The morning was still new. Gwyn and I were both still damp from showers taken before meeting up at my house. We both lived down the street from one another, so it became our summer routine to go to each other’s house after practice. First, we would usually get up around 6 am or some time close to that. It was always hard to get up that early when I was supposed to be on summer break. We then would try to meet up at the corner with our bikes. I was always late, though. Beds are just so much more comfy in the morning. Lastly, we would head to the swim team promptly before 7 am because if we were late, Coach would make us do distance sprints until we threw up (again). If we were running late to the corner, we would race to practice, and the winner would get bragging rights. If we were on time to the corner, we would just sleepily cycle along and hope it was a slower practice that morning. 

After practice, the fun could start. We’d rush home to shampoo the chlorine out of our hair and change into comfy jackets and shorts, grab our bikes, and meet up at one of each other’s houses. We’d spend our days watching TV, playing pretend in her backyard or mine, or just wandering about our small town causing chaos everywhere we stepped.

Today the goal was to get coffee. Gwyn and I weren’t allowed coffee in general but were even less allowed to have expensive fancy coffee. Weeks of saving our summer babysitting would finally benefit us because now we could afford not just one but two drinks — each! Maybe even a candy bar from the gas station, too! The only thing was that we had to stay out of sight of the adults. We couldn’t afford to be grounded so close to the fair. My idea was to take the bike path and the neighborhood roads so we wouldn’t be caught. Gwyn was in agreement. 

So the adventure started. We figured we would wait until the afternoon to get coffee. I was spending the night at her house anyway, and this way we could stay up all night. Instead, we started for the park. Our feet pattered and smacked to the sounds of our flip-flops on our way down the street. It was cool out now, but we knew the sun’s rays would beat down and warm us soon enough, and we would have to hang our hoodies around our waists or shove them into our backpacks. 

As we got to the park, I started running toward the playground. Hitting the soft grass, I took off my sandals and held them in my hands. As I picked up speed and gained a head start, I yelled back to Gwyn, “Race you!”

We both giggled as she caught up to me, and she sped past, slapping the slide with a satisfactory smack! I panted and held my knees hunched over trying to get any air I could. She started to climb the playground, and I devised a plan. I ran to the other side and started climbing.

We yelled out to each other. The start of our favorite game. As she counted, the gravel slowly turned to lava, and the slides and stairs turned into a castle of hidden corners and risky bridges.
I climbed to the top of a tower and checked back through the tunneled hall I came through. I looked through the window of the tower and saw no sign of her. I again look through the hall and nothing. It was then I heard the thudding footsteps from the balcony. There she was. Grinning as she grasped the sides of the fence pulling herself to the top. 

I quickly went down the tunnel I came through bumping my knees and head. Thunk thunk thunk.

I quickly went to another hall and almost fell into lava. The walls of this room had been torn down, and all that was left was my deep plunge into the orange and black pool.  I pushed myself against the edge of the wall so as not to be seen by her. 

Step step step.

She was around the corner.

Step step step.

She passed the hallway, and I let out a breath.

Smack smack smack smack smack.

Too late. I plunged into the fire, Gwyn pushing herself with me.

We landed on the rocks below the slide and laughed.

“You’re it!” she cried. Her steps faded as she climbed the stairs to begin our game again.

We played another few rounds before we both learned the other’s strategies and decided to continue our adventure around town.

The pool was on the other side of the park, and we decided to chill out for a while and watch the swimming lessons, both so we could see the cute babies in their swim gear all revved up to splash, and also to check out the senior lifeguard, Chase. Some of the kids loved being in the water, and the teachers would get so mad every time they turned around to see another kid splashing or underwater instead of listening. Other kids simply hated getting wet, being cold, not having their parents by them, etc. These were the ones Gwyn and I loved to watch because they always made such a fuss about not getting into the water. The teachers would coax them or sit with them, try to convince them. Parents would bribe, yell, and ignore, but in the end, it was just so cute to see these tiny kids all suited up, goggles, floaties and all, and having the angriest faces you’d ever seen. The pure unbridled fury their small bodies would make was equal to the giggles bursting from our lips. 

At last, the lifeguards blew whistles to signal the end of lessons, and Chase came out from the building. Gwyn and I both straightened up and fixed our hair as if he would notice us somehow. He started walking near us, and we both acted nonchalantly and cool. Chase walked right past us and straight to his stand where he continued to not notice us until we thought it was best to let him do his job because we were obviously too distracting.

Across the street from the pool began the bike path that we’d walk on shortly before entering the neighborhood to sneak around potential parent sightings. The path was quite boring. A few old people here and there, and a biker or two passed us as we gossiped our way along.

