The Water Lilie's

Crystal Beach

I had not realized that I had fallen back asleep, but when I woke up I noticed that we were seconds away from landing. My heart began to race, I haven't been here since I was 8 years old. That was 10 years ago and now here I am, about to land at Crystal Lake Island where my childhood had been left behind.

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Everyone had gotten off of the plan and had their luggage sorted out. We headed off to catch our bus down to our cabins on Crystal Beach, a deserted part of the island were campers can rent cabins to stay in to enjoy the quiet island to their selves. A private resort.

The bus was a small, grey bus with about 10 bench seats, each seat just big enough to fit 2 people. It was a tight squeeze getting in as we all had to keep out luggage with us.

The uncomfortable bus ride was short, thankfully, and it only took about thirty minutes to arrive at Crystal beach. There were 5 cabins - twenty students and one teacher. That left five people per four cabins and one cabin for Ms. Erindale.

This turned out quite well considering each cabin had five bunks and a small bathroom with a shower.

Ms. Erindale really didn't seem to care at all about who stayed in each cabin because she let the boy's bunk with girls as long as she had an entire cabin to herself to do her research. Of course, the five of us stayed together and we chose the cabin furthest away from Ms. Erindale. This trip started to seem more like a gateway for Ms. Erindale to do her own personal research than for the students, but I guess she is just really committed to her work.

We walked to our cabin, the very last one on the beach. We walked into What looked like an old wooden cottage, three very small windows, a small washroom equipped with two sinks, a toilet, and a shower. In the main part laid three beds, one single and two bunks.

The exterior was made up of dark brown wood, covered in knots. Simple red shingles hung beside each window, a small white curtain was blowing through the open windows in the warm, summer breeze. The cabin sat back away from the beach, closer to the trees, almost sunken into the tall grass.

As we walked inside Eliza ran in and called out "I call top bunk" as she tossed her bag on the first bed she saw.

"Fine, I'll take the bottom...." Natasha sighed as she flopped down onto the bed letting her bag hit the dusty floor.

"Not that it matters babe, you can always join me you know." Colton smiles as he tossed his bag on the second bunk bed.

"I'll take the bottom bunk then man, thanks for asking," Jackson said giving Colton a funny look. "We'll leave the single bed for Emzy, just in case she has one of her dreams again."

I looked a Jackson with a questioning look meaning: Why the HELL would you say that out loud?

"What dreams?" Eliza asked giving me a concerned look as she climbed up to the top bunk.

"Yeah, like the freak out on the plane? Don't want little Emzy getting all spooked about any ancient mythical creatures, am I right?" Colton laughed as he tossed his Ancient Mythology book on the ground. " I mean is this course to scary for you?"

He said jokingly as if he were talking to a child.

Jackson gave me an apologetic look.

"Mermaids could never possibly be real anyway. Especially already half dead looking ones, what kind of pathetic myth is that! And I have to write a whole paper on it...." Colton said almost beginning to become angry as he picked up the textbook from the ground and sat on his bed.

"At least big foot sounds realistic"

"Right..." I replied back. I opened my bag and pulled out my textbook, I flipped through to the page about the water lilies and noticed something, their sacred charm was almost exactly identical to my necklace. How interesting. I closed the book and tucked it back in my bag and laid down on my bed.

"Emzy you grew up on this island right?" Eliza asked as she rolled over to lay on her stomach, her feet were in the air kicking back and forth and her chin resting in her hands. She looked like a small child who was waiting for you to tell them a bedtime story.

"Yes, I grew up here. Not on this end of the island but pretty close. " I stated. "Maybe on our free time we can visit my grandma, she tells the best stories," I added.

"That would be awesome, just more things we can add to our essay right!" Natasha exclaimed.

Maybe I can find out more about this necklace and my mother. She always refused to tell me her teenage stories and what it was like growing up here, apparently she was quite rebellious and didn't want me to follow in her footsteps. Maybe I'll even be able to find out why my dad left or why I've been having these haunting dreams for the past couple years.

We unpacked our things and got the cabin ready for later tonight. We boarded the plane at 8:30 and arrived here at 3pm.m, so I was completely starving.

Ms. Erindale had set up all of our breakfast, lunches, and dinners to be held at the resort which was only a 15-minute drive away from the private island. Thank god it was all paid for, and not to mention all you can eat.

We heard a whistle blow and new that was our Cue to leave the cabins and meet her out on the beach.

Ms. Erindale was standing in the middle of the beach with a red whistle in her mouth and a hand on her hip. Her long black hair tied back in a long braid and her bony arms were exposed through her bright red Tank-top that she wore along with khaki shorts and running shoes.

Honestly, this woman had no fashion sense whatsoever, but each to their own.

Soon the other 15 students flooded out to the center of the beach and we circled around her waiting for instructions.

"Class, the bus will be here in 10 minutes to take us for our dinner." She said pointing to the small hidden road from which we arrived. " Once we come back it should be 6 pm and I expect all of you to be ready to set up a campfire right where I'm standing." She looked around at everyone with her dark brown, almost black eyes and then said: "understand?"

"Understood." Everyone replied back in unison.

"God, I didn't realize this is gonna be some drilled boot camp or something," Eliza whispered to me.

"I know right, apparently she has everything planned out start to finish for us already!" I whispered back.

"And we have some kind of weird water activities and BMX biking and hiking activities every day, people from the resort come down to lead the groups," Eliza said.

"How do you know this?" I asked.

"I overheard her on the plane, I guess when we go for dinner she is printing off all the itineraries." She stated.

Everyone's head turned to the right when we heard tires on gravel.

"Single file please!" She called out and she flung her hand pointing a finger to the direction of the road.

I could not wait to finally eat.