Hello again. I gots no reviews, but I did get readers~ that's a good start! Okay, I decided to update, but I forgot to mention: imagine the boys (and girls) as teenagers (teenage boys' hormones are insane…) because the story will make more sense then. The littleuns will be like 10 or 11. Please, please, PLEASE review. I need to know if I'm writing horribly or nicely.

As always, William Golding owns the novel and the boys, but I own this storyline and its characters.

Oh, and this chapter isn't the most exciting either, but it's better than the last one. It gets MUCH better starting next chapter, I swear.

A/N= Ace's note!

Thanks for reading!

Ace

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3rd Person, Girls' POV

The girls gathered everything they could get: emergency supply kits, clothes, some food, and a few bottles of water.

Rebecca was carrying Jacqueline while she swam, and Rose was struggling to drag Amarie behind her.

The water was murky and dark blue, giving it an eerie appearance. It was around noon, but the sun was no where to be found. Darker and darker clouds were forming over the once-sunny sky, and the waves were getting choppier.

"We need to get to the shore quickly! The waves will drown us if we don't!" Rose yelled over the quiet murmur of panicking girls.

"I'm afraid of the ocean…" a voice mumbled.

"Who said that?" Rose asked, kindly but strongly.

"I did," said Maya, as she swam close to Rose.

"Don't worry--"

"We can't see what's under us. Fire coral could be right in front of us, and we wouldn't know. Sharks could be circling us, and we wouldn't know," the brunette said loudly.

The girls' murmuring turned into worried voices.

"Oh, great job, Maya! April's terrified now!" Mae barked.

April was obviously trying to hold back tears while clinging to her blonde twin.

"I'm not too calm, myself!" a black-haired, blue-eyed beauty known as Micky scoffed.

"Sorry, but it's true!" Maya argued.

"Don't worry, girls. All we need to do now is get to shore. If you DO get attacked by a shark, punch it in the nose," Rebecca smirked.

"Rebecca!" Rose kicked her in the leg.

Between all the fighting, no one noticed that the waves were getting much stronger, pushing and pulling on the girls as if they were toy boats (A/N: try saying 'toy boat' really quickly! :D), until, suddenly, a terrified scream sounded in all the girls' ears.

The bickering stopped.

"L-l-l-look!" the girl who screamed was Mimi, a brunette with some streaks of red hair. She pointed her finger frantically towards the island.

All the girls swam in place, mouths agape, as they noticed that the tropical island was now simply a big dot.

"The waves must've pulled us back…" Mimi murmured sadly.

"Okay, now, we really need to start moving," Rose commanded.

"Yeah, but we'll NEVER make it to the island!" Mimi started, "we'll drown from exhaustion!"

"Hey, we can die here and give up all hope, or we can die trying to get to safety. You guys choose which path you want to go down, but I already know where I'm going," Rose said, starting off for the distant island. She still held onto Amarie.

"I'm going with you," said Rebecca with Jacqueline still on her back.

"As are we," April and Mae said in union.

"I'll go, too," said Maya.

And soon, the whole group of girls were following Rosalique once again.

3rd person, Boys' POV:

"Jack!" Ralph called out to Jack, struggling to keep his head above the choppy water.

"What? Keep moving!" Jack yelled.

"The waves moved them out…" the blonde gasped, "…farther out into the ocean!"

"Duh."

"And look how choppy the water's getting! We need to wait for them to come closer to shore, and then we can try to save them," Ralph explained.

"Awww, not a strong swimmer?" Jack asked with fake sympathy.

"I'm saying that if we try to save them, between their location and the choppy waves, we're going to drown. Just look at the obvious."

Jack glanced out to where the plane had landed. The waves had dragged them pretty far out. Maybe a mile or two behind the plane. And, because of the coming storm, the waves were around four feet high and growing bigger.

They were, though, struggling against the waves. Those girls were strong if they could make it past the waves.

"When they get to where their plane crashed, we'll help them," Jack compromised.

Ralph nodded, and they headed back to the beach.

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Rose POV:

We started to swim towards the island. It was so far away, and I really didn't think we could swim ALL the way to the island, though I didn't show it.

My stomach was roaring and my throat felt scratchy and worn out.

I turned around swiftly to see a group of weary faces. Everyone was exhausted, and I'm sure they all wanted food and water as much as I did, but we needed to ration. There would be nothing to eat or drink for the swim to the island.

"Rose," a voice whispered.

I kept on swimming but turned my head to the side to see who was talking to me.

"What is it?" I asked Maya.

"I'm really sorry I caused that huge fight back there. If it weren't for me, we'd probably be on the island right now," she mumbled. I noticed that she never met my gaze.

"Please don't worry about it. We'll make it to the island, and have toned legs when we get there," I grinned.

She flashed a small smile that disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

***

Around sixty minutes passed, and the waves had gotten to about six or seven feet. Thunder sounded about every minute, though lightning wasn't yet visible. We were brought up, then thrown down again by the waves, and even I was starting to panic.

