The Ghost of the Lake

Chapter 16

Jesus dropped Julia and I off at the front door.

"You ready for the first day?" Julia asks me as we enter.

"Yeah I guess," I reply shakily. Actually, I wasn't ready. I was beyond terrified. My heart was in my throat

"We'll that's good then. Just stick with me and you'll be fine," she says.

I just nod. I was glad for having a friend that was already familiar with her surroundings. Even though Julia was younger than me, it was good having a friend by my side.

We go inside and go through a pair of doors that lead us into a locker room.

When we arrived at Julia's house, we were already late. She grabbed her bathing suit and her backpack which will have her clothes that she would change into afterwards.

Julia enters a bathroom stall and says, "I'll be right back. I just need to change into my bathing suit."

"Yep ok I'll wait for you," I say.

I take a look around. The locker room was pretty big. It had red brick walls. On the walls there were lockers. The lockers were a white pearl color. In front of the lockers there were benches.

Julia steps out in her green one piece bathing suit. "Ready," she asks me.

"Yeah I'm ready," I reply with a nod.

We go through another door, and I find myself out of the locker room. I notice that I am standing right in front of the swimming pool. The other team members are already warming up. The coach looks at us.

She walks over to us and says, "Julia you're late."

"Yes I know. I'm sorry," she responds.

"Don't let it happen again," the coach says. The coach seemed pretty cool about it. I thought that she would be harsher and punish us for being late. Julia leaves and dives into the water. Then to me the coach says, "You must be the new girl. Opal, right?"

"Yep. Opal is right," I say.

"Well Opal welcome to the team. I am coach Karen, but you can just call me Coach. Please join the rest of the team. We are free styling for four laps. You know the procedure right? I recall your dad saying that you were on the swim team at your old town."

"Yeah I was. I know how to do the butterfly, freestyle, backwards, and the dolphin," I say.

"Well that's good then," she says.

I walk towards a lane that is empty. I dive in and start swimming. I swim for four laps and then meet with the rest of the team which was at the end of the pool waiting for everyone else to finish.

There was only two other people that was still doing their laps. There are about seven people in total on the team. It was a small team, but they seem good.

"Alright team," said Coach, as the last person finished her laps, "we have a new team member. Her name is Opal."

I raised my hand when she said my name. Everyone said hi to me. I replied with a small hi.

"As you saw today," continued Karen, "we had two late members. Julia and Opal. I'm very sorry but a rule is a rule, Julia. Opal, you'll soon learn that I don't like it when people are late. We punish those who are late. That punishment is swimming backwards for a mile."

All the blood fell from my face. How could this be. I mean it hadn't actually been my fault. Swimming backwards for a mile was harsh torture.

"Better get started now," Karen said.

Julia and I did as she instructed. I dived off the block and swam towards the surface. I started swimming backwards. Swimming for a mile took most of my time and I barely did any of the other exercises the rest of the team were doing.

When Julia and I finished, it was time to go. I go through the door that leads us into the locker room. I grab my backpack and enter a stall. I get changed and walk out.

"So how did you like your first day?" Asked a familiar voice. I turned around and saw Myra facing me. Gabby was right next to her.

"Hey Myra and Gabby. My day was fine besides the fact that I had to swim for a mile," I respond. The mile had left me exhausted. My hands hurt from all the swimming I had to do.

"Well that's good," said Gabby.

"Yeah we are glad you liked it. Coach Karen is usually very nice. She is probably the nicest and best coach ever. She just has strict rules," says Myra.

"Yeah and those rules are so we can learn from our mistakes," continues Gabby.

"Coach Karen doesn't seem very bad," I say.

"She isn't," says Julia fully clothed.

"Hey Julia how are you," asks Myra.

"I was having a good day," says Julia. "We'll ladies it's been nice seeing you, but Opal and I need to get going."

"Okay then. Bye Opal," they both say.

Julia and I walk out and look for Rue. He had told us that it'd be him picking us up. I guess Jesus convinced Rue that he should bring us home because I spotted Jesus's car in the parking lot.

We walk over to him and I ask him,"Hey I thought Rue would be taking us home."

"I told Rue that I'd pick you up. Plus I had to drop Leo off for his baseball practice," answered Jesus.

"Oh," was all I said.

***

I arrived at my house half an hour later. I walk upstairs right away. I wonder where Nelly, Jackson, and May were at.

I leave my backpack, which I still had on my back, on my bed. Then I get my iPhone and turn the music on.

I walk into the bathroom. I get undressed and get in the shower. The cold water took away all my stress for a while.

When I finished, I got changed and walked into my room. Suddenly I start hearing someone whispering in my room. But there was no one in my room.

I was so confused that I missed the first two times that Nelly called me down for dinner. May had to come upstairs to get me.

"Opal, it's dinner time," she told me.

"Oh...yeah...I'm coming," I say.

"Yeah you better hurry. Nelly isn't so happy that you have us waiting. Jackson doesn't mind though," she says.

"Why? What are we eating?" I ask.

"We are having macaroni and cheese."

I gag. I hate macaroni and cheese. "Ugh I'll eat some ramen noodles."

"Well hurry up. Nelly is in a bad mood."

"I'm coming."

We both head downstairs and into the dining room. Nelly, Reu, and Jackson are already sitting at the table eating.

"Thank you for waiting for us," says May.

"You were taking too long and we were hungry," says Reu.

I go into the kitchen and start making myself some noodles.

While the noodles are in the microwave, I tune everything around me and think about the whispering. It had been saying something...Something important, but I couldn't make it out.

The microwave beats and I take them out. I take it back to the dining room and start eating. I eat in silence throughout dinner. No one notices, or probably they just didn't want to ask what was wrong.

I finish my dinner and go upstairs. If I had known what was to happen while I was asleep, I would never had slept.