What a Day by Patricia J. Birtwistle

The Best Day Yet
Chapter 1
“You can go to the lake, but do not think of going to that old house. You are still in trouble. You cannot get into too much trouble at the lake,” said  Nick’s mom. But she did not think of all the trouble the kids would get into before the sun set.                                                                    
Lunch was packed and off they went to the lake. Bob was not with the kids at the swamp and the old house. So, as they were going, they were telling Bob about all the trouble they had been in.
“Did we get into TROUBLE!” said Dan. “I could not go out of the house. My dad was so mad!”
“Mom gave me lots of jobs to do,” said Kim. “She was upset for days.”
“My mom and dad went nuts,” Nick said. “Mom kept crying and telling me what trouble we could have been in at the swamp. She was so upset, Dad had to take her out to help her get over it. She still thinks that we are little kids.”
“You think that’s bad!” said Beth. “You should have a mom who is a cop. She went on and on and on!”
“Well, we will not get into trouble at the lake,” Bob said. “We’ll just have the best day yet!”
But, as the day went by, the kids would be in big trouble.
It was hot on the block, but it would be cool by the lake. The kids wanted to swim. Soon, they would be in the water. They planned a day with lots of fun and NO trouble. The sun was out and on the way, they made plans.
When they got to the lake, they just sat looking at the water as it came up on the sand. Then, they made a raft and Kim and Beth got on it as Bob and Dan pushed it out into the lake.
They got the raft to a big rock and pushed the raft onto it. The kids liked to swim from the raft out there. Nick was the best one at swimming. He would get up on the raft and jump and do flips. The kids would see if they could do what he did. They were having a lot of fun.
At noon, the kids went back to have lunch on the sand. It was the best day yet!
“Look out there!” said Kim. “Way out there.  It looks black. Do you think the rain will come this way?”
“The wind is not coming from that way,” Bob said. “I think we will be O.K! Let’s get back to the raft.”
So, they did.
“This is a trick I saw on T.V.” Nick said, as he jumped into the water.
The kids all did the trick and then got back up on the raft. That was when things went bad. Nick was running to jump into the water. Beth was just coming up onto the raft. Nick did not see her. As he jumped, Nick hit Beth and she fell back into the water. Nick came up, but Beth did not. All the kids jumped in to look for her. They could not see well. They could not see Beth at all. The water looked black, and the sky was getting blacker. It began to rain.
“Where are you, Beth?” Nick was thinking. “Come on! Where are you? I have to find you. You have to be O.K!”
Bob came up out of the water. “What are we going to do?” he asked Kim as she came up.
“We will just have to stay down. We must find her. If we could just see down there, it would help. This water looks black. She cannot last down there. Let’s go!” she said as she went down into the water.