𝐒𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐍𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐗𝐈 𓃠

The boys immediately start rowing vigorously and in sync as boys behind the canoe give it a hard starting push.

"Go! Go! Go!" yells a student.

The observing students cheer and clap, as the handsome, lean and muscular Principal poses with his silver revolver in the air, smiling and showing his pearly whites.

"Move. Faster!" yells a Coxswain team member as his fellow co-captain commands, "Come on, boys. Let's go!"

The tall, lean, sleek black haired boy, the fourth and last member of 'The Black Cats,' dressed in a black full body suit, rows efficiently and effortlessly behind Saturday, while he furrows his perfectly shaped eyebrows together, contemplating their next move.

Mr. Thornhill, smiles excitedly and claps, showing his perfectly straight, white teeth. The other teachers clap enthusiastically as well.

"Oh, excuse us!" says Ajax, as his Red Joker themed canoe passes 'The Black Cats.'

Bianco Barclay's team was falling behind, and the handsome black boy gives a decisive sky-blued stare towards a figure standing on an almost obscured wooden deck on the side of the lake.

The pale boy with shoulder length brown hair quickly unbuttons his white shirt and dives into the lake, not bothering to take off his black trousers and leather shoes.

He turns into a merman, swishing his long glittery blue tail and weaving past the various tall, Eurasian Watermilfoils.

In the meantime, Ethan and Saturday's team are rowing vigorously, trying to catch up to Ajax's team, who were in the lead.

"Stroke! Stroke! Stroke!" yells a co-captain of 'The Pit and the Pendulum' team as his team rows parallel of 'The Black Cats.' He pulls a lever and an axe blade, attached to the side of their canoe, rasps as the handle stands at a right angle, the blade flat and horizontal. The large and sharp axe swings forward and backwards twice, as Ethan and Saturday's team leans down and dodges. The blade then retracts back to the side of the canoe.

"Come on! Go!" yells a co-pilot of Bianco's team.

"Come on!" yells Bianco himself.

The boys in gold and black were frightfully behind the rest. But Bianco had an ace up his sleeve.

The merman pushes his webbed hands on the canoe of 'The Pit and the Pendulum' and Bianco's team of sirens chuckle.

"Turn! Turn! Turn!" yells the co-pilot of 'The Pit and the Pendulum' as they attempt to round the red marker.

The merman continues to apply pressure to their canoe. The rowers panic as they are pushed into the big red marker and their canoe crashes and breaks into three big pieces. The boys in black and indigo land in the water, coughing and spluttering and are disqualified.

"Come on, man. We lost 'cause of you." says a boy accusatorially to his teammate, as he flails in the water.

The team of sirens chuckle maliciously, sporting yellow and black, with gold accents on their belts.

The merman pops his head out of the water and gives a proud smirk, then ducks back under, intending to do more damage.

Saturday catches all of this, and as he turns his head back towards the front, he starts plotting.

Bianco's team were still way behind them.

"Faster!" yells Ethan, as Saturday takes out a small, black, metal, telescope and eyes the small splash of water, where the merman's tail surfaces.

"Thing." he commands coldly, with absolutely no expression on his pale face or in his obsidian eyes. He lowers his telescope. There was a job to be done.

He glances down at the large, pale, stitched and severed hand as it pulls down a lever on the floor of their canoe.

The merman was swimming swiftly towards 'The Black Cats' canoe when he hears a projectile whistling. Something shot out of the canoe's underside.

A black net traps the merman as he struggles, trying to break free.

He gives a desperate, low keening howl as he sinks into the water.

The Red Jokers, Ajax's team, was in front, followed by 'The Black Cats' and tailed by Bianco's team, as the canoes row into a narrow clearing, surrounded by an island of trees on both sides.

The Red Jokers were the first to touch the island.

"Let's go. It's over here." Ajax prompts as he pulls his co-pilot along with him into the forest. The other two boys were left to guard their canoe.

The two boys, in half and half yellow and red joker outfits, with painted joker faces, run quickly and swiftly as they duck under a fallen tree and go further into the forest, after their flag at Crackstone's grave.

'The Black Cats' were the second to land, Saturday on the deck immediately.

"Stay here and make sure Bianco can't sabotage our boat." he orders Ethan as the werewolf stands in the canoe, hands leaning onto a wooden pole connected to the landing deck.

Ethan sits back down as a teammate secures their canoe to the deck.

Bianco smirks arrogantly as his team nears the island.

Thing crawls out from under the first seat and faces Ethan.

"Thing, I need you to distract a couple of jokers." briefs Ethan, in his smooth, deep voice.

Thing jumps from Ethan's black runner onto an oar and jumps out of the canoe.

Ajax and his co-pilot run quickly to Joseph Crackstone's grave, Saturday not far behind taking long quick strides.

Thing climbs onto a log and flicks a pebble at the two remaining Jokers who were securing their canoe to the deck.

They turn around to see the large, pale, severed and stitched hand giving them the rude finger, taunting them.

"What?" cries a boy angrily.

"Come on." his teammate adds.

"Go."

"Let's get it."

Thing quickly clamours off the log and into the woods.

The two boys leave their canoe vulnerable and Ethan sneakily approaches.

The young werewolf extends his sharp multicoloured claws with a determined expression.

The canoe cracks violently.

Ajax and his teammate run and grab their crimson flag with a black and white joker face on it.

"Let's go, man." his teammate says encouragingly. "He's right there. Come on."

"Later, Saturday!" calls Ajax triumphantly to the cold, tall, black haired boy in kitty cat ears.

Saturday glances at them as they run off, then determinedly faces forward, ready to get their black flag and get out of the woods.

As he grabs his black flag, with a white dog embedded on it, his head snaps back at a perfect right angle and his eyes widen.

The tall, lean boy falls to the floor, partially unconscious.

☟☟☟