Cliff Hanger

Olivia Flinn

“Come on Oakley!”

“Mmmmm,” Oakley moaned as Ivy shook her shoulder and yanked the sheets off the bed.

“Hey!” Oakley snapped.

“Get up already! Mom and dad are waiting for us at the bus stop to get to the mountain.The bus won’t wait much longer,” Ivy said, just on the verge of yelling.

As the two sisters bikered like cats and dogs while Oakley got ready, the whole family was finally ready to go on a hike up a big mountain in Arizona. Oakley and Ivy got in the elevator and acted like nothing had ever happened upstairs so they did not need to deal with their parents’ lecture about getting along and being nice.

DING! As they walked out of the elevator they were surprised to not see a bus outside.

“Grate, now thanks to you,” but Ivy got cut off by a lady working at the front desk.

“Bus is in the side parking lot girls.”

“Ha! Hear that!” yelped Oakley. Little did the girls know what would happen next. As they walked around the huge hotel building they saw the bus and a lot of people waiting to get on.

“Morning girls, how are my princesses?” asked their mom.

“Mom, I think we’re just about eight years too old to be called princesses,” replied Oakley.

“Ya, we’re thirteen mom, not four like Zoe,” Ivy added.

“Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed,” mumbled dad.

“Mommy, who wouldn’t want to be called a princess?” asked the littlest sister Zoe who was always favortived and never ever did anything wrong in their parents eyes. Used Moms Makeup, 

“Aww you look beautiful!” Cut her dress into a snowflake,

“Let’s hang it up!” Colored with Sharpie on Ivy’s four page handwritten essay,

“Dont de dremadic, just redo it.” Pooped her pants two times in a row and then on her mom’s hand while she was changing the second poop… (Yes this did really happen)

“Guess we need to go take another bath!” Get the point?

“I’m not sure sweetheart,” she said, glaring at Oakley.

“Let’s get on the bus now,” said Ivy, interrupting.

After five “Are we there yet?” from every child on the bus (12 children were on the bus to be exact) the poor bus driver looked like he was going to explode with furie and anger or stop working for the hotel. Finally they arrived.

“Oh this is going to be so fun!” said their mom cheerfully. Oakley just moaned. Even Zoe looked a little disappointed when she saw the mountain. 

“Where are the princesses and castles?” asked Zoe, looking bummed that she could not see them.

“There are none,” replied her mom bluntly, “That was just to get you to stop whinging.”

But Ivy thought that the mountain was quite pretty, the rocks shimmered in the sunlight and it almost looked like a painting by Jacob van Ruisdael would paint. (she had learned about him in art class before summer break) But that quickly changed when they stepped out into the blistering heat. 

“It is boiling out here,” said someone else who was also getting off the bus.

“It is a hot tomato day!” yelped Zoe getting over the whole castel thing.

“Tamale, hot tamale,” Ivy corrected.

“Oh don’t correct her. It’s cute!” replied her mom. There it is, Zoe does not need to be corrected and never will be. 

“Alright, glad to be out of there?” asked the bus driver. Silence…

“Ok then. I will be back in two hours to pick you up, and there are two rules. #1 say on the path. #2 have fun! Understand?”

“Yes!” everybody yelled.

“I can’t hear you.”

“Yessss!” everyone yelled as loudly as they could.

As the family and group from the hotel started their hike, at only about thirty minutes into the hike Zoe started to fall behind.

“Girls, we are close-ish to the top and your father and I would like to get a picture with the view.”

“We would?” asked their dad in a confused tone of voice.

“Yes Tom, we do,” said their mom with a lot of force, ”Stay here and DO NOT MOVE! This applies to you as well Zoe, you must wait for Mommy and Daddy before you can start walking again. Ok?” asked their mom firmly.

“Yes,” replied the three sisters reluctantly. A little while later Zoe declared she wanted to walk again, but they couldn’t as their mom had instructed. As they waited some more Ivy and Oakley had to find a way to keep Zoe from whining her high pitched “AaAhHHAaaH!”. They played chopsticks, pattycake, and sang the abc’s twice. Finally Zoe had enough and sprang up off the ground and ran. She ran so fast Ivy and Oakley had a hard time catching up to her.

“Zoe! Get back over here.” screamed Oakley.

“Right now!” added Ivy while screaming on the top of her lungs, but it was too late. Zoe had run off the trail and was nearing a cliff.

“We need to stop her!” shouted Ivy moving around the trees as they started to near the edge. 

“Hey, we finally agree on something!” said Oakley, still running.

“This is serious,” yelled Ivy.

“Oh, ummm, slow down Zoe!” half serious and half mocking Ivy.

“Zoe stop!” shrieked Ivy, but running so fast Zoe could not stop in time. 

“AHHHHH!”