Aquaphobia

Introduction

My name is Scott Voorhees and I'm 17 years old. I'm an only child, I live with my grandmother, and I'm basically failing school. Well, my last school that is. My parents passed away when I was younger and I've been living with my grandmother ever since. I'm currently in the process of moving, just as I have every other few weeks, only this time is a bit different. The thing is, she's been diagnosed with Environmental Instability Complex, commonly known as EIC. With such a disease, her mental and physical abilities are rendered useless if she doesn't adapt to an environment within a given time of settling there. In other words, if she's still feeling sick after 2 months of living somewhere, we have to move. So that's how I'm currently on my fourth transfer this year.

Moving to a new town isn't exactly my cup of tea, and it's never been of any importance to me at all. Matter of fact, I hate it. The process of being in a new area, being around new people, and being forced to make new friends isn't something I ever have or ever will appreciate. Don't get me wrong here, I'm no run-of-the-mill jerk, I just have the worst social anxiety in the world. While some people might say I have a fear of other people, I deny the statement. I then proceed to tell them what my truest fear is: water. Yup. Water. Never want to touch it; never will. The thought of being surrounded by a substance capable of suffocation is absolutely crazy! What's worse is that if more water adds to the current water, there's nothing you can do about it! I've always avoided it as much as possible. Instead of showering, I use the garden hose in the backyard of whatever house we settle in, and that's how I've been living most of my life.

Now my intense fear of water is what made this newest move an absolute nightmare. I was studying in my room one night while eating some yogurt when suddenly Grandmother called me out to the dining room. When I got there, she told me to sit down at the table, because she had an announcement. She ALWAYS did this whenever we were going to move, and she acted like it was something new every time. It didn't bother me. I knew she had my best interests in mind. She simply didn't want it to be a shock out of nowhere, and instead made it as formally planned as possible. I sat down as told, and proceeded to get an earful on how we were moving to some place called "Insula." I'd never heard of it, and it honestly wasn't a big deal until she said the word following "Insula." The word was "Islands," and I instantly freaked out. What's more is when she said we were travelling by boat, I got sick and threw up all over the floor. I couldn't believe my ears. How was I, Scott Voorhees, supposed to travel to an ISLAND on a BOAT if I couldn't even take a SHOWER without being frightened?! I pleaded and begged but she simply wouldn't hear it. We were moving to Insula Islands, and that was that. I cried myself to sleep that night and awoke the next morning as she told me the date of the move: exactly one week later. I knew the day was to come and I feared every hour until it did.

When I boarded the ship that would take us to Insula, I held onto Grandmother like a child to his parent. It was a little bit embarrassing for the other passengers to see, but I honestly didn't care. It didn't matter though, because not even 4 minutes into the cruise, I passed out. Thankfully, I remained asleep for the remainder of the ride, and was awoken by Grandmother telling me we were there. With some fear in my body, I stepped off the boat and onto the island. I didn't know where we were. It was a huge Island, and from the looks of it, several other islands surrounded it in a large circle. Since it was a land mass surrounded by water, my fear got the best of me as soon as I saw it. I started to breathe heavily, shiver in fear, and my footsteps grew really heavy. All I told myself was that the United States was technically a large island too, so the water was everywhere. Grandmother also gave me some confidence as we began to walk across the island in search of our home.