Chapter fourteen

There's the rush of freezing water as my body meets the pool, and then, as the cold water closes around me, I'm enfolded in silence. For a second I'm dazed, but to my left is Harry, who is squirming like a child. Ahead of me are four pairs of legs treading the water.

As I rise towards the surface I'm pulled closer by Harry, who accidently let go of my hand when we jumped. We're the last two to emerge, but our friends are all giggles when we do.

I'm shivering, my teeth chattering, and my drenched hair is stuck uncomfortably on my back, but the adrenaline pumping through me keeps a wide smile on my face.

"That — was —" Emily starts.

"Freezing!" Lilli finishes.

A burst of laughter erupts from our group like a volcano, but I'm staring at the spot where Harry used to be; he had winked at me and sunk below the water very swiftly. I manage to fit in one confused glance at my friends before I'm rising towards the sky, hands up, eyes and mouth open wide in a silent scream.

When I look down I expect to find a terrifying sea monster with five eyes and a mouth big enough to fit me and Harry inside, but I find something far, far worse.

Harry the Sea Monster has me on his shoulders so I stop screeching and start blushing. And I also stop scrambling so he can actually secure me on his shoulders. Harry's trying to tell me something, so I lean down to listen.

"We can win this, Tasmin," he tells me.

I'm confused but when I look up to see Emily on Ben's shoulders and Lilli on Charlie's, all is clear what I have to do.

"Come at me, sister!" Emily challenges confidently, throwing her arms out ahead of herself.

"Oh, let's go, Em!" I threaten, laughing.

We are about to begin but we're interrupted by Lilli.

"Names, people! Team names!" she announces, clapping her hands together.

It's quiet as we decide on our own, but I have names decided for all three teams. I whisper them to Harry and he agrees with me completely. Just as Emily is about to announce hers, I interrupt.

"Ah-ah-ah! No! I have names for all of us. Carefully thought out and perfect," I gush at them.

Emily crosses her arms. "Let's hear 'em then."

I point at Emily and Ben. "BENJIMILY!"

They gawk at me in horror, accusing me loudly, while Lilli, Charlie and Harry just laugh.

"It's decided then," Lilli says, ignoring Emily's screaming. "Now… us?"

"Aaah! I'm super excited for this one!" Everyone perks up. I point at Lilli and Charlie now. "CHILLI!"

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" Lilli screeches.

Charlie is still, thinking for a minute, and then he responds, "You know what, I like it! I also like chilli. Let's keep it."

Everyone's having a hard time calming themselves down, and I am too. I've almost fallen off of Harry's shoulders multiple times now.

"Okay, okay, okay!" Lilli yells, silencing our chatter. "We will take our names, only if we get to decide yours."

Seems fair. "Sure."

Their groups join together and my friends whisper to one another. Then they both point at us and announce the most ground-breaking name I've ever heard.

"TARRY!"

Atop his shoulders, he carries me towards my confident-looking best friends, who have their hands out in front of them, ready to fight. My left hand links with Emily's, and my right grasps Lilli's before we start shoving as hard as we can.

It's a tight match, but Ben jolts to the side abruptly when Charlie kicks him in the thigh, dropping his rider, Emily, into the water. When she appears out of the water she spits out a spout of water before scolding, "Hey! Was Charlie allowed to do that?!"

Lilli smirks and pushes me. "Well, it's too late now, isn't it?"

"Hmph!"

Ben puts a hand on her shoulder and whispers something to her, to which she responds with an enthusiastic whoop. She turns to us and starts imitating a sports commentator.

"And after the unfortunate and tragic loss of the most popular contestants Ben and Emily, we must witness the brutal battle between such opposing forces!" Emily raves.

Ben nods. "Mmhm, that's right! Round two – A fight between Team Chilli and Team Tarry," Ben announces, nodding at Emily to continue.

"On your marks," Emily says, and I reach out my hands. "Get set, GO!"

We charge at Lilli, but I'm almost whipped into the water when Harry almost topples beneath me, but I grasp Lilli's hands and use her to steady us. We're unlucky because Charlie is so tall.

"Team Tarry looks like they're too short to win!" Emily calls the obvious.

"Lean forward," Harry tells me.

I lean forward and he releases his hands from my thighs. We have the advantage now, with me advancing strongly against Emily and Harry underneath, attempting at all costs to throw Charlie off balance.

"Looks like Chilli is losing now, with Tasmin practically on top of Lilli!" Ben exclaims excitedly, as if he's getting paid for his commentary.

"You're going down!" I shoot at Lilli, but these are honestly just words of encouragement for myself and Harry.

Again, I'm nearly thrown into the water when Harry starts kicking at Charlie's shins; getting a little impatient.

"What?! Is that allowed?" Emily yells.

Even though I'm in a pool, I'm starting to sweat with the scorching sun on my neck, and suddenly the water is looking very inviting, but I push on.

Finally, I get Lilli off balance, and her last resort to stay up is to clamp her legs tight on Charlie's shoulders, and I'm quite concerned whether or not he can actually breathe. I laugh sadistically as they fall, Lilli's legs still tight and dragging Charlie down with her.

"And the winner is… TEAM TARRY!"

I throw my hands in the air and holler. Harry holds up his hands, palms up for me to slap.

"Woohoo! We won!" I cheer as Charlie comes up for air.

I start to get concerned when I don't see Lilli, but I realise where she is when Harry drops so suddenly that I'm suspended in mid-air for what feels like eternity.

I hit the water hard, but I quickly resurface and splash at Lilli.

"Bad sport!" I yell at her.