On the edge of a lake, a dock sat still in the water, standing firm in the waving water of the lake. Next to it was a medium sized boat, docked and sitting idly in the water.
“Hey guys!” a female’s voice suddenly shouted from the shore side of the dock. “Sorry I’m late!”
A seventeen year-old girl came running onto the dock, sprinting at her top speed. She had dark brown hair, clear skin, and golden eyes. Today she wore a white top as well as blue khaki jeans. This was Faith Summers, a young woman with her own aspirations to life and the people around her. Anyone that knew her well knew that she was one of the most dependable people that they could trust.
Faith ran up to the boat and gripped onto her knees as she breathed heavily at the ground. She looked up to the boat and called out, “Hey guys! I’m here now! You hear me?!”
“Yeah, we hear you!” a male voice answered back, “Can’t believe you’re late today.”
“Give her a break, Hunter,” another voice, this time female and more serene, came up, “you know she tends to be occupied with more things than she can handle sometimes.”
Two people looked over from the deck on top of the small yacht. On the right was a male, who looked just as old as Faith. He had slightly tanned skin, dark brown hair, and green eyes. He had on a blue shirt as well as black jeans. Such a person was Hunter Sparks, one of Faith’s friends. He was an athletic individual who liked to play a lot of sports, and was probably just as dependable as Faith.
Next to him was a tall young woman who also leaned over the railing of the deck. She had blond hair with light blue highlights, fair skin, magenta eyes, and blue eye shadow. She wore a light blue dress as well as a hairband in her long hair. This was Raine Skydance, another good friend of Faith. She was a wealthy girl that had access to many resources, but that didn’t detract from the nice polite demeanor that she always put out.
Faith chuckled as she got onto the walkway, and stepped onto the deck, “It’s alright, Raine. Something came up as I was preparing for today, and then one thing led to another. Before I knew it, I’m sprinting to get here from our room. Anyway, is everyone else here?”
“Well, most of us yes,” Hunter responded, “Raine was here when I brought the drinks, and then the twins got here next. Speaking of them, they’re in the kitchen preparing some stuff. You mind bringing this box of food to them?”
“Why don’t you?” Raine playfully scolded while tapping him on the back of the head, “It is not very gentleman like to make a woman do a man’s job.”
“It’s alright,” Faith laughed, “I’ll get it to them.”
With that, Hunter gave Faith a crate full of food, and she proceeded to carry it past the dining room and then into the ship’s gallery. In there she was greeted by the sight of two people, a guy and a girl. Both had orange-brown hair, brown eyes, and light skin. This was basically the description of the Evergreen twins, Willow and Maple. The only other difference that separated the two was the fact that Maple had a bow clip in her hair. That, and the fact their personalities contrasted heavily: Willow was serious and outspoken, Maple was shy and quiet.
Faith found both of them preparing some of the food. Willow was busily cutting fruit up while Maple worked to arrange them on different plates.
“Hey there, you two,” Faith greeted, setting the box on the counter, “How’s the food coming?”
Maple was the first to look up from what she was doing, “Oh, hello, Faith. Everything is coming up just fine.”
“Is that the fruit Indigo was supposed to bring?” Willow asked, setting aside the knife in his hands, “pass it here. I’ll get it here.”
As she slid the box of fruit to him, a thought passed through Faith’s head, followed by a question, “Hey that reminds me. Where is Indigo?”
Both twins looked at each other and shook their heads. This response immediately concerned Faith, as she knew something was up. Indigo was not the type of person to be missing from an occasion like this. She immediately walked out of the kitchen and came back onto the deck. There she saw Raine and Hunter moving around some chairs and tables.
“Hey guys, has anyone seen Indigo?” Faith asked.
Hunter put down the folded chair he was moving and shrugged, “Nope, haven’t seen the guy all day. Raine?”
She simply shrugged her shoulders as well, “Haven’t seen the lad all day. Oh goodness, what’s that doing there?”
