Thrown to Die

After finishing the SATs, my class organized a picnic by the river. Just as everyone was enjoying themselves, Graham Spencer, our class president, suddenly suggested we go for a swim. "Let's experience the thrill of swimming in the middle of roaring river." Several clueless classmates eagerly agreed. Startled, I rushed to stop them. "This stretch of the river used to be an illegal sand-mining site. The riverbed is riddled with deep pits, hidden currents, and whirlpools." Graham only sneered. "You're a swimming champion, yet you're acting like a wuss. Did you buy that championship?" Zara Valentine, the school beauty, raised her phone and started recording me. "Can you believe this? Our school's swimming champion is actually a total coward. What a joke." Fine. If they were all so eager to throw themselves into the river, I'd see their end. Chapter 1 I pointed at the old, rusted metal sign by the river. It read: [No Swimming — Deep Sand-Mining Pits] "See that? It's an official warning. The water here isn't safe." Graham Spencer shoved his hands into his pockets and scoffed. "Daelyn Hart, Principal Dawson praised you for staying calm under pressure at graduation. So why are you suddenly chickening out now that we're by the river? "That sign is just there to scare kids. We're all adults now. We just graduated. We're supposed to do something crazy!" I took a deep breath and tried to keep my voice calm and professional. "The surface looks flat, but the riverbed drops off without warning. You could take two steps and go from waist-deep water to more than thirty feet. "My dad used to serve on a water rescue unit. He responded to accidents here before. Every person who drowned knew how to swim." A few of the boys who had been eager to get into the water began to hesitate. Just then, Zara Valentine shoved her phone in my face, already livestreaming. She laughed theatrically into the camera. "Everyone, you're watching our city swimming champion's biggest coward moment live! A swimming champion who's afraid of a river? This has to be the funniest joke of 2026!" The comments exploded. "Did she buy that title from some swim school?" "I'm dying. I thought being a champion was supposed to mean something, but she's too scared to even step into the water." Zara's cheeks flushed with excitement as she read the comments. She deliberately pushed the phone even closer to my face. "Say something, Daelyn. Or do you have a guilty conscience?" I clenched my fists and looked past her at my deskmate, Kaleb Lawrence. I had thought Kaleb would stand up for me. Out of everyone in our class, he knew best how many years my family had spent working around the water. When Kaleb was little, he had nearly drowned in the deep end of a swimming pool. My dad had dived in and pulled him up from the bottom. Kaleb knew how dangerous swimming in open water could be. More importantly, he knew I wasn't a coward. Sure enough, Kaleb stepped forward. He met my eyes and spoke, "Daelyn, quit killing the mood. You're only a pool champion. What, does a real river scare you so badly you're about to pee your pants?" The entire class burst into laughter. My chest tightened. Seeing their reaction, Graham raised his hand high. "How about this? Let's do a Graduation Courage Challenge! Anyone who gets in the water today is one of us! "Anyone who refuses is out. They'll also have to Venmo two hundred bucks to the class chat so the rest of us can celebrate!" I stared at him coldly. "I'm not participating." Graham immediately turned his attack on me. "Oh, you weren't afraid of the water when you accepted thousands of dollars in championship prize money. But now that it's a class activity, you're playing dead? "Unbelievable, Daelyn. You take all the benefits for yourself, but the second the group asks anything of you, you refuse to do your part?" Several girls I usually got along with gathered around me, all talking at once as they tried to persuade me. "Daelyn, don't make things so awkward." "Exactly. We're only going to wade near the shore, take a few pictures, and come right back out. Nothing's going to happen." "We've been classmates all this time, and this is our last activity together. Don't end things on a bad note." I looked at their faces, each one wearing an expression that claimed they were only thinking of me. The irony was almost unbearable. I pulled out my phone instead of arguing any further. I found the number for the local water authority and prepared to report a group of people attempting to swim illegally. The call had barely connected when Graham lunged forward and snatched the phone from my hand. In front of everyone, he ended the call. "Daelyn, I'm warning you. Don't push your luck." His expression darkened as he enunciated every word. "No one is going to ruin the most important memory of our graduation today." At that moment, the last glimmer of hope in my heart went out completely. You can't talk sense into people determined to die. Chapter 2 Graham saw my face go cold and assumed he'd finally intimidated me. A smug grin spread across his face. "Don't let her ruin everyone's mood. I came prepared!" He clapped his hands and called toward the path leading down to the river, "Coach Bentley! Over here!" A few moments later, a muscular man in a tight-fitting athletic shirt came walking over with a red whistle hanging around his neck. His skin was dark from the sun, and the first thing he did was blow a sharp blast on the whistle. "Hello, everyone! I'm your outdoor instructor, Coach Brett Bentley!" His gaze swept over me before he said dismissively, "Graham told me one of you is worried about safety. "Relax. Swimming in