Chapter One: Different

Everyone's special. That's what my parents told me all the time. In fact, it was probably repeated in our household once a day. I think they said it more as a reassurance, it's not as if they actually believed it.

I believed them for a long time, that every one was special, and in some ways we all are, but only a few are different. And if I were going to identify with one category, it would be different.
Call me crazy – which I have been – but I have a feeling mutant is more of the way to describe what I am. I haven't always been this way, but now I can't remember a time when I wasn't able to do what I can.
My name is Tallulah Avery and I can control water.

It happened so suddenly, and every one noticed and then I was labeled 'different' and 'the freak' the usual kind of things for people like me, or so I'm told now, anyway.
I was the captain of the high school swim team and I was only a junior. It was practically unheard of, but I had a gift. I guess I just didn't realize how true that was, until the incident. I was the perfect leader, the fastest racer, and to top it all off I hadn't missed a single meet since middle school. But then every thing changed and I thought I would never be able to go into the water again.

"Hey, Lula!" My best friend waved to me from the stands, even if he wasn't waving you'd still be able to see him - he was a good head and shoulders above the average teen, and his bright red hair didn't help matters either. It was the championship gala. There was only one more heat between me and the final trophy of the season.
I raised my goggles and threw him a smile. Toby Johnson had supported me in every single race, and never missed a single swim. He was the school photographer and always had the liberty of capturing my winner's pose.

"Good luck out there." The girl in the lane to my left gave me a curt nod. She was from the school a few miles out of town, I'd beaten her before in races so wasn't threatened by her obvious attempt to throw me off my game.

"Thanks, Crystal, you too."
The lifeguard climbed the ladder to his chair and poised the whistle in between his teeth. The coaches were lined up on the outside of the pool holding the towels, trying to psych each other out. They'd probably already placed their bets on who was the next champion. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other schools' coaches placed bets on me too.

I tuned it all out.

Nothing could throw me off. When I was near the water I could drown every one out.
The blare from the whistle was short, sharp and assaulted everyone's ears. I always had my swimming cap pulled down tight over my ears, that way I wasn't stunned for one precious second like the others.
I often wondered if that one-second advantage was what helped me to win, but I knew it was more than that. I'd trained for these kinds of moments since I was six years old. As soon as I was old enough my parents had signed me up. I was at the pool as often as I could be, and if I wasn't in the water then I was standing on the side, coaching the kids at the outdoor center.
Before the second of silence after the whistle I had already broken the crystalline surface. The cool water hugged my skin, but I pushed it away with strong, swift strokes. Breathing in every six, not every four. I loved how blurred my vision became when I was underwater, nothing was definite except the fact that the water surrounded me and I could bend it to my will.

Every kick of my legs propelled me forward faster than imaginable. Three more strokes and I had hit the other side of the pool, ducking my head down quickly for the turn. Even though I tumbled through the water, I kept in control and forced my lungs to clench even tighter as I still waited my required six strokes.

You can lose what's up and what's down when you're swimming, so sometimes it's just better to close your eyes. I never told any one that I did, they'd tell me it was a stupid mistake, but I felt no need to worry, if anything it just improved my game. When I came up for air I gulped down the oxygen that my raw throat craved, consoling myself that in two more laps it would be over and I'd have one more trophy to add the collection. Maybe this one could go on the mantle piece?

But one moment of distraction and it's all over.

I wish I hadn't looked left. Maybe if I hadn't I wouldn't have seen Crystal duck her head for the tumble. I wouldn't have seen her push off three seconds before me. I wouldn't have felt the need to push myself harder, and I wouldn't have lost control.

My muscles were aching, but not enough to slow me down. I'd already matched Crystal's speed, but it didn't matter; the damage had already been done.

The current I'd been pushing back had gotten stronger and stronger. I thought it strange that it felt like the water was pushing me rather than the other way round, but I didn't think too much of it until it was time for the final push off. I ducked my head down and rolled.
The water behind me surged forward forcing me to dive deeper, if I'd kept watch to the left and right of me I would have seen what was happening, but I'd made that mistake once already. I'd had to wait for Toby to tell me afterwards what had happened to the others.

Suddenly the water felt like a ton of bricks resting on my shoulders, forcing me down until my stomach hit the floor of the pool. I strained against the weight of the water crushing the little air I had left in my lungs. Then I made the mistake of opening my mouth.

In normal circumstances I would have breathed in an awful lot of chlorinated water, choked and tried to surface, but that didn't happen. The weight that had been crushing me only seconds before was suddenly released, I looked down and saw beads of water roll down my swimming suit, and drip onto the bone-dry tiles beneath me. I didn't breathe in a mass of pool water, I was breathing air. As in above water air, which was not scientifically possible.

I managed to roll onto my back and look up. It was like I was in a bubble, everything around me was completely dry, like I had created a waterproof shield that I didn't know how to turn off. If I put my hand in front of my face I could see it clearly, but the water lapping at my protection distorted everything else. I could just about make out the dark colours of the coaches' jackets as they leant at the side of the pool, trying to figure out what was happening, but I was transfixed by the reflections of the luminescent lighting.
One thousand noises crashed into my bubble all at once. Mostly the warbled screams of the crowd above me.

"Lula! Lula!" They screamed.
Strangely I felt no fear, I was freaked out a little bit, but I wasn't scared of what I had done. Perhaps I should have been.