We struggled to keep our heads above water, but with all the gasping for air and difficulty breathing, I knew we were all dizzy and lightheaded.

"Is everyone okay?" I questioned without turning around.

"I think so," Rebecca answered in a raspy voice.

I slowed my swimming pace so I could swim next to Rebecca.

"Rebecca…I don't think I can go on like this for much longer…" I said wearily.

"Don't die on me, please," she answered with a small grin.

Her ringlets were tangled in each other and her blue eyes were only half open. Dark circles decorated the bottom of her eyes. Her slender lips were chapped and dry, and so was her voice.

"Look, we're back where we started," I heard Mimi call, referring to where the plane crashed.

"Yay…" I sighed.

Suddenly, I saw two shadowed figured wading through the water. I squinted, and tried to make their images clearer.

"Am I hallucinating, or are there two boys swimming towards us?" I asked Rebecca.

"If you're hallucinating, then so am I. I see them too," she said with a half-smile.

Now that they were closer, I could see them clearly.

One was blonde, with a well-built body, blue eyes, and a tan. The other was a redhead, much like Jacqueline, with blue eyes, freckles, slightly bigger muscles, and a slight tan.

"Hold Amarie for a second…" I mumbled, shoving the unconscious blonde to Rebecca.

I started to swim a bit faster, so I could meet up with the boys and explain to them our situation.

My legs were in so much pain I could barely move, my breath came out in shallow little gasps, and I could hear my heart pounding in my ears.

The boys were in front of me now, and I could barely talk. I heard the group of girls start talking all at once in back of me.

"Our plane…" I started.

"It crashed," Maya finished for me, swimming by my side. I gave her an appreciative smile.

"We saw," the redhead said.

"We've been swimming…for an hour…" I tried to breathe.

I tried to breathe again.

"Are you okay?" the blonde asked.

"Rose?" Maya called worriedly.

And then I finally fell apart. I couldn't breathe, and my legs stopped moving.

I just sank to the bottom of the ocean, screams dancing in my ears.

Maya POV:

Rose succumbed to the dark blue beneath her, and my eyes turned wide.

Some girls screamed, but I thought about all the time Rose helped me. I knew I needed to save her life, even though I was terrified of the water.

I took a deep breath, ignored the voice in my head that taunted me with thoughts of fish and sharks, and swam underneath.

I opened my eyes slowly, even though the salt of the ocean burned them. Surprisingly, this ocean was just a vast space of sand.

The water was very deep, and I could hear my heart pounding. I tried to keep my terrifying thoughts occupied as I swam deeper and deeper into the depths of the ocean. Where the hell was Rose?

My cream t-shirt stuck to my chest, but luckily I had a tank top underneath. My denim shorts absorbed water quite well, which made me extremely uncomfortable. My tennis shoes weighed me down, which was also annoying.

My lungs burned now, and I knew I couldn't stay down there much longer.

Just as I considered swimming up again, I saw her.

Rose was at the bottom of the ocean, her brown-blonde hair floating around her.

I didn't know what to do. On one hand, if I didn't save her, then she could die. On the other, if I saved her, she would live, but I could die. My life wouldn't be guaranteed if I tried to go up for air, so I just swam to the space of sand where Rose laid.

When I was around two feet from her, I felt a hand on my waist. My stupid automatic reaction, of course, was to scream. So all the precious air I was saving burst out into a bubbly scream.

As the person brought me up, I saw the blonde boy pass down into the ocean…to save Rose.

The unknown person brought me up, and I took a deep breath of air. I coughed all the water I accidentally inhaled out, and, as soon as my breathing was regular again, my eyes met the redhead's. So he was the idiot that 'saved' me.

"What the hell was that?! I was going to go save Rose, and you--" I started, pointing a finger at him accusingly, "YOU thought you could be a hero and 'save' me!"

He narrowed his eyes, but his hands didn't let go of my waist. "You were down there for around two minutes. How long do you think you could hold your breath for?" he said quietly but angrily.

By now, we attracted the attention of all the girls.

"Look, I was about to save Rose. Even a few seconds counts when it comes to saving a person's life! Oh, and let go of my waist!" I retorted.

"Fine. Let's see how well you do swimming all by yourself."

The redhead let go of me, and, to my embarrassment, my legs hurt so much I couldn't swim.

He chuckled and held onto me again, and I felt heat rise to my neck and face.

Right then, the blonde popped out of the water, Rose holding onto him.

"Is she conscious?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes, but she's barely breathing. She probably swallowed tons of water. We need to get to the shore quickly," he explained.

I nodded, and he turned to the group of girls and said, "Follow me. We'll explain everything to you when we reach the shore."

They nodded back, and we started off towards the island once again, with hope that Rose wouldn't die.

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Hehe. Evil cliffhanger. Maybe now you people will review. ;3 I'll probably write Chapter 3 but then post it when I get reviews. Love you all!