“Um, we should not be doing this!” Roy rolled his eyes. “Alex, take a breath, and jump!” Alex’s shiny blonde hair waved in the wind as his scrawny knees shook so hard they were clacking together. They were standing in a small cave, looking down at a raging ocean below them. Roy had to drag him out here so he would finally let loose and have some fun. “You see how stormy it is out there, right?!” Alex shouted over the wind as thunder roared in the sky, proving his point. “Yeah! That’s why we’re here!” Roy took off his little round glasses and let the wind blow his hair out of his eyes. This was his happy place, the adrenaline pumping through his heart made his mind go fuzzy, and when he’d done it once, it’d stop being so fuzzy and he’d love it. They were going to cliff jump in the storm, both of them had swimsuits on and were ready to get wet. The private school they were staying at had so many rules, and Roy took advantage of every moment he had to break some. This one being, going out while it’s stormy. On the other hand, Alex looked like he might pass out from fear. “We’re going to die!” He fake-cried, and Roy rolled his eyes again.

He grabbed Alex’s wrist and pulled him to the very edge of the cave, it was now or never. He took a breath of sharp, pure air and looked at Alex. “Please please please don’t make me do this!” He groaned. Roy whipped around and shook his shoulders. This was absurd. “Get a hold of yourself, Alex! We won’t die! And probably won’t get hurt.” Alex took a deep breath and nodded his head. Roy started walking away, smirking, 3…2…1… “Wait, what do you mean probably?!” He purposely ignored the question, enjoying his friend’s silly fear, and started laughing, grabbing his wrist again. “Okay, on the count of three we jump! One…” 

“Roy, I’m not jumping!”

“Two…”

“Roy! At least answer my question first!” 

“Three!” He jumped off, holding Alex’s wrist firmly so he wouldn’t escape. Alex screamed and squirmed in mid air, Roy made sure to let go before they hit the water. It felt so slow, like the world had slowed down so he could really tenjoy the moment. He didn't even look over to make sure Alex was okay, he just crossed his arms and legs and closed his eyes as tight as possible. 

He took it all in, allowing the adrenaline to rush through his veins while he was falling. He felt the wind on his face, and the sprinkling rain stinging his skin, it was so perfect. After a moment, Alex finally seemed to regain himself and stopped screaming, Roy opened his eyes for a split second to find he’d also crossed his arms and legs just in time. They hit the water simultaneously, with a splash rising up half-way to the top of the cliff. Roy fell deep into the dark sea, the height of the cliff was just low enough that he didn’t hit the sandy bottom of the water. After he slowed to a stop, he kicked his legs and swam back up to the top of the cloudy tide. When Roy opened his eyes, the salt water dripping from his forehead immediately got into them and he had to blink for a while to get it out. When he was finally able to see again, he looked around, only to find Alex was nowhere to be seen. Oh crap. “Alex!” He called, hoping to hear his friend’s voice. “Alex! If you’re joking with me, I swear I will murder you!” He shouted above the wind and insanely loud thunder, the storm was right over them now. 

Roy dove back under the water, swimming around trying to grab a hand to find his friend. He held his breath for as long as he could, praying nothing had happened to him. Eventually, he was out of air and there was still no trace of Alex underneath the waves. He came back up, coughing and gasping for air while blinking back salt water and tears. “Roy! You’re alive!” A voice shouted from behind him. Alex! He hadn’t drowned! Roy whipped around to see his ocean-soaked friend bobbing up and down in the water. Roy swam over to him, “Alex! You nearly gave me a heart attack!” He yelled, and slapped his friend across his cheek. “Why were you under the water for so long?!” Alex rubbed his cheek and glared at Roy. “My foot hit the bottom and got stuck on something! I had to pull and pull to get it unstuck, now my ankle is sprained! Cut me some slack!” 

“So you’re okay?”

“Did you miss the part where I said I have a sprained ankle?!”

“You know what I meant!” Roy shouted, but his friend’s attitude was enough of an answer. All of a sudden, a huge wave towered over them, blocking out whatever light the sun behind the dark clouds was provided. It crashed onto them hard, and they were both sent flying back into the water. 

At least this time when Roy came back up, Alex was already coughing up ocean instead of giving him a heart attack. Although something was off… What was going on with his hair? “Dude, why is your hair standing straight up?” He asked while his friend spit out a pool of salt water. He looked over to Roy, glaring and thinking his friend was being obnoxious but then he said, “I could ask you the same thing!” Surprise filled both their faces as they messed with their hair. But no matter how hard they tried, their hair would not stay flat on their heads, even though it was wet! “Hey, you remember in survival class they taught us when your hair stands straight up you’re about to be struck by lightning?” Alex shouted over the waves. Both of them froze, staring at each other for only a second before swimming as fast as they could to the nearest shoreline. The dry sandy beach was waiting for them when they finally reached it, and their hair eventually fell back down onto their skulls.

