The Pool Party
A couple of days had gone by when I finally heard from William again. It was a Monday and summer break was coming to an end.
William
Today 8:23 AM
William’s grandma was back in town and I wasn’t too sure whether his new plan involved her or something else. I was pretty curious, so I grabbed my usual items, threw them in my backpack, and headed for William’s house.
I strolled around the corner of the garage and saw William hunched over his workbench working on his new plans. Slowly, I walked up behind him and looked over his shoulder. He was already working on his second plan. The first plan was sitting on the bench to his left, so I began to examine it to see what was going down this time.
Once again, the plan demonstrated William’s exceptional drawing skills. (I think not!) In plan A, there was a sketch of his pool, and what appeared to be every kid in the neighbourhood playing in it. Judging by the plans, they had nothing to do with Granny Grunt. I was very happy to see this.
I looked back over to see William finishing up the second plan. This plan had William receiving a trophy for, get this ~ hosting the most people in an above ground pool! Of course, William was bragging about himself in the plan.
William had scribbled on a piece of paper a list of records off the Itchygooney Wall of Fame website. Circled, was the pool record set by the infamous Dylan, with a whopping twenty-seven people!
It was becoming clear to me that William must have been grounded for a few days (and bored) and to pass the time he was looking at the various records that he could break. I quickly figured out that it was his goal to become the most celebrated kid in our neighbourhood by having the most personal records on the website. I relaxed for a moment and thought what possibly could go wrong with a pool party. All we had to do was find twenty-six more kids to join us and William would have another record under his belt. I grabbed my cell phone and started working on a text message to send out to all our friends inviting them to be a part of William’s newest feat.
Once I had the text finished, I had William take a quick look to make sure it had his approval. Surprisingly, he was happy with what I had down and I didn’t have any revisions to make. (Not unlike my work at school.) Within minutes, I had the text sent out to all of our friends. In the message, we requested that everyone submit their name to be put in a lottery and to send a text to another friend asking them to join us. (This was just in case we didn’t have enough kids to invite.) William didn’t want to set an actual date as he wasn’t sure how long it would take to find twenty-six kids for the big event. However, we had a more important problem to deal with ~ Granny Grunt!
William and I began discussing what we could do to pull off the pool party record when his grandma opened the side door to the garage and stuck her head in. We both spun around to see her lovely face as she gave us both ‘the look’. Then she grunted out that it was lunch time for William, and then her head slowly disappeared as the door closed shut. The two of us both knew she would not want us to be hosting a pool party, especially for about thirty kids. This was going to be a challenge, but I knew William would come up with a solution. (Or at least I hoped.) I gathered up my stuff and headed home for a quick bite to eat.
William texted me about half an hour later and wanted me to meet him in his tree fort as soon as I could get there. I knew he had something special planned as this was our hideaway. I finished my lunch and was at his house within a minute and hurried out back to our ‘secret’ fort. I carefully climbed the ladder and stopped at the door. William had a special password that anyone entering the fort had to say. Basically, it was this ~ “Bumfuzzle!” (I know. It’s a funny word isn’t it?) Only a few of us had the secret password and we were sworn to secrecy that we would NOT share it with anyone. I whispered the password and the door slowly opened. I climbed inside the tree fort and shut the door quickly just in case someone was trying to get in. The silly thing was that the only people likely trying to get in were his little brother Adam (who was probably hanging out with Granny Grunt) or William’s arch nemesis ~ Zoey. Luckily, she was on vacation with her family so we didn’t have to worry about her. Zoey followed William around the neighbourhood and it drove him absolutely crazy. She said it was to bug him, but I felt it was because she really liked him. (Well, that’s what I thought anyway.) Anytime I brought it up around her, she would get really mad and stare at me with an evil look until I’d finally walk away. Anyways, enough about Zoey, let’s get back to the story.
