Chapter Nine: Early Morning Fishing:

In the morning, I awoke to a door being closed down the hall. I peeked around my room from under my sheets. A pair of feet stood in front of the crack under the door. Curious, I crawled out of bed and peeked out the door.

“Who’s there?” I asked. I had to cover my mouth as I jumped back, gasping when eye peeked through the open crack.

“It’s only me,” a guy’s voice whispered.

“Which one are you?”

“Tommy.”

I squinted as I dug in my brain. “Which one are you again?”

“I’m the one from Scotland.”

“Oh!” I blinked, narrowing my eyes. “What are you doing up at this hour?”

“Come along and you will see.”

I pursed my lips. “Why?”

“Just come on and see!” He reached into my room and dragged me into the hallway. Another hand covered my mouth. I looked up to see Eddie shaking his head.

“Are we all set?” Tommy whispered.

“Yes,” Eddie, Makoto, and Yu said. The Scottish man rubbed his nose.

“Let’s go,” he said. We rushed down the hall before I could grasp what was going on. I looked around, frantic as they ran, dragging me along.

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Tommy led us to the backyard. Eddie finally let me go just as I was about to pass out from choking. I got on my hands and knees, panting.

“Sorry about that,” Eddie whispered. I looked up to see Tommy walking forward.

“Welcome to my happy place,” he said. We looked behind him to see a small pond. My eyes moved back to Tommy.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Kyoko’s pond,” he answered.

“Okay… why are we here?”

Tommy held up a small bucket, grinning. “We’re going fishing!” A blank expression came over my face.

“Huh?” I asked. Makoto looked just as confused as I was.

“Oh, are we going to play that game again?” Eddie asked.

“That’s right!” Tommy said. I looked between both guys.

“What game?” I asked. Tommy and Eddie grinned.

“You take this bucket,” the former said. “Dip it into the water and pull it out. He turned and dunked the bucket into the lake. Eddie, Makoto, and I walked over to the bucket. Three little fish saw around in the trapped water.

“And… what’s the point of this?” I asked.

“We do it to see how many we can catch in the bucket,” Tommy said.

“Why?”

“Just because.”

“Because what?”

“Just because.”

I snorted. “That sounds stupid.”

Eddie made a pouty face at me. “What? Think you can’t beat our records?” I whipped my head around.

“What did you say?” I asked.

“She can’t beat our fishing record!” Tommy bragged. I put my hands on my hips.

“I can do it!” I said.

“Prove it!” Tommy and Eddie said. I frowned as I realized that I had just walked into their ego trap. Usually, I would just roll my eyes and walk away when I got backed into a stupid challenge like this. I could do it right now, in fact. Just turn back around, go in the house, and go back to bed. It’s so easy, really...

“Give me the bucket!” I said. Tommy dumped the three fish back into the pond and handed the bucket back to me. I grumbled as I walked up to the pond.

“Dunk it, girl!” Eddie shouted.

“I know, I know,” I said. I got down on my knees and dunked the bucket in deep. Why the hell am I doing this? I drew in a deep breath and counted to three. With one forceful lift, I pulled up the bucket.

“How is that?” I asked aloud. The boys looks inside the bucket. Sadly, only one fish swam around inside.

“It’s just sad,” Eddie said.

“You went in too deep,” Tommy said. I puffed up my cheeks, frowning.

“Shut up,” I hissed. The Scottish blonde guy took the bucket from my hands.

“Move aside,” he said. “Let me show you how it’s done.” Tommy walked over to the lake and held the bucket over the water.

“You don’t go in so deep,” he said. “Wait patiently to get them in and slowly pull up.” We looked into the bucket to see eight little fish swimming around. I snorted, rolling my eyes.

“I knew that,” I muttered under my breath. Never the less, I ended up getting wrapped up in that stupid game until sunrise. I will beat the boys tomorrow morning! Mark my works!