They fell onto their stomachs and waited in silence, nothing happened for a bit, then Roy started laughing. “Guess it must have been-” BOOM! Lightning struck the water a couple yards away, where they’d previously been swimming. They covered their ears but the sound was still deafening. They closed their eyes, but it didn’t do much. Luckily, they weren’t watching the lightning when it struck. When Roy finally uncovered his ears, a sharp ringing noise filled them, drowning out all other sounds on the island, and his eyes only saw white. But after several minutes, the ringing had died down to a loud buzzing noise, and his vision was back to normal. He looked over to Alex, who was hopping up and down on one leg, trying to get the water unclogged from his left ear. Man did that boy recover quickly. Although the ankle that was up in the air was red and swollen, definitely sprained. Roy stood up and shook off as much sand from his stomach and swimsuit as he could. “We should head back to the cave, at least until the storm passes or dies down.” Alex nodded, “It shouldn’t take too long, so we will be back before curfew!”

Roy took one of Alex’s arms and helped him limp back up the narrow rocks to the cave. The cliffside was slippery from the giant waves, and every time they took a step, a little bit of copper-colored rock fell into the ocean; this was extremely dangerous. He could feel Alex shivering violently as they stepped one foot in front of the other up the dangerous rocks. He tried to not shiver too much, condemning them to a watery death, but it was very difficult. They eventually reached the cave without any major accidents, both of them freezing. “Roy, you forgot the towels!” 

“Hey, don’t look at me I thought you were bringing them!”

“You are such a lia-” Another loud BOOM! shook the cave before he could finish, like another lightning bolt had struck the cliff. Both of them fell to their knees and Roy heard Alex yelp, he must’ve fallen on his foot. Oh gosh, they were going to be in so much trouble when they got back to their school. The headmistress was going to kill Roy, or expel him. What excuse was he going to give her this time?! Roy crawled over to Alex, the small cave still shaking too violently to walk. It continued to shake as Roy shielded his friend with his body, and little rocks started to fall from the ceiling. Alex was shaking as much as the cave with fear, and both of them closed their eyes and hoped it didn’t collapse. 

After about 5 minutes, the cavern finally stopped rumbling loudly and for some reason it was really dark. Even after they opened their eyes, they couldn't see each other. “Roy….Roy! I can’t see anything!”

“Calm down, everything’s fine, I’m right here! Do you still have your matches?” 

“Oh yeah! You are unbelievably lucky I didn’t bring them in my swimsuit, they’re over there! I think…” Roy’s hand found his glasses, and he put them on as he heard Alex scrambling away with a few ouches and oofs. “Okay, they should be right…here!” All of a sudden, a glowing light sparked from the corner where Alex was sitting. It took a second for Roy’s eyes to get adjusted to the light, but after he could see again, he saw Alex’s face grinning triumphantly. Then his face changed, and it turned paler than usual as he looked behind Roy. He sat there confused at why Alex was so scared, before finally turning behind him to find the worst thing possible, the cave entrance had been blocked off by huge copper-colored boulders that they would never be able to move by themselves. Dang it dang it dang it! Of course this happens to them, at the worst possible moment too! 

Alex was still pacing around when Roy had finally managed to build a meager fire out of some little twigs they’d found in the corner. When there was a form of light that didn’t go out after 5 seconds, they gathered all the flammable things they could find. “Lightning must’ve struck the cliff, now we’re stuck, and there’s no way out, and-” Roy stood up and grabbed Alex’s shoulders, “Dude, you’re spiraling! Deep breaths…” He took some deep breaths while Roy walked around the edge of the cave, continuing to look for things to keep the fire going. “Roy, I still don’t think you realize how lucky we are to have taken that survival class. The teacher taught me to bring matches everywhere, and taught you how to start a fire...but never how to escape being stuck in a little cave!” Alex started to hyperventilate again, and Roy didn’t even try to help this time, Alex was going to over-oxygenate himself before he thirsted to death. 

