girl out of water by nat luurtsema

Upload: walker-books

Post on 05-Jul-2018

219 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

  • 8/16/2019 Girl Out of Water by Nat Luurtsema

    1/15

  • 8/16/2019 Girl Out of Water by Nat Luurtsema

    2/15

  • 8/16/2019 Girl Out of Water by Nat Luurtsema

    3/15

  • 8/16/2019 Girl Out of Water by Nat Luurtsema

    4/15

    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents

    are either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, used

    fictitiously. All statements, activities, stunts, descriptions, information

    and material of any other kind contained herein are included for

    entertainment purposes only and should not be relied on foraccuracy or replicated, as they may result in injury.

    First published 2016 by Walker Books Ltd

    87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ

    2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

    Text © 2016 Nat Luurtsema

    Cover images: goggles © 2016 LWA/Larry Williams/Getty Images;

    hair © 2016 moodboard/Getty Images;

    face © 2016 Hill Street Studios/Getty Images

    The right of Nat Luurtsema to be identified as author of this

    work has been asserted by her in accordance with the

    Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

    This book has been typeset in Sabon

    Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,

    transmitted or stored in an information retrieval system in any

    form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical,

    including photocopying, taping and recording, without prior

    written permission from the publisher.

    British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data:a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

    ISBN 978-1-4063-6652-5

    www.walker.co.uk

  • 8/16/2019 Girl Out of Water by Nat Luurtsema

    5/15

    For Diarmuid

  • 8/16/2019 Girl Out of Water by Nat Luurtsema

    6/15

    78

    8

    As I walk into school I can hear the bell ringing for the

    beginning of afternoon lessons. I check my timetable.

    Come on, PE … please, please, PE. The only lesson I

    don’t find completely baffling.

    Unless there’s a new class called Lying Down and

    Having a Bit of a Rest.

    It’s biology. Gutted.

    I get there first and sit on a tall stool at the back.

    This is the best desk in the classroom – nearest the

    window, furthest from the teacher, good view of the

    tadpoles. Prime real estate! Someone will have  to sit

    next to me.

    You’d think.

    Everyone enters in gaggles of twos and threes and sit

    somewhere they can all be together. Melia comes in and

  • 8/16/2019 Girl Out of Water by Nat Luurtsema

    7/15

    79

    I smile at her. But Cammie is right behind her. She spots

    me and mutters, “Tragic,” loudly enough for me to hear.The two girls with them laugh. Melia doesn’t laugh but

    she doesn’t return my smile, either.

    Biology actually passes quite quickly, as I spend

    the whole class thinking about my hatred of Cammie,

    which is strong and healthy. I get lost in daydreams ofhow happy I’d be if she got horrendous acne.

    As we leave biology I overhear Melia and her friends

    talking. Apparently they’ve got a swimming match

    tonight, so the whole team is leaving straight after

    school in the minibus.

    Interesting.

    At the end of school I watch the team congregate in

    the car park. Debs counts them all off and they stick

    their sports bags and packed dinners in the boot.

    It brings back memories of cheese rolls that always

    tasted of petrol fumes.

    I grab Lav and ask her to tell Dad I’ll walk home as

    I’ll be a bit late.

    “Shall I tell him you’ve got detention?” she asks.

    “Yeah. He won’t believe it, but go on.”

    I’ve never been in trouble at school. I don’t think

    some of my teachers could pick me out of a line-up.

  • 8/16/2019 Girl Out of Water by Nat Luurtsema

    8/15

    80

    I put my hand in my bag and feel something silky.

    Excellent.Everyone races past, keen to get out of school ASAP.

    If I was a teacher I’d be a bit hurt by how desperate my

    pupils are to leave. It’s like they’re fleeing a fire.

    I walk against the tide, feeling a little thrill. I’m look-

    ing forward to this.The swimming pool seems deserted, but I’m not risk-

    ing it. I check all the changing rooms, even the toilets.

    With the exception of the occasional staff member wan-

    dering around, I have the whole place to myself.

