Chapter 01 - Waves

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Chapter One
It has always amazed me, the way the ocean can seem so dangerous, harmless and beautiful all at the same time. The way it can seem so still and flat yet suddenly break into a crashing wave. It all seems so harmless, how could something so beautiful be dangerous? How something can be calm one minute be so untameable the next.

I don't really know why I'm even sitting here on a sandy beach watching the waves roll in and roll out. Unchanging, yet changing in so many ways that don't seem possible. I'm fifteen years old and my name is Sky. At this point in time the only thing that isn't changing is my name. The only thing I know when it's going to change is my age. Everything else in my life is uncontrollably changing beneath me and I have nowhere safe to stand without it nocking me over.

It's the last day of the school year. School finished approximately three hours ago and yet I find myself here, on a beach in the middle of nowhere, watching waves. I know I should be going home but I don't want to leave the safety net my deepest thoughts provide. I know as soon as I get up and leave my thoughts will scatter and my mind will shatter.

I'm sure twenty more minutes won't harm anyone or anything. I hope. Sometimes the world around me needs to slow down, stop throwing unpredictable dramas at me and telling me to deal with it. I know it won't, just as I conquer one issue another raises my attention.

I reach into my bag and find my camera. I take the lens cap off and put the photo into focus. With a snap I have captured the beauty of the sea.

I sit, watching the waves for far longer than twenty minutes. The wind begins to become a strong gale, steel grey clouds roll in over the horizon and the surf becomes a vicious death wish. Summer storms are common here but I decide to leave. I can't stay lost in my thoughts forever.

I follow my past footprints back to the parking lot. The wind whips my dirty blonde hair in all directions. I follow the old bitumen road until my street comes into view. I take a big breath, I have to go home at some point. I push open the rusty wrought iron gate into my overgrown front garden and make my way up the wooden steps onto the porch and through the front door.

I try to stay quiet, so my step mother and step sister don't notice me. I hurry up stairs, one at a time. I open my bedroom door, closing it as quietly as I can. I kick my sneakers off and jump onto my bed, burying my head in the soft pillow and sleep. No one can disturb me in my sleep for I am always happiest when I'm in the warm, safe embrace of sleep.

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