We were walking into the dark shed and out of the summer heat. It was eighty-five degrees and I couldn’t believe what I was about to do. That morning, my friend Makenna and I woke up sweating in our room. The sun was shining on our eyes, making us see spots and colors and we could already tell today was going to the hottest day we had seen that summer. We inhaled our breakfast with record speed, which was some eggs and fruit and jogged down to the brick church building. After church, Makenna and Jacob, (Makenna’s cousin), and I decided to go swimming in the lake to cool down. The deep blue water sparkled in the afternoon heat and there were people cooking hamburgers and corn on barbecues in the shade while younger kids played in the shallow part of the water. There was a floating platform in the middle of the lake with a twisting white slide down one side and two high dives on the other. We raced each other to the platform and swam circles around it for some time before we climbed on exhausted and out of breath. Makenna and Jacob kept diving off the high dives, doing little tricks and spins, while I watched from below and never jumped off. After a while they noticed “What are you waiting for?” Makenna yelled down from the high dive. “I can’t …show more content…
I climbed the steps as slowly and carefully as I could. When I got to the top of the first high dive I looked down and felt my stomach do flip-flops and climb into my throat. The summer heat burned my sweating face and my hands shook so much I almost fell back down the steps. I could see the whole lake from up there, the kids laughing and splashing in the water below, some yelling Marco-Polo and the parents eating and watching the younger kids and babies. I stood there, looking and thinking for what felt like forever. However I could not go back down the steps or I would look like a little kid. I heard Makenna and Jacob cheering me on from