This is way more effort than it’s worth. Goddammit, Vick. Raine finished reading the six-page document in his hand. He grabbed his pencil and wrote down a list of times on the edge of the paper in front of him. He circled certain times, like 11:00 AM. That was when Arnett and Kayden had to go to the archery range and Raine had to go learn Ephrian while the rest went to the running track. Another was 2:00 PM, when Reo had to go learn Spanish while the rest learned how to ride a horse.

Raine checked the time on his phone. It was about 8:35 AM.

He stood up. “Let’s get going. We have to walk to the beach.”

Arnett put down his phone and rolled off the couch. “My god, we’re going to exercise this early in the fucking morning.”

“We’ll get used to it eventually,” Lukas said, pouring himself a glass of orange-colored juice. He yawned.

Vick was eating a sandwich while standing, mumbling to himself, “I’m not eating another fucking wholewheat pancake.”

Raine looked around. Lukas and Vick were eating in the kitchen, Arnett and Reo were talking in the living room, and Grant was brushing his teeth in the bathroom. Raine frowned. “Where’s Max? Is he still asleep?”

“Yeah,” Lukas said. “Like a log.”

Raine sighed and went into the second room. He knocked on the open door loudly. “Max, you have to wake up. We have to leave.”

Max groaned and turned.

Raine knocked again. Harder. “Max, get up and get ready to leave.”

Max turned again. He fell off his bed.

“Shit!” he cried. But his hands reached for the ground and slowed his fall. He was fine.

“We have to go in ten minutes,” Raine said. “We’re waiting on you.”

“Okay, okay, I got it,” Max said, scrambling to his feet. He grabbed his glasses from the table beside his bed and rushed into the bathroom.

Raine sighed and went back to the living room.

“Hey, where’s the eighth guy?” Arnett asked. “Did you hear anything about him?”

“Yeah,” Raine said. Every team had been called down at 8:00 AM to confirm their leaders and deputy leaders, but while the rest got to go back up after fifteen or so minutes, the team leaders and deputy leaders stayed for longer and were told what their responsibilities were. “I asked. We’ll probably see him soon. He was in the hospital.”

“What? He’s injured?”

“No, he was helping out someone who got hurt when he fell off his bike.”

Arnett laughed. “Someone fell from their bike?”

Raine nodded. But it was no laughing matter, considering the guy almost crashed into another person and then badly sprained his own shoulder from the fall.

Max finished changing soon. The seven of them left the apartment.

Raine fell to the back of the group, not intentionally, but simply because of his pace with his crutch. Grant matched his speed.

“What exactly are we going to be doing at the beach?” Grant asked.

“We’ll be canoeing.”

“Huh. I’ve never done that before.” Grant frowned. “I can’t swim. We’ll have life jackets, right?”

“I assume so, but I don’t really know.”

“Shit.”

“You’ll have thirty seconds to learn how to swim once you hit the water,” Arnett said with a grin.

“Or you can just, you know, not fall off the boat,” Max said.

“Don’t fall,” Vick said. “That’s a good policy for many things in life.”

They went at a fairly slow pace because of Raine, but they still reached the beach on time, at nine. Steele, Ava, and June stood in front of the other new employees on the sand. Behind them was a simple wooden pier with a speedboat and twenty canoes, inside which were life jackets and paddles. Grant breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the life jackets.

Steele looked at her watch.

“One team is late,” she said.

“Shit, is that us? That’s us, right?” Arnett asked, looking around frantically.

“No, obviously not,” Grant said.

As they were talking, Kayden popped out of the mass of people in front of them and waved. “Hey, how are you all doing?”

“Who are you?” Max asked.

“I’m the lost one, the mysterious eighth,” Kayden said jokingly.

“He’s our last guy,” Raine said.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all,” Kayden said with a smile.

While Kayden shook the hands of his teammates and learned their names, the final group arrived five minutes late.

“I fucking told you guys to move faster,” Edgar growled.

“Sorry,” one of his teammates said with a bowed head. But most of his teammates looked angry, not apologetic.

“You were the one who took the longest to get ready,” a Latino guy said to Edgar.

