I hated the rafting activity the second we were told we had to wear life jackets in order to take part. I pulled the padded fluorescent thing on over my head with a heavy sigh—and I made sure that Hayley heard it as she walked past us all with her ridiculously large grin spread across her face.

"Don't you all look great!" she enthused, clutching her hands to her chest and knitting her eyebrows together as though she were performing the works of Shakespeare.

"No," was the reply of a guy standing behind me. A few people sniggered. Apparently, the rest of the group of over-achievers had taken to Hayley as warmly as Thomas and I had. In other words, everybody seemed to dislike her.

A hand landed on my shoulder. I turned my head and, to my surprise, Thomas' was right there beside mine. "I look," he said, tugging at his orange jacket with a frown, "like a tangerine. A really fat, glowing tangerine."

I laughed, and I felt myself blushing. Thomas was funny, I knew that. Back in school, he was the class clown; people loved him, and he was always joking around with teachers, who also seemed to love him. I often found myself laughing hysterically at things he said, even if I hadn't been directly involved in the conversations he'd been having. The ability to eavesdrop was one of my greatest traits, it seemed. The ability to respond to his jokes when they were aimed directly at me, however, was not.

"Yeah," I said, laughing still. "And I'm like a really fat lemon, or something." I pulled at my own yellow jacket.

Good reply, Sophie. You absolute tit...

"Hey! Are you guys even listening to a word that's being said?!" From a few metres away, Hayley was calling to Thomas and me, exasperation painted on her flushed face as she fought for our attention. "This is important information," she sighed, as we both whipped our heads back in her direction. "If you don't listen to this, how do you expect your raft to win the competition?"

If Hayley hadn't got her eagle eyes on the two of us still, I might've laughed. The competition? Ha. This was the sort of thing eleven-year-olds would turn their noses up at, so why Hayley and the rest of the staff at Sunnybrook Youth Activity Centre believed that a group of sixteen-year-olds would be interested, I didn't know. The aim of the activity was for each group to build a raft using the materials they'd given us: an old barrel, a few pieces of rope, four planks of wood and a large sheet of plastic. According to Hayley, the team that managed to fashion a raft which floated in their outdoor swimming pool in the quickest amount of time won the competition. The prize would be fifty points for our school, and at the end of the week, the total scores would be counted and the highest scorers would receive a trophy. It wasn't exactly a desirable prize, and I doubted anybody in the group particularly cared about winning.

"Now, will every pair team up with another, please? You need to be in groups of four to do this activity!" Hayley called out now. She began to arrange the teens at the front of the group into sets, and I turned to Thomas.

"Who should we pair up with?" I asked him, my eyes scanning the people around. Everyone was looking each couple over, weighing them up before making the move and pairing with them. My eyes followed Thomas' gaze and landed on a tall boy with brown hair, and a girl the same height as me with straight blonde hair and brown eyes.

"How about we go with those?" Thomas asked, just as the pair locked eyes with us. The boy gave a warm smile and lifted his hand into a wave. The girl scanned her eyes across Thomas' body without taking a second glance at me, and her mouth lifted into a grin.

Warning signals sounded in my head. This girl was pretty—much prettier than me—and had the perfect figure, all athletic and toned. She wore makeup, unlike me, and everything about her, from the way she made a casual outfit look glamorous, to the highlights in her already perfect hair, screamed that she knew exactly what she was doing when it came to boys. And she had her eyes on Thomas.

Uh-oh...

I was just about to open my mouth to suggest choosing another group, and I was halfway through shaking my head in disagreement, when Thomas stepped forwards and called out to them.

"Hey! You two want to partner with us?" he asked, turning back to give me a smile.

The guy stepped forward and nodded his head. "Sure!" he said, and his eyes roamed over to me. I met them and smiled awkwardly at him, but my attention was quickly diverted to Thomas, who started chatting easily with the pretty girl.

"What's your name?" the boy with brown hair asked. He was still smiling at me.

"I'm Sophie," I told him. Then, just to be polite, I added, "What about you?"

"I'm Benjamin," he said, swiping a hand through his hair. "But you can call me Ben. Oh, and that's Lizzie." He pointed in the direction of the blonde girl. "What's his name?"

"Thomas," I replied, and as I said his name, Thomas looked up from his conversation with Lizzie. She was pulling at a strand of her hair and biting her lip. I hated her already—if that was even possible.