    My swimming costume is a little tighter than it

    used to be. I poke my stomach; I suspect that’s the

    culprit. But as Mum always says when Lav complains

    about her weight: “Some people don’t have arms or legs!

    OK?”

    Can’t really argue with that.

    I stride towards the swimming pool and I’m about to

    dive in when I notice that Pete, Roman and his brother

    are loitering in the field again. They’re kicking a foot-

    ball around and Pete is smoking.

    If I had to name the person I find least relaxing to be

    around, I’d say Pete and Cammie are currently fighting

    for the top spot. But this is more my pool than theirs so

  • 8/16/2019 Girl Out of Water by Nat Luurtsema

    9/15

    81

    I’m determined to ignore them. They’ll get bored and go

    away soon.I dive in from the side and it feels amazing. I swim a

    length and feel the muscles in my ribs stretching. Then I

    lie on my back in a starfish shape and scull gently, small

    movements of my hands but just enough to spin me in

    a slow circle.I take a deep breath and let it out bit by bit as I sink

    to the bottom of the pool, where I start somersaulting

    slowly, forwards then backwards. I can feel the air in my

    nose – enough pressure to stop water shooting up my

    nose but not enough to lose any bubbles.

    I don’t know what this is that I’m doing at the

    bottom of the pool but I’ve always been good at it. It’s a

    useless trick, really, only good for making people think

    you’ve drowned. (If you need that skill regularly, then

    your life is more depressing than mine and I tip my hat

    to you.)

    I start to feel an ache in my ribs and I surface slowly

    with my eyes closed. Mmmm. So relaxing.

    I open my eyes.

    Roman, Small Roman and Pete are all standing on

    the side of the pool looking down on me. In both ways,

    I sense.

  • 8/16/2019 Girl Out of Water by Nat Luurtsema

    10/15

    82

    The silence hangs. I say weakly, “No outdoor shoes.”

    “What?” says Roman.“Nothing.”

    Small Roman definitely heard – he’s, like, three feet

    closer to me than the other two.

    “What were you doing down there?” asks Roman.

    “Uh…”Really, are we going to have a chat like this? I never

    usually feel naked in a swimming costume, but suddenly

    I do. I don’t get out of the pool. I bob around, a little

    talking, floating idiot head.

    I realize I need to give Roman more of an answer than

    “uh”.

    “Just floating around, really – somersaults and stuff.”

    “You a swimmer?” asks Pete.

    I hesitate. “Used to be. Don’t do it any more.”

    They all nod, and Small Roman smiles at me. They

    have no idea what a massive big deal it was for me to

    say that.

    “Do you swim?” I ask. They don’t, of course, or I’d

    know them. But still, Operation: Make Friends is going

    surprising well here, let’s not derail it.

    “No, we’re dancers,” says Small Roman. Pete rolls

    his eyes.

  • 8/16/2019 Girl Out of Water by Nat Luurtsema

    11/15

    83

    “What?” protests Small Roman good-humouredly.

    “We still are!”“What’s this?” I ask. (Lav taught me the trick of

    talking to boys: not too many words. It looks keen.

    Treat everything you say like a tweet – 140 characters

    or less.)

    “OK, so for years we’ve been like this dance … uh…”“Troupe?” I suggest.

    “Collective,” Pete corrects me.

    Small Roman goes on. “And we just tried out for

    Britain’s Hidden Talent  but didn’t even make it through

    to try-outs.”

    “I thought everyone tried out in front of the judges?”

    I ask.

    “No,” says Small Roman. “They’re holding public

    auditions once a week for the next few months. We

    did the first one and got nowhere. You only get on

    TV if you’re talented or mental. The people in the

    middle, who are just deluded and a bit pathetic, get

    sent home.”

    He looks so sad my heart breaks a bit and I scoop the

    water around me to fill the silence, which makes me spin

    in a small circle. “I’m sorry,” I say sincerely, once I’m

    facing him again.

