Okay, because I explained everything on the last chapter, I'm glad I don't have to do it now because I know for sure I would've forgotten a character because it's like 11 o'clock at night where I am and I've basically been in front of screens all day. I went to the movies, I typed my blog, updated my profile, wrote like 12 statuses on Facebook, um wrote the Prologue… which you probably just read, and the chapter for one of my other fanfictions that I'll be posting once this one is done. So I'm pretty tired. Oh, and I'm watching the Dominican Republic get crushed by USA in the Olympics for basketball. I absolutely love how everyone's all excited about us being number one in basketball, but no one seems to care that we're like 18th in academics (Please note my freaking sarcasm. I can practically taste it.) Anyway… read and review and on with the chapter!

Also, I update every other day. Just so I can take a break in the middle and write the chapters and crap.

Chapter 1: Start (Again)

Coach Drewes shot the starting gun. Adrenaline shot through my veins making me dive into the water a split second before anyone else could react. The cool pool water was like heaven on my face, and I could feel my pores welcoming the wetness. I loved the water. I loved the way I could practically disappear in it. I loved the way it could swallow me up whole and spit me out feeling all revitalized and new. I loved how I couldn't concentrate on anything but swimming when I was in the water.

I came up for air once. I was doing the butterfly stroke, no idea how many meters I was supposed to be going. I just swam. If coach told me I was next, I was next. I got up on my post and I would swim, feel the exhilaration, and sit back down again.

That's how it's been for months. I've been living from swim meet to swim meet, basically doing nothing in between. Ever since she left, I've had nothing to live for except swimming.

I finish a good 8 seconds before anyone else. I always win. I make sure of it, with hours of training. Lots of running to keep my muscles lean, breath holding contests with Nico (my best friend) and such. It's been good to have a "fresh start" as my mother says. The summer had been rough for me.

"Good job Jackson. Fine job." Coach chuckled as I sat back down, clapping me on the back. I stiffened slightly, though I doubt he noticed.

I swam two more times, and I felt disappointed when the meet was over. I guess everyone feels like that, but for me it was a little more.

I needed swimming. I needed it like had need her, I breathed it. I knew every famous swimmer, and not just Michael Phelps like most people did, and even the ones who weren't so famous. Anything that had to do with water I knew. Every science fair project I'd ever done had been on water, hydrodynamics, its cleanliness, all the minerals people put in it now, how it could be enhanced with electrolytes.

I was obsessed.

_Drowning_

The next day, at school, there was too much noise.

I'd pulled up in my car, a nice Mustang my mom bought me with child support money, with my sunglasses on, and stepped onto the sidewalk. I always wore sunglasses, the sun hurt my eyes and gave me the worst headaches, but it didn't even matter because everyone was chattering. The noise bounced in my skull and killed my senses making it hard to concentrate.

"-did you hear-?"

"-Joey-!"

"-Oh he is-,"

"-Where did it-?"

I kept looking around, my eyes unable to focus on something, anything, unable to grasp a single wisp of matter. I was barely hanging on to my sanity, I didn't need this.

I started walking, almost forgot to lock my car, well, I stumbled really, in this sick green and black haze. I couldn't get into shape. I needed water.

I didn't even attempt to hide my utter discomfort or pain as I entered the building. My stomach was churning and my palms were sweating and the lyrics to the song "Bixby Canyon Bridge" kept repeating in my head at the highest, most obnoxious volume possible.

"Stop." I groaned, resting my aching head against a cool locker door. I removed my sunglasses and instantly winced. My skull began to throb, beating ruggedly in time with something cracked and hard inside my chest.

"Percy?" I heard. The voice sounded like it was underwater. The voice was lucky. I needed to be underwater. I needed to have my pores cooled off and my molecules lost in other molecules. I needed my head to be chilled and I needed to be liquid.

"Percy?" I heard another voice. This one was so far underwater I was sure it was drowning. I wanted to save it, or really, save myself. I know, that was selfish, but who had to know, really?

Something cool and cold pressed against my neck and lips and immediately came up for air, instinctively. I blinked and snapped out of my funk.

"Shit!" I gasped. My breathing was ragged and uneven and my lungs ached so badly I could tell they wanted to burst. I concentrated on the pain instead of the embarrassment of having a weird freak out in the middle of school.

"Perce? You okay?" Rachel asked worriedly. She reminded me of my mother. They both fretted and fussed over me like I was some little kid, and they had teamed up, actually, ever since she left.

"Fine." I ground out. The pain distraction was working, I didn't, couldn't, focus on the strange looks I knew people were giving us. Nico and I were pretty popular, we dominated some attention.

"I think you're lying." she muttered, probably thinking I couldn't hear her. She tossed her red locks over her shoulder and collected the curls into this weird messy bun thing on her head. She looked like she rolled out of bed and just changed her sweats for some jeans. There were paint splatters on her shirt, and words on her jeans, and holes in her shoes. She was a weirdo really, but people loved her because she was so nice and eccentric and enthusiastic. She was contagious really.

