and saw a flash of blue before darkness overtook her.


Sportacus and Robbie raced up the hill, from a distance they could see two figures, what stopped them dead in their tracks was when one of them pushed the other into the lake. Sportacus's crystal blaring was what brought them out of their trance. The other figure long gone by then, The two men sped up, Robbie shouted

' Hurry up she can't swim!!' Sportacus's heart gripped and he struggled to breathe. please no come on come on go faster! He muttered to himself. He arrived at the end of the pier a minute ahead of Robbie and didn't hesitate to dive straight in, seeing Sophie sinking to the bottom of the lake, eyes closing and giving up, he wanted to cry. He shot forwards, grasping her firmly and kicking up from the bottom. His head broke the surface and he held her above the water. Robbie was knelt on the edge of the pier waiting to take her from him, He didn't want to hand her over but he knew that he had to in order to get out. Climbing onto the wood, dripping everywhere he saw Robbie already giving her chest compressions. Oh God, she's not breathing! He lept into action and gave her 3 rescue breaths, Robbie continuing to push her chest up and down, both praying they weren't to late.

After an agonising minute and a half Sophie began to cough up water, still very weak, not strong enough to open her eyes, she let put a mewl and started to shiver. Robbie sat back in relief while Sportacus pulled her to him and cried into her hair. He watched the blue elf and it hit him just how much this guy was in love with his adopted sister.

He stood up patted Sportacus's shoulder and said

' Come on, she needs a hospital, we can't risk decondary drowning.'Sportacus nodded, lifted her into his arms and followed Robbie back down the hill and into Robbies car.


The men sat in silence,both in the car on the way to the hospital and now in the waiting room. Stephanie, the Mayor and Bessie were crying quietly in the corner, not wanting to Interrupt the two men who looked pale as ghosts since they bad saved her. It had been 7 hours Sparkle was in emergency surgery in order to get all the water out of her lungs. Robbie felt hollow, old and new memories mixing into one. It was like de ja vu. He didn't like it one bit.

The Mayor and Bessie stood up and walked over to the two men who saved their niece, Stephanie crawled onto Sportacus's lap like one would their father, despite her being a teenager now. Sportacus looked shocked at first but wrapped his arms round the little girl and rested his head on hers. Her little breaths tickled his neck and before long she was sleeping soundly. The Mayor watched sadly, said his goodbyes and that they would be back in the morning.

'elf' Robbie was surprised that had come out of his mouth Sportacus looked up looking older than his 30 years and raised an eyebrow, he hadn't heard the man speak since they arrived.

Robbie took a breathe and continued.

' look, she'll probably get angry at me for telling you this but I can deal with that later. I want to tell you about why she's so scared of the water.' A shocked expression on his face Sportacus nodded.

' You already know that Sparkle used to visit the town every year before the pink cheerleader was ( again Sportacus nodded) what you may not know is that almost the exact same thing happened the summer she was 6 as it did today. Her dad, her Uncle and her were out on the fishing boat in the middle of the lake. I wasn't quite a recluse back then and I was frequently there on the shore tinkering with whatever I could find. I'd been watching tem all morning hoping that someday maybe i might have that family dynamic. When all of a sudden there was a splash and a scream. Somebody and we still don't know who to this day, had swum to the boat and pulled her overboard. I could hear her Uncle and dad shouting her name but i also knew the uncle at least couldn't swim. I didn't know about his brother but as he didn't go in after his little girl I could only assume he couldn't. He was panicking and crying trying to see her. I ran down the pier and dived in, it took a little while to locate her but I managed to get her back to the surface and back to the pier. But I had taken too long in trying to detangle her legs that weeds had wrapped round her ankles. She wasn't breathing. ' Robbie looked far away, not seeing the sterile white walls of the waiting room but seeing memories he wish he would forget.

Sportacus didn't say anything, he knew better than to Interrupt but his heart acted so badly he wished he could rip it from his chest.

' I didn't know what to do, I was a 14 year old boy woih two panicking adults and a dying girl in front of me. I remembered a first aid program I had watched on TV tried my hardest to copy what they did. I started cpr. She began breathing again, and eventually was able to sit up. She carried on with the rest of her summer. hut she would have nightmares almost every night, during the day she had taken to following me everywhere and wanting to be close. I humoured her, she was just a little girl. I actually enjoyed her company. When her dad realised I could make her smile and stay calm, he asked me to stay at the house at night. I did, and every night for the rest or the summer she would crawl into my bed and say she was safe now as she was with her big brother. I loved that little girl. But it also took me out of an abusive household. Being at the Meanswell house meant I didn't get daily beatings for not doing something correctly or being shouted at for thinking too loudly.'

Sportacus was listening carefully he had never know this is the life Robbie had lived! He had been a child too!'

'anyway, every year she would come back for the next six years and each other years I would spend the summer at the house. it became a kind of tradition. And because of the great work they did here that time she drowned, I wanted to become a doctor. I worked hard at school in those year so she would be proud of me. But suddenly when I was 20 she just stopped coming. I wondered what I had done and became angry, I dropped put of college refused to send her letters and became the bitter man I am today. I only found out two weeks after she arrived back at the begining of this year that it was because her father had died and she was looking after Pinkie there. I felt so guilty, how could I have believed she turned her back on me! I could have helped her!'

Robbie stood and started pacing. He stopped and stared at Sportacus

' and now it's happened again, and again, somebody is out to get her and I have no idea who.' Sportacus started, of course, how could he have forgotten that somebody had pushed her into that lake. he stared at Robbie when the door opened and in walked the surgeon.

' She's awake.'