Biology passed in a blur.

All I remembered was Joey's cold facade and the strange looks Ms. Pearl continued to shoot my way. My stomach had been waging a war with me all period. I spent most of my time forcing my lunch to stay in the bowels of my belly while sketching the phases of meiosis on my notebook. Interphase, Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase, Cytokinesis and repeat. My hands were a shaking, sweaty mess as I tried to draw the circular cells. Staring down at my diagram, I cringed at the scribbles.

"Olympia," Miss Pearl's voice rang out, snapping me out of my retrieve.

She was standing in front of the desk I shared with Joey. Joey, of course, was sitting as far from me as the desk would allow. His eyes were glued to his notes, even when Miss Pearl called on me. My eyes slipped over his form briefly before I met Miss Pearl's curious stare. I couldn't help but notice how much better he looked today. His tousled brown locks were untouched by sweat, and neatly combed back- much like the style he used to wear. The natural tan he once possessed had returned, and his lanky body had turned lean and strong. I swallowed the lump in my throat; he looked nothing like the little boy I used to make sand castles with.

"Y-yes, Miss Pearl?" Snickers arose as my voice cracked. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Meredith shooting me a glare. I flushed, and resisted the urge to burry my head in my arms.

"Please tell the class what the last phase of Meiosis is?"

I knew that answer. I knew it better than I knew the back of my own hand but with Miss Pearl's intense gaze and everyone else waiting for me to mess up again- I froze. After mumbling a series of ums and uhs, the laughing started up again. I turned to my page where I had drawn my diagram but the drawings were such a mess I couldn't decipher one from the other. My stomach twisted and turned as a wave of nausea overcame me. Slapping a hand over my mouth, I forced the vomit to go back where it came from. I could stutter and forget the answer to an easy question but to puke in front of everyone? That's the sort of embarrassment I could never recover from.

"Cytokinesis II," A voice from the heavens answered. My own personal guardian angel, I thought with a sigh of relief.

"Thank you Joey but I believe I had asked Olympia for the answer," Miss Pearl said before returning to her podium in the front of the room.

My head whipped around to the boy sitting beside me. The boy who hadn't talked to me in months and avoided me like the plague was now coming to my rescue? I looked at him with wide, hopeful eyes and for second he looked back at me and it was like everything was back to normal. He had the same hazel eyes, they never changed but now there was a tinge of sadness in them that I had never seen before. I removed my hand from my mouth, and went to say something but Joey just shook his head and turned back to his notebook. I followed in suit after a moment, my body seemed to deflate as all hope left me. It was time to face the facts, he wasn't my Joey anymore.

The bell rang and not a moment too soon. Collecting my books, I darted out of the classroom and made a beeline to the parking lot. I was never more happy that biology was so close to the exit than I was that day. Faintly, I could hear Meredith call after me but I ignored her and hopped into the little blue bug. Eventually, I would have to deal with her- she was my ride home after all but the conversation was bound to get on my very last nerve.

"What the hell?" She threw open the door on the driver's side and threw her books onto my stomach, causing a groan to slip through my lips.

"I cannot believe you!" She said as she started the engine.

"Can we just go?" I pleaded quietly but she didn't seem to hear me.

"You forgot the phases of meiosis! Really, that's kids stuff," She ranted as she sped away from school.

I kept my eyes on the road, while tuning Meredith out. Unless she wanted to get puked on, she wasn't going to be getting a response from me. And even if my gag reflex wasn't acting up, I still wouldn't have known what to say because she was right. Forgetting something that simple, sick or not, was a disgrace to everything I stood for. Word got around fast in Atlantic Bay, it wouldn't be long until one of my dad's colleagues got wind of what happened in class. I could it imagine it now, their snarky faces and barely repressed snickers. I could see my dad frown at his work station as his friends walked by him without even muttering a simple hello. And then finally, when his curiosity could bare no more, he would walk up to one of his whispering workers and demand to know what they talking about- only to regret his decision immediately. Disappointment would well in his eyes, along with a tear or tear and then with slumped shoulders, he would trudge back to his station- wondering where in the world he had gone wrong.