“It feels late.” Roy said after what felt like a few hours. He and Alex were sitting by the fire, facing each other through the dancing flames. Alex yawned, “Yeah, feels like it's around ten!” After a few more moments of hushed conversation, Alex lay down on the ground, closing his eyes and quickly falling asleep with a loud snore. But Roy didn’t sleep, he couldn't, at least not for now. He stood up, stretching his stiff legs, and walked over to Alex, whose foot was extremely red and swollen. He crouched down to look at it, Alex forbade him to touch it while he was awake, fearing it would hurt too much, but Roy still tried to help. He reached for his pocket where he always kept a small pocket knife, before finally realizing that he was wearing a swimsuit, of course he didn’t have it! There was no way he could tear off a piece of his swimsuit without scissors or a knife, so Roy looked around for some kind of cloth he could use to wrap it and give his foot some stability. But to his disappointment, there was nothing to be found. He looked at Alex’s peaceful face for a bit and finally decided to at least try and sleep. 

Before he remembered ever falling asleep, he woke up to a thunderclap somewhere outside the cave. He sat straight up and gasped for air, how he hated waking up to loud noises. It took a few moments for him to regain himself, and then looked over to find Alex missing. “Mornin’ sunshine!” Alex called from beside him as Roy whipped around. It looked like he’d woken up early and been trying to move some of the rocks. Alex was sweating buckets in the humidity of the cave, and now that he thought about it, so was he! “Notice anything different, Roy?” With a start, he realized that he could finally see a little bit! It was still dark because of the storm outside, but it would appear that Alex was able to move some of the little rocks, and light flowed in smoothly and lit the cave dimly. “Wow, Alex! That’s great! We can see now!” Alex’s face lit up with happiness, and continued trying to move one of the rocks. Roy stood up and stretched his back, yawning the entire time. He walked over to Alex and tried to help him push the small boulder out. To both of their dismay, it didn’t budge an inch. Roy stopped pushing and looked around to see if he could find any smaller stones, and of course there were none. 

After a while of trying to find another way out, or at least trying to move some rocks, both of their stomachs started to rumble and they went back to the fire remains and sat down. “I am so hungryyyy!” Alex whined. Roy looked down to his own stomach and held it, “I’m hungry too, Alex. Maybe we should try to find some food while we’re in here.”
“I already checked, Roy!” 

“And there’s nothing?!”

“Nothing.” Alex said solemnly. Both of them thought for a second about what they should do. They couldn’t survive there, both of them were thirsty and hungry, there was nothing to do and no way to tell the time. It was clearly still storming outside, they could hear the rain and thunder, probably not a good sign. But then a thought popped suddenly into Roy’s head, what if they could find some water dripping in from the holes in the rubble that Alex made? Roy jumped up, and ignoring his rumbling stomach, he ran over to the boulders and stared at the holes, none of them appeared big enough to hold a hand out of. He felt along the side of the rocks, seeing if any of them were wet from the storm outside. He stood back and tried to take in the full picture and see if there were any darker colored spots from moisture. Finally, he found a small puddle made by a gap in the rocks, the rain coming directly into it. He ran over to it and crouched down. 

“Roy, what are you doing?” Alex called from behind him. He ignored his panicky friend and continued searching for a bigger gap, but there was none to be seen. This one wasn’t big enough for either of them to get enough water from, so it was out of the question. He turned around to face his friend with a defeated face, he was about to respond when he heard a quiet drip! It had come from where Alex was sitting, right behind the burnt wood and ashes. He ran over and slid onto his knees to see where it had come from. “Roy, did you hear the drip?! Maybe there’s a way to actually get some water!” 

“I know, Alex, just let me look where it came from!” He looked all around Alex, behind, in front, and on both sides of him, but the copper colored sand inside the cave didn’t appear to have any darker spots where it would look like water had dripped onto it! Roy was too far away to hear exactly where the drip was, all he knew was that it hit the ground from somewhere near Alex, and it came from the roof of the cave. After about a minute of searching, Alex looked back up at his friend, who was studying the “fire pit” very hard, “Roy, it probably evaporated by now.” Before Roy could look up to glare at his friend, he felt something cold and wet hit the back of his neck, which was hanging directly over the ashes from the fire. 

“Well, it would explain why we didn’t find any “drip-marks” on the sand!” Alex suggested optimistically. He walked over to where his friend was standing, they were both looking up at the ceiling above the embers, which had a dark, wet circle on the copper-colored rock. How had they not noticed this before?! And as if Alex had read his mind, he looked back to Roy and said, “It must have started raining harder,  which would explain why we didn’t see this until now. Not to mention the current storm probably rubbed the ceiling a little thinner. And because this rock,” he bent down to pick up a handful of copper-colored dust, “seems to come apart so easily, lightning must’ve struck the cliff and caused these boulders to fall.” Roy saw his friend’s mind place all the pieces together. “After the boulders fell, this part of the ceiling must’ve been left thinner and less protected, allowing water to seep through!” Roy stood back from his friend, very impressed. Seeing Roy’s astonishment, he gave him a proud grin and kicked away the debris and burnt wood from the fire so he could stand right below the wet circle above them. 

