“Come on guys, lets go! We don’t want to hit traffic!” Mr. White said, waking up his four kids.

All the children climbed out of bed, got dressed, grabbed their luggage, and walked into their light blue minivan parked in their larger-than-average garage. Right when the whole family got into the car and left their house, Mr. White driving, his wife beside him, and his four kids in the back, arguing over the seating arrangements.

“Why did we have to leave this early?” The second oldest, Lexi, asked.

“It’s a five hour drive to get to New York, don’t you just want to get there?” Mr. White responded.

“Yeah… But did we really have to leave at five thirty in the morning?” Griffin questioned.

“Cody get off of me!” The youngest boy Matt said shoving their chocolate lab off of him and onto his sisters lap.

“Aren’t you guys excited? We haven’t been on our yacht in a while!” Mrs. White said.

“Yeah, it’s always fun, I love the restaurants that we go to!” The second youngest, Grace commented, as usual.

They drove in silence, for a long time. No one talked. All the children were occupied for the long car ride. Lexi was texting her friends, Griffin was passed out with his earphones on, Matt was sleeping, and Grace was on her phone. Whenever they went on their boat they never complained about the car ride, because they knew it was worth the wait.

“How much longer?” Griffin asked, just waking up from his long nap.

“About ten minutes, we are getting off this exit,” Mrs. White said, looking at her watch.

As soon as she said that they passed the Welcome to New York Sign and they knew that the harbor was right around the corner. They then came to a sudden stop and the whole family opened the doors, grabbed their bags, and ran in search, trying to find their yacht. Finally, the kids spotted it. Mr. White opened the door and the four kids, and dog, ran in.

“Can we go fishing?” Matt said, going straight into the cabinets where the fishing supplies was.

“No, I want to go swimming!” Lexi said pulling out her bathing suit from her pink suitcase.

Matt pulled out a fishing rod and some bait they had brought from home.

“Okay guys, lets decide on what we are going to do,” Mrs. White said, looking at her two children.

“Okay fine, let’s go swimming,” Matt said.

Just then Griffin came up with his swimming trunks on and goggles in his hand.

“Let’s go!” Lexi said.

The kids all ran to the end of there boat where the ladder was placed. Lexi didn’t even take a step down, she just jumped. Griffin then followed, right behind Lexi, and then Matt. They all plunged to the bottom of the ocean and came back up. Right when they came back up they started yelling for their dog. All the children started to yell “Cody” and finally they saw their dog flying over them, and landing. Matt grabbed a tennis ball, and throw it to Cody who would go and retrieve it. Grace had been watching her siblings, swim and have a great time.

“You should go in with them,” Mrs. White said, folding four towels for when her other three kids were done with swimming.

“No I don’t know how to swim..” Grace said in an ashamed voice.

Grace was watching her siblings in jealousy, wishing that she could swim.The parents kept on warning them to stay close to the boat, but they kept on drifting.

“Okay, it’s getting kind of breezy, maybe we should go in now,” Matt said swimming towards the ladder.

“Yeah, I’m going in, I might swim later though,” Griffin said following Matt.

The children all swam in towards the ladder with their dog, trying to push him up the ladder. It was a little easier-than-usual because the latter was basically stairs.

“Hows the water?” Grace questioned when all of her siblings got onto the boat.

“Pretty good, you should have came with us. It was great!” Lexi said getting a towel.

“Okay, it’s already five o’clock, are you guys ready to go out to dinner?” Mr. White said starting up the boat, “It’s about a thirty to forty minute ride there.”

“Yeah, I’m starving,” Grace said holding her stomach.

The boat pulled away heading for the sea. Grace and Lexi went downstairs to get changed for dinner. While the girls got changed for dinner, the boys got a few-minute-duty driving the boat. A while later, the boys headed down to the cabin to join the girls, for a game of cards. They played their favorite card game that they made up, when they were little.

“Did you guys hear that?” Griffin asked looking at Lexi, who was looking up the stairs.

“It was probably someone on a different boat,” Matt said putting his cards down and putting on his Mount Saint Marys hat on.

“No, it sounded like it was right on top of us,” Grace whispered.

“Griffin go check out what’s going on!” Grace demanded.

“What? Why me?” Griffin fought back.

“Because you are the oldest…” Grace said.

Griffin got up and ran up the stairs. They all heard footsteps again running. The kids all got up and went to the farthest corner.

“What’s going on?” Matt said, looking at Lexi.

“I’m not sure… But don’t worry… In ten seconds Griffin will come down and tell us that everythings ok!” Lexi said trying to get her younger siblings to calm down.

Mr. and Mrs. White then came running down, with Griffin following them. Mr. White and Griffin were carrying life jackets.

“What’s going on?” Lexi said, as soon as they hit the last step.

“The boat stopped working, we are just going to wait in here for a little bit. We can’t jump because we are in the ocean, and the bigger boats are all out there. We tried to get the rubber boat going, but it’s popped. Put on the life jackets just in case!” Mr. White explained.

