Chapter Seven

The Lake

When morning came, my eyes were wide open after only one hour of sleep. I wasn't even tired an inch though, because there was simply no room amongst the worry of the waiting lessons. I thought about pretending I was sick or something to stop them from taking me to the lake, but as I thought about it more, I began to understand that they were trying to help me and do me a favour. I couldn't betray that.
"Nami, you awake?"

Kuu was knocking at my door, and I could hear Kana whispering behind her. "With your voice decibel, I would say she is now."

"Shut up, Kana!"

"I-I'm awake," I stuttered, biting my lip as I headed across the room to the door. "But what do you want me to wear?"

Kana opened the door and held up a bathing suit. "Here, wear this. It's Rakka's spare."

It was a thin light blue swimming suit with a pair of purple shorts. They were a little faded, but I wasn't worried about their appearance.

"They should fit, so get changing," Kana said, clearly excited about today. "Head downstairs when you're done and we'll have a quick breakfast before we leave."

They left me to change into my new clothes and I found it a little tighter that I would have liked. Nevertheless I squeezed into it and found it quiet comfortable once it was on. I slipped a shirt over the top then headed downstairs, trying to ignore the thoughts that I had no way out of this.

Kana had been right about breakfast being quick. We were all done in about ten minutes and gathering at the door. My entire body felt weak and I tried to hide the fact that I was shaking.

"How are you feeling about today, Nami?"

I turned to find Nemu dressed in her librarian garments and headed towards the door.

"Okay," I answered simply.

She caught the touch of nerves in my voice and pat my shoulder lightly. "You'll be fine out there."

"Yeah, Hikari can save you if anything happens!" Kuu announced, peering up at a proud Hikari. "She's the bets swimmer, and she always knows what to do in emergencies!"

"There won't be an emergency."

We all looked up to see Reki stepping down the stairs.

"Will there, girls?" she finished, looking at them all individually. In unison they all shook their heads and she headed to the door with Nemu. "Have fun out there, and Nami, be careful. Please."

I nodded and both her and Nemu left together, leaving me alone with the girls.

"We should be going soon too," Hikari said as she watched them leave. "I still have to pack lunch though.

"I'll help." I wasn't sure if it was the tension that made me volunteer, but either way I found myself wrapping up sandwiches with her as Kuu, Kana, and Rakka chatted about the day ahead.

"You're stressing out, aren't you?" Hikari asked as my shaking finger struggled to grip the wrapping for the food.

I let out a shuddering breath. "A little. It's just, I don't know how to swim, and I hate water, so I don't know how I'm going to do it."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Hikari said as she slung an arm over my shoulders. "I've been trained for accidents so you don't have to be afraid of anything happening out there."

I smiled back at her. She really was knowledgeable about everything it seemed.

Once lunch had been packed away, we left for the lake. As we went out onto the street we ran into Reki whom was bustling the children towards the house with the House Mother. She gave me a reassuring smile as I passed and it made me feel much better about everything as though a rose had bloomed inside of me. If she had told me that I would be okay, then I believed it.

The lake was only some metres from the town and ran through the grass like a shimmering blue-scaled serpent. Thick emerald grass grew thickly around it on the bank and the land rose into a sharp hull before them, meaning that my possible embarrassing attempt at swimming would be out of sight from prying eyes.

My feet were heavy as I stepped down towards the lake. I revelled in the feeling of flat ground as I approached the water, knowing that for the remainder of the day, I would be floating away from it.

"Here we are!" Kana announced as we stopped at the lake edge. We all settled down in the grass and stripped to our bathing gear. Hikari handed out lunch and we ate as the sun beat on our backs.

I was silent as I enjoyed what I could of my meal. I ate very slowly, keeping my eyes on the other girls and noting their excitement. I wished I could be smiling and laughing with them, but the tension was too much for me.

"You're not nervous are you Nami?" Rakka asked as she realised I hadn't uttered a word.

A swallowed a large mouthful of bread and cheese and cast my eyes away without answering.

"It's going to be fine!" she continued, patting my arm. "We'll take baby steps all the way!"

"That's right," Kana included, pointing to the water. "We won't take you past the shallows until you're absolutely ready. How does that sound?"
Honestly, it sounded a lot better and a smile even appeared on my face. "Alright then, but are you sure you're willing to wait that long?"

They all nodded together. "Course," Kana said brightly. "We wouldn't force you into anything like that, because then you wouldn't have a hope at all of conquering this fear."