Faith put her hand to her chin and thought for a moment. She knew for a fact that her friend must be around somewhere, as he always was. She stopped thinking for a moment to watch as Skyla was walking to a barrel, which was apparently the main cause for her attention.
“For goodness sakes, Hunter,” Skyla shouted as she approached the object, “Everything has their place, but a bloody barrel in the middle of the deck is not one of them. It’s not even on the list of things for the boat.”
“Only you would know that,” Hunter shouted back, “Besides, I didn’t move any barrel!”
Faith looked at the barrel for a minute as Skyla looked at it with slight disgust. It was simple, painted white like the mini yacht they stood on, and had nothing particularly interesting. Except for some lettering on the bottom labeled “I. F.”
“Uh oh”
Before anyone could react, the top of the barrel suddenly popped open. Confetti and ribbons shot out of the open top and Raine, scared and confused, shrieked and fell on her bottom. Out of the barrel popped a man, with his arms out stretched in the air.
“Surprise!” was all that followed the popping.
Faith immediately recognized the guy that leapt out of the barrel as none other than Indigo Fontaine. He was the most easily recognizable, with his hair black with white highlights at the end, fairly light skin, and his eye’s color were… Well, Faith actually wasn’t sure about that last detail. His eyes were so squinty that they appeared to be constantly shut, so his eye color was never discernable. Other than that, he had on blue and white sleeveless shirt and blue white cargo pants. He was possibly one of the most cheerful people Faith and her friends knew and he doesn’t disappoint with his antics.
“INDIGO! What the friggin’ heck!?” Hunter shouted, a bit startled himself, “what were you doing in there?”
“Waiting for everyone,” he responded nonchalantly, “I got here first at 6 AM, but no one was here, so I decided to take a nap in the Surprise Barrel.”
Faith immediately raised an eyebrow, “Surprise Barrel?” she flatly asked.
Indigo laughed as he hopped out of it, “Yup, newest thing I came up with. I wanted to surprise Raine for her birthday, and since we were on a yacht, what better way to do it than with a barrel?” He looked at Raine , who was still on the ground, “How effective was that, Raine?”
“A little too effective,” Raine managed to get out, “Could you be a dear and help me up?”
As Indigo took Raine’s hand, Faith heard running from inside the cabin. Willow and Maple ran up, with the brother in front of the sister.
“What happened?” Willow immediately asked, “I heard shouting from the inside.”
“Indigo wanted to have a surprise party,” Faith simply responded, “So he hid in a barrel.”
“He hid… in a barrel,” Willow facepalmed, “Why…? How did we not see that coming?”
Maple leaned over to her brother and whispered into his ear, “I told you it looked like it would fit a person…”
“Indigo, it’s not even a surprise party,” Hunter deadpanned, “it’s not a surprise if everyone isn’t in on it.”
“Awww,” Indigo moaned playfully, “Oh well, it was still fun. So how about we get started?”
Faith nodded in agreement, “Yup, but first…” she motioned for Hunter and the Evergreen twins to her side, “don’t we all have something to say.”
Everyone nodded, and every person on the boat but Raine gathered around in a group and face her.
“C’mon everyone,” Raine remarked, “I have a feeling I know what’s coming.”
Faith smiled and grabbed Hunter and Willow’s hands at her sides. The two them did the same with Indigo and Maple. The five of them looked to each other, and turned to Raine and smiled.
They then threw their arms up in unison, “Happy Birthday, Raine!”
“Cheers!”
