Audrey was in a daze as she stared out the window of the car, at the pouring rain. They were on their way back home from her aunt’s place, which was almost 2 hours away from their house. She hated long car rides; she often got car sickness, but she got used to it after a while. Two days ago was the last day of school. Audrey was sad not get to see her friends Maia and Ryland as much, but she was excited for what this summer had in store for her.

She hated to admit it, but ever since she, Ryland and her best friend Maia, went out to Imper lake one weekend in the middle of spring, she developed little crush on Ryland. The memory crossed her mind once again.

Audrey and Maia walked to the docks of Imper lake, the lake that they spent lots of the hot weekends at, to see Ryland already cannon balling off into the shimmering water. It made a loud sploosh and sprayed their faces slightly.

They reached the docks, dropped their towels and pulled off their shorts that covered their swim bottoms. The girls ran off the dock and hit the water at the same time. Audrey was plunged under the freezing but refreshing water.

After swimming up to the top where she met Maia and Ryland, she had an idea. Audrey gulped in a big breath and dove under. The water wasn’t too mucky, so she could swim with her eyes open.

She swam right under where Ryland floated and came up under him, picking him up on her shoulders. She laughed as Ryland had a look of surprise and shock cross his face. “Whew, you’re heavy!” Audrey laughed.

He smiled down at her, and she dove out from under him. “I’m hungry, I’m going to the cabin and bring smoothies and sandwiches,” Maia hops onto the dock, quickly drys herself and walks back to the cabin. Audrey’s parents, siblings and the three of them slept in a log cabin in the woods.

It was their weekend and summer vacation spot. There were two bedrooms, a bathroom, a medium-sized living room and kitchen. It was quite nice even if it got a little crowded sometimes.

But usually they spent most of their time outside anyway. She and her friends slept in a room with a bunkbed and a couch. Maia always claimed the top and Ryland slept on the couch which he said was really comfortable.

My parents slept in the other room and my two little siblings, Brody and Evelyn, slept together on the futon in the corner of the living room. As they waited for Maia to return, they both sat on the dock in a comfortable silence, Ry looking at the peaceful lake.

Audrey looked at Ryland and realized how good-looking he really was. She always knew that but somehow she noticed it more. His dirty blonde hair dripped water down his bare back and into his light blue-grey eyes.

He was quite tall too, probably half a head over her, though she wasn’t short. Maia strode down the pathway, leading to the docks they were on, holding a tray with homemade smoothies and sandwiches.

Audrey took a slurp of her smoothie and a huge bite of the delicious tuna sandwich. She didn’t know she was hungry until she actually started eating. “Hmm, Maia this is delicious,” Audrey remarked, her mouth full. She smiled, “I know right.” They spent the rest of the day at the lake hanging out and splashing each other with the ice-cold water.

“Did you even hear what I said?” Brody asked. She didn’t even hear him say a thing. “Hmm?” He rolled his eyes, which he got from her, mom would say.

“Never mind,” was all Brody said. She rolled her eyes mimicking him and continued to stare out the window. The wind started to pick up even more, making it a complete torrential rainstorm outside, and making it extremely difficult to see.

The car ride went dead silent as Dad was focusing driving, trying not to drive off the slick black road. There were barely any cars around except the occasional one that passed them going the opposite direction. Audrey tried to focus on the road ahead, feeling like it would help them drive safer, but of course it wouldn’t.

Thunder started to resound and a huge lightning bolt flashed across the sky. She felt the heavy tension in the car as no one could see anything out the windows. Not even the windshield. Then another bolt flared but this one was even bigger. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a bright orange glow. “WATCH OUT DAVE!” Mom screamed.

A big pine tree had been struck and was now passing the fire onto the surrounding trees. Chaos started to arise in the car as one tree toppled onto the road in front of them. Audrey didn’t realize she was screaming. Dad couldn’t stop the car in time. They had hit the fallen tree with full force, crushing the front end of the car; starting the car on fire, with all of them dead silent once again.