Young Writers Society

The house looked like a bomb had dropped on it. There was paint peeling off it. It's walls were stained with god-knows-what, and it climbed the house like ivy. The windows were covered with dust. Slabs were loose from the roof, and the pile in front of the house seemed to say that nobody cared. An old oak-tree stroked the side of the house almost periodically. The grass reached for the sky like outstretched arms, and Alice found herself wondering why nobody had had the good sense to cut it. Why nobody had bothered to clean this place up at all.

"How was your flight?" said a voice from behind her. Alice turned around to see her Granddad standing behind her. He was an old man, but young in spirit. His skin was covered in wrinkles, and his hair had long since abandoned him, but the smile on his face made him seem twenty two. He was wearing on old, brown suit.

"Great" she said "I slept the entire time!" They both laughed. "It's great to see you, Granddad."

"You too, honey." He said wrapping her in his arms. "You too. Now c'mon. Poppy will almost be finished with dinner."

"Poppy?"

They had to walk through a narrow hallway to get to the kitchen. The house was much cleaner on the inside, Alice noticed. The walls were a pastel green color, that seemed to always be darker the farther it was away from you. She noticed some paintings hanging on the walls, but was too short to see them. "I sure hope your shoes are off!" Someone said from the end of the hall.

"They are!" Granddad shouted back. "Are yours?" he whispered to her.

"Yep!" she said back, a little too loudly.

"Who's that?" the voice said again.

"My granddaughter" Granddad said, swinging the large double doors open.

Alice had to take the kitchen in all at once. Cabinets littered every wall. Pots and pans hung from the ceiling like bats, ready to swoop. I thin layer of steam was wafting around the air. The room seemed infinite to her.

"Wait, she's coming today!" the voice seemed distressed.

"She's here already!"

"I'm a mess! Tell her to go away for a sec."

"She won't care, just come out." Alice could hear the clanging of pots behind a counter that was situated in the middle of the room. A young girl, about Alice's age, emerged from behind a wall of pots and pans that were pilled on the cooker. Her blonde hair was tied in a lazy ponytail. She was wiping her flour-stained hands on her apron, which only showed off parts of her faded jeans.

"Hello!" she said, smiling and looking embarrassed.

"Hello." Alice said back, giggling. "Are you Poppy?"

"Yep!" she said, closing her eyes and tilting her head back "You've probably heard a lot about me."

"Not really" Alice admitted, holding her hand over her mouth to keep her from laughing.

"Hey! Old-Man! Why don't you tell your family how helpful and kind and considerate I am!" she shouted, throwing fruit from a basket at him. Her face had gone red. He laughed every time something hit him, as if the blows sent the air out of him. Alice wondered if it actually hurt him or not.

"Poppy" Granddad said, suddenly serious. Poppy stopped throwing fruit that instant.

"Yes?"

"I'm no longer going to need you to cook and clean for me."

"Uh-uh, old-man." she replied "That's not your choice."

"No. I mean. I need you to be friends with Alice. I need you to show her a good time. Give her as fun a summer as you possibly can."

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Sure! I can do that" She turned to Alice and smiled "After dinner, well go to the board!"

They had been walking for twenty minutes. Alice's feet felt heavy. She wasn't used to walking such long distances. There was a chill breeze blowing over the island that was more than welcome in the blaring heat. "What exactly is the bored?" Alice asked of the girl beside her, trying to hide her exhaustion and sweat.

"It's a big notice board in the middle of the island. People put announcments and stuff there. But the fun thing is, if any adult finds something they think the kids'll like, they post it there!" she smiled "It really is nice of them to do that."

"Oh, that's cool! Are there many other kids? Alice asked

"Two. Another girl named Hannah, who's a bit older than me; she's 15, and a boy named Cian. He's 13, like me. They're really nice, so don't be worried."

"I was not!" she said hasteily. But in reality, Alice scared. What if they decided their group was big enough? What if they left her behind?

They reached the board ten minutes later. Hannah and Cian were already there, surveying the board. It was made of an aging wood, with a cork-board surface. Tiny little notes were scattered all around it. Poppy announced their arrival.

"...and this is Alice. She'll be staying here for the summer. It's my job to make sure she has the best summer ever!" They waved at her, smiles on their faces.

"We were just going down to the Secret Beach. Wanna come?"

"Yes! It's a great day for the beach. Let's go." They all went to move, but Alice stopped them.

