'Salantina... how many times do I have to tell you, don't wash your hands in the kitchen sink.' The green line appeared with her mother hovering beside her.

'Sorry, Mum, won't happen again.' She picked up a towel to dry her hands and shoved it out of her mother's sight. There were palpitations in her chest while she watched it disappear before taking a plate. Thankfully, her mum didn't notice her face go white. 

'Tadgh they won't listen to reason...' Her mother was too preoccupied with a 'non-argument' as they called it with her dad. Salantina had learned to tune them out when these situations occur. Shoving her food down as quickly as possible she excused herself upstairs to do her homework. Peppa looked sad so she pulled a face at her giving her a weak smile in return. 

Away from her mothers scrutinizing eyes she could feel her palpitations again when Ruby called. She took a deep breath before answering the phone. Despite her best efforts to ignore the mark on her hand, she was afraid.

Taking a deep breath she told Ruby what had happened down at the stream. About the glowing fish that bite her, falling asleep on the rock, and being sick all day yesterday. Carefully leaving out the details of the green line appearing on her finger - she knew that was something different.

'Only you would find a glowing fish that bites Salantina,' Ruby said laughing. Finally seeing the funny side of things, she laughed too. It was nothing! Although her face was burning from how worked up she got.

She was about to share what had happened with Fynn today, but Bella arrived at feet wagging her tail.

'Sorry Ruby, I need to go. Bella is looking for her walk.'

'Okay. Don't worry Sal, it's nothing honestly, but stay away from that stream for a while.'
After hanging up, she thought about Fynn at school again and decided she wouldn't say anything to Ruby. As much as she respected her opinion on most things when it came to boys, she'd completely read into it and Ruby didn't need any more encouragement when it came to Fynn.

Bella as usual guided them toward the wooded area. When she got to the stream entrance an eerie feeling unsettled her and her feet moved faster until she broke into a light run before turning around and going home again. Ruby was right - avoid the stream for now.

*

The competition was tomorrow and her anxiety wouldn't let her rest. Brian ordered her to have another rest weekend. She had listened up until today when she convinced Ruby to go swimming on the beach with her.

Ruby drove a light blue Corsa which they all referred to as the 'smurf' car. It had its flaws: a broken exhaust, a dodgy paint job, temperamental air conditioning, and a window in the passenger seat that wouldn't go down but everyone happily sat into it. Salantina heard the loud exhaust pull up followed by a beep making her smile - not like she needed the beep. She was out the door before she could hear any objections from her parents. Even her Dad was siding with her mum on the resting.

They arrived at the beach to calm waters and clear skies. In front of the car park was a pathway down to the sea with big stones at the waterfront to sit on. Memories came back from their younger days when Ruby, Rose, and Salantina sat right there in the summer talking about school and boys.

Within minutes they had marked out the length of their laps staying clear of two other swimmers. Salantina recognized one of the boys from school and he waved to her. They got straight into it then.

*

'The rest has done you good Salantina you're 1-second faster!' Ruby exclaimed. 'I didn't even think that was possible, are you not exhausted?' At this stage, they were swimming for forty minutes. A long time in seawater.

Salantina trained as normal with no plans to conserve energy. 

'Could be intense training combined with rest, I guess,' Salantina said. In the back of her mind, she thought of the mark but immediately brushed it away. 'Come on, we do another ten minutes?'

'I think we should give it a rest. I don't want us burnt out for tomorrow. Plus, we are starting to lose sunlight.'

'Do you mind if I keep going?' Rubys looked at her disapprovingly.

'Okay. I'll float here, you do another lap and then we call it a night?' They nodded and Salantina swam off.

While swimming Salantina noticed something odd. For the first time, she could see things glowing in the water. Illuminating colors made it less dark. She wasn't sure if she was imagining it or if she could see the seaweed on the seabed. Startled, she closed her eyes and completed her final lap blind.

'You okay, Salantina, you seem a little off?' Ruby asked her when they were out of the water.

'A little nervous about tomorrow, maybe I shouldn't have done the extra lap, but anyways let's go home.' She looked at Ruby and felt as if her eyes could tell she was lying. Just get me through tomorrow...

When home and in her bedroom alone, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.

*

The next morning, Salantina opened her eyes feeling rested. Rolling over, she checked the time it was only nine am. The competition didn't start for another four hours. Her leg swung out of bed before she dressed quickly, and made her way downstairs. 

