>>JULIA<<

"This is the middle of nowhere," Nicole declared as our family van pulled into our cabin, The Beech's, parking lot in upstate New York.

"I told you that it wouldn't be any fun, but you wanted to come -" I reminded her. Every July, my parents drive up here for a two week vacation to "get away from the outside world." They definitely found the right spot! We have no tv, phone, or internet. Heck, we use a wood burning stove for heat! And yes - we need heat in July. It rarely gets to 80 degrees here and at night, it can go below 50. My sister used to come with us, but now that she's 18, they can no longer force her. So this year, I brought my friend Nicole.

Nicole addressed me with bright eyes. "I bet we could find plenty to do for fun, Julia!"

"That's the spirit," my dad chirped and patted Nicole on the back.

"Julia, if you could just have an open mind to this like Nicole then you wouldn't be so miserable," my mom chimed in. Great, they love Nicole, now I look like the Grinch who stole Christmas. What could they expect, though? Every year, they drag me to the same place to swim in the same lake, hike the same trails and live without my beloved sourced of communication.

"Whatever," I mummbled. I admit I was a little cranky.

"So, what is there to do here?" Nicole asked me.

"Nothing," I replied sullenly. She gave me an annoyed look as if to say "COME ON!" She was right, things would be better this year, especially since Nicole's company always proves to be better than my sister.

"Well," I began, "We could go check out the lake."

We sat on the dock's edge and slowly let our feet hit the water. It was freezing. It was only about 70 degrees out and the water had to be about 60, definitely not enticing either of us to go for a swim. We chatted wildly about everything from pots and pans to summer romances.

"Are there a lot of cute guys who stay here?" she asked excitedly.

"Not in all the years I've been here have I been so lucky," I told her honestly.

Almost immediately, I hear a pubescent boy voice call, "The water looks great!" as he quickly makes his way up the ramp to the dock where we're situated. He was cute.

"Hello," the boy greeted us cheerfully.

"Hi," we both smiled.

He only looked about 14, but for a 14 year old he had a mighty nice build. Nicole and I are both 17, so the idea of finding a 14 year old to be drool worthy was slightly embarrassing. Just then, his energy peaked and before Nicole or I could do anything about it, he was up in the air over the lake in a cannonball.

"Oh God!" Nicole screached as we pathetically attempted to keep dry.

"Zac!" An older voice called from behind us. By this time, Nicole and I were both pretty drenched.

"Oh, oops, sorry about that," Zac apologized.

"That's okay, it feels good," Nicole lied. The water was like ice and we were both freezing, especially since we're used to Maryland's warm water and beaches.

There were two other guys on the dock now, the one who has screamed to Zac and another who looked older than Zac but younger than the one who screamed. They didn't talk to us much more because the older two were eager to join Zac in the water. We didn't know their names, so we nicknamed the oldest "the hairy one" because he had some hair on his stomach and between his nipples. The other we called "the middle one," in lack of a better nickname. Neither of us could get over Zac. He was so energetic and cute, yet sexy - we hardly looked at the other two. However, it looked like they were having so much fun, so we decided that tomorrow we would definitely talk to them. If there was anything we wanted more than a couple of cute guys, it was fun and if fun came with the guys, we were definitely game.

>>NICOLE<<

The next day we spent canoeing to an island and once we arrived, we vegged out all day, totally forgetting about yesterday's plan. Julia's pale skin burned pretty badly on the unusually warm day, but my skin developed a nice golden tan. As our canoes approached the launch, we could see the three boys from the previous day swimming by the dock. However, tired and worn out from strenuous canoeing, we decided pushing it off another day wouldn't matter too much.

Monday it rained. No, it poured. We spent the drowsy day lying around, playing cards and being lazy. Just as I was about to take an after lunch nap, Julia got the bright idea of going swimming.

"Are you serious?" I questioned her. By the smile spread across her lips, I knew she meant it.

"Yeah," she said, attempting to coax me into agreeing with her. "The only reason you're so sleepy is because we haven't done anything. We need to get out of this cabin. Come on, it'll be fun!"

I let my eyes peer out the window right above my bed. The dreary clouds gave no sign of the rain stopping. I smiled, "Let's do it."

We put our swimming suits on and without towels (there was no need for them), we walked down to the dock. Once our sandals were removed, we felt the water with the tips of our toes.

"Oh my gosh! It's so freezing!" I gasped as goosebumps crawled all over my arms and legs. Julia grabbed my hand. She was as cold as I was. Our eyes met and we gave each other lip-quivering smiles.

"We can do this," she said, trying to convince herself more than me. "To prove our undying love to Steven Tyler ... on the count of three, let's jump."

I nodded in agreement. Steven Tyler was enough motivation, let alone to prove our silly little crushes on him. Julia started counting down. My grip around her hand tightened. Finally, she said "three." We both took a huge leap off the dock and were submerged in the ice cold water.

The water didn't feel quite so bad once our bodies became used to it. That, or we became numb. We spent a good 15 minutes splashing around and making the most of having the huge lake all to ourselves. When we got back to the cabin, I brought out my video camera. We decided to document the crazy thing we just did. Still in our wet swimming suits and beach towels wrapped around our waists, we went back to the dock and explained to the camera what we had done and why we had done it.

On our walk back to the cabin, we both spotted someone walking in the distance. I decided to zoom in to see who it was. With the camera being a bit unsteady because we were walking and from a few raindrops on the lens, I couldn't quite make out who it was. I reached out to get Julia's attention to wait to me because I had quit walking. Now standind still, I could get a good look at the somebody in the distance.

"Julia!" I exclaimed excitedly in a hushed whisper so he couldn't hear me. "It's the cute boy from the other day!"

After a quick shot of him, we both turned back to our cabin in hopes that he didn't see us "spying" on him.

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Chapter Two