  • 8/16/2019 Girl Out of Water by Nat Luurtsema

    12/15

    84

    “Apparently people are ‘over’ dance collectives now

    there’s been like a million of them on TV,” explainsRoman, scuffing his shoe along the floor tiles. “They

    said Gabe would appeal to young girls, but it didn’t

    help.”

    “Uh huh,” I say, sneaking a glance at Small Roman.

    Who I guess is called Gabe and would be appealing ifI wasn’t looking straight up his nose. My neck hurts.

    “So we thought maybe something to do with swim-

    ming?” Gabe continues.

    “Can you swim?” I ask.

    It seems a reasonable question, unless they want to

    appear on TV wearing armbands.

    “Everyone can swim,” scoffs Pete.

    I’m about to argue with him on that, but Gabe jumps

    in. “We were playing football outside and…”

    “We thought you’d drowned,” says Roman in a way

    that makes me feel a bit daft.

    “But when we came in, we saw you doing that amaz-

    ing underwater acrobatics,” says Gabe. “It’s cool.”

    Roman and Pete nod, and I feel a bit giddy with

    neckache and compliments.

    “So … teach us that?” asks Roman.

    “I don’t want to be on TV,” I lie. I do, I totally do, but

  • 8/16/2019 Girl Out of Water by Nat Luurtsema

    13/15

    85

    holding my gold Olympic swimming medal and smil-

    ing modestly and tearfully at the cameras, not prancingabout in front of booing weirdos.

    “Not you,” says Roman bluntly. “You could train us.”

    “In … what, though? What is this?”

    At this they all look extremely uncomfortable. They

    glance at each other, and I take the opportunity tostretch my neck down.

    Aargh aargh aarghhh.  The pain is so intense I see

    spots of light. By the time I look up again I think my

    eyes must be bulging like a squeezed hamster. (I imagine.

    I’ve never squeezed a hamster, though Hannah did once

    when we were eight and I didn’t stop her.)

    (Before you get all judgy, Mr Nibbles went on to live

    a full and happy life. For nine more days.)

    “I guess it’s kind of like … synchronized swimming,”

    says Roman with an effort, and they all look like they’re

    sucking a lemon. I try not to laugh. Poor boys, it must

    be so hard being cool all the time, eh?

    “There was a synchronized swimming team from

    around here who got through last week’s audition,” says

    Gabe.

    “But they were all girls and really hot,” Pete remarks,

    suddenly enthusiastic.

  • 8/16/2019 Girl Out of Water by Nat Luurtsema

    14/15

    86

    “So hot,” adds Roman, entirely unnecessarily in my

    opinion.Good for them. I smooth my wet hair behind my ears

    before I realize how that looks. Insecuuuure! 

    “So, you want me to train you?” I ask, getting back

    to the point. Because although it is lovely to talk to boys

    about “hot” girls, I  am getting very cold.“Yeah. We can’t pay you, though, we’re broke,” says

    Pete. From where I’m floating I’m exactly eye-level with

    his £150 Nike trainers and I allow myself a sceptical

    face.

    “But we’ll say hi to you at school,” says Roman.

    I stop treading water and sink a bit. I keep my chin

    underwater. My eyes feel very hot.

    “Maaate,” Gabe says to him quietly. Somehow that

    just makes me feel worse.

    I can feel myself blushing. I swim away from them

    and hoist myself out of the pool on the other side. I can

    hear murmuring behind me. I know they’re discussing

    if I’m upset (YES) or maybe even crying. (NO. That is

    water from the pool on my face. Yes, all of it.)

    I may  be a social outcast (fine, I am) but I don’t

    deserve this: it’s mean, and I’ve had a gutful of people

    being mean. I wanted to come and swim without

  • 8/16/2019 Girl Out of Water by Nat Luurtsema

    15/15

    Cammie and her bitchy mates and instead I run into the

    male versions.Plus, in my mind I’m already telling Hannah this

    story later and I want to tell her how I left in a haughty

    silence, so that is what I do.