The bright morning sun shone over the old, worn down van sputtered and clanked as it wheeled into the gravelly
parking spot at Lake Omen. Lizza sat in the back of the van, her hand on her chin, and grumbled under her
breath at how her family dragged her along on this "family bonding event". She was hoping to spend this school
holiday snuggled underneath her warm blankets for a few more hours before getting up and doing her daily
things. But nooo, her dad thought it'd be great to suddenly have a spontaneous trip to a random lake 30 miles
away from home. She glanced over at her kid brother, Rydel, who had fallen asleep during the trip.
"Alright kids, we're here!" announced their dad. "Lizza, wake your brother up and then help me get everything
out of the back."
"Yeah, yeah..." Lizza said, still annoyed. "Hey, bugface, we're here." She lightly jabbed Rydel's face.
"N-nooo... Five more minutes. I was gonna get some ice cream from the nice lady in the white dress..." Rydel
mumbled as he sleepily tried to swat his sister's hand from his face.
"If you don't get up, I'm gonna fill your water gun full of ice-cold lakewater and drench you!" Lizza teased.
"Now, now, Lizza. We can't have you do that in the car. Wait until we have everything set up," their dad said
from the back.
Lizza could've sworn she saw her brother stick his tongue at her afterwards. She jabbed him harder in the
shoulder this time, causing him to yelp. She then slid out of the car and helped her dad unload their car. She
grabbed Rydel's water gun, and hid it on her, planning to soak him later on with it. Rydel exited the car soon
after, and helped unpack too.
After unpacking and picking a spot on the lakeside to settle for the day, their dad settled into a small lawn
chair and began fishing. He let Lizza and Rydel do whatever they wanted as long as a. they don't wander off
too far, b. they don't make too much of a mess , and c. they don't get in trouble.
Now that they were done setting up, Lizza took this time to fill up the water gun, making sure her brother was
occupied doing something else while she filled its contents. This water gun wasn't the tiny ones sold at cheap
gas station markets; it was one of those super-deluxe ones that always had commercials going on in the summer-
-the ones that resembled rifles with a circular cylinder on top as the water container.
The water sloshed around as Lizza filled the water gun. The water smelled a little strange, even for lake
water, though Lizza didn't give it much thought afterwards, and focused more on trying to soak her brother.
Once it was filled, she hid the gun again, and approached her brother, who, at the moment, was building a
small pile of sand and calling it his "sand castle".
"Hey, bugface! Have some of... this!!" She pulled out the water gun, and fired. The lake water shot out from
the gun, and...