Jack stood a safe couple of metres away from the water, and turned the stone over in his fingers. It was light and flat.
“Okay,” he said. “Here goes.”
“You need to stand closer,” his friend Joe interrupted.
Jack shook his head. “Here’s fine, thanks.”
The boys were on the gravel shore by the lake at Camp. Out on the water a dinghy sailing session was going on.
Jack’s stone was just the right size for him to wrap his thumb and first finger around. He drew his arm back, and flicked his wrist. The stone shot out of his fingers like a tiny Frisbee. Its spinning flat surface hit the water – and it bounced. The stone skipped across the lake away from Jack and he counted every splash it made before it finally sank.
“Nine! Record!” Jack shouted happily.
“Fluke,” Joe said with an easy grin. He looked over at their friend. “Hey, you going to join in, Charlie?”
“Mmph.”
Charlie was Joe’s tent-mate. He was sulking with his hands in his pockets. Jack and Joe both knew he would rather be guiding a space fighter through a field of asteroids than skimming stones. Unfortunately for Charlie, his tablet was charging in the leaders’ office, where it had to stay during activity time.
Joe and Jack rolled their eyes at each other.
“Okay, my turn,” Joe said. “Stand by for excellence.”
Joe carefully wrapped his fingers around his stone, poised, and threw.
“… seven … eight … nine … TEN!” Joe grinned with delight. “Think you can top that?”
“No probs,” Jack replied.
But Jack knew that it would take some beating. He needed to find the perfect stone. He wanted the flattest, roundest stone he could find. But he carefully stayed near the top of the beach as he searched, and tried not to make it look like he was avoiding the water.
So Jack didn’t notice Joe sidle over to Charlie and murmur something in his ear. Joe and Charlie strolled casually down the beach until they were standing on either side of Jack.
Then Joe grinned and looked sideways at Charlie. “Get him!”
Charlie and Joe grabbed Jack’s arms and started to haul him towards the water.
“Hey, no! Cut it out! Cut it out!” Jack yelled. He dug his feet in and tried to pull back. “Get off! Get off me!”
The other two only pulled harder.
“Come on, Jack!” Charlie shouted happily. “Dunking time!”
“No! No!” Jack screamed. “ Get off!”
He could feel panic rising as he struggled. The water was right ahead, waiting to swallow him up.
“Oi! Lads!” One of the sailing instructors shouted across from the lake. “Knock it off!”
Joe and Charlie slackened off a bit. Jack pulled himself free immediately and ran back up the beach until he was a safe distance from the water.
“What were you doing?” he yelled.
The other boys stared at him. The smiles on their faces were fading as they realised how upset he was.
“Gee, sorry,” Joe mumbled. “It was just a bit of fun. You know, just to get your feet wet.”
“What’s the big deal?” Charlie asked. “You can swim, can’t you?”
“Of course I can swim!” Jack shouted.
“So what’s the problem?”
“The problem … the problem is …” Jack spluttered.
He knew what the problem was. He just couldn’t put it into words, because he knew how stupid it would sound if he did.
Jack hated water.
He could swim – he had his five-metre badge to prove it. But he had never got further than five metres, because after that the pool at school got too deep to stand in, so he’d always managed to find excuses to miss lessons.
Jack gave up trying to explain.
“We were playing a good game,” he complained. “Why did you have to go and spoil it?”
“I’m sorry,” Charlie said sincerely.
“I didn’t know you’d mind,” Joe added.
“Yeah, well, just leave it, okay,” Jack muttered. “See you later.”
Jack knew he would forgive them. They were his friends and he could tell they hadn’t meant to hurt him. It had just been a stupid joke.
But right now he was embarrassed and felt silly. He didn’t want to be with them, or anywhere near the water, so he walked away.