“We could have still made it if you guys had just hurried up.”

“Quit standing there bickering,” Steele said over them. “Start running. Three miles.”

“Follow me, people,” Ava said with a grin. “You’re going to suffer today.”

She hopped on a bike and rode. Edgar and his team reluctantly followed her.

“Oh, I forgot to say that you’ll be running on the sand.” She snickered.

“Fuck. This is your fault, man,” the Latino said to Edgar.

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“Shut up,” Edgar said.

They started running on the sand.

“Jesus, three miles. Then they’ll have to canoe as well, right?” Max said.

“Yeah, they won’t get a fifteen-minute break like us,” Raine said.

June cleared her throat. “The following teams will follow me and swim,” she said loudly, and then listed about half the teams.

“The rest of the teams will canoe until the buoys. When Miss Steele tells you to, you will turn around and return here.”

“Team 4-1, get the four on the left at the end of the pier,” June said loudly. A team mostly composed of young, skinny guys left the crowd and headed for the canoes.

“Team 4-5, take the last canoes on the right.” There were only four people in that team. They probably had just two people per room. All of them looked extremely fit. Envious eyes watched them enter their canoes.

“Team 5-1, take the canoes beside those of Team 4-5,” June said.

“Don’t we get any like...instructions on how to do this?” Max asked his teammates quietly.

“I’ve canoed before,” Lukas said. “I’ll talk you through it.”

“I’ve also done it before,” Kayden said. “I’ll help too.”

“Am I supposed to paddle with injuries in my leg and my torso?” Raine wondered aloud.

“You’ll be fine,” Steele said. “Don’t be a bitch. And leave your crutch on the pier once you’re in the canoe.”

Jesus. I have two bullet wounds, lady.

“What happened to your leg?” Kayden asked as they put on their life jackets.

“I got shot.”

“Oh.”

The canoes had space for two people each. Lukas and Kayden instructed the other six on how to get into their boats and how to paddle.

“Max, you should go with Kayden,” Raine said.

“Agreed,” Reo said.

“Huh? Okay, but why?” Max asked.

“No particular reason,” Raine said.

Arnett snickered. “You just think that he’s going to freak—”

“You and I should use this canoe,” Reo said to Arnett, slapping his back. Hard.

Vick and Raine took one canoe. The former stabilized the boat as the latter climbed in. Then Vick got into the front of the canoe.

“Dude, this is exciting and terrifying at the same time,” Vick said.

“It is,” Raine said. He took a deep breath. “Ready to go?”

“Let’s do it.” They pushed off the pier and drifted away for a few seconds.

“Three, two, one,” they said, paddling on ‘one.’ Raine felt like he was doing something wrong, considering how odd it felt. Still, the canoe moved forward.

“Three, two, one.”

“Three, two, one.”

Vick laughed in disbelief. “Holy shit, we’re actually moving forward!”

Their boat awkwardly moved several degrees left or right when they paddled, but it was true that their canoe was moving forward. The same couldn’t be said for some of the other canoes, including Arnett and Reo’s. Raine and Vick weren’t far from them, so Raine could clearly see that the two were putting dramatically different levels of strength into their paddling. Arnett paddled like he was fighting the water. Reo paddled like he was going on a leisurely ride.

Their canoe was no more than ten feet from the pier.

“Damn, what’s going on there?” Vick said. He and Raine stopped paddling.

“Arnett, relax!” Raine shouted. “Don’t paddle so hard!”

Arnett let out a howl of frustration at the sky like he was some kind of beast.

“Fine!” he shouted back. “Like this?”

He and Reo paddled. Their canoe still didn’t go straight, but it was an improvement.

“Yeah, like that!” Raine shouted.

While he tried to help Arnett and Reo match their paddling strength, he saw Max and Kayden heading for the buoys at a steady pace. Raine was too far to hear them, but he saw them grinning and talking as they paddled.

“They’re doing fine,” Vick said, taking his gaze off Reo and Arnett’s canoe. “Let’s keep going.”