William quietly told me he wanted to meet up in the tree fort to make sure his grandma wasn’t around to hear his newest plan. He had overheard her on the phone during lunch about having her friends over for an outdoor afternoon tea party. His grandma was planning to have it on Thursday at 2 o’clock in the afternoon, giving us only three days to prepare. This would make it tight in getting enough kids to make it, but we were confident that it could be done. It was during this time that William figured it would be best to plan the pool party. He decided that we should set the time for our party to be at three o’clock to give his grandma and all her friends time to settle in for their afternoon tea. William even mentioned that he would help serve tea while I snuck people around to the pool and got everyone ready so she wouldn’t notice.
Immediately, I began working on a new text message to send to all our friends with the actual date and time. It didn’t take long to get some replies. William said he would take care of everything on his end and that my job was to make sure I had twenty-six other kids ready to go by three o’clock on Thursday. Things were looking good as we had thirteen confirmations in just an hour. William and I continued to hang out in the fort for a few more hours until my mom text me to come home to get ready for baseball. I packed up my things and said goodbye to William and headed home to get ready for my game. Things would have to wait until later.
I returned home from my game, which we won in a nail-biter, and checked my messages to see how many replies we had. Amazingly, we had ten more kids joining in for the pool party. That meant we were up to twenty-three kids already. It appeared that we wouldn’t have any trouble finding a few more kids to bring the number to twenty-six. I text William right away to let him know our numbers. Within seconds he responded back with a happy face emoji. He then asked me if I could come over the next day to help him set-up the patio for his granny’s party. I was kind of confused when William asked me nicely, instead of telling me I had to come over the next day to help. (Oh well, it must be part of his plan.)
The next day, I woke up, showered, ate, and headed to William’s house. He was already sweeping the patio when I arrived. We then set up a few tables and placed some chairs around them. His grandma came outside and actually cracked a smile (or at least I think she did) as she saw what William and I had done. He then politely asked her if there was anything else she needed. She was quite happy and thanked the two of us and then went back inside the house. William explained he was being EXTRA nice to his grandma and that he didn’t want her to ruin his record-breaking pool party attempt. We spent the next few hours rearranging things for her party and then headed to the fort to further discuss the big day.
William explained to me that I was to bring all the kids from the garage side of the house to the pool so his grandma wouldn’t notice them. Somehow, I had to keep them all quiet so as not to blow our cover. I sent out an updated text to all the interested kids explaining the day, time, and directions to get to the pool secretly. I wasn’t so sure we could pull this one off.
Once I finished sending out the information, I headed home for the day so I could help my dad at the farm. I had a cool job as a farm helper, which actually paid! He wanted me to help cut some grass and clean up the shop.
Wednesday rolled around and it was pretty boring as William and Adam had to go shopping with their grandma for the day. I decided to go back to the farm and help my dad again. I brought my phone with me so I could check to see if any other kids had volunteered to be at the pool party. By the end of the day, I had two more kids say they could make it. We were now at twenty-five kids, plus the two of us. We were one short! Time was running out. I text William to let him know we were one short. William quickly replied back that he was still out with his grandma and that she had taken the entire day to shop for food and clothes. He said that he had to wait for her to try on like a thousand dresses and hats for her tea party. He told me it was more painful than when he had hit the tree on his bike. As for the missing kid ~ he told me not to worry, he had it covered. I was actually excited about the big day and replied back that he needed to rest up and that I’d see him the next day. I decided I would head home and spend the remainder of my day relaxing in my room working on my new comic book adventure. (Keep an eye out for it!)
It was finally Thursday when I heard my phone chime letting me know William was up. I got ready as usual and packed my bathing suit. I sent out a quick message reminding everyone to show up at quarter to three. I also told them to be as quiet as possible so William’s granny wouldn’t ruin the day. Once I was ready I headed over to William’s to see who the final person would be. William decided he would allow his little brother Adam to be part of the big day. I thought that was a cool gesture on his part. Adam would love being included with all the bigger kids.
