Nick was an adventurous boy. He often played imaginary games in his backyard or at the park, with his best friend Avery. He was unlike the other kids at his school. Instead of watching the sunday-night football games with his family like all the other boys, he would tinker with machines and find out how they worked. One cloudy day, nick went on a bike ride down to the canal where he and Avery played pirates versus robots (the robots always won). Eventually, those clouds turned to rain, and the rain turned to thunder. Soon, the canal filled with freezing water, and Nick and Avery were stuck under a tree. they huddled together in an attempt to wait out the storm, until finally his mom drove by in her van. Through the hail and the pouring rain, they sprinted out to the car. Being greeted by blankets and hot chocolate, they entered the van and drove home from their epic rainy adventure.
We all sat nervously by the phone, praying that god would save him. We knew it was looking grim, but we had under-estimated the severity of the situation until that night. Finally, we got a call. It was mom and i couldn't understand what she was saying, but judging by her lack of composure, i could tell that we had lost him. My sister immediately began to cry and ran to her room. I slid down the wall like an old bag of laundry and put my hands to my face. There's no way this could be happening. That was the day that Drennen, the best swimmer on our team, had drowned.
He was gone. Even worse, there was nothing I could do. Who would gather all the neighborhood kids to play a game of kickball or capture the flag? Who would come over to my house and make Lego masterpieces? Who would be the one to laugh at my jokes when no one else did? No, he can't be gone, he just can't be! But he is. The situation seemed so surreal; I immediately began to feel numb all over, thinking of all the great times we had together. How could he be dead? I had just been with him two hours ago! This couldn't be happening...