"What's the Secret Beach?" she said quietly, feeling left out.

"There's a beach." Hannah said, pulling her brown bangs out of her eyes so she could look down at her. Her long white dress made Alice feel under-dressed "and if you go there, and walk through a small forest-"

"-then over a pile of rocks." Cian added.

"You get the Secret Beach. It's just like the regular beach except nobody can see you. It's a special place." Poppy finished.

"We have a small club-house down there. You can join our club!" Cian said, swaying from side to side.

"What's the club called?"

"Um"

"It doesn't have a name yet." Hannah sighed "But we'll think of one eventually."

The waves were crashing down along the shore like planes. They had all taken their shoes off. The sand felt good under their feet. Ahead of them, Alice saw the forest. The trees towered above them like monsters. It stretched back for an infinity. A small path opened in front of them, like a mouth with a sandy tongue. "If there's a path goin' there, then how is this a secret beach?" Alice asked.

"You'll see" Cian said. They walked on the path for ten minutes before coming to a fork in the road. One path was blocked by a tower of fallen stones from the cliff up-above.

"Ohh" Alice said under her breath. They climbed over the pile one by one. Alice was the last to go. She could barley find her footing in the stones, and they twisted and turned and fell with every step she took. Alice was shaking, and eventually stopped climbing. After a while, Cian climbed up the other side, and held his hand out to her. His dark hair rustling in the wind, along with his black shirt that was much too big for him.

"Grab my hand." he said. She steadily put her hand towards him, and before she knew it, was being pulled over the mountain similar to the way a bear might help a salmon out of the water. They rolled down the other side of the mountain, which, to her surprise, was just dirt.

"Are you okay?"

"Did it hurt?"

"Do you want to go back?" she waved away all their concerns.

"I'm fine!" she said, standing up. "Don't worry about me."

"Or me." Cian said in a huff.

The group reached the Secret Base within minutes. Almost half the area was shaded by two high cliffs, one on either side. Right in front of them was a small, make-shift 'house'. Behind it was a small water pool, with an ugly sculpture in the center.

"Okay. It's not actually a beach." Hannah said.

"At night, the tide comes in and fills that little pool over there." Cian pointed out "So the water is always fresh and clean."

"It's so beautiful" Alice said, shocked by the magnitude of the area she was in.

Poppy and Cian were playing in the pool. Every now and then Alice and Hannah heard their laughing. Or shouting. Or crying. They thought in highs and lows, like young children always do. Over time, Alice became more and more curious about the sculpture at the center of the pool. It looked like a fat old woman's head, except she had no eyes. "What's that?" she asked Hannah, who was enjoying kicking her feet in the water.

"I'ts a Godtrust." she replied, as if they were as common as weeds.

"A Godtrust?"

"Yeah. A Godtrust. It's a way that people used to talk to the old Gods of the island. They used to change the shape every year, depending on how nice the Gods had been that year."

"So, they were mean. So the people made the Gods ugly?"

"Exactly!" she said turning her head to look at Alice. "You're pretty smart." she said rustling her hair. Alice smiled at the gesture of affection.

"So how does it work?"

"What work?"

"The Godtrust thing." Hannah turned over onto her stomach, holding her head up with her fists.

"There's a little pool of water on the top of it. You put leaves in it. If they sink, the Gods'll help-or so they say."

"Can we try it?" Hannah looked up at her for second.

"Yeah."

The Godtrust looked fall from land, but up-close they could see that it was just built on an underwater hill. They all gathered around it,using the dirt from the hill to stand. "Alright, does everybody have a leaf?" Hannah asked.

"I have my one." Alice said, clutching it with both hands.

"Mine is heart shaped!" Poppy chimed in.

"Yep." Cian said, laughing at the absurdity of what they were doing.

"And I have mine." Hannah sighed. "Okay."

"So what do we do?" Cian asked.

"See the little pool of water on the top?" she replied "Well, we all put our stuff in there, and ask the Gods for something. Easy!"

"Let's all wish for the best summer ever!" Poppy said, smiling.

"I wish for the best summer ever!" Poppy said, putting in her leaf.

"I wish for the most exciting summer ever" Cian said, dropping in his.

"I want the most fun summer ever!" Hannah said, putting in hers.

"I want an unforgettable summer!" Alice said, carefully placing her leaf on the water's surface. They lingered for a moment, then sank right to the bottom.