Sixty-Two ? Phan

Twenty

Mr. L hesitated, waiting a moment.

"Did he just make a joke?" Chris whispered.

"He tried," Peej acknowledged.

All at once we forced out a laugh, seeming to understand the situation and his undying need for attention. I felt bad for Mr. L, to some degree. He must feel responsible for everything that goes on here. Phil's suicide attempt, Chris' sister going missing.

"Yes, well." Mr. L beamed at the reaction to his poor joke. "Just enjoy yourselves. Stay out as long as you want. Celebrate your last year here at Sixty-Two appropriately and have a good time."

Then he nodded and gestured for us to move ahead. As if poured like water from a glass, we all stepped forward and began leaking to different sides of the party. I took Phil's hand, not wanting to get lost, and scampered at the side of our little group.

"What are all those statues?" I asked as we neared them, walking slowly towards the water, around the side of the food tables.

"Important people that had to do with the camp, I think." Peej was on the other side of Chris, who nodded.

"On the left side." He pointed to the statues closest to us. "There's six. On the right, there's two."

"They really take this whole sixty-two aesthetic to another level, don't they?" I joked.

They chuckled, not even bothering to disagree. A moment afterward, Peej spoke up again.

"Those statues," he nodded towards them, "are also, quite frankly, the unofficial reason why only seniors and the rare exception are allowed to swim here."

"Why? Are they historical landmarks or something?"

"Technically monuments. Technically. Like, an off-breed monument that nobody really cares about."

I blinked at him, not expecting that to actually be the case. It almost made me nervous. Even if he said nobody cared about them, the word monument itself just made me want to be extra careful. A childlike instinct, I suppose.

"You guys want to swim?" Chris asked, us only a little ways off from the waveless tide at this point.

I bit my lip nervously. "I didn't bring anything to swim in. I didn't know there was a lake."

"Who cares?" he said, smiling.

Peej and Chris shared a mischievous look.

I stared at the both of them, then watched as they, together, began to run towards the water. They shed their shirts, jeans, and shoes and hopped in all at once. The water splashed, earning a couple nearby girls to let out noises of distate when their clothes got wet.

I looked up at Phil, who was starting to tug me forward. He began to toe off his shoes, then followed suit with his shirt and jeans.

"I don't want to swim," I detested, pulling at my arm a little.

He rolled his eyes. "You'll be fine. If you want, you can just stay on my shoulders."

I looked at my feet in embarrassment, but shook my head again. I didn't exactly want to outright say it, but the idea of showing off my bare stomach, not to mention legs, in public didn't exactly appeal to me. I wasn't really afraid, because it wasn't like I was excessively overweight or underweight. I was just shy, supposedly. Especially around Phil, for obvious reasons.

"You're such a baby."

And then, once again, I was pulled into the air. And, once again, it caught me off guard. Phil yanked off my shoes, my shirt, and my jeans, albeit a little difficulty with the last two due to the position. Me flailing like a frantic animal, he closed the short distance between us and the water and, as if it were reflected back into my eyes in fast forward, we both charged into it. I went flying off his shoulders with a squeal and tried to grasp the air in futile desperation of not hitting the water.

I splashed down, feet thumping the soft, wet sand below before springing upward and breaking surface. It wasn't above walking-level just yet, so I was able to concentrate more of looking for wherever the hell Phil went instead of swimming.

It didn't take long to find him. He grabbed my sides from behind, scaring me absolutely shitless. I jumped, spinning around and ready to attack.

"I said I didn't want to swim," I told him in frustration, though not angrily.

"Do you want to go back?"

I opened my mouth, but closed it again immediately. I'm sure Phil already knew the answer to that, just by my expression. The cool temperature felt nice in contrast to the constsnt heat of summer and, upon actually getting into the water, it became less difficult to shelter my discomfort. All in all, it wasn't as bad as I anticipated.

I let out a sigh of defeat, watching his face distort into a smile as he took hold of my hand and began to gently pull me into the direction of Chris and Peej, who were, no surprise, falling over one another and play-fighting like idiots. A couple other people I didn't know scattered this side of the shoreline, but most still remained on the beach or at the other end.

"Look who came to join the party!" Chris and exclaimed, pushing Peej off him. "It's the girls."

"I perfer the term women, thank you," Phil said in reponse.

Peej rolled his eyes. The four of us then began to roughhouse, as teenage boys do. I don't quite remember what all we did, aside from just attacking one another like playful kittens.

But I do remember what happened next. In fact, I'm sure everybody else at that party, as they all turned to stare at us, did, too.

After all, it's not everyday you see four boys knock over six statues in a lake.