A clattering sound of glass rang out, as everyone bumped glasses in the air. The day had been nothing but joyful to them. They were now in the middle of the lake, with the yacht completely surrounded by water. Throughout the day they’ve been doing things together, doing various activities and mishaps together. Everyone had some fun socializing while having some of the food they brought to the party. Of course, it wasn’t a party without some moments with this group of friends. Hunter had challenged Willow to a chugging contest with large glasses of what looked like juice. When they started, Indigo apparently failed to mention they were drinking tomato juice with hot sauce in it. A lot of it. So when he did say something, the two had already performed their spit takes and were going for something cold or was milk. After that debacle, Raine turned on some music, and everyone decided to do some dancing. Everyone’s ability to dance was varied, needless to say. It ranged to Maple and Raine being great at it, Faith and Willow being just average at it, Hunter being just plain horrible, and Indigo… just being himself. After that, Indigo somehow found some fishing rods, and everyone decided to take turns fishing some fish. Well, success apparently was taking a break or was lazy, because the fish either were completely dumb or were twice as lazy. Hunter kept hooking extremely small ones, and was getting angrier each time. Faith actually managed to catch something, but it got away when she couldn’t respond properly. Once again with Indigo, he had caught everything but fish, ranging pieces of wood, waterweed, metal, a boot, and somehow another fishing rod. They thought their luck was not going to answer them anytime soon until Maple got a bite, followed by a tug that nearly took the poor girl off her feet. It took Willow, Faith, and Hunter’s help to finally pull out an extremely large fish. Naturally they let it go, with some trouble involved of course with its flopping hitting those that tried to haul it back in. Eventually, everyone just settled to having a drink.
“This is for all the good times we had today, yesterday, and tomorrow,” Raine gladly announced, “as good friends.”
“To us,” everyone said in unison as everyone took a sip from their drinks.
As everyone drank their drinks, Faith took her eyes off her own to look at everyone else. She smiled as she recalled the times they shared. She has always known them throughout her life, since the first day they met. She honestly didn’t know where she would be without.
“Anyway, everyone, I have some exciting news to share,” Raine ushered everyone.
Everyone immediately quieted down as Raine set aside her drink.
“Remember how I told you all I was looking for opportunities to find a window of opportunity to show off my artistic talent?” Everyone nodded in unison. Raine has been going on recently in trying to find a way to show the world her creative talents, starting with what she called a “stepping stone” job.
“Anyway, I was going to apply to be an intern at the art center, right? And then one of the teachers, who happened to be my mentor, had to take care of a lecture and couldn’t do the class, so he asked me to…”
Faith rolled her eyes as Raine went on. She was known to get extremely lengthy when she was talking about her stories, and this one sounded like it will go on for a while.
Hunter started to give flat look of annoyance, “Can we skip that part? Daylight’s going.”
“Huh? Oh sure, anyway, I was offered to be a teacher assistant and took it. But that’s not the news. So on my first day I was going to demonstrate a simple painting, and one of the free artists that had their work in the center’s gallery was there and…”
A firm voice and soft one from the twins piped in, “Move on, please.”
“Oh right. Anyway, long story short, I was offered a chance to hang a piece in the gallery. But that still isn’t the best part! Anyway, I happened to find a piece I completed that I was particularly proud of. I decided to take that and as I was taking to the gallery, when I ran into what I didn’t know at the time the daughter of the superin….”
“Just skip to the good part!” Indigo yelled, waving his hands in the air.
“Oh… well, to cut an extensive story short, for the sake of everyone, I’ve just been commissioned to do not one, but three murals for the local high school. Two walls, one on the concrete ground. And if I do this great, I’ll be recommended to other schools for my work!”
Everyone started to give praise to her in various compliments and cheers. “Wow, that’s awesome!” “Way to go girl!” “You certainly are going up in the world.”
“Thanks everyone,” Raine smiled, “it’s a blessing and a prayer to have such amazing friends with me. I don’t think I would’ve made it this far without any of you.”
“To Raine and her success as an artist!” Indigo said with encouragement as he raised his glass.
“To Raine!”
The night as everyone decided to take it inside the cabins to continue their conversations. Faith was just on the deck at the railing, looking out the surface. The full moon was reflected off of the water’s surface, glistening brightly in white light. She looked out, lost in her own thoughts, as Hunter started to walk to her side.
“Hey there, Faith,” Hanter greeted.
“Oh, hey Hunter,” Faith greeted back as her thought train stopped, “what are you up to?”
Hunter leaned on the rail, “Not much, just wanted to get some fresh air.”
“And the others?”
