It was pitch black. All I could feel was the pull of the ocean current and the spray of salt water on my face. I sailed on a magnificent vessel that felt as if it was perfect for me. At my side I could see the silhouettes of my two best friends and one other person that I didn't recognize. We sailed at an easy pace, one that I controlled. It was as if the boat was listening to my every thought.

Suddenly, the ocean began to churn. The sea casted twenty foot waves crashing down on our boat. Then, out of the depths of the ocean, arose large, scaly tentacles that reached over and wrapped around the vessel. Only one thought occurred to me. It must be the Kraken. The monster pulled itself on board and made direct eye contact with me.

"Skylar." The squid creature said clearly in a stern female voice.

I was too stunned to reply. How can this thing talk? And more importantly, how did it know my name?

"Skylar!"

I lifted my head up. I fell asleep in class again. It was only a dream. Only a dream.

"Thank you for joining us Miss Cobalt." My teacher said in the same stern voice the monster in my dream had. The whole class snickered at me.

"Quiet!" Mrs. Owen tried to settle down the class. "Now, Skylar. Can you please tell me the element with this symbol?" She picked up a long wooden pointer stick and moved over to a poster of the periodic table. She pointed it to one of the boxes but I couldn't make out the letters. I have suffered from dyslexia for as long as I can remember.

"Uhhh..." I answered stupidly. I know that I would know the answer if I could just read the letters.

"It's Mn." Whispered a voice next to me. I looked over and see my friend, Sage. Well "friend" is probably a bit of a stretch. Sage doesn't really have friends and so he kinda hangs out with me and my real friends. He's exceptionally smart, you can tell just by looking at him. He's a perfect example of a stereotypical nerd. He wears glasses, and braces. He has a bad case of acne and walks with a limp. That doesn't surprise me because it looks as though his shoes are ten sizes too big for his feet.

"That's Manganese." I said confidently. I muttered a quick thanks to Sage before turning attentively back to Mrs. Owen as she droned on about the importance of the elements.

As the bell rang to dismiss us for lunch, Sage struggled over to me. "That was a close one with Mrs. Owen today huh?" He asked.

"Uh, yeah. Real close." Honestly that wasn't what I would call "close". Incidents like that happen to me just about every day. I try to be a good student. I really do. I like to learn and I consider myself to be smart, but I have problems focusing in class. I have a serious case of ADHD so sitting down in a classroom for seven hours a day isn't exactly fun for me. My dyslexia just adds insult to injury in my opinion. It's not enough that I can't pay attention in class, but I can't read anything either.

Luckily I'm not alone. My best friend, Naomi Chang, suffers from the exact same conditions as me. She too was abandoned by her father when she was very young. We both live with our moms, however we have very different lifestyles.

I live in suburban Georgia with my mom, a beautiful hardworking woman who does everything she can to raise me by herself. People say I look like my mom, but I don't really see it. I mean we both have the same curly dark brown hair and complexion, but that is where the similarities end. I have naturally tan skin and I am told that I have my father's swirling green and blue eyes.

Naomi lives in the lower income area of Atlanta, where her mom lays in bed drinking and living off of welfare money. Naomi spends most of her time at my house, to get away from it all. It's okay with me. She's fun. I wouldn't call her "goth" but she's definitely more of a punk. She has straight black hair and an asian face with dark black almond shape eyes. And I mean dark. When you look into her eyes it's as if you're looking straight down into a bottomless pit. She has light skin which she normally covers with black clothing. Her wrists and neck are full of chain jewelry of all sizes and shapes and she wears black combat boots with almost everything. My mom thinks that she's a bad influence on me, but she tolerates her in our house. I think she knows that Naomi is just about my only friend. Well, other than Zeke. Zeke is another story.

Zeke is my neighbor. He is tall, with dirty blonde wavy hair and a friendly face that always smiles. The bridge of his nose is littered with freckles that extend below his deep sapphire blue eyes. We work as lifeguards together at the neighborhood pool, and Zeke also works part time at our local dive shop. He is the one who first got me into scuba diving; the only sport I've ever been coordinated enough for. We've been best friends for as long as I can remember... Well actually until last year when he asked me out. Yes, Zeke is my boyfriend. But that's not the point. The point is that together, Naomi, Zeke and I are like the three musketeers. We're inseparable until we get to high school. Zeke is a sophomore and Naomi and I are freshmen.

Sage and I walked out of class where I tried to ditch him in the hallway. I wasn't trying to be mean or anything, it's just that Sage doesn't really fit in with us. Finally, by the time I reached the lunch room, there was no sign of Sage. Someone came up behind me and put his hands around my eyes.

"Guess who?"

I laughed and turned around. "Hey Zeke. Have you seen Naomi?"

"Right here." Said Naomi as she walked up to us with her lunch.