It was a good point. I was beginning to feel confidence build up inside of me and banish the fear. Maybe I could do this after all.

We finished lunch and headed into the water. Everyone went in before I did so they could help me in. I took their hands and slipped into the water, letting out a gasp at the traumatic cold.

Kuu laughed as I started to shiver. "Walk around along the bottom and you'll warm up. Soon it'll feel really nice."

I did as she said and moved my body around the lake with the other girls. Sure enough it started to heat up and I could relax and let my uncertainties ease off of me. It was like the water was magic, the way it made me feel so calm and relaxed.

Once I was ready, the lesson began. Kana led me along the edge of the bank, every now and then easing me a step deeper. I could feel my toes beginning to slide away from the dirt beneath and kicked out in terror. Kana took care of me though. As soon as I started to panic she pulled me back into the shallowest areas and we started again.

Her patience amazed me and I was very grateful for it, but Kuu was a little wilder than Kana had been.

"Let's go deeper!" she said as soon as she took my hand from Kana's. "I think you're ready!"

I let out a whimper, but I allowed myself to be dragged away by the younger girl. She took me out to the middle of the lake where I could no longer find the lake floor. Thankfully Rakka joined us and helped hold me up.

"Lean back really slowly," Kuu instructed.

"But I'll drown!" I panicked.

"You won't," Rakka reassured me. "We'll hold you up until you're ready to float on your own."

I trusted these girls, so I allowed them to take me into their arms and slowly lifted my feet and let my body fall back. They help me onto the surface until slowly their hands began to ease away. My body pulsed with fear as they moved away from me on either side, but I realised I wasn't falling to the lake bottom. I was floating!

"I did it!" I gasped, flipping to let my feet seek the ground again. "I did it!!"

Like any teacher, they were proud of my work. I was brimming with confidence now and I even decided to stay in the centre of the lake. I tested the depths as I took careful steps backwards and forwards.

"I told you that you could do it!" Kana said happily as she swam over to me and clapped me on the shoulder. "And you were all worried and panicky!"

I felt silly having acted like that and admitted it with a laugh. "This feels amazing though! I don't know why I was so scared in the first place!"

I found out the reason a moment later. In all of my excitement I didn't realise that I was letting myself float further out away from the centre and towards the depths. I saw the stricken faces of the girls, and I struck my feet down towards the bottom. Instead I found nothing, only water, and I fell beneath the surface.

I had mastered floating and moving through the water with my feet on the muddy floor beneath, but not actual swimming. Bubbles clouded me in a thick sheet as I disappeared into the darkness of the lake.

"Crap! Where'd she go?" Kana cried, swimming over to the last place she had seen Nami. She dove beneath the surface and searched, but there was only the muddle darkness surrounding her.

Rakka was shivering despite the warmth of the lake water. "Oh no, we can't let her drown! We have to find her!"

Kana resurfaced and shook her head. "I can't see a thing down there! All the mud has been stirred up!"

Kuu gripped Rakka's hand. "Rakka, she'll be okay, right?"

The brown haired girl didn't answer.

Hikari searched with Kana, diving with her into the depths, but everytime they came up again, they hadn't seen a thing.

"That's it, I'm going straight to the bottom!" Hikari said, preparing to dive.

Kana caught her arm. "What if you get tangled up in weeds or something? It's too deep!"

Hikari pulled her hand away calmly. "I was put in charge today by Reki. I have to find her." With that, she disappeared into the water.

The deeper Hikari swam, the worse her sight was. She might as well had kept her eyes closed, but they were wide open and searching for the familiar girl. She had to be close. This was where she had fallen.

Two things flashed through Hikari's mind that kept her searching: Reki's distraught face and Nami's smile. They were both her friends, and she couldn't let them down.

Spurred on by the thought, she reached out and found the muddy floor of the lake. She righted herself and searched through the murky waters, her eyes taking in everything.

Then she saw her.

Nami was floating on her back, completely motionless with her eyes closed. If it wasn't for the water Hikari would have cried at the sight of her stilled friend. She rushed over and caught her around the back with one arm, then kicked herself towards the surface with Nami cuddled to her chest.

Rakka, Kana, and Kuu kept their eyes on the ripples that remained from Hikari's descent. They waited and waited with baited breath until Kana couldn't take it anymore and poised to dive.

Kuu soft hand caught her own. "Be careful."