“The twins are on the top of the roof, looking at the moon. Maple definitely likes looking at that thing. Indigo’s inside with Raine. I think the two are comparing art ideas or playing some game.”
Faith chuckled, “It’s most likely the latter.”
“I guess,” Hunter shrugged, “Damn, that really is a large moon today.”
Faith and giggled a bit at the remark. Out of all the friends, for some reason, Hunter comes off as the one person she always seem to go to for many things. The two have been through thick and thin, with Hunter always there to stick up for Faith.
“Anyway, I was looking for you for something,” Hunter started off.
Faith looked to him as she continued to lean on the railing, “Sure ask away.”
Hunter started to open his mouth to start off, but then shut it as a look of uncertainty came up instead, “I’m … not sure how to put this in a way that isn’t going to offend you.”
Faith cocked an eyebrow at the sentence, “Are you okay? This isn’t about a girl, is it?” People have actually mistaken them for a couple several times before, although the two have shrugged them off before due to the fact that romance was not on the front of their minds.
“No, it’s not that,” Hunter put his hands in his face and then leaned on the rail again with his arms, “It’s … semi-complicated.”
Faith started to actually worry a bit, “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Hunter looked to her with a look, one that Faith had a bit of difficulty reading.
“I … might be leaving the home soon.”
Faith was immediately confused by this response, “I think you need to explain that a bit better than that.”
Hunter nodded, “Well, I recently I decided to try my luck to see if any private schools with good athletic teams. I tried out by participating in some cross country with a team I often went out to practice with, you know, those guys from the school we sometimes help stuff with.”
Faith nodded. She and her friends took time to volunteer work at different schools to help with different things.
“Well, to put it simply, Faith, there was this talent scout from a college that was apparently looking for … you know, talent. Anyway, he saw how well I can run and jump, and didn’t believe I lived at the home. Anyway, I let him know I passed my basic qualification exams and SAT, and now he wants me to swing by the college to show what I got.”
“Why? Are you worried about it going wrong?” Faith asked.
Hunter shook his head, “It’s not that, Faith. It’s … I didn’t catch the name, but it’s one of those far away colleges, far from here. I don’t know, Faith, I want it to work out. But at the same time, when it does, how would I break it to the others.”
This started to make sense to Faith why it was getting complicated. Hunter, out of any of them, didn’t like it when they had to watch someone that they knew for a while leave. He was the type that really didn’t like to see people go.
Faith happened to be that type of person as well. She simply didn’t dwell on it before. Now that she did, she realized how much she didn’t want to be left behind either.
“I … guess the best we can do is to see how the others would react to it,” she tried to get out, “But still, why come to just me for this?”
Hunter simply stared out to the black horizon, “I guess I felt we thought alike, you know. But you seemed to be better with these kinds of things, you know. I mean, the others see you as kinda of the person with the final word. Hell, I still think you’re better at this than I am.”
“So what is it that you’re worried about if we tell this to the others?” Faith asked.
Hunter simply looked down at his feet as looks of uncertainty and worry ran on his face, “I don’t want us to leave each other. Ever since we found each other, everything we’ve done had always been together, no matter what happened. I can never see myself leaving the others behind, no matter what I think I want to do in the world. But at the same time, I have to remind myself that we have to each other to our own devices sooner or later. I’ve never had a more conflicting thought, honestly.”
Faith put her hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him the best she can, “Well, it’s a bit soon to jump to conclusions. Let’s at least tell the others first. I sure they’ll understand. Like you said, we’ve done everything together; let’s get through this one together as well.”
“Heh, thanks,” he responded, smiling a bit, “let’s get inside, I think I felt a raindrop.”
Faith cocked an eyebrow, “Yeah sure, if there isn’t a cloud in the moon filled …sky?”
When Faith looked up, she saw that the moon was no longer visible. Instead, the night was covered completely in black clouds, as stars became invisible in the sky. Then Faith felt something pelt her shoulder. She rubbed it, and it felt wet.
“Rain?” she said to herself.