• I look out at my cousins. They were taunting me from the dock were they sat, taunting me to join them. But they knew I was to scared. "Come on! Don't be a wimp!' my brother called froom his perch on the wooden platform, so far out from the comfortable shore. We were celebrating our grandfather's reirement. We always came to East Beach to play. There was the dock in the middle of the lake, Herring Lake, that everybody always swam to...except for me. I was always scared of seaweed (which resided at the bottom of the lake) and big fish (which also resided at the bottom of the lake. I also hated deep, dark water. I closed my eyes, trying to block out the sounds of my cousins, brothers, anybody. "NO!" I cried. "I won't come!" But all my cousins did was laugh. "WIMP!" the oldest cousin shouted. Finally, I just sat there, on the beach, and began to cry. THe adults were to busy to notice. Someone tapped me on my shoulder. I looked up at Serena, my cousin, the only one who was nice to me. "Hey kiddo." "Hi." We just sat there in the sand. Serena had nothing else to say."I can help you get to the dock." I shook my head vehemenantly. "Ok," Serena said. She got up and swam to the dock. I just sat there in the sand. After a while, my cousins were back to taunting me again. "HEY!!! We dare you to swim out here. Triple dog dare you!" It was a family code (at least between the cousins) that you couldn't turn down a triple dog dare. "NO!" I cried. The response? "Chicken! BOk bok!" I started crying again. The cousins just laughed. I stood up, but I had nowhere to go. If I went to the adults, they would be mean to me for being a tattletale. If I ran away, the torment wouldn't end. I shuddered. I couldn't let them laugh at me. I couldn't. But I couldn't go in the water either. I bit my lip. What should I do. After what seemed like a century, and placed my foot in the water. THe cousins didn't notice. I walked until I was to my knees in water. Was that a fish over there? Am I stepping on seaweed? I shuddered, and cryed a little. What should I do? FInally, I took a deep breath, and surged myself through the water. My cousins stopped laughing. I kicked and I swam, trying not to think about fish and seaweed and the deepness of the lake. It was hard. Only once did I look up. I was almost there. My cousins were staring open-mouthed at me. I wanted to smile. Finally, my hand hit the cool metal of the ladder. I raced up it, until I was standing on the hot bare wood of the dock. I screamed and laughed. My cousins were still gaping at me. "IN YOUR FACE!" I cried. Serena started clapping. "I DID IT!" I said, throwing my head back, and proclaiming it to the heavens. That was the singlemost dangerous thing I have ever done in my life- and the scariest. But then one cousin spoke up. "How are you going to get back?"