Jade squealed. She couldn’t wait!

 “Hurry up!” she urged.

 “Okay,” answered Matthew, jumping in. Water splashed everywhere, and Jade cheered. Now it was her turn to jump! She leapt off the boulder and into the lake. The water was refreshing on such a hot day.

 “Remember not to jump into the shallow end,” warned Alfred. “I don’t want to be the one to give you CPR!”  

  Jade rolled her eyes at Alfred, along with the other teenagers. “Do you think we would be so stupid as to do that?”

  “Well, no,” Alfred wrung his hands awkwardly, looking like his usual nerdy self. He was very lanky and weird, had thick, dorky glasses, and two sort-of-friends. He also seemed to know everything that could go wrong, thus ruining the fun often. He was a surprisingly strong swimmer, even so, and no one could deny that about him.

  “You’d be a great paramedic,” remarked Jade in a sneering tone, and the friend group agreed sarcastically. Matthew added to the teasing by saying, “You should stop reading those things, Alfred;  you’ll get nightmares!”

  Alfred swam away angrily, leaving Jade, Matthew, and the others to guffaw at their own silly jokes. They were more than happy that he had left, and they all continued to jump off their boulder. 

  Eventually, Jade wandered away from the rest to look for another spot to have some fun, and  was she successful! “Matthew,” she said to him when she had swum back, “come, I found a rock that’s better than this one!”

  “Show me!” he replied, sliding off and following Jade to her discovery, but she arrived first and started climbing it immediately. She slinked easily up its steep face, and with a sigh of accomplishment and dripping wet, viewed all that was around her. “I’m jumping in!” she announced to her companion who was struggling up, and without hesitating, sprang off, the breeze blowing through her hair. Alfred happened to be swimming nearby; when he saw Jade, he not only saw her happiness but also that it could end in disaster. But it was too late, and she hit the water, oblivious to the danger beneath the surface; Alfred froze, waiting to see her come up. Meanwhile, Matthew, still struggling to get hold of the rock, had not the slightest idea of what was going on, and continued grumbling to himself, annoyed.

  Alfred dived back under the water and in the direction that Jade had landed, his hands grasping desperately at the bottom, searching for her, wherever she was. But he had to breathe, so he surfaced to fill up his lungs; it was then that his feet touched something that he wasn’t  — wait, was that hair? Alfred dived back down, this time gripping a limp Jade by her long thick hair, and as soon as he had pulled her out, Alfred put her upside down.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” demanded Matthew, whose attempt to scale the rock had quite fortunately been unsuccessful, but Alfred did not answer him as he checked Jade’s pulse.

  “I think she’s just unconscious,” Alfred said without looking at Matthew, “She must’ve hit her head, and let’s hope she doesn’t have a concussion,” Alfred continued as he whacked Jade’s back. 

  “I have some questions,” said Matthew, “What just happened, why is water pouring out of her mouth and nose like that, is she going to be OK, did you get her pulse…” 

  To their relief Jade started coughing up water and between gasps she spoke, saying, “Leave me alone, guys, I’m OK, it’s just my head that hurts really bad, wait — Alfred, what’s going on?”

  “Well,” answered Alfred, “I think what happened is that you jumped into the shallow end, thus hitting your head on the bottom and losing consciousness, so I pulled you out before you could drown. Matthew and I are hoping it’s not the case, but just in case you might have a concussion, you’ve got to go to the hospital; Matthew was just going to call an ambulance, right, Matthew?”

  “Right,” nodded Matthew absent-mindedly, stunned that it was Alfred, the weird, nerdy kid, who had saved the day in the end; and Jade, who was thinking the same thing, had a grateful expression on her face.

  “Hey, Alfred,” said Jade, “The last time I told you this, I was making fun of you, but that’s not what I’m doing now; I think you’d do a great paramedic — or whatever you choose to be!”

THE END

You may have noticed that the sentences got longer and longer towards the end. That’s because this story is a string-along story! A string-along story goes like this: the title is 1 word, the first sentence is 2 words, the second sentence is 3 words, so on (all sentences should be grammatically correct). So that’s my challenge for u guys! Write a string-along story and post it here on the talent showcase!

I hope u enjoy this challenge! I CAN’T WAIT to see the stories u post!! thx for using your talents for God and not burying them under the ground.

— sci_geeek