The Waterslide

Not long ago, the grade 8 girls’ volleyball team had a game at Elphinstone Secondary School. They left at lunchtime to catch the ferry in Horseshoe Bay, and were really excited. They piled onto the ferry and went to White Spot to get themselves some food for lunch. They had been warned by the coaches to NOT eat ice cream, but being the rebels that they were, they got some anyways. They sat down with their overflowing cups of soft-serve swirl ice cream, and gobbled it down. They decided to head up to the rooftop, which may have been a bad idea, if you considered how hyper they all were! They started dancing and having fun, their laughter getting caught in the rough wind that blew across the deck. Maddie seemed to be particularly enthusiastic, and was full-on jumping and dancing to “Gangnam Style”. With every dance move, she edged closer to the railing, and when she started to jump again, without a warning, she just tipped over. It took a few moments for the realization that Maddie had just gone overboard to sink in, but as soon as it did, panic arose. Three of the girls scrambled to the door, and onto the main deck, where they scanned the crowds of people until they saw Miss Camblin and Ashley. Kate, who was at the front of the group, sprinted towards them. She tried to explain what had just happened, but in the shock of the last few minutes and exhaustion of running, failed miserably as all she could do was stutter and mumble. Hazel helped her out, and summed up the recent events to their coaches. They immediately rushed to the main office on the ferry, and brought some emergency equipment, while someone from BC Ferries called search and rescue to help them out. Everything happened quickly, but they managed to throw Maddie a life raft where she waited for search and rescue, She had drifted a fair distance from the ferry, and was panicking, cold, wet, and barely visible by the time she was picked up. Everyone was quite relieved to find that Maddie was ok, and they decided to all sit down in the cafeteria instead. They were very wary of ice cream—and sugar in general—after that, and unfortunately had an extreme ‘sugar low’ which didn’t help them in their volleyball games. This did, however, teach everyone a very important lesson and a good rule to live by: “No dairy on the ferry”.