the river isn't nearly as dangerous as people make it out to be. As long as you can dog-paddle, you won't sink." The moment I heard that, my expression changed completely. Anyone who understood the water would know better. Dog-paddle? In a river full of hidden currents, dog-paddling would only get you killed faster. I stepped forward and looked him straight in the eye. "Are you certified in open-water rescue? Do you have current CPR, AED, and first-aid certification? What about Wilderness First Responder training? At the very least, are you a certified lifeguard?" The smile on Brett's face stiffened for a moment before growing even wider. "Miss, certificates are just pieces of paper. They're all theory. I've led hundreds of outdoor team-building events by the river. Do I really need a few certificates to prove I know what I'm doing?" Graham immediately chimed in, "You hear that, Daelyn? Coach Bentley's the professional here. He's a lot more trustworthy than a champion who's only ever splashed around in a swimming pool." Zara swung her livestream back toward me. A new caption appeared across her screen. [Guys, the champion is questioning a professional coach now. This is hilarious!] The comments came even faster. "Hahaha. Guess all that book knowledge doesn't mean much now." "She's seriously pathetic. She's too scared to get in, so she's trying to ruin it for everyone else. What's wrong with her?" "Coach, prove her wrong!" I ignored Zara and turned back to Brett. "This isn't a swimming pool. This river has thermal layers. The surface water and the water below can be drastically different temperatures. "Hit the colder water below and your muscles can seize instantly. From the first cramp to drowning can take less than twenty seconds." Brett seemed to be losing patience with my questions. "Enough talking. I'll show you." He kicked off his shoes, rolled up his pant legs, and strode into the river. The water barely covered his ankles. He waded out a few more steps until the water reached his calves. Stopping on the shallow sandbar, he turned around, waved at everyone on shore, and beamed. "See? Isn't it perfectly safe? Come on, everyone! Get in and cool off!" "Whoo!" The entire class erupted in cheers. Applause and whistles filled the air. Everyone thought I'd just been proven wrong. But my eyes stayed fixed on the water beneath Brett's feet. He was standing on a sandbar carved out by the current. The water there was shallow, slow-moving, and tinged yellow. Less than ten feet beside him, however, the water suddenly turned dark—an ominous, inky black. That was the edge of the excavation pit. I shouted another warning, "Stay away from that dark water! That's where the old sand-mining pit is!" As if he were determined to prove me wrong, Graham picked up an empty plastic water bottle and hurled it toward the dark patch. With a splash, the bottle landed on the surface and began bobbing gently. Graham spread his arms and laughed at the class. "See? The bottle didn't sink. So where's this deep pit you keep talking about? Daelyn, have you been watching too many horror movies?" I pointed at the bottle as it slowly drifted across the water. "Look at the direction it's moving. It's drifting sideways. That means there's a reverse current beneath the surface. It'll pull people toward the middle of the river instead of pushing them back to shore." Kaleb's voice suddenly cut in, thick with impatience, "Daelyn, can you stop repeating all those stories your parents used to tell to scare kids? We're adults. We can think for ourselves." That single sentence destroyed the last traces of everyone's hesitation. Even the classmates who had still been having second thoughts completely let their guard down. Chapter 3 Without a second thought, I pulled out my phone and dialed 911. "Hello, I'd like to report an emergency. A group of students are about to go swimming in the river near the abandoned docks on the south side of town. The water there is extremely dangerous." As soon as I hung up, I called our city's water rescue team and reported the exact same situation. The moment everyone saw what I was doing, Zara was the first to scream, "Daelyn, have you lost your mind? You actually called the cops? If you don't want to join us, just say so! Did you really have to call the police? We're graduating seniors!" Graham charged over and jabbed a finger in my face. "What the hell is wrong with you? What if this goes on our records? What if it comes back to bite us later? Can you take responsibility for that?" I looked at him calmly and answered one word at a time, "Going swimming in a restricted area will get you nothing more than a warning. "But if someone dies, it'll ruin the rest of your lives. The dead are the ones whose futures are truly gone." The word "dead" silenced everyone. A few of the boys quietly began backing away from the riverbank. Then the so-called Brett suddenly laughed. "Oh, come on. Isn't this getting a little dramatic? Why are we talking about people dying?" He patted one of the boys who had started heading back toward shore. "Don't let one girl scare you. You're a young man. Have a little backbone." Graham immediately seized the opportunity to fire everyone back up. "That's right! Let's listen to Coach Bentley! Everyone who's still in favor of getting in the water, raise your hand!" He threw his own hand into the air first. Zara followed right behind him, deliberately sweeping her livestream across the crowd. Everywhere the camera pointed, hesitant hands slowly went up. No one wanted to be the only person who didn't. In that feverish herd mentality, standing apart from everyone else felt like a crime. I