Chapter 3

Without a second thought, I pulled out my phone and dialed 911.

"Hello, I'd like to report an emergency. A group of students are about to go swimming in the river near the abandoned docks on the south side of town. The water there is extremely dangerous."

As soon as I hung up, I called our city's water rescue team and reported the exact same situation.

The moment everyone saw what I was doing, Zara was the first to scream, "Daelyn, have you lost your mind? You actually called the cops? If you don't want to join us, just say so! Did you really have to call the police? We're graduating seniors!"

Graham charged over and jabbed a finger in my face. "What the hell is wrong with you? What if this goes on our records? What if it comes back to bite us later? Can you take responsibility for that?"

I looked at him calmly and answered one word at a time, "Going swimming in a restricted area will get you nothing more than a warning.

"But if someone dies, it'll ruin the rest of your lives. The dead are the ones whose futures are truly gone."

The word "dead" silenced everyone. A few of the boys quietly began backing away from the riverbank.

Then the so-called Brett suddenly laughed. "Oh, come on. Isn't this getting a little dramatic? Why are we talking about people dying?"

He patted one of the boys who had started heading back toward shore. "Don't let one girl scare you. You're a young man. Have a little backbone."

Graham immediately seized the opportunity to fire everyone back up. "That's right! Let's listen to Coach Bentley! Everyone who's still in favor of getting in the water, raise your hand!"

He threw his own hand into the air first.

Zara followed right behind him, deliberately sweeping her livestream across the crowd.

Everywhere the camera pointed, hesitant hands slowly went up. No one wanted to be the only person who didn't.

In that feverish herd mentality, standing apart from everyone else felt like a crime.

I stood there alone, watching the absurd spectacle with cold eyes.

Just then, laughter drifted over from the other side of the levee. Harper Collins and the rest of the class next door happened to be passing by.

Seeing the argument on our side, Harper walked over curiously. "Daelyn, what's all the commotion about?"

Harper and I were both on the school's swim team. She had relatives on the city's water rescue squad, so she knew a thing or two about river safety.

She followed my gaze toward the river. The instant she saw it, her face changed.

"Wait... isn't this the stretch where they used to mine sand illegally?"

I nodded.

Without another word, she spun around and shouted to her classmates, "Everyone, leave now! We're going to the water park instead!"

Although they looked confused, every one of them listened and began leaving in an orderly line.

Graham cupped his hands around his mouth and mocked them, "What a bunch of cowards! You call yourselves adults? Why don't you go play at a bounce park instead?"

Harper whipped around and fired back without hesitation, "Better a living kid than a dead adult trying to show off."

Then she gathered the last of her classmates and walked away without looking back.

For the first time that day, I felt a small measure of relief. At least someone still had a clear head and understood.

I never expected Zara to turn even that into content. She filmed Harper's class walking away and added a sarcastic voice-over, "Guys, looks like our scaredy-cat champion had to call in reinforcements from the class next door just to ruin everyone's fun. Unbelievable."

Almost at the same time, our class group chat exploded. One notification after another tagged me.

[Daelyn, apologize to everyone.]

[Exactly. Ruining things by yourself wasn't enough, so now you had to drag another class into it? Trying to embarrass us on purpose?]

[It's our last day before graduation. Did you really have to make it end like this?]

A private message popped up.

It was from Kaleb.

[If you go apologize to Zara and Graham right now and admit you overreacted, I'll help explain things to everyone.]

I stared at the message and laughed in disbelief.

Then I typed my reply one word at a time. [Who the hell do you think you are?]

Neither the police nor the water authority patrol had arrived yet. The road out here was so remote that even the nearest police station was at least twenty minutes away.

That delay only made Graham and Brett more confident. The smug look on Graham's face grew even wider.

"See? I told you nothing was going to happen. Daelyn's making a mountain out of a molehill."

Brett began organizing the boys into warm-up exercises along the shore, leading them through loud, over-the-top chants.

"No regrets! Challenge yourself!"

Meanwhile, Zara's livestream had climbed to several thousand viewers because of all the drama. Her face was practically glowing with excitement.

She pointed the camera at me and asked in a deliberately provocative tone, "So, everyone, want to see the swimming champion jump into the river and give us a demonstration?"

The comments exploded.

[Yes! Do it!]

[Come on, Champion! Don't chicken out!]

[Let's see whether you're the real deal or just all talk!]

I had no intention of wasting another second on these lunatics. I picked up my backpack and turned to leave.

Graham stepped in front of me, blocking my path. "Want to leave? Fine. Stand in front of everyone and admit your city swimming championship was bought with money, then I'll let you go."

I ignored him and tried to walk around.

Kaleb stepped in front of me again. His expression was complicated, as though a trace of guilt still lingered.

"Daelyn, everyone's just joking around. Don't take it so seriously. It's the last class activity before graduation. Don't make things so ugly."

I stopped and looked at him coldly. "Kaleb, do you remember who pulled you out of the deep end when you were eight years old?"

It had been my dad.

Kaleb flushed with embarrassment and snapped, "There you go again, trying to guilt-trip me with something that happened ages ago!"

Zara immediately piled on, curling her lip at the livestream.

"See that, everyone? People like her are the worst. They do one good deed and spend the rest of their lives holding it over everyone else's head. It's honestly disgusting."

Graham's eyes lit up. Then he came up with something even crueler.

"If the champion's too scared to get in herself, let's help her. Throw her into the shallow water and let the champion kick things off!"

"Yeah!"

The crowd erupted into even louder cheers.

I instinctively took a step back. "You wouldn't dare. This is assault. It's a crime."

Brett slapped his chest confidently and laughed. "Relax. You've got a professional coach right here. I guarantee nothing will happen."

That promise became the final push everyone needed.

Several tall boys closed in around me with grins on their faces.

The girls shrieked excitedly while holding up their phones, filming everything as if they were watching the greatest show of the year.

I struggled with everything I had, but it wasn't enough. I couldn't break free from several grown boys holding me down.

Through the chaos, my eyes found Kaleb. He didn't step forward to stop them. Instead, he laughed and cheered right along with everyone else.

In that instant, every last bit of hope I still had for him disappeared.

Somewhere in the distance, I heard Harper shout in fury, "Don't touch her!"

But it was already too late.

The crowd roared with laughter.

The boys shouted, "Let's help the champion build some courage!"

Then they hurled me through the air like a sack of trash, straight toward that patch of pitch-black water.