"I hate water," Roshon murmured spitefully under his breath. They had just had breakfast, and now all of the groups were instructed to congregate at a river that led to a lake. Roshon looked at the water with loathing, as though he was facing an old nemesis.

Pelham wasn't surprised to hear that Roshon was not entirely enthusiastic about the day's activity. One thing for certain was that he knew Roshon could not swim - water just had to be his biggest fear. He couldn't exactly blame his best friend for not knowing how to swim, especially after Roshon told him how his parents used to intimidate him at the beach when he was little, all for the sake of "facing his own fears". Pelham, on the other hand, had no trouble with water. But he didn't like to see his best friend being apathetic. It simply wasn't fair for both of them.

"I'm sure they have something for you and the rest who can't or doesn't want to swim," Pelham assured him once they reached the location.

"You sure about that?" Roshon cocked an eyebrow sceptically.

Pelham shrugged. "If you're expecting a one-day swimming lesson for people like you-"

"People like me, yeah?"

Pelham huffed. "You're not the only one who can't swim, mate,"

"I wish I were a boat. Boats don't need the effort,"

"Dream on,"

They were soon greeted by a lady in her late twenties - introducing herself as Deanne - who ran the day's whole activity. She merely gave them all a brief talk regarding the procedures; what they had to do was find some hidden objects under the water - which meant they had to change and dive - and causing Roshon to give a vexed groan. But then she added that each group would be divided into three more packs; one pack that consisted of those who would dive to retrieve whatever was wanted; another one that consisted of those who would stay on the boats to shepherd them; and the last one that consisted of those who would wait by the riverbank for their team to arrive.

It was only then that Roshon's face glowed. Pelham gave him a smug look, indicating that his assumption about the members being given different tasks had been correct after all.

"You have two hours to find all sixteen objects!" called Deanne.

Mutters broke out amongst the students fifteen minutes before the hour began. To Pelham, sixteen was quite a lot. And he was certain there the value was multiplied according to the number of groups present, which made the whole activity reasonably arduous. Fortunately, once they were given some papers of the objects they should locate, many students in his group volunteered to be the ones to dive. There were no limits; the students had to divide themselves accordingly, using their level of wit. So Pelham quickly went over to change into the suits that had been provided for them once he volunteered to be the one to dive.

He noticed that Lucio was lingering around the corner, looking somewhat irresolute of where he was supposed to be. The rest of the group were already getting ready, since they had ten minutes left before it started. Pelham approached him. "Come on, let's dive,"

"I can't," Lucio simply answered.

Pelham's eyebrows rose. "Did you get a new tattoo or something?"

Lucio frowned as though he had been asked a really dense question by the smartest person on earth. "I think the answer is obvious," he said.

"Oh," Pelham's eyebrows rose further that they were at the verge of disappearing into his hair. "Well, why don't you join Rosh, then?"

"Is he not going underwater?"

Pelham grinned. "Like you, Lucio, he can't swim,"

"Serious? I thought he only hates water," Lucio said. "Right, I'll join him. I don't know a lot of people here ..."

Pelham grinned broadly and extended his arms on either side of him. "Believe me, neither do I," he said. "You'll be fine. Grab those stuff and let's get started!"

Most of the objects they had to locate were fairly small and looked, to an extent, challenging to be found; a missing pair of shoe, a small water bottle filled with sand, a frying pan. The objects were already marked with their group number, so no other people from different groups would take them by mistake. There were a few bigger objects, fortunately; a bucket, a broomstick. Pelham wondered aloud whether they - the students - were actually going to clean the river, only to have the teachers snort in laughter - which he reckoned was a "yes".

It seemed that everyone in Pelham's group saw Gary Kieth as some sort of a leader, for they instantly approached him once the hour started. Apparently, Gary had a decent idea as well, even though he looked quite nervous at the attention he was getting.

"Who are the people that are going underwater?" Gary asked.

Pelham and three others raised their hands.

"Riverbank?"

Four people raised their hands. The rest were then assigned to the boats.

Since there were sixteen objects to be located, each diver in the group had to locate four of them. Pelham wasted no time diving in. He was a good swimmer - having had lessons with his father at the age of seven - and he didn't need goggles to see through the water. Besides, the river wasn't as deep as he had expected. He could see a boat coming in his way. Soon enough, Roshon and Lucio's heads poked over gunwale of the boat.