With a weak smile, Kana nodded then dove into the water. It took her only a second to see Hikari lugging up an unconscious Nami and she swam over to help. The pair of them pulled their friend up to the surface where Rakka and Kuu both exchanged glances of fear.

"Is she breathing?" Rakka asked, helping them to drag Nami towards the bank with Kuu in the lead.

"I don't know yet," Kana gasped, holding the girl up by the shoulders and swimming backwards. "Let's just hope so."

As one group they pulled Nami across the water until they reached the bank. Rakka and Kuu pulled the motionless girl up onto the grass as Hikari and Kana climbed out at the sides. Once they were all on the shore they pulled her out of the long grass to a flatter area where they could rest her down.

Hikari took charge like they had all expected and knelt at Nami's side as they all gave her room, waiting nervously.

She rested her ear against Nami's chest, listening for a beat as the images in her head haunted her. She found it after a moment, a weak pulsing of her heart that struggled against her rib cage.

"She's alive!" Hikari cried out, as shocked at the fact as the other girls. She laid a hand before Nami's nose to try and feel her breath. When it didn't come, her rising heart plummeted. "But she's not breathing," she added, turning a paled face to the others.

Kana took in a deep breath as she remembered Nami's awakening that had almost been the death of her. She had been lying on the bed, her head in Reki's lap as her body refused to breathe. "It won't happen again," she said aloud to herself, dragging herself over to Nami and looking up into Hikari's teary eyes. "Hikari, you're smarter than all of us. Please, do something!"

Hikari swallowed and stared down at her newest friend. She was pale and her lips were blue. She needed air, and it was up to Hikari.

I could hear voices, but they were weak and blurred. It was like hearing them through a thick wall, and I wondered if I was back in the house. Then I remembered falling through the water. My body felt thick and heavy, and I couldn't move an inch.

"What are we going to do?" Rakka said somewhere from the left.

"Hikari, you know what to do, right?" Kana asked from the opposite. "You've been trained for this sort of thing, haven't you?"

Hikari's voice sounded so scared, I wanted to comfort her.

"Did her hand just twitch?" Kuu asked, her voice the weakest.

I tried to move her arm, but it felt dead. Water burned in my lungs and it needed to come out. I tried to cough, but there was not enough strength in it.

"Hikari, we're running out of time! Please!" Kana cried out, revealing a voice filled with fear. It was a Kana that I didn't know.

Hikari let out a strangled sob, then took a breath to keep herself together. I felt her grasped my face, then her fingers pinched my nose, blocking off the little amount of air I was trying to take in.My body trembled as I tried to cough out the water inside of me. I needed to breathe…

Hikari jerked back, stunned, as I coughed up the water in my lungs. My chest heaved as I took in lungful after lungful of air. My body was still trembling as I struggled to rid every drop of water inside of me. The girls flipped me onto my side and it all came out in a thick messy puddle.

Time went slowly for me as I took in those much-needed breaths of air. I felt as though I had fallen out of the cocoon again. I remembered everything, slipping on the cold floor, fighting against the darkness, seeing Reki's face before my consciousness fled…

"Nami? Oh, Nami, please be okay." A gentle hand held my shoulder as my pounding heart began to calm. Hikari's face appeared in front of mine as she bent over me. She was still soaked with water, and a small hopeful smile flashed over her worried face. "Are you okay?"

My body was freezing and I could barely move, but I was alive and breathing again. No loner in the water, I felt safer than I ever had before in my fresh life. "I'm alright," I said with as much strength as I could, which was little more than a strangled croak.

Several hands helped me to my feet, and matching faces appeared before me in a blur. Rakka, Kana, Kuu, and Hikari all stared at me as though I would collapse at any minute. Rakka's arm went around me in a tight hold. "We need to go back," she said as she led me away from the lake. I wouldn't have made it a single step if she hadn't been holding me.

The others followed closely, each voicing their own thoughts.

"Maybe this was a bad idea," Kuu said quietly, casting her eyes to the lake again as she looked over her shoulder.

"Maybe," Hikari agreed softly.

Kana sighed. "Reki's going to kill us."

I shook my head. It took more strength than I had expected it to. "It wasn't your fault… I'm the one who panicked…"

I felt Rakka's hand tighten on my ribs and turned to see her smiling at me weakly. "Don't blame yourself. I think it was going really well."

These girls made me feel much better about myself, about my mistakes and weaknesses. I truly was happy with them, but against my will I began to think of Kozue again, all alone. How I wished she would come out of the trees. "I am always alone. That is how I am fated to be." Her words rang in my mind. Fate certainly was cruel.

