Dormant
DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything.
Everyone knows Rhona's the best swimmer on the team. She's certainly the fastest. Her coach says she has natural talent and that she just seems to belong in the water.
She might even become world class if she gets the proper training.
Rhona can't explain in, but every time she jumps into the pool or sits by water, she feels like she's at home.
xxx
One day, she saves someone's life.
She's walking in the Preserve when she hears yelling. She runs over and sees a group of students – people she's seen around the school but never even spoken to – standing by the edge of a lake. They turn and look at her, their faces radiating fear.
Rhona looks at them, then at the lake. She doesn't think twice. She races over and dives right in.
Later, after the man she's saved has finished coughing his lungs up, he looks around for Rhona. Rhona has no idea why, but she really doesn't like the way he's staring at her.
It's only when she's back home that she realises nobody called the police. Or an ambulance.
xxx
After that, she wants to be back in the water. She wants it so desperately she feels like she could tear her own skin off. It's all she can think about.
One day, she can't bear it any longer. After school is over, she races over to the lake, strips down to her swimwear and leaps into the water. She swims out into the middle of the lake and dives.
xxx
She dreams about the sea.
She hears the crash of waves on rock and the gentle murmur of the tide. She tastes the salt on her lips as she wakes up. She never remembers a time when she actually went to the sea.
It takes her a while to understand that's because she actually hasn't. She's never seen the sea. Not once.
xxx
Rhona comes up for air and sees a figure by the edge of the lake. She doesn't think anything of it, but the next time she visits the lake she can't shake the feeling that someone's watching.
She doesn't go for a swim that day.
xxx
"Hi."
Rhona looks up from her book to see a girl standing in front of her table. "Hi," she replies.
"It's Rhona, right? I'm Lydia." Without waiting for an invitation, Lydia pulls out a chair and sits down. She doesn't need to introduce herself. Everyone in school knows who Lydia Martin is.
Wait. She was one of the students by the lake. Rhona looks around her and sees two more of them by the library door.
Lydia smiles at her. "Come to my house after school today. We need to talk."
END.