Deep Water H.S

one.

The days that passed by in Sedgefield were always slow and quiet. It was pleasant. The sun was rarely harsh and neither were the winters. The people were friendly and laidback; they all knew each other. The waves rolled in each day and the sun washed into the sea in the late afternoon. The forests were encouraged rather than chopped and the flowers were brighter there than any other place in the world.

That is how it was seen to those who lived in the small town. To outsiders, it was the toilet break of a road trip along the coast. Blink and you missed it.

To Miss Avalene Swan, a popular local, Sedgefield was the birthplace of her father. It was the town in which her family had taken refuge after her dad passed away. At age eleven, she and her mother had moved into town with fresh hearts and fresh dreams; they were hopeful. And they still were.

Susan Swan, Ava's mother, bought over a small guesthouse on the beachfront and had been making her living through it ever since. Ava helped out her mother as often as she could. Most of their guests were truckers in need of rest or drivers falling asleep at the wheel. They got occasional holiday-makers from the inland cities wanting a cheap beachy holiday, but that was rare.

Ava had been home-schooled through schooling courses on the internet and a large library of books piled in the corner of her room. Now seventeen and a half, this impossibly small town had become her home and its small community, her family.

"Ava, don't even think of going out to the waves before straightening out your room."

Ava halted at the glass doors, her fingers hardly brushing the handle before they dropped to her side. She sighed as she set the surf board hooked under her arm to the wall. She took a moment to gaze out at the deep blue ocean and the rough white froth that formed nearer to the shore.

She turned around to see her mom sitting at the reception desk. "Mom, come on... I can clean it up later. The waves will be wrecked by afternoon."

"Sorry honey, but you're going to have to stay in today anyway. I have to drive up to Port Johnson this morning to that chiropractor."

Ava made her way over to her mother's desk and placed herself on the corner, her legs swaying lightly. She gave her mother a pleading look. "If I massage your back myself, will you let me go for a surf?"

Soft wrinkles formed besides Susan's eyes and she smiled down at her work. "I won't be gone long. I just need you to watch over the place for me."

Boredom struck the second Ava had fallen into the desk chair her mother usually sat in. She had only loosely wrapped a thin white sarong over her bikini, but that was the sort of clothing people usually wore around here. A lot of the town's people were either retired or living a true hippie sort of lifestyle. It was largely a surfing community, after all.

Ava tapped her fingers to the edge of the oak desk as she gazed out at the waves. The part of the guesthouse that faced the beach was made of glass, for obvious reasons. The view was something Ava could always appreciate. At the least she couldn't imagine waking up and not seeing the ocean from her bedroom windows.

She jumped when she heard the bell go off. She pressed the buzzer to unlock the gate on instinct, but then it occurred to her: she had sat in for her mother numerous times, but it was only once or twice that someone actually came in.

She stood up as silently as she could, listening carefully to the footsteps that followed. Fairly heavy, a man. Slow.

She hardly ever saw new people here. She always liked to see new people.

The owner of heavy, slow footsteps appeared shortly afterward. She shrunk back into herself when she made him out. It was a he, and he was tall, fairly lanky yet his shoulders were broad. He was young. He was around her age.