Dedicated to @Razia101 for being an active reader on this story! 

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"Oh hell no," I said as soon as I saw them.

"Oh hell yeah!" Talia whooped, high-fiving all the guys who had just strolled up the pier clad in shorts and tank tops.

"What are you guys doing here?" Elif demanded, crossing her arms.

Amir sauntered up to her and said, "We're here...to snorkel."

"That's right, Leafy," Ilyas smirked at his sister, who was scowling up at Amir.

"Well, we were here first, so shoo," Elif waved her hand as if that would make them scurry off.

"Actually, it's a flipper," Amir lifted up his bright orange flippers and dangled them with a stupid grin on his face. Of course his mates laughed, but us girls were unimpressed.

"You're such an idiot, Amir," I said.

Before any more drama could go down, our snorkelling instructor came and led us to the boat we'd be taking across the waters to the reef. The journey itself was so beautiful I completely forgot there were other people on board as I stood at the railing and videoed the ride, while also taking photos as well.

"Are you some sort of photographer or something?"

The sarcastic voice almost made me drop my phone into the ocean, but my hands were steady enough not to let that happen. "No, I'm just capturing the beauty," I replied before seeing who it was. Ilyas.

He leaned on the railing and squinted at the horizon, nodding his head. "Well, it is beautiful," he said genuinely, devoid of any sarcasm, which I didn't expect. I also didn't expect my phone to suddenly be snatched from my hands just as I was about to take another photo, and when I turned, Ilyas had it in his possession.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I demanded as he held it out of my reach. Stupid tall man.

"Capturing real beauty," Ilyas replied, holding it in front of his face. I folded my arms and glared at the camera, thinking he was taking a picture of me, but when he finally returned my phone, he had actually taken a ridiculous photo of himself with a slight pout and peace sign.

"Seriously?" I cocked an eyebrow, glancing up, but he was gone. "Weirdo," I muttered, before sending the pic to Elif, Sofia and Talia with the caption, "Hacked."

"Okay, everybody, we are nearly there!" the instructor announced. Minutes later, he was going through all the safety precautions but I was pretty sure everyone was too excited to listen. Once we had all our gear on the boat stopped and it was time.

"I can't believe we're gonna swim with the fishies!" Talia clapped her hands, the most enthusiastic out of all of us.

"It's really not that amazing," Elif said, who had gone snorkelling countless times, but I could tell from the sparkle in her eye that she too was pumped for this.

"Snorkel selfie!" I whipped out my phone and we all did our signature poses with our goggles on, until we were photobombed. "Oi!"

Amir had gotten in the shot, giving Sofia and I rabbit ears, and I used my flipper to slap him on the shoulder.

"Ow! Why're you so violent, sheesh!" As usual, he put on a show whenever I hit him, even if I barely touched him.

"I'm violent because you made me this way, Amir. It's your fault, and now I will never be the same!" I said dramatically. Amir wasn't the only drama queen in our family, you know.

"Okay, who's gonna jump in first?" Daniel, one of Ilyas' friends, asked.

"I will!" Talia exclaimed, jogging up to the edge of the boat.

"No, me!" Jason, Ilyas' other friend, barged past and did a somersault off the boat and into the sea.

"Wow, what happened to ladies first?" Talia huffed, before diving in after him.

"Can we jump in together? I'm terrified," Sofia grabbed my hand and together we approached the edge until we could see the scales of the fish glinting under the sunlight.

"Okay, on the count of three. One, two –"

Before I could even get to three, I felt a push from behind and I was suddenly launching into the air and falling feet first into the ocean. Sofia and I surfaced spluttering sea water and laughing, but also borderline furious because –

"We weren't ready!" Sofia cried to our pusher, who turned out to be evil Elif.

"Well, someone had to do it," she reasoned, splashing water our way before disappearing underwater. I inserted the mouthpiece of the snorkel into place and pressed my face through the water, as if entering a portal or something. I could see colourful clusters of coral and vibrant fish that shimmered and swerved, creatures I was used to seeing in aquariums or on the menu. Not that this experience would make me a vegetarian, but seeing them all up close...it was astounding. I could only think of how these were all creations of Allah, and how beautiful they were.

I swam through, feeling like the little mermaid minus the red hair, and from my view I could see everyone else exploring, including Ilyas' friends who had a GoPro camera and were filming everything. That just reminded me how much I wanted to take all these sights I was seeing with me somehow, but then I remembered – I had my memory. But memories didn't last forever...

"Oh my God, there's a shark!" Sofia shrieked, pointing towards the grey creature that swam a few metres away from us in the slightly deeper parts.

"Don't worry, it won't harm you," the instructor assured us.

"But it's a shark!" Sofia looked terrified, so she swam back to the boat while I stuck my head underwater to observe the creature. I could see the guys trying to take some photos with the shark, but it kept swimming away, as if it was scared of them. I couldn't blame the shark, since the guys were quite hideous, especially Amir.

"That was sick!" and "Did you see that?" were among the phrases the guys kept repeating after we had returned on the boat, drying off with towels.

"I so want to do that again," I said.

"Yeah, that was pretty awesome," Talia agreed, raking fingers through her damp hair.

"I think once is more than enough for me," Sofia still looked shook from seeing a shark, which to be honest seemed more scared of us than we were of it.

"It wasn't even that big," I reasoned.

"I don't care, those things are creepy," Sofia shuddered.

"I've seen worse," Elif shrugged.

"Elif, why you gotta be so casual about everything?" I teased, lightly smacking her with my towel.

"Hey, someone's gotta be the cool one in this group, and that's definitely moi," she replied, tossing her half damp caramel locks over one shoulder.

"I thought I was the cool one," I scoffed jokingly.

"No, you're the vain one," Sofia corrected me. "And Talia's the crazy one."

"What about you, hun?" Talia put an arm around Sofia and scrutinized her. "Ooh, I know – you're the scaredy-cat."

"It was a freaking shark! Any sane human being would be scared of it," Sofia countered.

"Aw, baby, it's okay, you're safe now," Talia cooed, cuddling her.

"I feel so infantilised right now," Sofia said flatly.

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Have any of you guys been snorkelling? Lemme know in the comments! Also, have any of you actually been to Fiji, cause I really wanna go one day! Sorry this chapter was really short, but the next few are going to be pretty packed. 😏