Though, I realized as Mr. Tipkins began to separate my bound wrists from the board, it didn’t matter. I was out of time altogether.
“What are you going to do?” I asked, my voice shaking.
He didn’t answer, instead pulling me up off the ground by my still-bound-together hands. I tried to struggle out of his grasp, but for someone who spent the majority of his life sitting behind a desk, he was surprisingly strong. And, as he steered me toward the edge of the pool, a horrific realization dawned on me.
He was going to throw me in.
“Wait, you can’t do this,” I said, doing my best to dig my heels into the cement. “Please, I swear I won’t tell anyone what you’ve been up to.”
“Too late,” Tipkins said, his hands gripping both my arms as he pushed me forward.
I did the only thing I could think of. I went limp, playing noncompliant toddler and sagging to the ground at the side of the pool.
“Help!” I yelled, being dead weight to the best of my abilities. “Help! Someone help me!”
“No one can hear you,” Tipkins said, towering over me, hands on his ample hips. “They’re all enjoying their stupid dance.”
Which is where, more than anything, I wanted to be. Dancing, laughing. Where I’d been just a few minutes ago now felt an entire world away. Had that been the last time I’d ever see my friends? Sam and Kyle? Chase?
“Help!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. Even though I knew Tipkins was right-there was no way my volume could compete with the DJ’s. No one would hear me. No one would run to the rescue.
I was on my own. And if I was going to get out of this alive, I was going to have to save myself.
Mr. Tipkins leaned down, putting both hands under my armpits to lift me off the ground.
It was now or never.
I took a deep breath…
… and head-butted him in the nose as hard as I could.
“Unh!” Mr. Tipkins reeled backward, his hands going to his face.
I took the opportunity to pop up to my feet, hopping like a bunny toward the gate that encircled the pool. Only, since Tipkins had two separated feet, he quickly recovered and caught up to me. I felt him shove at my back, hard enough that we both fell to the ground.
I rolled to the right, bringing my feet up and kicking as hard as I could, catching him squarely in the chest. I heard the wind whoosh out of his lungs. I inchwormed myself into a sitting position, pulling my legs under me to awkwardly get back on my feet.
I got one hop away before Tipkins’s hairy-knuckled hand grabbed the rope at my ankles, pulling me backward and down to the ground again.
I fell hard, both knees scraping against the cement as I landed with a thud that jarred my teeth together. I wriggled and kicked backward with both feet as hard as I could, connecting with something soft and fleshy.
Tipkins grunted but kept a hand on my ankles.
“Let. Go. Of. Me!” I shouted.
“Not on your life,” he growled back, regaining his breath and pulling himself onto his knees.
Right at the edge of the pool.
I scrunched myself up into a fetal position, cocking my knees as close to my chest as I could, then shoved hard with both feet.
My extra-high heels caught Tipkins in the stomach, doubling him over in the middle. I kicked again, connecting with his forehead and watched as he toppled backward, hitting the water with a splash that sent water sloshing over the side of the pool.
I didn’t waste any time, immediately popping to my feet, kicking off the heels, and hopping toward the gate again.
I heard Tipkins splashing around in the water. His clothes slowed him down, but it wouldn’t be long before he found his way to the side and out onto dry land again. I had to move fast.
I hopped as quickly as I could, only vaguely aware of how ridiculous I must have looked, making it to the side gate just as I heard Tipkins sloshing up the ladder and out of the pool.
I pushed on the gate, but it was firmly latched in place. Not only that, but a shiny, silver lock gleamed back at me in the moonlight.
I felt desperation bubble up in my throat as I whipped my head around for any sign of a key. But it was too late. I could hear Tipkins’s wet footsteps moving the length of the pool. In an instant, his arms encircled me from behind, wet, rigid, and as unyielding as steel.
“No!” I cried out, feeling tears well in my eyes as he dragged me toward the water.
“Please, I-”
But that was as far as I got in my pleading because, without ceremony, Tipkins tossed me over the edge, into the deep end of the pool.
Cold water instantly enveloped me, hitting my body like a shock. I kicked my legs, wiggled from side to side, moving anything I could as the frigid water rushed over my body, pressing in on me from all sides as I sank lower and lower.
I felt panic coursing through my system and fought the urge to scream as I watched the surface of the pool grow farther and farther away. I could just make out the blurry figure of Mr. Tipkins walking away.
Leaving me there to drown in a watery grave.
I felt hot tears slide down my cheeks in the freezing water. I thrashed, the ropes cutting into my wrists until they burned like they were on fire. I kicked, my feet coming up against something hard. The bottom of the pool. I shoved with all my might, shooting toward the surface… but I fell short, only managing to move a couple feet through the thick water… that felt like it was growing thicker and heavier by the second, pressing in on me, closing my visions down to one small pinpoint of light as my eyes grew heavy. My lungs were screaming for air, burning, feeling as if they were going to burst at any second. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could resist the urge to open my mouth, not drag the heavily chlorinated water into my body, filling my lungs until I drowned.
My brain began to feel fuzzy, images swimming in my vision as I watched the last of my oxygen leak out of my nose in tiny little air bubbles that floated so easily to the surface. If only I could float like that. If only I was light enough to just float right out of my body, up toward the surface out into that sweet, sweet air.
And suddenly I was floating. I vaguely wondered if maybe I’d left my body, if I was dead and floating toward the heavens, slowly rising from the water. I watched the surface swim closer and closer until I could almost feel the crisp breeze of gloriously fresh air.
I opened my mouth, not able to hold it in any longer, sucking in as hard as I could, expecting the rush of water to fill my lungs and end it all.
Only it didn’t.
Instead, I dragged in a deep, full breath of air as my body broke the surface.
I gasped, coughing, choking, and dragging in oxygen as if I couldn’t get enough.
“Hartley!” I heard someone calling my name from very far away.
But I didn’t care. All I cared about was the delicious feeling of filling my lungs, in and out, in and out. Was there anything better?
“Hartley? Can you hear me?” the voice pressed.
I blinked, regaining my vision, the oxygen slowly clearing the clouds from my brains. A face came into focus in front of me. A heavily made-up face, surrounded by clouds of blond hair.
“Drea?” I asked, confusion lacing my voice as her features materialized in front of me.
“Ohmigod, you’re okay!” She leaned down and hugged me, my soggy self making wet spots on her itty-bitty minidress.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Rescuing you,” came another voice. I looked to my right and saw two more cheerleaders from Drea’s posse standing nearby.
“We saw everything,” Drea said. “We came running to get you out as soon as we could.” I looked down and saw a long pole with a hook on the end that the maintenance workers used to drag leaves from the bottom of the pool. Or in this case, cheerleaders used to drag me from the bottom of the pool.