After about an hour, the storm got so bad it was practically night outside, and the cave was almost completely dark again. They had decided to put a leaf that’d blown into the cave underneath the drips to let it collect the water. Both of them had had a leaf-full of water and while it was nowhere near enough to satisfy their thirst completely, it could satisfy them until it’d filled up again. The cave would go suddenly bright every time lightning flashed, and would shake slightly every time it thundered. Roy and Alex both guessed it was sometime in the afternoon, and it was extremely dark. They had been arguing about how to get out of the cave, and although many options were discussed, they were too weak from hunger, thirst, and sleep-deprivation to do most of them. After a moment of hush, (although the thunder still rumbled deeply outside) Roy had an idea. “Didn’t you say the roof was probably weak, Alex?” Alex nodded his head slightly, probably because he looked like he was about to fall asleep. “What if we took some of those little rocks you removed from the rubble and boulders and used them to hit the damp spot on the ceiling? Maybe it will collapse!” 

Alex shot straight up, and his eyes went unfocused as he started pondering if it would work. After another moment of silence, he shook his head vigorously and turned to Roy. “It could work, but how will we get to the roof to get out?” 

“I don’t know! We should just try it and see what happens from there.” Alex shrugged and stood up slowly, stumbling as he walked over to the rubble blocking the cave entrance. He picked up a small rock and tossed it over to Roy. He also stood up as Alex came back over, carrying an armful of small rocks. They started to throw stones at the ceiling as hard as they could; the first several attempts did absolutely nothing, but slowly, dust started to fall from the ceiling every time they hit the damp circle above them. It scattered across the ash from the fire and onto their sweaty shirts. After a while, both of them took a break, and sat down while panting heavily. To their delighted shock, the drips now started to fall faster and fill up the leaf quicker! It didn’t go unnoticed as both of them drank from the leaf after every 15 minutes and danced around like they’d just discovered a new invention. 

After a minute or two of merry partying, they calmed down a little and continued to throw rocks at the ceiling. They took turns throwing and after another five or six hits, a little part crumpled in. They ran over to the part that fell, picking it up and examining it. It was about as big as one of their rocks, and as thick as their thumbs, a little more light shined through the hole in the roof. Roy looked through it, and up to the stormy sky above. This was it, they were finally getting somewhere! Alex reluctantly put the piece down, like if he let it go it would somehow fly back to the ceiling. He walked back over to Roy and picked up another rock, they nodded to each other, then resumed tossing stones up. After another half an hour, they’d cleared away all of the damp circle, which was definitely the thinnest, proved by the fact that all of their misses hadn’t done a thing to the rest of the ceiling. They collapsed into two heaps on the floor and laughed, they did it, they’d cleared it away. This was their chance to escape. The hole they’d made was big enough for one of them to slip through at a time. Perfect.

“So what do we do now, Roy?” Roy still hadn’t come up with a plan to get out, but this was at least a start. “I don’t know, any ideas?” He asked hopefully. Alex actually put his hand on his chin as he got lost in thought. Roy almost burst out laughing while he was thinking, because Alex’s tongue was sticking out and his brow was so furrowed it looked like he had a unibrow. But he didn’t, mostly because he wasn’t risking breaking Alex’s concentration when it was very possible he was going to come up with a way to escape. His brows slowly came apart as his face lit up with a good idea. “Roy, do we still have that pile of wood?” He nodded and gestured to the small pile in the corner, covered with lots of copper-colored dust. “What if we lit a fire under the hole and waited for someone to see the smoke?”

“Alex, you’re a genius!” 

It had been half-an-hour. They’d lit the fire quick enough, but waiting for someone to see the smoke was torment! Roy had resorted to drawing in the sand with a stick, and Alex just paced around, or tried to find more firewood that could be hidden under the sand. “Ugh! When are they coming?!” Alex groaned, sulking and stumbling back over to the fire and Roy. The wind and rain had lightened a little, and the fire was strategically placed near the hole, so the smoke could still float out, but not directly under it or the fire would be extinguished. The wind blew the smoke just the right way, thanks to Alex knowing exactly where to place the fire. “I don’t know if I want them to come! I mean, we’ll be in so much trouble once we get back to the school!” Roy said. Alex’s head shot up as if he’d never considered this before. “The headmistress is going to expel us, Roy!” Alex grabbed Roy’s shoulders and shook him until his teeth chattered and he pulled out of Alex’s reach. 