"You two want to go find a spot in the pool?" Thomas asked, gesturing towards the outdoor swimming pool.

Ben nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Let's go get started!" He tapped me on the shoulder and nodded his head in the direction of the water. I followed him over to the pool, my ears glued to the conversation Thomas and Lizzie were having behind us, something about the netball team Lizzie played for. My face flushed out of anger, not embarrassment, this time.

We found a spot to build our raft and quickly set to work figuring out what to do with all of our materials. Altogether, there were twenty groups, making eighty kids in total. Needless to say, the place was crowded, and Hayley seemed to be having a hard time coping with controlling the students as they used the planks of wood as weapons, or pushed one another into the pool. It was amusing to watch, and I would've laughed under other circumstances, but all of my efforts were focused on gaining Thomas' attention. And it wasn't happening, because Lizzie was stealing it.

"If we can tie the rope around the barrel and secure the planks of wood across the bottom, then fix the plastic sheet to the top of the planks somehow, we should be able to stay afloat in the water," Ben was saying, his hand clutching one of the planks of wood firmly. "Because, once we place the raft into the pool, it'll flip upside down and the air inside of the barrel will create the buoyancy it needs to stay on top of the water."

I shrugged my shoulders. "Science isn't my thing," I told him. "My brain is good at words and pictures, not logical thinking. I'll go with whatever you say, since you seem to know what you're talking about."

Ben nodded. "Okay." He looked across at Thomas and Lizzie. "What do you two think?"

Thomas was sitting atop the barrel, beside Lizzie. In his hands was a thick piece of rope, which he was absent-mindedly knotting into different shapes whilst chuckling and laughing with Lizzie as she told him all about herself. When Ben spoke, he dragged his eyes away from her—hurrah! Finally!—to give us both a smile.

"Whatever you say, Ben!" he said, pushing himself up off the barrel. "I haven't got a clue where to begin. If you've got a plan, I'm happy to go with it."

"Same," Lizzie said. She stood up too and lifted a plank of wood up off the floor. "So, what are you saying? We just fasten these to the bottom of the barrel?" She aimed her question at Ben, but her eyes were still on Thomas.

"Yep," Ben replied. He lifted the plank of wood in his hands and placed it atop the barrel, positioning it in the right spot. "Just like this," he said, and he bent down to grab a piece of rope from the ground. "Sophie?" he called over to me. "Could you help?"

I snapped out of the daydream I was having (in which I pushed Miss Perfect right into the swimming pool and ruined her annoyingly fake hair in front of everyone) and moved over to help Ben. He smiled at me and I couldn't help but notice the way he leaned just an extra bit further across the barrel to pass me the rope so that our hands touched, even though he didn't need to. It didn't make me heat up like I did when Thomas touched me, though. Instead, I felt a little weird inside; almost like I was doing something I wasn't supposed to, and that I'd get into trouble if I was caught.

Stupid.

"Here, Thomas," Lizzie called, "come help me tie this plank onto the barrel." She came to stand beside me and reached across the barrel herself, flashing me a pathetic smile as she did so. Thomas stood opposite her, next to Ben, and together they began to secure their plank onto the barrel. I kept glancing over subconsciously, noting how Lizzie deliberately let her t-shirt hang forwards, exposing more and more of her chest, and I was growing angry just thinking about Thomas' reaction—even though, admittedly, he didn't seem to notice at all.

It took us around twenty minutes to finish the raft. When we were done, we stood back to admire it, smiling triumphantly at our work. It wasn't long before Hayley swooped down upon us.

"Wow, you guys! This is brilliant! Sophie and Thomas, you've truly redeemed yourselves after talking over me earlier on. And Ben and Lizzie, you've done excellently!" She clapped her hands together, her eyes wide with a happiness I knew—tragically—wasn't just for show. "How about we put this thing in the water?" she asked, patting the blue barrel. "Which one of you is going to volunteer to ride it?"

I looked at Ben. Ben looked at Thomas. Thomas looked at Lizzie. Lizzie looked at me. Hayley stood by and watched, biting her knuckle in anticipation.

"It can't be me," Thomas said. "I'm too bulky. I'll break the thing before it even makes it into the pool."

"Same here," Ben said, nodding his head. "It'll have to be one of the girls."