"I'm following you everywhere, Pel," said Roshon.

"Don't you have other people to guide?"

"Yes," Roshon answered. "But I'm being biased 'cause you're my mate."

"Never heard you sound so nice. It's creeping me out,"

"Unless you come out of that water without anything then we'll leave,"

Lucio sniggered beside him. "Now that sounds about right," Pelham stated. "Spotted anything yet?"

"Not yet," Roshon said, studying the paper while Lucio looked through the water.

"Okay, tell me if-"

"There!" Lucio suddenly said, pointing a finger just below the hull of the boat

"What? What did you see?"

"Oh - never mind," Lucio huffed, sitting back at the boat next to Roshon, his cheeks going red. "Just a fish."

Pelham mumbled something incoherent. "What was that?" Roshon asked, looking mildly interested.

"I just thought it'd be best if we were going fishing today,"

"I like fishing," Lucio said softly as he gazed into the distance. Pelham and Roshon stared at him. "Fishing is nice. Kind of sad - for the fish. But nice - for our living."

"I've never heard anyone being so deep into fishing," Roshon stated.

Pelham raised his eyebrows. "Well, unless that person can't swim and the fish is gigantic that it drags them into the water ..."

"Don't demean me, Nixon."

It took Pelham nearly twenty minutes to finally spot something. He had actually located two of them. Right after he retrieved them, he came surfacing through the water and practically yelled at the rest of his group members. Upon hearing this, the people from his group instantly went into raptures. After all, he was the first to find two objects.

An hour passed, and his group had managed to locate nine out of sixteen objects. One boy from his group - probably a Year Nine - had gotten sick from being in the water for too long, so he was ushered towards the riverbank while the others proceeded. Not surprising, Pelham thought to himself. It was still cold in January, after all.

But things started to grow intense as the next hour ticked. One group had somehow been sabotaged, or had their objects hidden somewhere else by another group. During that time, Pelham's group had found eleven objects. His hopes were going high then. He knew it was just an activity, but the students saw it more like a game.

After a while, one group had managed to locate all sixteen objects. If it were a game, they would've won first place. Just a fun activity, Pelham kept telling himself, though he couldn't help the discontent that was starting to acidify his stomach. But he had Roshon and Lucio, who were both good at guiding. Though, at times, Roshon would start to mess around - being the prick he was. Again, Pelham couldn't blame him. Lucio, on the other hand, would lean over the gunwale of the boat as if he was excited to see whatever was underneath the water. Seeing this, Roshon would then shake the boat, and Lucio would fall back, breathing rapidly as he clutched at his chest.

"Stop it!" Lucio cried after the fourth time Roshon did it, holding a hand to his chest where his heart was undoubtedly hammering against his chest.

"Okay, okay, sorry," Roshon said, trying to keep a straight face, though he didn't sound genuinely apologetic.

Pelham crashed through the surface of the water, slightly perplexed to see Lucio breathing heavily and Roshon trying to maintain a neutral expression beside him.

"Did he shake the boat again?" Pelham asked.

Lucio nodded, his cheeks crimson. Pelham couldn't help but think he looked kind of adorable. He then gave Roshon a look of disapproval. "Fine, I'll stop," Roshon said, putting his hands up in defence.

"Sure you will," Lucio remarked.

Thirty minutes before the activity ended, Pelham spotted two objects - bigger ones - somewhere near the rocks at the far end of the river, quite far from the boat where Lucio and Roshon were currently occupying either. When he got closer, his stomached churned with excitement; it was a long chain - labelled with the number 8 - draped around a toolbox, which was also labelled with the same number - his group number. Without wasting any more seconds, he grabbed them and swam towards the boat where he knew Roshon and Lucio were.

"Hey, I found - what the ruddy hell are you doing?" he practically yelled in horror.

Roshon had one foot on the gunwale of the boat, leaning forwards slightly, but rocking back again, as though he was about to dive, but wasn't bold enough to do it.

