As Deep As The Sea

flawed

My drawstring bag thumped against my back as I rode my bicycle down a rocky side path. The Hawaiian breeze made the palm trees over head sway and dance in the wind.

Usually on a day like this I would go out and explore, but today was my school's swim team's first practice. We practiced in the summer, just like football teams do.

I didn't exactly make the team. I was a good swimmer, but I wasn't aerodynamic enough. Unlike the other girls, I wasn't thin and tall. I was short, stubby, and curvy.

The coach was my foster mom's​ best friend, and I guess she felt bad for me so she made me her assistant. I didn't want her pity, but I was used to it. No body wanted to crush a poor abused orphan's dreams.

I should have been humble​ and declined, but the selfish part of me couldn't pass up the opportunity. I loved swimming, but I was deathly afraid of the ocean.

I wasn't allowed at the town's public pool, since I got into a fight with a girl named Bianca. She was a total bitch and wouldn't stop talking about my dead parents or how ugly my scar was.

The fight wasn't even that bad. I slapped her and she pulled my hair as she jumped into the deep end of the pool. She held me down and wouldn't let me go back up. I almost drowned, but when the lifeguard swam down, she pushed herself off of me and acted like she was the one drowning. I swam back up to the surface and gasped for breath , but as soon as I did two other life guards dragged me to the office. Bianca was a very good actress and everyone believed that I tried to kill her. Even my foster parents​ didn't side with me.

The incident happened three years ago and most people still hated me for it. Sometimes random kids would trip or elbow me in the halls. That's why my knees are always skinned up and my arms bruised. One time I tried to go to the school counselor about it. He just lectured me about about how it's all in my head and I needed to stop making myself the victim. I stopped seeking help after that.

I wasn't a self destructive person. Unlike many other bullied teenagers. I wasn't depressed and I didn't partake in self harm. Instead I wrote everything down in a journal. It helped to relieve​ my stress and sometimes it felt like I was really talking to a friend.

As I pulled up into the school parking lot, I spotted my friend Cassie. Her wild mess of bright red hair made her easily stand out in any crowd. After I locked my bike up to a bicycle rack, I walked up to her. She was picking at her perfectly manicured nails.

"Hey Cass, am I late?" I asked.

"Nope,Eve you're just on time . The other girls should be arriving shortly. Mom just wanted me to wait out here for you." She said.

I nodded. Her mom was coach Sam. Her and my foster mom , Carol were neighbors. Carol didn't​ trust me and constantly swore that I was stealing her money. She'd forget where she her put wallet and then she'd frame it on me . Most of the time it was in her purse, "but I apparently put it back." She never let me take part in any school function, until now.

"Well let's hurry up and change." I said as I walked towards the school's indoor pool. Coach sam was learning over the pool.

"Hey coach" I said and waved at her.

She looked up and waved me over. She was looking at a pH pool strip.

"Evelyn, I can't see the pH level. Can you tell me what it is?" She asked as she held up the strip.

" It reads 7.4" I answered.

"Thanks hon, I lost my glasses and my eyes aren't nearly as good as they used to be." She answered with a chuckle.

I smiled and nodded and headed towards the locker room.

Luckily no one was there yet. I ran to a bathroom stall to change. I quickly threw off my Melanie Martinez tee-shirt and bra. With lighting speed I slipped out of my blue jean shorts and panties. I glanced down and traced my scar with my finger. It stretched from behind my left ear to my mid right thigh in a jagged horizontal line. A single tear rolled down my cheek.

"Stop it Evelyn."I said to myself​ as I wiped my tear away​. "You're stronger than this."

I usually tried to lock my feelings away and go on with life. It worked fairly well.

I fished my simple dark blue one piece swim suit out of my bag and slipped it on. It wasn't really stylish, but it would serve it's purpose. After that I stepped out of the stall and stood it front of the mirror to fix my hair.

I pulled my long thick, curly, dark brown, hair into a high ponytail. I looked into the mirror, and my large almond-shaped light brown eyes, flecked with gold stared back.Freckles dotted my light tanned skin like stars against a night sky. My small dark pink lips were chapped from the wind.

I wasn't ugly, but I wasn't pretty either. I was just me.

I turned to leave the locker room just as Bianca walked in. She was followed by her two lackeys, Alana and Megan.

All three of them were tall, tan, slender, and insufferably mean. Alana and Megan we're definitely two of the dumbest people I had ever met, it was no mysterious as to why they followed Bianca's every command. They were too stupid to think for themselves.

I quickly walked towards the door. I prayed that they didn't see. Cassie never told me that they signed up and didn't see them at tryouts.

Just as I reached the door I breathed a sigh of relief. It was easily short lived.

"I don't know why that whale is here, but I plan on making every practice a living hell for her." Bianca declared loudly enough for me to hear.

I quickly walked out as dread spread throughout my stomach. My dream was quickly becoming a nightmare