"Oh no," Lizzie said, shaking her head and laughing. "There is absolutely no way I'm sitting on that thing for even a second! If I fall in, my hair will get ruined!" That's exactly why you should go for it, Lizzie...

All eyes landed on me. I looked up with a sigh. "I guess I don't mind doing it," I said, reluctantly. Then, to Hayley, I added, "Are you sure it's safe?"

"Absolutely sure!" Hayley said, darting forwards and grabbing me by the wrist. "But, just in case anything does go wrong, you'll need to wear a helmet. Health and Safety reasons!"

Brilliant. So, now, not only did I look like a really fat, fluorescent lemon, I was going to have helmet hair to go with the new style, too. I rolled my eyes and accepted the green helmet Hayley handed to me. I clipped it into place on top of my head whilst the others pushed the raft up to the pool edge.

There were four other rafts bobbing around inside of the pool when we got there. Two teenagers were sitting happily atop theirs with smiles on their faces, while the other two clung onto their barrels as though their lives depended on it. I knew, before I even got onto the thing, that I would be one of the clingy barrel-dwellers.

"Good luck!" Hayley squealed excitedly as I shuffled aboard the raft. "The trick is to sit as still as possible so that you don't slide off!"

"You mean she doesn't get a seatbelt?" Thomas joked and—surprise, surprise—Lizzie was the first to laugh.

"Have fun!" Ben said to me, and I smiled as he pushed the raft off the edge of the pool and into the water.

I clung onto the plastic sheet with all of my strength. The raft bounced shakily in the water, causing me to slip a few feet down the barrel. I let out a little whimper and struggled to push myself back on, and from behind me I heard the others laughing.

"Come on, Sophie!" Lizzie called out, as though she was my best friend. "You can do it!"

"Yeah! Go on, Sophie!" I heard Thomas call out, and my mind body instantly gained a sudden rush of energy. "You can do it! Think of Mr Spokes!"

I twisted my neck so that I could look at him and laughed. Thomas smiled back and pumped the air with his fist. His blue eyes sparkled, just the way they always did when he was excited about something. Beside him, I watched as Lizzie deliberately jumped up into the air and knocked sides with him. His attention was immediately drawn to her. My eyes locked with Ben's and he smiled his encouragement.

Just then, there was a low bang and the raft jolted beneath me. I looked up to see that I'd collided with another one. The girl sitting atop had been one of the people smiling happily a few seconds ago.

"Sorry!" I called out to her, and began to reach forwards to push myself away.

"Don't do that!" she called back, and motioned for me to stop. "Look! Your rope is caught with mine. It'll pull and your raft will break!"

Too late. I'd already pushed her barrel back, hard, and I could feel my own beginning to move backwards across the pool. But something didn't quite feel right. The plastic sheet was beginning to slip, and my legs parted a little as the boards beneath began to dislodge themselves, too. The girl was right—I'd unknotted the rope that had been holding the raft together, and now the thing was beginning to break...

From the side of the pool, I heard Hayley let out a small cry. I caught sight of her as she began to run in the direction of one of the other members of staff, but then my attention was stolen by the movement of the board beneath me. It leaned to the side first, but then, at once, it was jerking across the barrel and sliding down into the water...and, to my horror, I was going down with it.

"Oh, my God!" I said aloud, my voice wavering as I spoke. The last thing I caught sight of, as I fell down between the two rafts, was the worried face of the girl riding the other one. She moved as if to grab me, but I was already submerged in the water.

And then everything was suddenly happening in slow-motion. The sound of water rushing through my ears was overwhelming, and I had to shut my eyes to stop them from stinging. The life jacket I was wearing fought to pull me back to the surface, but the blue barrel was in the way and I was trapped between it and the plastic board. The gap that I'd fallen through wasn't there any longer, and every time I reached up to feel for an opening, my hands hit against something. I banged my fist hard against the bottom of the barrel, but it was far too heavy to budge and the impact did nothing.

That was when things started to happen much quicker. As the realisation that I was trapped below the surface hit me, I began to panic. My heartbeat quickened, thudding in the back of my throat and at the front of my head, where the sound of rushing water was already thundering inside my mind. I made the mistake of opening my mouth, letting out my last breath of air. The life jacket kept on pulling me upwards, insistent that I would reach the surface, but the barrel held me down and the two forces acting together did nothing but squish my body up against the hard plastic, twisting my neck and causing me pain. I wondered what was happening above the surface; if anyone would realise that I was stuck down here.

