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🌊Tidal Waves🌊
📖Chapter One📖
📚Book 1 of the Fear series📚
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Have you ever wondered how difficult it is to avoid h2o? Have you ever wondered about other people's fears and phobias? I, Paige Hyland, have a fear of a mere droplet of rain, a microscopic splash of water that may encounter my pale skin. Aqua has forever been a threat to me, the unknown reason taunts my thoughts stressfully. My older sister, Brooke-Marie, whom I call Brooke, has a similar phobia to my mother and I. I suppose it runs in the blood of the Hylands.
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I was planted at my locker on a misty Monday morning, stacking and collecting hard back books and flappy binders when Chloe came gliding smoothly towards me, a nervous expression glued to her beautiful features. I made a 90 degree turn to the right and flashed a smile to my best friend in the whole world. "Hi, Chloe, are you alright? You seem nervous." The beautiful blonde started to wring her hands slowly and cracking her pale knuckles. Finally, after about five cracks, she answered my question. "Well," Chloe began. "I, um, I need help studying after school. Would you come to my apartment later? Please?" I wondered why my best friend was so nervous for asking for some help! I'd say it's because of her learning disability. Her mother never offered help or helped her daughter when she asked for it. Her father, Marc? The whole way across the world in Europe with his new girlfriend. I was the poor girl's only hope. "Of course I will, Chloe! I'll always help you," I grinned. To my Twinnie's relief, my kind friend flashed a smile of grate fullness and rushed off to her own locker on the next floor.
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My routine of classes passed without interruption, except for when Kendall Vertes was sent home due to test cheating. Other than that, my day was fine. I pushed and shoved through the sea of identically dressed students, all wanting to get home quickly. After packing my homework and switching out my books, I met my Chlobird at the main doors and we strolled to the local apartment block together. Chloe's apartment was cheap, low quality, even she knew that without anyone consulting her. We never spoke about it though, it was irrelevant to our burning friendship. My three inch boot heels clicked and clacked as I marched up the hard stone steps to the next floor of the block, which was just about ten metres higher than the bottom one. Chloe revealed a rainbow coloured key from her back pocket of her school trousers and jingled it inside the lock before swinging the wooden grey door open. "We're here!" Chloe chimed, stepping inside and wiping her feet on the small mat. I did the same. Before too long, the both of us were seated on two dull beanbag chairs with workbooks scattered here and there. "Ok," I started, "Let's start with maths, Chloe. What chapters do you find difficult?" The evening proceeded like that, and by five o'clock, my study buddy had improved so much! Chloe decided it was time for a snack, so she skipped off to the kitchen and within a minute or two, returned with a tray in both hands. The contents of the shiny tray persisted of two tall glasses of pure water, a bunch of purple and red grapes that made me drool since I love grapes, and two KitKat bars. "Thanks, Chlo!" The sight of the clear liquid inside the glass made me shudder, but I did not want to seem ungrateful. Chloe placed the glass in front of me and headed round to her own chair. Just as Chloe did so, her foot knocked over the water and knowing my luck, it encountered my clothes. Just my school skirt mostly. Panic and worry shot through my mind and without thinking, I raised myself up and raced to the bathroom. "Oh, Paige, I'm so sorry!" Chloe gasped, following me. My jaw wiggled round, summoning words that I could not seem to find. After what felt like one million years of defeating silence and after of course drying my clothes off, I opened the bathroom door slowly and and said, "It's OK."
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That night while I was at home in bed, the scene from Chloe's apartment replayed before my eyes. How I sprinted towards the bathroom over a tiny bit of water. I did not enjoy living with aquaphobia, it held me back from doing many many things such as swimming, having summer water fights with my friends on a hot summer's day and even doing housework such as dishes and cleaning. My family understood, though. All of the Hylands had a phobia.
