Moby Clique by Cara Lockwood Page B

water and I slip my feet in after. It’s freezing cold and sends a shock through my body even as my Converse get soaked.
    “Oh my God, that’s cold!” Samir shouts behind me. “Why didn’t someone tell me about the cold?”
    Parker and Ryan hesitate a few more seconds on the shore. But when it becomes clear the dogs are getting closer, even they wade into the water.
    I walk a few steps, pulling on the rope as I go, sticking close to Heathcliff. So far, the water doesn’t seem so deep here, and it laps just above my ankles. The rocks are slippery, but so far I’ve managed not to fall.
    “Maybe this isn’t going to be so bad,” I say.
    Heathcliff glances back at me, a crooked smile on his face. This makes me think I’ve spoken too soon. The barking is getting louder. Heathcliff moves a little faster and so do I.
    Behind us, I hear Parker mumbling her complaints, and a quick glance back and I see that Ryan isn’t very happy, either. Samir is looking at the water with trepidation.
    “We’re halfway there,” I shout back, trying to give them some encouragement. And it’s true, we are. Twenty more feet and we’re home free.
    That’s when ahead of me the water abruptly rises almost up to Heathcliff’s waist. I wonder if he’s fallen, but it occurs to me that he hasn’t. The water has just gotten suddenly and decidedly deeper. I stop, but Blade is right behind me, and she bumps into me and sends me over into the deep.
    “Aaaah!” I shout, as I plunge into the water next, the ground suddenly giving way, and the water rising to my chest. Heathcliff is much taller than I am. The water is freezing, and it’s a lot harder to walk in the strong current when most of your body is under water.
    “Whoa, sorry,” Blade says, jumping in after me. Hana follows her, but Samir stops in his tracks.
    “Oh no, no way,” Samir says, shaking his head. “I’m not going in like that.”
    A dog appears on the shore where we came from, snarling and snapping its jaws. A second and third join him, and they sniff at the water and bark at us. None of them follow us in, though.
    “We can’t stop now,” Ryan says. He’s the last in the line and just ten or so feet from the dogs.
    “Yeah, move it!” Parker shouts. “What’s the holdup?” Parker’s in a frenzy now that the dogs are close, and one or two of them seem to be contemplating jumping into the water after us. She gives Samir a hard shove and he falls forward, losing his footing. Suddenly, he’s swept up by the current and is on the surface of the water, struggling to get control. The only thing keeping him from being swept downriver is his backpack, which is still hooked securely to the rope.
    “If you don’t move, I’m going to have to make you go,” Parker says, and starts fiddling with Samir’s backpack.
    It’s evident to all of us at once that Parker plans to cut Samir free. And since he can’t swim, he’ll most certainly drown.
    “Parker! What are you doing?” says a desperate Samir, even as Parker manages to unhook Samir’s backpack. Now he’s simply holding on to the rope without a safety line. “Parker! Please!”
    “Parker! Stop it!” Hana shouts as she tries to intervene.
    “Leave him alone,” Blade seconds, throwing her hands into the mix.
    But Parker is determined, and as we watch, she starts to pry Samir’s fingers off the rope.
    “Look out! One of them is coming in!” Ryan shouts, drawing my attention away from Samir, and I turn to the beach just in time to see that one of the dogs has taken a few steps back from shore. Then he hunches down, his muscles tense and ready to leap. And just as suddenly, the dog springs into the water and heads straight for Ryan.

Fifteen
    “Come on!” I shout to Samir. “We’ve got to move!”
    “We are!” Blade says, and she and Hana working together somehow manage to get Samir on his feet again, no thanks to Parker, who was two fingers away from sending him to a watery grave.
    Once Samir is