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“My mom tried to get me to eat liver at Rita’s Cafeteria one time. I wrapped it in my napkin and flushed it down the toilet.” A piranha surfaced. It snapped its teeth. “Yikes. Okay. Need distraction. Tell me another story.”
“Princess Andromeda was chained to a rock as a virgin sacrifice to stop Poseidon’s sea monster from devouring everything.”
“Wow. They really liked the rock-death thingy,” Mary Lou said. “What did she do wrong?”
“Nothing. Poseidon was punishing her mother for bragging about her daughter’s beauty.”
“There we are with the braggy again,” Mary Lou said. “So, Andromeda didn’t even do anything wrong and she ended up in the ocean? Why?”
“They needed a virgin sacrifice. But then Perseus came and saved her.”
“Because the pure girls get rescued.” Mary Lou felt something she didn’t let herself feel often: She was well and truly pissed off. “Why do girls have to be all pure and innocent and good? Why don’t guys have to be?”
“No argument here. I always thought it was pretty silly.”
“If I weren’t about to die, I would totally rewrite that.”
“If I weren’t about to be eaten by piranhas, I would tell you that I love you.”
Mary Lou smiled. “You can still tell me that.”
“Okay. I love you.”
“Even though I’m a wild girl who likes sex and adventure? Even though I’m not a pure and chaste princess who needs rescuing? Well, technically, I do need rescuing. We both do. But that’s not the point.”
“I love you for who you are, not for who the world thinks you should be.”
Tane stretched his hand through the ropes as far as it would go. He was just able to grasp the tips of Mary Lou’s fingers. Mary Lou’s eyes filled with tears. “Wouldn’t you know, just when I feel okay about myself and find a cool guy, I’m gonna be killed off.” The rope jerked harder this time, and both Tane and Mary Lou reacted. It swung out a bit, bringing them close to the ledge. Mary Lou could almost touch it with her feet. She had an idea.
“When my sister and I were kids, we used to have this old tire swing, and we’d swing out over this creek every day in the summer.”
“Seems an odd time for reminiscing, but go on.”
“See, we’d hold on and swing really hard and try to make it to the other side. If we use our weight, I’ll bet we could reach that ledge.”
“Dunno. That rope’s a bit dodgy. Could snap if we pull too hard, and then we’re piranha food.”
“We’re piranha food if we don’t. I don’t know about you, but if I’m gonna be chained to a rock by the gods, I’d rather go out as the person who brought fire back from the mountain than as a pure princess who didn’t have the sense to say to everyone, “Oh, hell no, you are not sacrificing me to some sea monster!”
“You’ve got a point. Let’s do it.”
Mary Lou wasn’t sure if her plan would work. Plenty of times, she and Annie had fallen right into the cold creek. But it was worth a try. It took a second to get it — Mary Lou went right when Tane swung left and they twirled around in a dizzying circle for a second. But then they got the rhythm. They pendulumed from side to side. Below, the piranhas zipped about in a frenzy. Overhead, the rope frayed with its next sharp drop, and Mary Lou screamed. But she did not stop swaying. Her feet scrambled at the ledge, scraping rock into the water.
“We’ve got to build up speed,” she shouted.
“If this one doesn’t work, the rope will break for sure.”
Mary Lou looked up. She bit her lip. The rope was pretty frayed.
“Worth a shot,” she said.
They swung heavily and slowly at first, but picked up speed, swinging farther with each pass. Once. Twice. Mary Lou’s feet almost touched! Third pass and she knew they’d make it.
“You know what, Tane?” she shouted as they came around again.
“What?” he shouted back.
“I totally want to make out with you!”