He and Raine paddled. They shortened their countdown and started from two instead of three. By the twentieth stroke, they agreed to take a short break. They were a third of the way to the buoys.

Raine was panting hard. He felt like his lungs were going to burst.

“Dude, are you okay?” Vick asked. He was panting as well, but nowhere near as hard.

“Yeah, I—” Raine paused to take a few deep breaths, “—I’m good.”

His hands hurt, and his arms were getting tired. He felt a little pain from the gunshot wound on his stomach, but it gave him nowhere near as much trouble as he’d thought it would. His main problem was his stamina.

“Quit fucking slacking!”

It was Steele.

Oh shit, he thought, grabbing his paddle. But she wasn’t talking to them. When he looked back, he saw her on the speedboat with a megaphone in her hand, shouting at two guys taking their sweet time.

“Damn, I’d love to have soda right about now,” Vick said suddenly. “I wonder if Steele has a cooler full of drinks on that thing.”

“What, so you can ask for a can of soda?” Raine asked jokingly.

“Yeah,” Vick said with a straight face.

They continued paddling after that. They agreed to start the countdown from three again and put less power into their strokes.

“30 percent less power?” Vick asked.

“How about 25 percent less?” Raine said.

“I’m sure we’re mature enough for compromise. 27.5 percent less power.”

“Alright, here we go. Next stroke at 72.5-percent of the last one’s power.”

They laughed.

All the way until they reached the buoys, they kept themselves entertained with jokes and conversation. Raine also experimented a bit with making turns, since they would have to turn around at the buoys. Since he was at the back of the canoe, steering was his responsibility.

The speedboat was floating near the buoys.

“You two, head back now,” Steele said to them.

Raine and Vick were exhausted. Their shirts were drenched with sweat, and they were panting. Raine’s arms ached like they’d been smacked and rolled over with a rolling pin.

Still, with Steele looking right at them, they kept moving. Raine stuck his paddle into the water and held it still while Vick paddled on the other side. Their canoe turned around, and they slowly headed for the beach.

About half a dozen canoes were ahead of them, including Kayden and Max’s. Meanwhile, although Arnett and Reo still didn’t have great coordination, they were almost at the buoys. To Raine’s surprise, Grant and Lukas were behind those two.

“Dude, how are you doing?” Vick asked Raine.

“Not that bad,” Raine said. I could be doing worse.

“Then do you want to sprint back to the beach?” Vick asked. “I’m tired as fuck, but I’d rather go with a short burst of pain than drag it out.”

Raine thought about it for a second. He also wasn’t keen on prolonging their suffering. “Yeah, let’s do it.”

“Okay.” Vick took a deep breath. “Holy shit am I tired. Let’s get this over with.”

Raine also took a deep breath. Then they paddled like mad.

“Three, two, one. Three, two, one.” His arms were burning.

They were panting hard, but they didn’t stop or slow down. Their pace was so steady that soon stopped counting down for each paddle.

They passed one canoe a minute later. Then in another three minutes, they passed Max and Kayden.

“See ya,” Vick said to them between breaths. Raine couldn’t even talk with how hard he was breathing.

They passed one more canoe. Then another. And then another.

Raine stopped looking where they were going. He let Vick do that. Raine’s eyes were just on his paddle and the water. Up, down, stroke, up, down, stroke. Over and over and over.

When their arms just stopped responding and their shirts were drenched in sweat, they stopped paddling and let momentum carry their boat forward.

Vick pulled his paddle up and let it rest perpendicularly to the boat. He took several minutes to catch his breath. Raine took longer to do so as well.

“Oh my god,” Vick said. “My arms feel like sausages. Just painful, painful sacks of meat.”

Raine somehow found the strength to paddle just one more time. Their canoe glided across the water and reached the pier.

“We’re finally here. We made it,” he said.

They paddled weakly until their canoe was parallel to the pier. Since Raine was too tired to move, they decided Vick should get out first. Vick put his hands on the pier and lifted himself up. Or tried to.

“Dude, I can’t get up,” Vick said. He fell back into the canoe.

He rested for a minute and tried again. He went up, and then came right back down. They looked at each other and laughed.