Over the summer, I went to an indoor water park with my best friends, Ruby and Kate. The water park was called Great Wolf Lodge.

When we got there, I slipped into my bathing suit and went down to the park. There was so much to do. Wave pool, lazy river, giant bucket of water that dumps on you every 20 minutes, and huge, twisty, water slides! Wait a second, I HATE water slides, let alone huge, twisty ones. There was no way I was going on any of them.

We laughed and splashed in the wave pool for a while, then headed over to the lazy river. It was a smooth ride, so I was able to tell them my fear of water slides. They were both surprised when I told them. They pestered me about it for the whole ride. (These are the times when they got annoying.)  Eventually, Ruby and Kate left me alone, but I could still hear them plotting behind my back.

The next day, Ella came! We chatted for a while, and soon, Ruby told her my fear of water slides. They all agreed that some how, some way, I was getting on one of those slides.

Ella told me to “man up”. Ruby called me just plain chicken. But Kate was more understanding.

“You’ll be fine,” she said. “I was scared the first time too. All you need to do is close your eyes.” That convinced me but I still had my doubts. In my head, I imagined all the possible things that could happen. It was totally possible that I would get stuck in the raft and break all my limbs. I might crack my head open, fall asleep for 7 weeks, and wake up in a hospital. Or maybe my raft would get stuck in the slide. I mean, what if I fell out of my raft and went down the rest of the way without a raft. What if my raft went down backwards? Ruby was just telling a story about how her sister went down backwards. It was possible, that’s all I’m saying.

The ride was a tube slide but it had parts that were outside. We waited in a line that seemed to go on forever, but suddenly the raft was at my feet. As I climbed onto the raft, I felt sick to my stomach. But soon, we were off, making fast turns and bumps. The slide was yellow plastic so it cast a yellow light over the inside. My eyes were squeezed as shut as I could make them but I could still see the yellowish glow. I was holding onto the raft for my life. All of the various fates of the slide raced through my mind. My eyes were closed but soon I peeked out to see what it was really like. I could see all the places that the plastic connected. The raft was jumping around and it made me feel like a Mexican Jumping Bean. The raft hopped and skipped every time there was the slightest bump. As my grandfather would say, the ride was fast and furious. Slipping and turning, I yelled to Kate,”It’s really not as bad as I thought it would be.” We worked our way down the winding path, and pretty soon, we came halting to a stop. The ride was over. I had made it!

My friends were the best friends ever and I was so proud of myself and them. That just proves my theory that people will be able to do anything if their friends tell them they can do it.