GALE'S POV
Sam, Jake, and I turn around slowly. The girls jump out of the bushes at us and scream. We stumble back. Amber, Katniss, and Hanna start laughing.
"Are you cliff-jumping?" Katniss asks, looking at me, but Sam answers.
"Yeah! Are you jumping again?" he asks. Amber giggles and nods. It's obvious that Amber is a huge flirt.
"Let's go then, guys!" Jake exclaims. Hanna rushes up and grabs his hand, blushing. All of us holding hands in a line, it goes: Jake, Hanna, me, Katniss, Sam, and Amber. We back up to the trees, count to three, and run.
Katniss squeezes my hand hard, and we jump off the cliff. Everything seems to go in slow motion, and the cheers from people below fill my ears. We fall through a thick layer of waterfall mist, and then we hit the water. Everybody immediately lets go of each other's hands as we fight to get to the top. One by one, we each emerge at the top.
"Hey, where's Sam?" I ask. Everybody looks around, but because of all the bubbles from us jumping in, nobody can see down below. Then Amber screams. Sam had emerged from underwater, with Amber sitting on his shoulders.
"CHICKEN FIGHT!" Sam shouts, a huge grin on his face. Katniss and I look at each other, and she smiles. I hold my nose and go underwater. Once Katniss climbs on my shoulders, I stand back up. I flick by dripping hair out of my eyes. Hanna is on Jake's shoulders.
"Let's do it!" Jake exclaims. Katniss, Amber, and Hanna can hardly stay on our shoulders since they're laughing too hard. People on the shore bet on who's going to win.
"I'll bet anything that Katniss wins," I hear from the shore. This makes me smile. Hanna shoves Amber off of Sam, and Amber floats back up, laughing. But while Hanna was celebrating her small victory, I run Katniss over to Jake, and Katniss pushes Hanna off him.
"Whoo!" Katniss shouts, "We won!"
"Yeah, Katniss!" I cheer. She laughs. "Anybody wanna face us?" I yell, smiling. Katniss laughs again.
For the next hour, Katniss and I battle it out against multiple people from our school. We were going undefeated until we faced Thor and Tammy. Thor is HUGE, and Tammy is his sister-- muscular and ripped just like him. Obviously, we lose to them, but it was still fun.
I duck underwater and Katniss climbs off. We run back to our friends' boulders, which are right next to each other. Katniss and I dry off in the sun on the huge rocks.
"Want to go exploring in that cave?" Amber asks, "It's daaark," she adds to Sam, batting her eyelashes. His face blushes, and he says, "I'm all for it. You guys want to?" I look at Katniss, nervous. She looks at me with fear in her eyes. I know that Katniss hates caves. She feels claustrophobic in them, and she thinks that the ceiling will fall in on her. Not to blame her. I used to be afraid of caves, too.
"Sure, we'll go," says Hanna and Jake. Everybody looks at Katniss and me. I look at Katniss. She looks at me.
"Uhhh…" Katniss says. She bites her lip. "I guess we can go," she mumbles. I smile and her and squeeze her hand assuringly as we stand up to go to the cave.
When we get in the cave, I see Katniss starting to shiver. Her hair is still wet, and we're entering a dark, cool cave. I put my arm around her shoulders. She smiles in thanks.
"Let's go farther," Amber giggles, holding Sam's hand. Nobody says anything, just following Amber, while I silently groan in my head. The little transparent cave salamanders gross me out. Not to mention that I still have a small fear of claustrophobia from when I was little.
"Uh, I think this is far enough," Hanna warns. We can hardly see the entrance anymore.
"No, my father was a cave explorer. I think I know what I'm doing," Amber insists. Katniss and I slow down as we start to move into pitch blackness.
"Uhhh, Amber?" Katniss asks, her voice wavering, "I think this is good, right? We don't know what's ahead…"
I hear Amber sigh up ahead. "Katniss, are you scared? Miss Hunts-All-Day is scared?"
"I'm just claustrophobic, and we don't know what's ahead, and it's pitch black…" Katniss defends herself.
"Katniss! I know what I'm doing," Amber persists. I start to get angry.
"Amber? It is pitch black. Do you seriously think you know where you're going? What if there's a huge pit just five feet in front of us? Just because your father was an explorer doesn't mean you are. You could be risking all of our lives! Face it: you have no idea what you're doing!" I defend Katniss, my voice echoing in the cave. Nobody says anything. Katniss puts her arms around my waist and hugs me. I give her a quick hug back.
"Fine," Amber replies, her voice icy, "You guys go back. I'm going ahead."
"Fine," I say. Katniss and I turn around and start walking back.
A mist starts spraying from the ceiling. Katniss and I hear a crack. Then a roar. We start running for the exit. I look behind us. A wave of water was pouring from the wall a mere 10 feet behind us. But since I was looking backwards, I trip over a stalagmite. "Ah!" I exclaim, my knee banging against the rock ground. Katniss stops running and tries to tug me up.
A wave of water pours over us, our whole bodies except for our heads are being pounded by tons of water. Katniss and I cling to each other, and Katniss is screaming. I bet these are her nightmares come true.
We run out of the cave and collapse on a boulder out of the way of the rush of water. Katniss is still squeezing my torso.
"Katniss, Katniss, our friends are still inside the cave!" I exclaim. Katniss starts crying.
"A-A-Are they drowning, d-d-do you t-think?" Katniss asks. A crowd has gathered.
"What happened?" people from our school started asking. We tell them.
"We have to d-do s-something," Katniss sobs. I can't stand seeing Katniss cry so I stand up on the boulder and shout for Emily and Emerson. They come forward.
"Is there any other entrance to this cave?" I ask. They nod their heads.
"Where?" I ask, "Because I'm going in."
There's a collective gasp from the crowd, and Katniss stands up and grabs my shoulder.
"Gale! You can't go in there!" Katniss exclaims. I nod.
"I have to. What are our friends going to do?" I ask. Katniss nods and sniffs. Then she grabs my hand.
"Then I'm going to," she says.