And then, out of nowhere, I felt pressure around my waist. I opened my eyes despite the pain and tried to look down through the water to see what was happening. That was when I noticed the hands. They were gripping me tightly, and then suddenly I was being pulled back, into the body of someone. My back was pressed close up to their chest as they moved backwards in the water, making for the surface. As we slid faster and faster up towards daylight, one of the hands moved to my head and pushed it backwards, the palm resting against my forehead.

And then we crashed through the surface of the water and there was air again. I took a hurried breath and smashed my arms out to the side, in a bid to keep myself afloat, though the person that had rescued me still held me securely. They loosened their grip on my head in order to pull me across the water to the edge of the pool. There, I saw Ben and Lizzie, looking down at me in concern, Hayley behind them paralysed with shock. Ben was offering me his arm to take and I reached upwards so that he could pull me out of the water.

I landed on the tiles beside the pool with a slap. The wet material clung to my body, freezing me to the bone. All at once, Ben, Hayley and Lizzie dropped to their knees beside me and began plastering me with questions.

"Are you okay?"

"What happened?"

"Did you get hurt?"

But I only cared about where Thomas had gotten to. I craned my neck to try to see past them, but they blocked my view and all I could see was the small crowd of unfamiliar faces beginning to gather around me.

Then I heard his voice.

"Is she okay?" he asked, and a pair of arms pushed themselves between Lizzie and Ben, closely followed by the rest of Thomas' body.

My mouth opened in shock. He was soaking wet, from head to toe, and his clothes clung to him as well. His wet hair had turned a much darker shade of blonde, and it stuck to his head, odd chunks dripping water down onto his flushed face. When he saw me, he dropped down into a crouch and rested a hand on my knee. His blue eyes stared deep into mine, full lips parted slightly in worry.

"Are you okay, Sophie?" he asked, his eyebrows creased together. "You were down there for so long!"

I shook my head in disbelief. "You jumped in to save me?" I asked, my voice rising an octave higher than usual. "It was you?"

Thomas nodded, and his grip on my knee tightened. "You could've drowned!" he said, eyes wide. "Of course I did!"

My mouth hung open. I didn't know what to say. Obviously, a thank-you would be a good place to start, but somehow my brain couldn't form the words properly. Thomas Lester had jumped into a pool to save me from drowning? I thought that sort of thing only happened in fairy tales, or films.

"Everybody move out of the way! Let me get to them! Come on, move!"

I hadn't realised Hayley had disappeared from beside me until she was suddenly bustling back through the crowd with two large towels clutched in her grip. As she got to the front, she landed back down onto the floor beside us and chucked a towel at each of us.

"Thanks," Thomas said, and I smiled weakly at her.

"Wrap yourselves up in those," Hayley instructed, "and then we'll take you into the building and get you warmed up. I think what both of you need is a nice hot shower and a warm drink. Sound like a good idea?"

I pulled the thick towel around my shoulders and let out a shiver. "Sounds like a great idea to me," I said. I looked at Thomas and smiled. "Are you joining me?"

Thomas smiled. "Of course," he answered. In one quick movement, he'd lifted himself up off the floor and was offering me a hand to take. I grabbed it and allowed him to pull me up, my head rushing, like usual, at his touch.

"Thank you," I said quietly, and I dipped my head to stop him from seeing the blush in my cheeks.

His hand loosened its grip on mine, but he placed his other quickly on my shoulder. I swallowed hard. "It's no problem," he said, smiling at me. "I would've done it for anybody."

Hearing this deflated my bubble of excitement just a little, but, as we followed Hayley through the crowd of people, back in the direction of the youth centre, I couldn't help but turn around and look for Lizzie. When my eyes eventually found her, I saw that she was watching Thomas' back as he walked off with me, and there was something about her expression that didn't look too happy.

I smiled to myself internally. Thomas might've said he'd do the same for anybody, but he had only jumped in to save me. Which meant his attention had been distracted from Miss Perfect for long enough to notice what I was doing in the water. This meant, possibly, that he cared about me more than he did Lizzie...

I turned my head back around and allowed the grin to spread across my lips, my mind focused on the touch of Thomas' hand as he held my shoulder still.