Tears of my own welled in my eyes as the image faded in my mind. Over the years I had been at the end of many stern, disappointed looks and I knew all kids got them from time to time but I had only ever received that torrent look from my mother. My father was always the one who supported me, tucked me into bed as a child and took me down to bay to play. He was the one who showed me how wonderful the ecosystem of sea really was and taught me how to appreciate the life forms that lived there. In every good memory I had, apart from the ones shared with Joey, my dad was a fundamental part. To see even the smallest glimmer of disappointment in his blue eyes, the same as my own, would crush me.

"Listen- Oly," Meredith sighed. The car slowed to a stop as she parked beside my house.

The house was the same as every other house in Atlantic Bay- it was painted a bright white color, the trim however was a light baby blue. The structure of the house coincided nicely with the beach house theme with a peaked roof and the foundation drilled onto white steaks. Half the house was squandered in the sand whereas the front, was leveled with the rolling green hills of Atlantic Bay. Any other day I would have been thrilled to go home, maybe slip into my swimsuit and take a dip into the ocean. But I was afraid the tossing and turning of my stomach would not work well with the tossing and turning of the waves. Besides-it wasn't like I had anyone to swim with anymore. Joey was God knows where doing god knows what and Meredith wouldn't go because it would mess up her hair.

"I'm not mad at you," Meredith continued, her tone had softened. "I'm just disappointed."

"Yeah, well, get in line," I growled. Jumping out of the car, I slammed the door behind me and ignored her squeal of surprise.

I needed to find knew friends and possibly some better luck. Walking up to the house, the first thing I noticed was the shiny black Mercedes sitting in the garage, my stomach garbled as if knowing what that meant for us- my dad was home. Following the yoga techniques my mom loved to do, I breathed in through my nose and heavily exhaled through my mouth. It was supposed to mimic a symbolic way to get rid of negative emotions that might be plaguing a person but I think, it was just a bunch of bullshit a random guy got rich off of because of sorry suckers like my mom and me. As to be expected the breathing didn't help, if anything I was practically hyperventilating by the time I reached the door. My hand was quaking as I reached out. Deciding to deal with it like a bandaid, I pulled the door open, revealing my home and my dad who was lounging on the white sofa. He looked up upon hearing me, a trouble smile flickered across his features and for a second my heart went into panic. I knew Atlantic Bay was a tight knit community but I didn't think he had heard already.

"Come on in, bud. I was just watching the news."

Oh no, I thought, as he took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He was going to try to ease into the talk. Every instance in which I had been in trouble as a child, usually started like this. Whereas my mom liked to get right into the screaming match my dad was more calculated and calm, it made him scarier. Dropping my bag off at the door, I slowly walked over to the couch. There was a significant hesitation in my steps, as if I were walking into my execution.

"I'm guessing you heard about the news," he said, not really looking at me but glaring at the tv.

It seemed like a stupid question, since I was there but I went along with the game nonetheless. "Y-yeah."

"I knew this would happen."

"You did?" Well that hurt.

"Yep the whole scientific community knew this would happen," he said. He took a gulp of his coffee and scowled at the news reporter.

I hadn't been paying attention to what they were yapping about on the screen. My ears were clogged  by the sound of my raging heartbeat; I swore it was mere seconds away from jumping out of my chest. It was crazy and very insulting to know that the whole scientific community had been debating my incompetence and most of them had concurred that it was in my fate to be dumb. It was my first mistake, ever in school, and suddenly I was being named a dunce. That was hardly a fair trial.

"Well-I-uh..."

"We told the government! And they did nothing!"

What reason was there to tell the government? My stupidity was hardly a national threat- unless- my incompetence would start a new wave of idiots to roam the earth. The vomit was fully prepared to make a reappearance on my mother's beloved hardware floors when my father spoke one more time, shattering my hysteria.

"Climate Change was not something to take lightly and now we're all gonna die!"

"But Daddy- wait what? Climate Change?" My head whipped around facing the wide flat screen tv mounted on the wall. On the screen a heavily made up brunette in a tight blue dress was discussing the sudden rise in water levels across the globe. To quote her words, we were now in critical condition and no chance to reverse it. The ice caps were melting at an astounding rate, leaving the water levels to rise and overcome habituated land.