stood there alone, watching the absurd spectacle with cold eyes. Just then, laughter drifted over from the other side of the levee. Harper Collins and the rest of the class next door happened to be passing by. Seeing the argument on our side, Harper walked over curiously. "Daelyn, what's all the commotion about?" Harper and I were both on the school's swim team. She had relatives on the city's water rescue squad, so she knew a thing or two about river safety. She followed my gaze toward the river. The instant she saw it, her face changed. "Wait... isn't this the stretch where they used to mine sand illegally?" I nodded. Without another word, she spun around and shouted to her classmates, "Everyone, leave now! We're going to the water park instead!" Although they looked confused, every one of them listened and began leaving in an orderly line. Graham cupped his hands around his mouth and mocked them, "What a bunch of cowards! You call yourselves adults? Why don't you go play at a bounce park instead?" Harper whipped around and fired back without hesitation, "Better a living kid than a dead adult trying to show off." Then she gathered the last of her classmates and walked away without looking back. For the first time that day, I felt a small measure of relief. At least someone still had a clear head and understood. I never expected Zara to turn even that into content. She filmed Harper's class walking away and added a sarcastic voice-over, "Guys, looks like our scaredy-cat champion had to call in reinforcements from the class next door just to ruin everyone's fun. Unbelievable." Almost at the same time, our class group chat exploded. One notification after another tagged me. [Daelyn, apologize to everyone.] [Exactly. Ruining things by yourself wasn't enough, so now you had to drag another class into it? Trying to embarrass us on purpose?] [It's our last day before graduation. Did you really have to make it end like this?] A private message popped up. It was from Kaleb. [If you go apologize to Zara and Graham right now and admit you overreacted, I'll help explain things to everyone.] I stared at the message and laughed in disbelief. Then I typed my reply one word at a time. [Who the hell do you think you are?] Neither the police nor the water authority patrol had arrived yet. The road out here was so remote that even the nearest police station was at least twenty minutes away. That delay only made Graham and Brett more confident. The smug look on Graham's face grew even wider. "See? I told you nothing was going to happen. Daelyn's making a mountain out of a molehill." Brett began organizing the boys into warm-up exercises along the shore, leading them through loud, over-the-top chants. "No regrets! Challenge yourself!" Meanwhile, Zara's livestream had climbed to several thousand viewers because of all the drama. Her face was practically glowing with excitement. She pointed the camera at me and asked in a deliberately provocative tone, "So, everyone, want to see the swimming champion jump into the river and give us a demonstration?" The comments exploded. [Yes! Do it!] [Come on, Champion! Don't chicken out!] [Let's see whether you're the real deal or just all talk!] I had no intention of wasting another second on these lunatics. I picked up my backpack and turned to leave. Graham stepped in front of me, blocking my path. "Want to leave? Fine. Stand in front of everyone and admit your city swimming championship was bought with money, then I'll let you go." I ignored him and tried to walk around. Kaleb stepped in front of me again. His expression was complicated, as though a trace of guilt still lingered. "Daelyn, everyone's just joking around. Don't take it so seriously. It's the last class activity before graduation. Don't make things so ugly." I stopped and looked at him coldly. "Kaleb, do you remember who pulled you out of the deep end when you were eight years old?" It had been my dad. Kaleb flushed with embarrassment and snapped, "There you go again, trying to guilt-trip me with something that happened ages ago!" Zara immediately piled on, curling her lip at the livestream. "See that, everyone? People like her are the worst. They do one good deed and spend the rest of their lives holding it over everyone else's head. It's honestly disgusting." Graham's eyes lit up. Then he came up with something even crueler. "If the champion's too scared to get in herself, let's help her. Throw her into the shallow water and let the champion kick things off!" "Yeah!" The crowd erupted into even louder cheers. I instinctively took a step back. "You wouldn't dare. This is assault. It's a crime." Brett slapped his chest confidently and laughed. "Relax. You've got a professional coach right here. I guarantee nothing will happen." That promise became the final push everyone needed. Several tall boys closed in around me with grins on their faces. The girls shrieked excitedly while holding up their phones, filming everything as if they were watching the greatest show of the year. I struggled with everything I had, but it wasn't enough. I couldn't break free from several grown boys holding me down. Through the chaos, my eyes found Kaleb. He didn't step forward to stop them. Instead, he laughed and cheered right along with everyone else. In that instant, every last bit of hope I still had for him disappeared. Somewhere in the distance, I heard Harper shout in fury, "Don't touch her!" But it was already too late. The crowd roared with laughter. The boys shouted, "Let's help the champion build some courage!" Then they hurled me through the air like a sack of trash, straight toward that patch of pitch-black water.