"It's Lucio!" Roshon said aloud, panic written all over his face, relief at the same time to see Pelham. Pelham realised that Lucio was nowhere in the boat, and that most people in vicinity had stopped doing what they were doing. He had clearly missed something. "Pel, it's - go back in the water-"

But Pelham had already spotted bubbles gurgling on the surface of the water not far on the other side of the boat, followed by a dark, indistinct figure that was currently thrashing underneath it. Pelham chucked the chain and the toolbox into the boat before he dove back in. It didn't take him long to find Lucio, who was currently flailing and writhing, unable to swim towards the surface of the water. The more he kicked, the more the water seemed to resist him; he was drowning. Pelham didn't know how he'd missed this, or when it happened. But he was thankful that he had located him before it was too late.

Pelham grabbed Lucio by his armpits and kicked, bringing him along towards the surface of the water. Lucio was still thrashing around, arms flailing everywhere as though he was drowning in a nightmare. He clearly had no idea he was being rescued.

Roshon didn't wait for the call; he came with the boat once Pelham and Lucio had emerged through the water surface. Pelham heaved the boy inside and went in after him, who was shivering against the cold, coughing up water that was gurgling in his throat. The teachers had clearly been waiting for Pelham's little gallant action, for they started coming towards their boat as Roshon headed for the riverbank in a rather aggressive manner, watched by the students who were starting to panic.

"What happened?" Pelham demanded. "Did you shake-"

"I didn't, I swear!" Roshon also looked distressed about the situation.

"Then how did-"

"There were those bastards from our school - you know, Bryce and his cronies? They sped past us on bloody speedboats and they practically pushed us but I managed to hold on but Lucio simply flew out of-"

"Is he okay? How did this happen?" One of the teachers started throwing questions once they had arrived. Seeing as Roshon was the full witness, he was brought with the teachers for some kind of interrogation. Some of the other teachers had brought blankets and hot drinks for Lucio, who was still shivering on the boat, coughing, trying to regain his breathing pattern.

"I'll take care of it," Pelham said, taking the blankets and the mug of hot coffee. He kneeled besides Lucio and he draped the blanket around his trembling body. "Did you see their faces?"

It took a while before Lucio answered. Pelham was simply glad that Lucio didn't fall unconscious. Lucio opened his mouth to reply, but he ended coughing and wheezing again. Pelham looked desperately around and was surprised to see that the rest of his group were gathered around them.

He was about to tell them to kindly leave, but Gary Kieth approached them, holding another blanket. "You need the heat," he said. "As a group, we have to stay like this. In terms of homeostatis, the heat radiating from us might as well help bring his body temperature back to normal."

"Oh," Pelham said, trying to remember what 'homeostatis' meant. "Thanks."

"So what happened?" A girl, who Pelham recognised as Tamara, asked. "I saw a speedboat zoom past with a bunch of boys I recognise from school."

"Oh, them," said a boy next to her, rolling his eyes. "Those seniors. They nearly knocked me off my boat as well."

"I think I saw Franco tell them off," a girl piped up.

"Where are they?" Pelham asked. But the girl simply shrugged. "I missed it. Did you see them?" He asked Lucio.

"I see them everyday," Lucio whispered.

Pelham knew at once what that meant. But he didn't press on the matter. "Come on, let's get you back to the cabin,"

The rest of the group began to help him, but Lucio said, "And miss out all the fun? Just because a bunch of retards had knocked me off the boat that I nearly drowned in the water?"

His voice was resolute - unwavering - that they all stopped.

"No, I'm not showing them that. Not today," Lucio said, wrapping the blankets tightly around himself as he stood up.

They saw Franco Lolan barking after five boys Pelham recognised from school as they passed his group. They were a year above him, in the same batch as April. One of them eyed Lucio, and a sneer crawled its way on his face. "Fag." he hissed at Lucio as they passed him, trying to shove him with his shoulder, but failing when Lucio took a step aside.

Pelham - as well as nearly everyone - recognised them, though never learning their names, except for the burly one - Bryce. They were, after all, infamous for tyrannising the students at school. That was the drama anyway. Pelham had always kept out of their way, being the exemplary student that he was. All in all, he didn't have anything to do with them, and vice versa. What he knew, though, was that they often called their victims anything offensive, most of them being the word that one of them had hissed to Lucio. He knew they didn't mean it - what do those pinheads know, anyway? he thought - that it was merely part of the 'bullying regulation'. He couldn't tell whether Lucio actually was one.

Thing was, the word seemed to affect him quite badly that he nearly wanted to beat them up right there and then.

Be that as it may, Pelham admired Lucio for what he had just said. So he wrapped one arm around the boy and said, "Let's get moving, then."