Anonymous

Prologue - Amidst The Waters

Even though the rest of the world nicknamed Vanessa Orville as Trouble (with a capital T, to emphasise), Nessa could always pride on herself for one thing - her balance was fantastic. Which meant, that cycling, kayaking, canoeing and tightrope-walking were easy for her (though she had never tried the last one).
In the middle of the afternoon, in Lake Granby, while Mr and Mrs Orville sat on the warm yellow grass, relishing the sun, Vanessa and her best friend - or well, her only friend - Natalie Verona, were on their kayaks, rowing through the clear water.
Maybe Google portrayed Lake Granby to be some heck of a clean, blue lake where you could see the golden sun reflected from above, but Nessa - being a mildly frequent visitor - knew that this wasn't true.
When you've actually tripped from the edge and tumbled into the lake, you know the magnitude of dirt and garbage that resided inside the waters.
Anyway, for now the girls were on their individual single kayaks, trying to race each other. Natalie tried to weakly shout 'Cut it off, now! We're acting like little kids!', but the next moment she was again laughing and skirting faster through the water after Nessa.
What none of the girls knew was that such a great tragedy lay ahead of them. Vanessa Orville, the careless, reckless, crazy and freewheeling girl didn't notice the happenings of the rest of the world as she went with the water in a perfectly balanced nature.
It was only when she turned back and stopped laughing for two seconds, that she saw her best friend's lime green coloured kayak toppled over, showing its partially-rusted butt to the sky.
Of course, reverse kayaking a few metres back to heroically rescue Natalie, was practically impossible; with her sour luck, Vanessa might as well drown herself too. So like a pathetic silly girl, Nessa screamed.
The guards of the place crowded up around the contours of the lake; all visitors jumped out of their skins and ran up to join the commotion; and Mrs Orville practically threw herself in the waters too.
But alas, when Natalie's life jacket floated up, Natalie wasn't there.