"It's my turn now to apologize," I said. "Isaac, Taylor, Zac, I'm sorry for what I did to you guys. I'm sorry for kicking you and everything else. I hope you can accept my apology."
"Wellll, okay, but it'll cost you a quarter," Zac said.
"Zac!" I exclaimed, laughing.
"Okay, okay, for family members, it's free," he said.
"Thanks," I said. I turned to Isaac and Taylor and waited for their responses.
"I forgive you," Isaac said.
"Ditto," Tay replied.
"Great," I said. "I'm going to go find Aidan, maybe we all can do something later."
"Sounds great," Isaac said.
I ran off to our cabin. I found Aidan sitting down on his bed, reading a book.
"Aidan, I gotta talk to you," I said.
"What's up?" He asked, setting the book down.
"It's our cousins," I said.
"Oh great. What did they do now? Wreck your laptop? Throw your phone card in the lake?"
"No, they apologized."
"WHAT?" He asked, clearly surprised.
"They apologized, and they were very nice and sincere about it."
"What did you do?"
"I accepted their apology, and I apologized to them."
"You didn't need to apologize to them, you didn't do anything."
"Aidan, yeah I did. We both did stuff wrong to them."
"Well, then I guess I should apologize, too. It won't be a fun vacation if the war keeps going on," he said.
"Okay. They're at their room, we can go over there now."
"Let me get some shoes on," he said. "My Adidas shoes should be outside." We went up the staircase and out the door. We saw two pairs of shoes sitting on our deck.
"I wonder where these came from?" I asked, picking up my sandals and putting them back in.
"Gee, me too," Aidan said in a sarcastic voice.
"Be nice," I said.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah."
* * * * * * * * * * *
About a half hour later, Aidan, Isaac, Taylor, Zac, Jessie and I were headed down to the dock. Dad was going to take us tubing. Aunt Diana gave Isaac, Taylor, Zac, and Jessie their life jackets, making them promise to be careful about a million times.
"Good lord, it's not like we've never been tubing or out in a boat before!" Isaac exclaimed as we walked away from the rooms.
"Yeah. Why do adults always warn us to be careful?" Zac asked.
"Because they want to make sure we know," I responded.
"Yeah, but still. I'm a big boy, I know to be careful and watch out for things!" Zac proclaimed. He gave us a macho grin. His grin soon turned into a look of shock as he tumbled over a tree root. He landed with a hard thump on the ground.
"ZAC!" We all screamed. "BE--"
"I know, I know. Be careful!" he finished. Taylor and Isaac pulled their brother off the ground. We started our journey once again.
"Geez, Zac, you're a dope," Jessie said.
"Oh, you think so? You're a nerd," Zac shot back.
"Whatever. You're a loser, I'm a winner, so whatever you say is whatever," Jessie said back, making the hand gestures as she spoke. I started cracking up laughing.
"What's so funny?" she demanded.
"We do the same thing at my school." Jessie and I walked along, doing the hand motions and looking like idiots. We finally reached the dock. Dad was cleaning stuff out of the boat.
"Hey guys, are you almost ready to head out?" he asked, removing some fishing poles from the floor.
"Yep, we sure are Uncle Brad!" Taylor said.
"Great, get on in! Aidan, why don't you sit in the back, Jessie, you sit up here by me, Zac, you and Grace take the captain chairs, and Taylor and Isaac, sit with Aidan in the back and help him hold the tube," Dad instructed us. We climbed in and sat in our seats. Dad backed the boat out of the spot and drove off. We found an empty cove about five minutes later.
"Aidan, throw the tube in, we'll start here."
"Okay, Dad." Aidan pushed the tube in. Dad drove up about 20 feet so the person in the tube wouldn't risk hurting themselves when climbing on top of the tube.
"Who wants to be first?" Dad asked.
Big mistake. "ME!" we all yelled.
"Whoa, hold on! We'll go youngest to oldest. Jessie, you're first."
"Yeah buddy!" Jessie got up and started to get out.
"Wait a second, Jess, is your life jacket tight enough?" Isaac asked.
"Yeah," she said.
"Let me check it."