"What's wrong with you Sky? You look like you've seen a ghost." She said to me as she took a bite of her sandwich.

Naomi has this weird way of detecting fear in people, even if you don't show it. I realize that I've been thinking of the dream I had in Chemistry class.

"It's nothing." I mumbled. I took Zeke's hand and started towards the lunch line when Naomi stopped me.

"You know what? Let's skip school for the rest of the day. You don't look like you're in any shape to learn." And with that, the three of us headed out of the school and down to Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta.

Naomi, Zeke and I sat down in the grass and started to eat. Everything should have been perfect, but I felt as if something was following us. I glanced over and saw the Georgia Aquarium across the street. The sight of the building calmed me. I've been volunteering at the aquarium for the past year and it's always the place where I feel most alive.

"Can we go to the aquarium? I feel like I need to relax a little." I asked.

"Sure, if you can get us in for free. That place is expensive!" Naomi exclaimed.

"Of course it's expensive, it's the world's largest aquarium! And yeah I think I know a way to sneak in..." I replied. We all got up and walked over to the impressive building. There are approximately eight million gallons of saltwater in the building along with an assortment of five hundred different sea creatures, including one of my favorites, the whale shark.

We casually walked over to one of the employee entrances and I slapped my badge on the identification system. Verifying that I am a volunteer, it unlocked the door to let me in.

Once inside, a blast of cool salty air hit me. It instantly calmed my nerves. I looked over at Zeke and Naomi and gave them a little smile to let them know that I was okay.

I had just started to look around when I saw a familiar geeky face staring at me. I thought I lost him at school! What is he doing here during the school day? I quickly turned my face away in the hope that he hadn't seen me. When I didn't hear his nasally voice call out to me, I knew that I was safe... For now.

I turned back and looked at Naomi and Zeke to give them the Don't look now but there is a kid who would totally rat us out look. Once they saw him, we all started to head in the opposite direction over to my favorite tank, the Ocean Voyager.

On our way there, I saw another volunteer standing outside the exhibit. I instantly recognized him as Bruce, one of the senior volunteers. He has been volunteering for about 3 years now. He always seems to work whereever I do and he's honestly kinda creepy. He's keeps trying to hit on me, even though he's like a thousand years older than me.

Luckily, Zeke was with me. I hoped that that was enough to get the creep away from me.

Bruce sauntered over to me when Zeke saw him. Instantly jealous, he wrapped his arms around my waist and gave me a kiss on the nose. Right in front of Bruce.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Naomi cracking up silently with tears in her eyes. I looked over at Bruce and I swear I could see his temple veins throbbing.

I felt kinda bad so I unwrapped Zeke's arms and went over to Bruce to try and calm him down. As I approached him, he suddenly grabbed my arm violently and started to drag me away.

I tried to fight off his grip, but he was a lot stronger than I thought. I kicked him in the shins and everything else I could reach but he acted as if he couldn't feel pain at all. Paralyzed with fear, I looked at Naomi and Zeke just to verify that I was not going crazy. Naomi's face was in shock while Zeke looked like he was trying to decide between coming to save me or calling the police. Bruce dragged me all the way up to the top of the Ocean Voyager exhibit without anybody even giving us a second glance. Naomi and Zeke hurried to keep up with us. Then something even weirder happened. Bruce transformed.

His skin started to bubble. His eyes turned a eerie yellow and his skins turned scaly. Spiny ridges came off of his back and ran down his tail. His feet turned into large furry paws with dangerous looking claws. He grew two more ugly heads. Bruce is a monster.

I was about to scream for help when the weirdest thing happened (as if all that wasn't weird enough). Sage ran toward me out of nowhere and took off his pants.

Luckily he didn't turn into a monster. Instead of where his legs should have be, there were fuzzy brown animal legs, and his feet were replaced with hooves. His hat fell off, revealing tiny curled horns sprouting from his unruly hair. Sage just turned into some kind of goat boy creature? No, that's not it, I thought. Satyr is the word I'm looking for. He is a mythological creature? I must be dreaming still...

Then Sage pulled out a bow and arrow and started to fight the monster. This couldn't be happening.

"Skylar! Watch out! I am going to aim for his should so he'll let you go! Once he does, get out of the way!" Sage yelled at me.

I'm was so stunned that the only thing I could manage to do was nod my head. Sage's aim was spot on. The arrow hit the Bruce-Monster-Thing right in the chest and he stumbled back. Only Sage didn't predict everything correctly. Bruce-Monster-Thing held on to me. We both splashed right into Ocean Voyager.

Suddenly, I felt a rush of strength. Energy flowed through my entire body and I managed to pry Bruce off of me. That arrow should have killed him. He should at least bleed. Something else was wrong. Then, Bruce began to dissolve. I stared as Bruce turned into a giant cloud of dust. The last thing I saw before passing out was a manta ray gliding through the cloud.