Lost Souls

Part 5

The next day Skye walked up the winding driveway of the college. She was on time for her first lecture of the day. Ever since her first lecture two days before, she had taken to checking the room for her annoying companion. There was no way she was going to sit any where near her tormentor again. Luckily she did not seem to have any more classes with him, at least for today.

'Hey, you're new right?'

She turned to see a slightly plump girl sitting behind her and nodded. 'Yeah.'

'I'm Beth,' she indicated the thin boy by her side, 'this is Daren.' Daren looked up from his reading and smiled shyly.

Skye smiled back, 'I'm Skye.' She heard the laughter in her mind, and quickly shut it out.

They couldn't say any more as the lecturer walked in and started the class. When it ended, Skye gathered her books and left quickly. Her class mates seemed nice enough, but she wanted to keep her distance from them. She hadn't been as reserved before the accident, but it had taught her a lot. Now she was constantly on guard to make sure no one figured out her secret. And to do that she had to stay away from people as much as possible.

But today was not about her past. Today was about her future. And she had to make a grand splash. Literally. The diving team try-outs were taking place right after her last lecture.

A few hours later, she changed into her swimsuit and headed for the pool. The girls were trying out first followed by the boys. By the time she pushed through the large glass doors leading to the pool, several students were mingling round the pool and the stands had attracted a small crowd. She took a minute to look round and her heart started racing. She hadn't thought she would see any of them here. She picked out two or three and looked away quickly when they turned to stare back at her. Of course they were everywhere, she thought, walking quickly towards the other end of the pool where the contestants were gathering, everyone wanted something. She put them out of her mind and tried to listen to the rules the coach was reciting. She glanced quickly at the other girls near her, they all appeared to be normal athletes. Good, at least she wouldn't be competing with one of his.

The coach quickly organised them into two groups according to their experience. The novices went first and she watched them closely to see how the coach reacted to them. Once they had completed their try-outs, the coach called forward her group which consisted of seven girls. They all seemed to be bubbly and friendly and she smiled along with them, her attention still on the divers. The first girl stepped onto the spring board and waited for the coach to blow the whistle.

As soon as she did the tall lanky girl strode forward, reached the end of the board, bounced once and then came off the board to execute a single tuck before slicing into the water, her feet slightly apart on entry. Not perfect, Skye thought, glancing at the coach who had pursed her lips.

The next three girls executed their dives with varying success. Finally it was her turn. She stepped forward till she reached the end of the board and then turned so that her back was to the pool. None of the others had attempted this dive. Skye closed her eyes, feeling the roughness of the board under her bare feet, the suck of empty space at her back, but most of all the deep dark curling feeling in her stomach that told her she could do this no matter what. She believed in that feeling more than anything else.

When she heard thewhistle she bounced up and down on the board twice, waiting for the rightamount of lift before she lifted her arms high and threw her body backward, twistedit into a half somersault half twist before entering the pool hands first, herbody as straight as an arrow, her hands and feet barely making a splash onentry. A clean dive. She heard thesmattering of applause from the others as she swam along the bottom for a fewstrokes before heading for the surface, her face already breaking into asmile. It was perfect.

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