"I'm fine!"
"Jessica, it'll take two seconds."
"Okay," she said, sighing. She walked over to Isaac, and he tightened the straps.
"Thanks, Ike," she said in a choked voice.
"You're welcome," he said with a grin. Jessie climbed into the water and swam out a little. She grabbed onto the tube and managed to pull herself on top of it. She grabbed the handles and gave my dad the thumbs up sign.
"All right, she's ready to go. Aidan, Isaac, and Taylor. Watch Jessie very carefully. If she falls off, or gives the signal to stop, let me know right away. If she falls off, keep pointing to her so she knows we didn't forget her," Dad said.
"All right," they said. Jessie was still giving the thumbs up. Dad started to drive, increasing the speed to 20 MPH. Jessie was flying. When she hit waves, the tube would fly off of the water. I looked back at her a few times, and she was grinning.
"Hey Dad, is that camera still in here?" Aidan asked.
"Yeah," he said.
"Let me have it, I'll take pictures of everybody," he said.
Dad handed me the camera, which I passed to Aidan. He snapped a few of Jessie, flying in the air. After awhile, Dad stopped the boat. Ike and Aidan reeled Jessie in. Her hair, which was in a ponytail, was messy, but she was grinning. Zac jumped into the water and took the tube out a few feet. He pulled himself up a lot quicker than Jessie had. Dad did the same for him, driving up to 20 MPH. Zac was flying and grinning. He looked determined to stay on that tube, no matter what. Aidan snapped a few pictures. After Zac's turn, it was mine.
"Good luck, Grace," Zac said as he hoisted himself back onto the boat.
"Thanks, Zac." I splashed into the water and I paddled myself out to the tube. After a try or two, I managed to hoist myself onto the tube. I grabbed onto the handles tight and gave my dad the thumbs up sign. He started off slow, like he did for Jessie and Zac. Then, he increased the speed. I held onto the handles for dear life. I kept leaning to the left and right to direct the tube where to go. I caught a bunch of good waves! I could see Aidan grinning at me and snapping pictures. Aidan set the camera down and held up 3 fingers on his left hand, and 5 on his right. I was going 35 miles an hour! I've never gone this fast!
Aidan saw my grin and put his fingers down. He held onto the boat with one hand, to the camera with the other. I looked ahead and saw a monster wave coming.
"Oh--"
I didn't even have time to finish. The tube hit the wave, and went flying into the air-- with me still on it! I did what I was told to do, keep my body laying flat on it, focus my weight to my knees, and hold on tight.
BAAAM!
The tube smacked the water. My thighs and legs hit the surface of the water harshly. I felt as if I did a bellyflop off of a high dive. I let myself fall off the tube. The whole backseat turned around and told Dad. Then, Aidan watched me as Dad drove carefully over. He and Isaac both pulled me out of the water.
"Owwwww," was all I managed to say.
"Grace? You okay?" Isaac asked.
"I think I need to lie down," I said.
"Here, I'll take you back to the dock and you can go up to the room. We'll go back out, because I know Taylor, Isaac, and Aidan want a shot at tubing," Dad said.
"All right," I said glumly.
"Don't worry, we'll go out plenty more times, Grace. Cheer up," Dad replied.
"Man Grace, I have never seen anything like that!" Zac said.
"Wait till you see Aidan. He's a pro," I said.
"I'm not that good," Aidan insisted.
"Liar."
"Have you guys ever been wakeboarding?" Taylor asked.
"No, but I've been dying to try it," I said.
"I've done it once," Aidan said. "It's not hard once you get your balance and the hang of it."
Taylor and Aidan were involved in a wakeboarding discussion until we pulled back up. My thighs and legs were beet red, and I could bet that my stomach was a shade of pink as well, even though I was wearing a one piece and a life jacket.
"We'll see you in awhile, Grace," Dad said.
"Thanks. See you guys later! Have fun!" I said.
"We will! Bye Grace!" they said. I watched them pull out of the dock again and drive off. I headed back up to our room, plopped on the couch, and immedietely fell asleep.
Chapter 6
Chapter 4
Vacation
Kelly's Hanson Stories