It took some time to reach the house again. The other girls were frightened about Reki's wrath once she found out how the swimming had gone, but lying about it wasn't an option as we all agreed. Partly out of the guilt we would share, and partly because she always knew when they were lying.

Kana opened the door first, revealing the main room with only Reki present. She sat at the kitchen table, lighting a cigarette as her mind wandered. She didn't even realise as we stepped inside. She looked alone, but content. She was a proud woman from every angle, but she had a past that surfaced sometimes. I felt this was one of those times.

"Um… Reki?" Rakka was the first to speak.

Reki's head turned and upon seeing us she smiled, then she realised that Rakka's arm was supporting me and she leapt to her feet, all in a matter of seconds "What happened?" she asked quickly, stepped over to me and peering closely as though the answer was printed on my face.

All eyes went to Hikari as she was the best speaker, and she took a deep breath before she plunged. "Nami almost drowned, but don't blame her. We're the ones who weren't keeping a good enough eye on her."

Their heads fell, and I wished I could take the blame instead of them. It seemed that they were constantly getting in trouble because of me.

Reki's eyes studied me again before she turned to look at the other girls one at a time. At first she looked mad enough to shout and yell, but slowly her demeanour relaxed and she let her shoulders droop. "As long as she's okay, than don't worry too much about it. However, I hope you all know how important it is now to watch her carefully."

They all looked a little surprised that they had been let off, but I knew that they would have a talking too later. That was the way Reki did things, I learnt. She dealt with fixing the problem first, then the served out punishments.

Not daring to say anything else, the other girls simply nodded their heads in agreement that they had learnt a valuable lesson and shuffled off to prepare food to warm them up. Reki took me up the stairs towards the bathroom, her arm replacing Rakka's around my waist.

"I can walk now," I told her softly, my voice still weak. "It's alright."

She loosened her grip, but didn't let go until we were in the bathroom. She sat me down at the edge of the bath and pulled a number of towels off of a drying rack. She donned them over my shoulders and wrapped them around me as my fingers shook too badly to grasp the ends myself.

"Do you feel okay?" she asked me. I could tell that she was trying not to release her true worry upon me or the other girls as there was an edge to her voice. They were definitely going to get it later.

"I'm okay, you don't need to worry," I told her sincerely.

She shook her head and smiled. "With you, I always have to worry."

I pouted. "Gee, thanks."

She laughed and she began towel-drying my hair. "You know, I'm going to go easy on them this time because they were so excited to be teaching you to swim, and I think it's a good idea."

I raised my head in surprise. "I think they'll be very shocked when you don't scold them."

"Don't get me wrong, I will be talking to them about it, that's for sure. I will be warning them about how dangerous it was to go out alone with you, but part of that fault lies with me." She sighed and ran a free hand through her hair. "Sorry, Nami. I should have come."

I shook my head beneath the towel. "No, it's alright. Maybe next time?"

"Next time?" She stopped drying me for a moment and stared at me with a raised eyebrow. "You want to go again?"

I shrugged my shoulders, unsure myself. "I guess I want to battle my weaknesses."

"And you want to talk to that girl about it."

"Kozue," I corrected absently, realising that I would enjoy telling her about my swimming lessons.

"Yeah, Kozue." She rubbed her chin with her thumb, thinking. "So she's all alone up there, huh?"

"She won't come down. She says it's how she has to be, and she dreams about being alone all of the time."

Reki released another sigh and dropped the towel from my head. "You're free to go, but may I suggest going to bed? You look exhausted. Have you had more dreams?"

I nodded my head slowly. My eyes were already dropping at hearing the word 'bed'. "I don't think I'm ever going to lose these dreams."

"Don't say that. Like I said, we're all here for you." Reki's smile warmed my heart and gave me the faith that I always seemed to be lacking. I took it gratefully from her and placed it in my heart where it was needed the most.

"I think I will take you up on your offer of going to bed," I decided, standing from the side of the bath. I rocked a little on my feet as the lake had drained me off most of my energy, but Reki held onto me and led me from the bathroom. She helped me into my pyjamas and slipped me into bed. She was so motherly that I wondered if this truly was the way families were supposed to feel. I basked in the feeling as she pulled up the covers and switched off the light.

"Nami?"

I looked towards her silhouette in the darkness. "Yeah?"

"It's okay to come to me if you have a nightmare, even if it's in the middle of the night."

I smiled to her from across the room. "Got it."