For a second my shoulders deflated with relief over the fact that my dad didn't care about my biology mix-up. That was until I realized there was almost a 99.9999% chance we were going to die. I knew enough from my father's research that entire states, such as Florida- the one we lived in- would be submerged completely if no one stopped the ice caps from melting. And that would only be the start, continents around the world would shrink as water took over and started to destroy food supplies and necessary items.

"I hope big business can swim under water," said my dad, "Or else protecting their carbon emissions would have been for nothing."

I was confident they owned big enough yachts to live in, but the rest of us were not so lucky. Holding my hands over my mouth, I tried to breathe solely through my nose. Every time I found myself relaxing just a little bit more though, a picture would flash across the screen of a village in the South Pacific being rampaged a tsunami. It was only a matter of months or a year before we were next.

"Hey bud," my dad crouched beside me and rubber my back. "Everything is going to be fine. We can move to the mid-west, and things aren't that bad now, everything will work out."

"I don't feel well," I managed to utter before standing to my feet and racing upstairs. With mere seconds to spare I reached the upstairs bathroom, through open the toilet seat and unleashed the beast.

"I didn't know you were sick," my dad said. He handed my paper towel and mint before swaddling me in a large blanket. "You need to go to sleep right now."

"But the ocean!" I protested, wanting to know more.

"You're not arguing with me on this one," he placed his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes, "Go to bed."

There was no arguing with him when he pulled out the big bad dad eyes and, I had been fighting the urge to fall asleep since second period. Planting a chaste kiss on my dad's cheek, I stumbled into my bedroom. I didn't even have the time to change into pajamas or pull back the covers before I felt my body teeter backwards and fall onto my soft, mattress. All my former worries of the ocean, Joey, and even Meredith slipped away as I found myself drifting into a blissful state of peace. The sounds of crashing waves and squaking seagulls drifted into my room, from the ocean. I knew my family lived close to the water, we didn't live in a beach house for nothing, but it actually sounded like I was right next to the water. Strange. Stretching out my body, I tried to snuggle deeper into my blankets- but when my hand reached out for a blanket there wasn't one. Instead, my hand touched a soft, sediment substance, like sand.

My eyes opened without warning, the exhaustion I was feeling earlier disappeared completely once I realized that I was no longer in my room. I was lying on the beach, mere inches away from the high tide, as it licked the tips of my toes.

What the hell?

"Are you okay?"

I spun around on my heel, my eyes widened as they came in contact, with a broad, muscular chest. Forcing my eyes to find the owner of the chest, I looked up and immediately regretted that decision. He was beautiful, with his angular face and chiseled jaw-line. His sea-foam green eyes were practically glowing in contrast with his summer kissed skin and tousled black hair. He was none other than Phillip Abernathy, the golden boy who fell from grace and for some reason he was standing behind my house, staring at me as if I had just stuffed a lemon down his throat.

"H-how did I get out here?" I looked around the lot, and found a pair of small footsteps that led to the backdoor of my house.

"I don't know- when I got out of the water, I found you lying on the sand. You looked like you were sleeping."

"I was." But not on the beach. Just minutes ago I had been in the safe confines of my bedroom. "What were you doing out here?"

Phillip cocked his head to the side, his mouth curved into a crooked smile. For a second, he looked like the same boy I knew growing up, the boy with perfect grades and perfect hair and who was perfectly aware of his own perfection. And then, the storm clouds settled back in, and the smile faded away. "Swimming. I need to get going, it was nice seeing you again Olympia. Stay safe," his spoke in a hurried rush, it took me almost a full minute after he left to decipher his words.

A question formed at the tip of my tongue as I watched his retreating figure: If you were swimming, why aren't you wet?

**Please don't kill me.... Everyone here has a right to be mad. I completely understand but the last thing I would want is to give you guys a crappy chapter because my heart is just not into it. Thank you for those who have continued to support this story, and fight for it because you believed in it. That is definitely the kind of support Oly is going to need while going on this adventure. Please tell me your theories about what will happen next, what's you believe the significance of the water levels rising means and what do you think about the mysterious Phillip?

Again I'm sorry for keeping so many of you in suspense.
XOXO,
Ro.**