My Published Piece

 Waterslide Wonders

“Hey guys, do you want to go on Mountain Scream next” I asked the rest of my family.

"Okay" they said.

It was the middle of the day at Dollywood splash country in Tennessee. It was going to get up to about 87 degrees, so that’s why we were at the water park. I was on a vacation with my family there. We wanted to come here because our family loves to go to water parks. We were coming off a tube slide and we were going to go on to Mountain Scream, one of the scarier slides. At the top there are three body slides. Two are enclosed, and one other one is not but it is slanting and has some up and down bumps on it.

      I was a little scared, but I had gone on water slide as scary as this one in the Bahamas last summer called the Abyss. I remember that when I went on the Abyss last summer I was scared, but when I went down the slide, It was fun instead. I remember the ridges hitting my back. I wonder if it is going to be like that today?

      I was going to go on the one that had the bumps on it  first, and then go on the green ones that were enclosed. We waited patiently in line. I was very anxious. I didn’t know if I was going to like it or not. I asked my Dad “could you go on the slide first?"

      “Of course,” He said.

       We got onto the deck where the slides were. We kept waiting. I felt like my head was going to burst with all of the anxiety. To calm myself a little, I looked out at the beautiful mountain scenery from the top of the platform. It was really pretty. Finally, it was my turn. I got into the waiting platform. The water rushed harshly onto my legs from the pipes on either side of the slide. I saw my dad at the bottom of the slide holding a thumbs-up symbol. I felt a little reassured by the thumbs up because I knew if it was bad my dad would be holding a thumbs down.

       The lifeguard said “Ok buddy you can go."

       I looked one more time down the slide. It looked very steep. When I looked around at my back, and I looked at the people still waiting on the platform I felt like I should go off of the slide and just go down the stairs. I told myself that I couldn't do that. I looked back at the wood platform one time and I told myself I would be fine, then went down the raging water slide.

    The water slide was so fast that all I felt was my back against the slide and water rushing all over me. It felt awesome to go as fast as an Olympic runner. I could feel the hard ridges hitting my back like tiny little knives. It felt a little like a massage.  I also could feel the bumps bumping me up a little every time I came in contact with them. With the water rushing against me, it was the best break I've had from all the schoolwork that I did before summer came.

      Soon enough the water slide was over. I got out of the bottom of the slide slowly. My whole body was jiggled from the ride. I recovered quickly and soon came walking towards my parents and sister waiting. ‘I did it!’ I kept telling myself. I accomplished what I had wanted to do.

      “Good job!” My sister said. “I saw that you were a little scared up there”

      “Yeah, well I did go on the Abyss last year.”

      "I'm proud of you," my mom said. "I think that you were brave to go on Mountain Scream."

      "I thought that it actually was pretty fun."

      "Really!" My mom said

      "Yes" I said We started walking to another, more moderate slide. Inside, I was proud of myself. I discovered that sometimes things aren't as scary as they seem.