The Silver Seahorse: Book One in the 'Powers' series (COMPLETED)

Chapter 10: In which Evie meets Ki-Ja, goes swimming, and is classedas wierd

On the bus to the swimming pool, Kim sat to Evie, smiling goodbye to a slightly dark girl with large, almond eyes. Evie asked Kim who she was, feeling slightly jealous.

"That's Ki-Ja. She's my best friend."

Kim seemed to sense Evie's annoyance because she laughed.

"Don't be angry at her for being my friend. It's just I've known her practically since I was born, and we're really good friends."

Evie smiled, relieved. "What does her name mean?" she asked.

"Well, Ki means risen, and Ja means jewel," Kim answered. Ki-Ja seemed to hear because she looked across the aisle to them and smiled. Kim grinned back, but Evie only smiled briefly. She liked Ki-Ja's name, but was still a little prickly to her.

She glanced out of the window and saw a low concrete building outside.

"Is that the leisure centre?" she asked Kim, and was replied by the bus stopping. The doors opened and 8BG pushed to get out. The girls followed their teacher into the changing rooms, whilst the boys went in the opposite direction.

Evie quickly found a cubicle and stripped before putting the borrowed black swimming costume on. It had a white stripe going from her right shoulder to left hip, and it fit her well. Then she crammed her brown hair into the black swimming cap and pulled some goggles out the bag, tightening them as she met up with Kim again by the pool with the whole class.

The swimming teacher told them to call her Jane, and she was friendly and kind.

"Split into three groups, beginners, intermediate, and advanced," she called. Evie shyly left Kim in the Inter group and headed to the advanced. Tristin joined her and she smiled at him.

Evie's group did lengths first, racing past both the other groups. Then they did some racing. Evie came first in her heat, and had got through to the mini final, but then they moved straight on to front crawl exercises. Evie loved every minute of being in the water.

At the end of the hour slot, they practiced breathing out underwater and holding their breath for as long as possible. As Evie hung, suspended in the water, she couldn't help relaxing. She wondered if, if she started to drown, her silver savior would come again. Probably not, she decided. And anyway, I won't drown.

She held onto her breath, mulling over thoughts and conversations, anything to pass the time. When she felt a pressure in her chest, she pushed it away. She wanted to win. But, eventually, the pressure got too much and she rose to the surface. As she broke into the air, she looked around. The others were already up there. Pleased that she had won, Evie pulled herself out of the water, and then realised all of her group were staring at her. Jane, who was teaching the advanced group, held a stopwatch in her hand.

Evie looked worriedly at her classmates.

"What is it?" she asked. Wordlessly, Jane showed her the stopwatch. The time read 4:53. Almost five whole minutes.

Evie stared at Jane.

"Are you inclining that I held my breath for five minutes?" she demanded angrily. "Yeah, I know I'm good, but you don't need to exaggerate it. Really, what was my time?"

Jane glared at her.

"You think I would make something like this up?" she asked. Her eyes were furious, accusing. "How can you hold your breath for that long? Have you had training?"

Evie shrugged.

"No. I wouldn't know how I did it. I was just trying my best."

Jane continued staring at her until the other groups merged and began to head back to the changing rooms. Evie went too, conscious of Jane's stare at her back.

When they were all on the coach again, Evie complained to Kim.

"They all look at me as if I'm some sort of freak," she said. "It's not as if I did anything major."

Kim raised an eyebrow.

"No? Evie, the whole class know that you can hold your breath for five whole minutes! This isn't a joke!"

Evie scowled at her.

"It's like some sort of curse," she muttered, then pushed her ager away. It was done now. She couldn't take it back.

"When's lunch?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Now," Kim replied. "It's 1:35. Lunch time!"

The girls headed to the Refectory with the other members of 8BG, and Evie sat down with the lunch box Lucy had given her. Soon, Ki-Ja and Kim joined her. Kim introduced them to each other.

"Evie, this is Ki-Ja. Ki-Ja, this is Evie."

The two girls smiled shyly at each other.

"Hi, Evie," Ki-Ja said.

"Hey," Evie replied. There was quiet, before Kim burst out laughing.

"You two! You're so awkward with each other! Come on, be friends!"

Evie blushed, but the tension was released and they ate in a friendly silence.

When Evie had finished her lunch, she made an excuse to look around school a bit more and headed to Music. She spotted a boy hanging around outside of a fire exit door and crept up behind him.

"Hey, Tristin," she said. Tristin smiled at her.

"Hey."

"So, what's with all this secrecy?" Evie asked.

"I want you to know the full story of my great aunt. I believe you have a right to know, as you live there. But no-one else knows this, so I want to keep it quiet."

Evie nodded-she could understand that.

Tristin took a deep breath, then began.

"I was 7 when it all happened. Six years ago. Rick was just 1, Elle 3. I lived where I love now, with my mum and dad. Mum's aunt, Lilian, often had us over to Sea Shell cottage to give us tea and cake, and one March, I think it was, weekend, we walked over, along the cliff..."