I found William sitting in his garage staring at his plans. He had a big smile as he was confident that he would soon have another record under his belt. We went over things quickly and then sat and waited for his grandma’s guests to arrive. One by one the little grannies showed up. William politely greeted each one and took them around to the patio. I couldn’t believe how pleasant he was. It was as if he’d been transformed into another person. Once they were all accounted for, William then explained he would help serve the food and tea. While he was doing this I could sneak the kids around the other side of the house and into the pool. Once they were all in the pool I was to then go get William. Things were looking good!
William took off to help his grandma and I stayed in the garage greeting everyone, and reminding them to be VERY quiet. Remarkably, they all listened and stayed extremely quiet as each person arrived. (My teacher would have been so proud!) It didn’t take long to get the twenty-five kids ready to get into the pool. I reminded them one last time about the noise level and then escorted them to the pool. Silently, they all climbed into the pool leaving just enough room for the three of us. I quickly ran over to get William and noticed him and Adam serving cookies to all the old ladies who had dressed up nicely for the tea party.
The strange thing was they had moved to a shaded area on the lawn away from the patio. They were now sitting at the bottom of the slope on the opposite side of the pool, hidden by the fence. His grandma and friends must have been too hot and relocated to a cooler place in the shade. Just a short distance away from them on the other side of the fence was the above ground pool full of kids waiting for us to return. William spotted me and I quickly ran to get my camera set up to record the event.
William and Adam arrived within a minute and one by one we climbed into the pool. William had the honour of being the last one in. It was hard to believe all these kids could remain that quiet. We remained silent for about two more minutes. My video camera was recording the whole thing and we figured this would be long enough to set the record and that there would be video evidence as well. William then signalled to everyone that he would mouth the words as he counted down to zero from ten. As he got down to zero, the crowd of kids burst into a huge cheer. The roar of the kids must have startled the group of women on the other side of the fence and they jumped to their feet. With all the excitement going on, we all began jumping up and down in the pool. The sides began to bulge and without warning, the side of the pool closest to the fence let go. In a split second, all twenty-eight kids and a wall of water from the eighteen-foot pool crashed into the fence and busted through it. There were bodies everywhere!
Unfortunately, William’s granny and all her friends were standing on the other side of the fence trying to figure out what was going on when the pool burst. Scrambling on the lawn were kids and little old ladies flopping on the ground like fish out of water. It looked like a scene from a disaster movie. After a few minutes, everyone calmed down. Carefully, we checked everyone to see if there were any injuries. When all was said and done, there was only one person that was visibly injured. Granny Grunt! She was the last person to be found. During all the commotion, his poor grandma was trapped underneath a section of fence that had been washed away by the collapse of the pool. William’s little brother Adam was the first one to hear her moans coming from under the broken section of fence. Carefully, a group of us lifted the fence off of her and just stood there staring at her for a moment. She was covered in mud from head to toe. She didn’t look very amused at all and just lay on her back grunting and mumbling William’s name. I ran to get my phone and dialed 911.
It was about an hour later when paramedic Mike finally loaded her into the back of the ambulance. Even paramedic Mike realized that William’s granny was NOT a happy camper! William and Adam rode in the back of the ambulance with their grandma to the hospital. I remained behind to make sure everyone had left. The good thing was my GoPro caught the entire ordeal on film. I was wearing it when the pool broke and managed to capture the wave of water and kids heading towards the fence when the pool burst. I checked my camera to make sure it survived the ordeal and took it home to check out all the action.
It was awesome to see all the screaming faces in the video as the water rushed everywhere. My dad and I watched the video over and over. We were pretty sure that at one point William could be seen drifting by with a huge grin on his face, giving a two thumbs up signal the moment he crashed through the fence. This video was definitely worthy of being uploaded to the Internet.
Later that evening, William let me know his grandma was okay and that she only suffered a minor shoulder strain. I was glad to hear that, but knew she was going to be extra grumpy over the next few days. I told William the good news that the record was broken and that I’d update the website immediately. It likely would be best that we weren’t around his granny for a few days. Funny thing was, we both agreed that it was the best pool party ever! (And likely our last!)