Chapter One: "Fish Out of Water"
"Save the cheerleader, save the world."
That was the famous sentence that coursed through the minds of a group of individuals during the weeks preceding November 8th. They all came from different places all over the world. The odds of all of them ever meeting were completely slim. Yet somehow, fate pulled through. The story circled around those individuals and their powers, but really, were they the only ones with powers? The only ones with destinies unfolding before them? This is the story about one certain heroine-to-be. This is how she becomes a legend…
Betty Baldwin was lying on her bed in her dorm, studying with books spread all over it. Papers were scattered around as she scribbled a little here and there after reading a segment. Her roommate Melissa McGowan was out partying in the town (something foreign to Betty). Every day after class Betty would put in two hours of studying, another few for her swim team, and then the rest for extra stuff… usually getting back to studying or swimming at the campus pool.
Betty was at Durst University on a scholarship, so she was really uptight about her time usage. She was a fantastic swimmer, hence the scholarship (go figure). She loved anything to do with water sports. Whether it was water skiing or diving, she loved it all. She had a really hot body as a result, but never really flaunted that. Betty was the hot prudish type. She's the one that dismissed guys drooling after her. It was no wonder she was single since high school. In her mind, being single is being free.
Her pink RAZR cell phone began vibrating gently as it sat right next to one of her textbooks. She grabbed it before it fell off the bed. She saw that Melissa was calling her from the caller I.D.
"Hey, Melissa," she said as soon as she opened her phone up, "I'm kind of busy right now."
"I know, I know," came that jovial response, "You're busy studying and being boring. I just wanted to know if you wanted me to pick something up or something while I'm in town. I'm getting dinner for us. I was thinking Chinese or something."
Betty rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, sure. Chinese sounds great. Note that I might go swimming since I missed practice already. I got to do something to make it up to the coach, you know? If I miss practice again then I'm getting a licking from the girls, so I'm avoiding that."
"Ha-ha, sure. I'll set aside some of that Panda Express or something then. Wish you luck though. Later."
"Bye then," Betty said as she hung up and tossed her phone aside, scribbled a few notes down, and got up off her bed. She grabbed her bag for her clothes and her keys and left her room.
Betty was in her tight, flattering swimsuit as she climbed up the tall diving board. The pool was filled as always on a sunny day. Pretty people with pretty bodies mingled amongst themselves. Betty was the only one who was actually using the diving board, so it was no big if she hogged it to herself. Not everyone was there for a scholarship in swimming anyways.
She slapped back on her goggles and walked slowly to the end of the board. She braced herself as she threw her body down, making two flips before crashing down into the water. But she wasn't prepared for that. Far from it…
The nanosecond she was away from until hitting the water she realized she was in an oddly positioned angle, thus her body fell into the water pretty painfully. While submerged, she tried to scream, but bubbles just escaped her mouth. Betty didn't know if anyone, maybe the lifeguard, perhaps, would notice.
Now she was at the bottom of the pool, struggling to swim to the top when the strangest thing happened. She was breathing. She was inhaling and exhaling as normally as done out of water. Betty was amazed at this.
The lifeguard threw himself into the water and grabbed her motionless body to the edge of the pool where she coughed out water and climbed to the warm, dry concrete.
The lifeguard did his best to help her. However there was absolutely nothing to worry about since she seemed perfectly fine. He did the old interrogation thing anyways.
"Are you alright?" he asked. She rubbed her red eyes and looked up to see him face-to-face. She gasped. It was Jason Weldon, Betty's high school sweetie. He gasped in amazement as well finally seeing his damsel minus the distress.
"J-Jason," Betty began, "is it really you?"
"Betty. It's been such a long time."
"What are you doing here? I thought you were going to California University!" She nearly cried as the two embraced each other, usually not the norm when it comes to rescuing a drowning patron, but the two shrugged that idea after seeing each other once again.
"I'm a student here. I got a late acceptation. I didn't expect to see you around though," he said, "This is so unreal."
