It was a hot and steamy Sunday; any building equipped with air conditioning within walking vicinity was currently sporting a closed sign. Jonathan, a true to the core danger-seeking sixteen year old, liked to look at a situation like this as an opportunity to think outside the box, a real test to his already ‘unique’ imagination. In his mind the fifty point question was: what could you do in 90 degree weather that involved danger and a possibility of getting punished if caught, yet didn’t require much work.
Ideas sporadically flew in and out of his mind, and one by one he shot them down. Why, do you ask?
Well nobody likes a re-do.
Balance on the branch of a high tree
Wow, is that the best I can come up with, thought Jon.
Jump off something with only a blanket as a parachute
How 3rd grade…
Fill Jake’s little sister’s kiddie pool with ice cubes and swim in it
Sulkily he thought to himself, no wonder I’m failing creative writing.
Then like Muhammad Ali, the idea hit him. The lake that had recently been closed to the public for some unknown reason! Of course! Not only would a trip to the lake be refreshing, but there was always that possibility that if he and his two best friends were caught they’d get in huge amounts of trouble (like get to ride in the back of a police car trouble).
Now for the break or make question, how would he get Jake and Javier to agree and come along to the lake with him. See some people make it seem like the whole peer pressure thing works on everyone unless you’ve had a ‘just say no’ program; however, the truth is that Jonathan had been trying that whole “If you don’t do this, you’ll be a dork.” bit on his never-attended-a-program friends for their entire friendship, and it’d never worked on them. The thing that worked to Jon’s advantage was the class he’d taken on how to write persuasive essays, because isn’t writing really just conversation written down?
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Of course one of the main problems in Jon’s ideas is that he never fully thinks them through, and this idea was no different than any other. After tediously, yet successfully, getting his friends to agree to his idea, they discovered that to get to said lake they’d first have to trek through a huge wild life reservation. In his mind, poor (and might I add lazy) Jon was already deducting points. Jonathan, Jonathan didn’t your teachers ever tell you, always read the directions carefully.
And it was truly, no easy task hiking through the forest in 90 degree weather. After 30 minutes or so Jon had already started to play the ‘are we there yet game.’
“Jake, how longs this gunna take?” he asked for the hundredth time.
“You seriously need to be patient. Jeez, this was your idea in the first place. “Javier (some-what) patiently replied.
Jon groaned, “Uhhh, can we just get there already? Why would you even have a lake out here in the middle of nowhere, how’s anyone even supposed to swim in it…”
Finally Jake had had enough, fuming he turned to Jon and sarcastically told him, “The point J is so that no one goes into it. Since it’s, ohhh I don’t know… CLOSED!!!”
“Whatever.” Jon said, knowing that his friend was right and not wanting to push either of them any further, for fear that they’d change their minds.
Finally, after walking in silence for 15 seemingly long minutes, the three friends arrived at the lake. They didn’t even wait to take off their shoes, the second their eyes saw the cool, still water of Lake Defreda they dived head first.
“Guys this was SOOOO worth it. Come on, who’s ya daddy?!” Jon jokingly said as he broke through the surface of the water.
“WHATEVER!” Jake and Javier replied in unison, simultaneously dunking Jon’s head in the water.
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The problem with being a thrill seeker like Jon is that every once in a while your luck runs out and the danger is in fact dangerous. And you may for example decide to swim in a lake contaminated with toxic chemicals.