Head Above Water

1. Welcome to Senior Year

Copyright © 2013, Erica Bentley

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book, ‘Head Above Water’, including all chapters, prologues, epilogues and associated content, contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. Any infringement of this copyright is punishable by law.

For permissions requests, send a private message to the author via Wattpad’s messaging platform.

 *** THANKS in advance for respecting my work and my wishes to protect it! ***

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

"Ugh."

I slapped my palms to the sides of my skull and could literally feel the veins throbbing beneath my hand. Great. Another one of my epic headaches and it was the first day of school, and a new one at that.

I was a little nervous, but not as much as most new transfers might be thanks to the fact that my best friend, Jill, was transferring with me. Even though we were the same age we wouldn't have any classes together, as I'd moved a year ahead of where I normally would be--she would be a junior and I'd be a senior--but at least I was more comfortable knowing that I'd have her to hang out with if I didn't make any new friends right off the bat.

That said, I was pretty sure I wouldn't have time for friends anyway. My schedule would be insane this year. Overachiever that I am I signed up for the maximum number of classes each day, plus I had two swim practices, as I hoped to make Nationals this year.

Outside of the swim practices, I'd be taking Creative Writing, Pre-Calculus, Geology, AP Economics, Spanish, Dance, and Intermediate Choir. I was gonna be so swamped with seven classes! Technically I didn't have to take two electives like Choir or Dance, but I wanted to.

I'd always enjoyed dancing and my coach said it'd be good cross-training, and choir I chose because it sounded fun. My mom did it in high school and said she loved it and I really enjoyed singing on my own, so I thought I'd check it out. I hadn't taken choir before so I should've been in Beginning, but ended up having to choose Intermediate Choir to fit with my schedule. I was hoping I could keep up.

With that schedule I knew I would be both physically and mentally exhausted all year, but I loved school and was actually looking forward to the challenge. I was not, however, looking forward to the hours. Zero Period through 6th Period was the absolute longest schedule you could have at the school and I had that plus Swim practice before zero period! Today being the first day, we didn't have practice yet, but starting tomorrow, I'd be getting up before dawn to make it to the pool by 5:30am. Sigh. I had better make it to Nationals with the sacrifices I'm making. I am not a morning person.

Oh, and did I forget to mention I would also have my regular two-hour swim practice for the city team as well? Yeah, that's after my already insanely long day at school. At least today was Wednesday and we'd only have three days for the first week of school. I was thankful for the gradual introduction.

Trying to stir up some level of enthusiasm, I swung my legs out of bed and sat up groggily, my head pounding wickedly. I shook out a couple of ibuprofen from a bottle on my nightstand and took them with a glass of water on my dresser, making a disgusted noise and sticking my tongue out in the process. I hated stale water. I'd only put the glass there last night, but I swear it gets dirty after sitting there for a few hours. My best friend picked on me for it all the time and my mom complained constantly about unfinished glasses all over the house, but I couldn't help it. It just tastes dusty or something.