He passed out the life jackets out to everyone.

“Wheres your life jacket?” Mrs. White said in a nervous voice.

“We haven’t been on this boat since Matt was born. We only have five life jackets,” Mr. White said.

“Wait, what’s going on?” Lexi questioned finally.

“One of the pipes broke, and there is a little water on the boat,” Mr. White said pointing up where the children heard the footsteps.

“How much water will there be if the pipe breaks?” Grace said in a scared voice.

“Too much, that’s why just incase we have the life jackets,” Mrs. White said in a crackly voice.

“Okay, lets go get Cody!” Griffin said, giving his dad a little punch.

Mr. White and Griffin walked up the stairs, searching for Cody. They then found him in his crate, sleeping. They carried him down to the cabin, and opened his crate door. Just then they heard a loud pop, and the boat shook. Matt and Grace fell to the grown.

“Everyone quickly, put your life jackets on!” Mr. White warned, as soon as the kids fell to the grown.

The family all put on their life jackets as fast as they could. Just then the boat started to sink, the family didn’t realise because of how slow it was going. Then they heard water, and then saw it. Water was gushing down to the cabin, before they knew it, there was water up to their ankles.

“What should we do?!” Griffin screamed.

The parents went over to comfort their children. The water started gushing down into the cabin. The family then heard barking, Cody was out of his crate and floating over to his family.

“I can’t touch anymore!” Matt said, even though he was pretty short.

“Quickly theres the window over their, everyone take off your life jackets, you are going to have to swim through the window!” Mr. White said taking off his hat and throwing it away from him.

The window was towards the bottom of the cabin, not a usual window. He had to stick his head under and use all of his strength to open it. No luck the first time. He came back up for another breath, and went right back down. He pushed, and shoved, and then kicked, and put all his strength on the window. It finally worked.

“Okay guys, listen carefully! Right when you get through the window go straight up and immediately put on your life jackets, don’t wear them going through the window. When you get out and you are at the top, scream so we know that you’re okay. Griffin your first,” Mr. White directed.

Griffin then took a couple breaths, and shoved him head down into the water. The family was silent waiting for a yell. They then heard “GRIFFIN” and all smiled.

“I’ll go next!” Mrs. White said taking off her life jacket quickly.

By this point the water was up to their rib cages. She took two breaths and went down to find the window, she then got through, and safely made it to the top joining Griffin, and yelled “MOM”.

“Lexi, go next! You might have to open your eyes,” Mr. White told.

“Ok..” Lexi said in a nervous voice.

“Matt, you follow. We don’t have much room! My heads going to hit the ceiling soon,” Mr. White said.

Matt followed his dads directions and went with Lexi. Lexi went through the window and came right up, on the other side. Matt waited until he saw Lexi go through the window and then went through, joining the rest of his family. they both yelled at the same time to their dad.

“Grace hurry! Do what the others did!” Mr. White screamed as the water was getting higher and higher.

“I can’t! I don’t know how to swim!” Grace responded.

“No Grace, go, you can do it! It’s going to be a twenty seconds and I will follow you!” Mr. White said.

Grace unstrapped her life jacket and plunged to the bottom of the boat. She sat there for a while not knowing what to do.She had to get another breath. She went back up but, when she did, she couldn’t find her dad, or the dog.

“Even the dog could do it…” Grace said in an embarrassed voice, “Now what do I do?”

Matt, Lexi, Griffin, and Mrs. White were all getting nervous. Then Cody came up, followed by Mr. White

“Why did you go before Grace?” Mrs. White yelled.

“I didn’t.. Grace went and was down there for a while,” Mr. White said in a scratchy voice.

“WHERE IS SHE?” Mrs. White said starting to cry.

“I’m going down, I’m the best swimmer, and I have goggles,” Griffin said, in a determined voice.

“Be careful, please, take a lot of breaths before you g..” Mrs. White stopped mid sentence, to find Griffin was already under, and he left his life jacket.

“If he isn’t back in five minutes, I’m going,” Mr. White said, “Keep your life jacket on no matter what.”

Griffin plunged to the bottom, searching for his boat. He finally found it, sitting their. He went in through the window, and he came up to find Grace.

“Grace? Come on, we don’t have much time!” Griffin said swimming over to where Grace was.

“I can’t swim.. I can’t do it,” Grace said crying.

“Just hold my hand and I’ll guide you through it. Nothing will happen to you,” He said taking her hand.

“Are you sure?” Grace said as she slowly stopped crying.

“Positive, but we have to go now, my head can’t even fit here,” Griffin stated.

Griffin pushed Grace through the window, still holding her hand. They then both flew to the top of the service

where they both found the rest of their family.

“Thank you Griffin,” Grace said.

“Griffin! You are a hero! Let’s get out of here, and go home! This has been a crazy trip, that we will never forget!” Mrs. White said, in a very proud voice.