Waking up Blank [Published - sample only]

4: "You're a dead girl, Chelsea!"

"No, there's no way I can swim!" I screamed as Joey slowly lowered me in to the pool against my will. They had tried to tell me that I was going to school on a swimming scholarship, which I was supposed to start in two months, and I would have to get back in the water at some time. They even took me to a doctor who examined my leg, and thought it would be good exercise for me since it wouldn't put strain on my bones and muscles, but I couldn't remember how to swim, and that terrified me.

"You've been swimming since you were four years old, Chelsea! Stop struggling, you're just making it more difficult!" Joey yelled in my ear as he held me tightly in his arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck, and held on for my life as he took a few more steps toward the deep end of the pool.

"No, I don't want to!"

"You love the water Chelsea," my mom chimed in from the side of the pool. She had put her book down long enough to see the displeasure etched in my facial features before returning to her reading.

"Tell that to me when I remember how to swim," I said as Joey made it to the deep water. I thought he wouldn't drop me since I was hanging on to him, but I was wrong. My brother dunked us both under the pools smooth surface, and released me from his hold as we plunged deeper into the chilling water.

The cool water surrounded me like a cocoon, inviting me to stay under the water as long as possible. They were right, I felt very at home in the water, but I panicked as I let out a breath of relief; I needed air. I needed to get to the surface before I ran out of air. I pushed off the bottom of the pool and went straight for land. Before I broke the surface, I felt a devious feeling overwhelm me, like I had done something naughty, and was proud of it.

When I breached the surface of the water I saw a short memory of Maddie dripping wet with a playful anger in her eyes. I glanced around her to see that there was a splash line passed just above her towel, about four feet away from the edge of the pool. As I looked around I realized I wasn't in the pool in my back yard, I was somewhere else, but I didn't think to far into it when I looked back at her. Her hair was now a chocolate brown instead of her usual honey colored hair.

"Do you have a death wish?" she questioned while she feigned fury.

"What do you mean?" I asked confused as she stood up from her towel.

"You're a dead girl, Chelsea!" she said jumping into the pool on top of me, sending us both to the pool's cool depths. We wrestled under the surface of the water for a little while before resurfacing to take a breath, but this time when I surfaced I didn't see Maddie. I saw the people that made up my family, and not the one person I really wanted to see and talk to. That way I could find out what happened that night.

"Look she's swimming!" my mom screeched as I looked around for Maddie.

"Chelsea, what are you doing?" Ali asked curiously. I continued to trend water as I looked for my friend, she was no where to be seen, and I didn't know how to answer my sister's question. I knew that I hadn't actually seen Maddie. It wasn't possible, because she was dead, so was it really just a memory? It had felt so real, or maybe I had just hoped it was.

"I was just enjoying the water, it feels nice," I said hesitantly.

"Chelsea," my mother started to say before Ali interrupted her.

"Oh no! She's starting to enjoy the pool again! Quick dunk her under, maybe it will stop her from being a pool rat again," Ali yelled jokingly as Joey grabbed me and held me bridal style in his arms.

"What's going on?" I asked curiously.

"It's a game we play, it's called Colors. I'm thinking of a color, and you have to guess it. When you're wrong I dunk you under the water."