"Hey man, are you cool, really?" Nico asked quietly. He was always like that, quiet but demanding, menacing almost. His black hair was even darker than mine, like oil or something, and it stuck up in all directions like he'd just woken up. Though I knew he suffered from insomnia and didn't sleep well at all. The dark circles under his eyes were evidence, but the girls loved it. They said it made him seems incredibly "haunted and rugged".

"Yeah." I said, slightly calmer. The ugly yellow and blue lockers were coming into focus and I could actually hear my thoughts over the roar of other people talking. I finally slid my glasses all the way off and into my pocket. I waved to the few people saying hi to me through the crowd. My heart rate sped up a little, back to normal, whenever I had a "fit" my heart rate slowed dangerously, not sped up.

There was 15 minutes before school officially started so we walked into the main hallway and parked ourselves in our usual corner, waiting for Travis, Conor, Riley, Hazel and Frank.

"Hey, Jackson!" I heard. I of course knew the voice, I talked to the same people every day, I breathed their air, listened to their petty problems, and pretended to enjoy it every day.

"What's up Will?" I said automatically. I knew it was Will.

Will Solace was this totally backwards equation; he was a football player, linebacker or something, but he was nice. He wasn't obnoxious, he was pretty cool, lax, okay to talk to. He wasn't shallow, he was really into music and was even the orchestra teacher's assistant, his dad's a doctor and he always comes to all the sporting events to stand in as a "training medic" though I'm sure he knows more than the school nurse does, though he isn't deep either. He doesn't know much about the hardships of life and he doesn't have any beliefs that clash with other people's. He's normal. Normal and nice.

"Ah, nothing. I was comin' over to tell you that you did freaking amazing in the butterfly yesterday. You only came up for air once." he said, stunned. I smirked, my signature, and nodded a little.

"Thanks man." I said, clapping him on the shoulder.

"Good luck today. I'd show up to the game but I've got training." I shrugged helplessly and he nodded like he understood, though he doesn't. Football is his hobby, swimming is my life. He walked away easily enough, we never really had full length conversations, and he never even gave Nico any more acknowledgement than a nod.

Nico, Rachel and I didn't speak, we just waited in a comfortable silence until we spotted Hazel and Frank walking towards us. Frank had his arms woven tightly around Hazel, who was giggling as he nuzzled her neck. I saw Nico stiffen, flexing his muscles. He was thin, and tall, kind of sinewy, but he played baseball and everyone knew he was a heck of a lot stronger than he looked. Plus, his horrible Death Glares of Doom were enough to scare off freaking Hulk Hogan himself.

"Dude, Nico's gonna rip your throat out." Rachel laughed as she hugged Hazel. The two had been best friends since they were 12, and they would only get closer. Me and Nico had known each other since we were 2 and we were probably going to know each other until we died.

"I can take him." Frank said smugly, looking over at Nico.

"'Sup Frankie." Nico said, well muttered. He was naturally quiet and he got quieter when he was uncomfortable, when there was too much attention on him.

"Hey di Angelo."

"You know Rache, I think you, me and Percy here are the only ones in the whole school who call him 'Nico' and not 'di Angelo'." Hazel mused, kissing me and Nico on the cheeks. She was like my own little sister, and had been since she was adopted at age seven.

The Stoll twins arrived like two seconds later and we basically went through the same thing over again except no one was making Nico uncomfortable so he was actually laughing, well smiling, a little at the stupid jokes the twins made. I watched all this from underwater, coming up for air every once in a while to smile or laugh or crack a joke maybe.

Riley arrived last, as usual. She and Rachel were so much alike it was ridiculous. Her, Rachel, and Hazel had been a trio since 8th grade when Riley moved here and we welcomed her into our little group with open arms. She was a tiny little blonde haired, blue eyed beauty with a shy look but a totally loud and boisterous disposition. She used to make Nico really nervous, but he got over it, and this summer I felt like he did because I'd been a freaking hermit, and she was just too much. A whole heck of a lot louder than Rachel, that's for sure.

"Hey guys! What's up all!" she chirped, giving out hugs and kisses to everyone. Nico never let anyone but Hazel and Riley give him kisses. Even his older sister, Bianca, just had to settle for hugs. They weren't as close as he and Hazel were because she'd gone to live with their uncle for a while when Nico was younger.

The bell rang just as Riley finished greeting us. Her, Rachel and Hazel flounced away quickly, and Rachel and Riley's bun things were bouncing while Hazel's curls blew in some undetectable wind.

The Stoll twins and Frank walked with Nico and I towards the lockers. I was always late to class because I went to my locker right after the bell while most people either carried all their books or went to their lockers before the bell, so the guys all kind of dispersed as I got my books for English class.

I had this class with a girl called Abby. She sat next to me. She started sitting next to me in English right after she left. Abby was beautiful, she could've been a model, or a Megan Foxx stunt double, but she didn't mean much to me. She was just some girl to fill a seat, not a hole. Not a hole in my chest that could be filled with all the popularity, booze, weed, Oxy, or water in the world, Abby wasn't enough for that. No one was, or ever would be. I'd always have to feel this terrible breeze through my chest each and every time I sat down because Abby was her friend. Abby was all that was left.