Betty laughed. "Not really. I mean, I'm still me. I belong in the water. Even through high school I was in the water. You can't have forgotten, have you?"
"N-No. Not at all. I'm just shocked…"
Betty nodded. Jason then remembered that his former girlfriend was drowning just a minute ago. People were watching intently, hoping that she was alright.
"Oh, damn. Are you alright, though? You just crashed down into the water. Sounded pretty bad."
"Oh, I'm fine, really. Huh, talk about a bad position. I'm good."
"Are you sure? It didn't seem that way. You were under for a bit. It took me a while to figure out that you weren't moving…"
Betty stood up and put a hand on Jason's tanned, muscular shoulder in that friendly-flirty way. "Like I said, Jason. I belong in the water."
Betty quickly headed off into the locker rooms to change back into clothes and flee that embarrassing scene. She ran out towards the exit of the pool in a hurry to get back to her dorm. Jason quickly left his tower to grab Betty's arm, however.
"What is it?" she asked.
Jason scratched the back of his head as he tried to muster up the strength. "Well, my shift ends at six. I was kind of wondering if—well—if we could go out tonight? Like into town for some dinner and some catching up?"
Betty remained quiet. Jason noticed this sign and immediately turned red.
"Oh, well, you don't have to. I bet you have a lot of homework and stuff. No worries. Sorry."
"No, no, no, Jason. It's just… my roommate brought dinner for me. Plus I have to really study tonight. I just came to the pool for some practice so that the coach doesn't bite my head off tomorrow. He-he."
Disappointment exerted from Jason the more he tried to hide it. He tried, however, to stay cool. "Oh, well, that's okay," he said, "we can totally do it some other time. No worries."
Betty felt so bad, but she couldn't afford to do badly on her test the day after. She had to do something to make her former boyfriend feel better.
"But hey," she said earnestly, "I think you could come with me and my roommate Melissa to a dance club this Friday. I'm totally free so we decided to have a little celebration for the first week in classes. You can totally come."
Jason's face brightened. "Really? Wow, that sounds great. I'll definitely remember."
"Cool. I'll check you out over here before we leave then."
"Sounds fine. Well… later, Betty." Jason turned red again.
"Yeah," Betty said, "later, Jason." She herself started to blush, so in an instant she walked away leaving the moment feeling rather awkward.
Betty entered her dorm to see that Melissa was lying on her bed, struggling with chopsticks. The TV was on. Betty threw her things on her side of the room and dropped on the bed, sighing.
"I heard something bad happened down at the pool. A, um, drowning incident? Are you alright?"
Betty turned to look at Melissa. Melissa McGowan was Betty's opposite in many ways. First of all, Melissa was rich and pampered. It's a wonder she didn't join a sorority. She was also extremely pretty. Betty was pretty in her own way, but Melissa was hot in everyone else's. Melissa had a head of brown hair and great facial features.
"Yeah," Betty said tiredly, "I'm fine. I actually met someone I never thought I'd meet again, so it balanced out the pain."
Melissa jumped up in excitement. "Ooh, who was it?" she asked.
"My old boyfriend Jason from high school," Betty said. Melissa looked happy. "He 'rescued' me. Note that I didn't even need rescuing, but it was great that we could see each other again. He's the new lifeguard."
Melissa said, "Lifeguards are always a good thing. You, my friend, are a tigress. I never knew you had such a past love life."
Betty laughed.
"Well, it's totally over. I think… Anyways, I don't have time for boyfriends. He asked me out on a date tonight, but besides having to study… I just don't think I feel that way about him anymore. I came here for school. That's it."
"That sucks. You should have played around with him before knocking him off. I'd fake a drowning just to get saved by a hottie lifeguard. It'd be like in the movies. He can play the hero and I, the damsel in distress."
"If you want him," Betty began, "then take him. I don't have time for heroes." And with that she flipped open her textbook and began reading intently while Melissa was forced to resume minding her own business.