“She won’t expel us, take a breath.” But, at least to Roy, it felt like he was convincing himself more than Alex. Before his friend could even respond or calm down, they heard a voice in the distance. “Roy! Alex! Are you over here?!” Someone called up the cliff. Both of them stared at each other in astonishment, someone had come to rescue them! They stood up and started yelling as loud as they could. “We’re up here! It’s Roy and Alex! Come get us! Help us, please! We’ve been trapped in here for ages! We’re in the cave!” They quieted and listened, nothing could be heard over the rain for a while, but soon they heard splashes somewhere below them. The person must be coming up the cliff! As soon as the splashes (which had slowly been getting closer) stopped, they could hear shuffling outside and someone started banging on the boulders. “Roy, Alex, are you in here?!” It sounded like a woman outside, and both of the boys practically jumped with joy.

After they gave her directions to climb the boulders and find the hole above them, they waited and heard her shuffle up the rocks and to the hole. “Okay, I’m going to throw down a rope, I want you guys to climb up to me!” She called down. The voice sounded so familiar but Roy just couldn’t pin-point whose voice it was. “Apparently she thinks we don’t know how to use a rope.” Alex whispered to him and Roy snickered quietly. The skinny rope slid down the hole and hung a couple inches above the floor. Roy looked at Alex, and gestured for him to go first. He nodded and walked over to the rope, grabbing it and tried to pull himself up, but failed miserably. He was far too hungry, not to mention too scrawny, to pull himself up. Roy chuckled as he walked over. He grabbed Alex’s legs, carefully avoiding his ankle, and pushed him up through the small hole in the cave, he felt a tug from above and let Alex be lifted the rest of the way by their rescuer. Then he took a breath and looked back to the cave, the ashes from the fire were still a bright red, and he felt the heat on his face as the wind whipped some of the embers past him. After taking in his last few moments in this dark, hot prison, he grabbed the rope and lifted himself up.

When he came out of the hole, he closed his eyes to let the sun shining from behind the clouds warm his back and let the wind cool the sweat on his forehead and cheeks. When he opened them again, he saw Alex’s face, he expected him to be smiling and happy he was alive and free, but to his surprise, he looked shocked and a little scared! Wearing a puzzled expression, he turned around to find himself face-to-face with the headmistress of his boarding school. Oh man, they were in so much trouble. His face soon looked like Alex’s, except more humbled. “What did you two think you were doing?!” She shouted at them, luckily the rain had finally stopped, but the wind whipped past them harder than it had the last time they were out of the cave. She looked at both of the boys, still in their swimsuits and their hair matted to their head. She took in their terrible conditions and sighed, “Let’s discuss this after you’ve had a shower.”

They soon found themselves sitting in the headmistress’s office, their hair damp, but this time with soap and water instead of ocean water and sweat. Alex went to the nurse to get his ankle checked out, luckily it wasn't broken, and was now bandaged correctly and clean. They’d finally put on some clothes and their parents were called. Alex and Roy looked at each other, both of them clearly nervous for what was about to happen. But before anyone could say anything, Roy stood up and bravely announced, “It’s my fault Alex was out there, ma’am, he didn’t want to go, I dragged him out there! I was a fool, and I see that now, but don’t blame him for my actions. If you’re going to expel us, don’t bother, he’s a good student, just expel me.”

“Roy, you-” The headmistress tried to say but she was cut off.

“No headmistress!” Alex stood up too and glanced at Roy before clearing his throat and talking quieter. “Roy is also a great student and he can’t force me to do anything. I went by my own choice and I think that I should be expelled.” 

“Would both of you just sit down!” The headmistress exclaimed, both of them returned to their seats. “No one is being expelled, for now anyways. What you did was clearly wrong, and extremely dangerous. You are truly lucky you took your survival class. But I think, or more hope, that this has taught you a lesson, and it was a great display of skills you have learned. I will permit you to stay, with detentions, so long as you both follow the rules from now on!” Alex and Roy nodded enthusiastically and looked at each other, smiling so big their eyes were squinted. Soon though, they were ushered outside so the headmistress could talk with their parents. They waited in the hall, and Roy turned to Alex as soon as the door shut behind them. “Oh we’ve got to do this again sometime!”