Gwyn had this huge crush on one of the swim team boys. Honestly, I didn’t see it. He was too loud for me and too annoying, but I supported her and gave her ideas to confess or ask him out. Gwyn also didn’t see how I liked my crush. For her, he was too blond and too into his guitar, but she told me how I could talk to him. We both made promises to tell them before the summer ended, but we were much too chicken to do so. 

We eventually made it down the road. An old bridge glowed above the low canal. A smaller park was where we had ended up. This was the place of the most sought-after geocache in our town. This tiny little geocache appeared to live somewhere on, in, or under the bridge, but over the weeks that Gwyn and I had come out here to look for it, we had found nothing. Nada. Zero. Zip. Zilch. We stayed optimistic, though, because we knew one day we would find it, and then we could be a part of the group of kids at school saying, “Oh when you see you know,” or “It was easy, it took us like 10 minutes.” We would be so cool!

Gwyn started under the bridge. I looked on top. The cables and metal beams all looked indifferent from the next. I scanned every part with my hands feeling out for anything misplaced.

“There’s nothing up here!” Gwyn and I had looked over these places a million times. I sat down on the ledge.

“Nothing down here either.” She hiked up the canal ridge and joined me on the bridge. Our feet dangled over the water. The sun started to send waves of heat down as we sat there pondering.

“Someone probably stole it,” Gwyn suggested.

“Yea or someone keeps moving it around,” I sighed. We sat there sweating from the search and sad about the lost treasure. 

After a minute or so of silence, Gwyn bumped me. “Coffee time?”

I groaned back a yes, but I was happy to be done with the search for today.

We walked across the bridge to the senior home.

“Do you know how to get there from here?” I asked Gwyn.

“I thought you knew the way.” Both of us looked at each other. For a minute we just stared.

“Ummm….,” maybe if I just started walking, I would figure it out. “That way?” 

The day had already felt hot, but now as we searched for our oasis, it was sweltering. We had been walking down an unknown road for about ten minutes already, and I suspected we were lost.

Then Gwyn gasped, “There it is!” but beside it was a beast more feared than the heat.

Mom.

Thankfully she didn’t spot us, but we hid behind a trash bin anyway. She walked into the video rental store beside the coffee shop. 

“How long do you think she’ll be in there?”

“I don’t know, but hopefully not long?” I was right. After about five minutes, my mom sauntered out of Video Hot Spot with a couple movies in hand. I wondered what she got and whether she was planning on watching them tonight with my dad because all of the kids would be away. Hopefully it wasn’t the Lego movie or the new Spiderman movie. I really wanted to see those, but mom kept saying no. 

“-sie, Josie!” I snapped back to reality, “Your mom is gone. We can go now!” 

“OK lets go,” I grinned. Coffee time.

We chilled out in the Cafe for a while, waiting for our drinks. It was small, but nice and cool. Gwyn ordered a large iced white chocolate mocha with raspberry and extra caramel drizzle and whip cream. I also ordered a large one, but I got  a blended mocha with vanilla and cookie crumbles. The barista smiled at us as she placed them at the counter and yelled out our names.

“Alexandra and Christina?” We grabbed our sugar loaded drinks and giggled as we left quickly through the door. The barista just shook her head and went back to work. 

Gwyn and I began the trek back to her house. I had already dropped off clothes for the night at her house before practice. All we needed to do was get there so we could change out of the sweaty canal-muck covered clothes we had destroyed during our journey today. The sun had touched our skin all day. Our skin was like a mix of paper used to start a fire, dry and burnt. The cool blended drinks helped ease our overheated heads though. 

Soon enough we found Gwyn’s house and trudged inside. We dropped our bags on the floor next to the bench. Hoodies falling right next to them. By the time we got there our cups had turned into amalgamations of water milk and syrup, warmed by the heat of our hands and by the suffocating air. We threw them into the trash, paper towels and other trash carefully placed on top of them. Water never tasted so good. Gwyn and I chugged a glass each and then refilled them once more before plopping onto the couch. We put on cartoons, and watched cartoons in exhausted silence. 

“That was fun.”  I yawned out.

“Yeah, it was.” The TV became white noise as we both fell asleep on the couch dreaming of treasured geocaches and sweet coffee.

We awoke to Gwyn’s mom making us dinner. She told us that my mom had dropped off something for us earlier and did not want to wake me. We looked at the bench by the door and there was a package of candy for Gwyn and I, our favorite sodas, and The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

At dinner Gwyn’s parents asked us what we did today.

“Played the Floor is Lava-”

“-and hide and seek-”

“-yeah, and then we just watched cartoons.”

Satisfied with our response, the parents began talking about their busy days. Gwyn and I listened, holding onto the secret adventure.