Bella was at her feet moments later wagging her tail.

'I'll bring you out when I finish breakfast girl.' Bella looked at her with her head going from side to side while Salantina flipped a pancake. For a change, she was making breakfast for the family.

Her sister Peppa was the first one into the kitchen, still wearing her unicorn pajamas with the same brown hair and eyes as her sister with a babyface. 

'Good morning Peppa. I've made pancakes.' Salantina greeted her with a smile.

'Morning, please tell me you're not going to food poison us all again.' Despite being almost seven, she was wise for her age. There was an incident with chicken in the past where Salantina didn't check the dates and her dad was sick the entire night. Since then they had banned her from cooking meats.

'Ha ha! Very funny. No, I'm not. I've checked the dates on everything.' Salantina replied sarcastically but could feel her face burning. Can you get sick from eggs?

'Ok, I'm hungry, will it be much longer?' Peppa smiled playfully. A brave girl.

'Take a seat at the TV and I'll bring it out.' She returned her smile. 'Hey, after breakfast want to come walk Bella with me?'

'Yes!' Peppa replied before jumping out of her seat to run up the stairs to her bedroom. 'I'll get dressed now.'

'Wait, I did say after breakfast. Eat your pancakes before they get cold.'

Peppa stopped and sat down again, but ate fast and ran straight upstairs still chewing. The sitting room door opened when she left and her Dad walked in. He was paler than usual today. 

'Morning, something smells nice,' he walked over to the plate beside the stove. 'My favorite, thank you, Darling. Shouldn't you be resting for your big day?'

'I know Dad, but I couldn't sleep. Peppa and I are going to take Bella on a quick walk before we go.' Salantina smiled watching her dad take a pancake from the plate. 'And also, I cooked you an extra one.' He grinned ear to ear.

'Well, how could I have asked for a better Daughter. Thank you.' Her Dad was still smiling when they left for their walk.

It had been a week since she walked the road to the woods, but today she felt more at ease with her sister. They talked the entire time and laughed a lot. When they walked into the wooded part of the road, the familiar streams of light filtering through the trees made her remember why she loved this walk.

As they reached the bridge, Salantina noticed a white golf car approaching them. It was traveling down the hill and the driver was going slow. They stepped off the road out of the way while it crawled past. Salantina recognized who was driving the car, her neighbor David. He had moved here a couple of years back.

She had always thought of him as weird, and today he confirmed why. As he drove past, Salantina felt the glare of his eyes staring through the window at her. He was an older man in his late fifties. He had a long pale face with a square jawline, and small gray hooded eyes looked out under his cap.

David crawled past in the car barely acknowledging the road while his eyes watched them and even moved to the rearview mirror when they were behind him. They had a burning anger that held hers as he turned the corner. Alarmed, she caught Peppa's hand and quickly walked her out of the wooded area leading them home. She wasn't going near that stream today. 

Turning the corner in a hurry she was relieved to see he wasn't there and her hand loosened her grip on Peppas.

'Is everything OK? Peppa asked.

'I just noticed I haven't checked the time. I think it's getting late and I realized I haven't packed my bag or anything yet.'

After a few minutes of speed walking home, Peppa complained that she couldn't keep up and eventually, they slowed down. Salantina was feeling calmer now out of the woods. It's all in my head...

'Why do you want to win the competition?' Peppa asked curiously.

'Huh?' It took her a second to come back to reality. 'I want to win, I guess... because it will mean I worked hard for something and I became the best at it.' Salantina replied unsure of what else she could say. It was the first time anyone actually asked her this question.

'And coming in anything but first would mean you failed?' She asked innocently.

'No, not exactly. I'd be happy to win any place.'

'But do you not enjoy swimming anyways, why do you need to win or come in place?' Salantina thought for a moment about how to answer.

'I don't really know how to explain it. I guess it's something you'll understand when you're older.' She smiled playfully at her younger sister as she thought more about what she said. Why did she want to win?

*

When they got home Ruby was waiting outside. She had a worried but determined expression on her face, but when she saw Salantina her face broke into a smile.

'Thought you weren't going to show up!' Ruby called to her with relief. 'Hello Peppa, come here and give me a hug. I haven't seen you in so long.' She let go of Salantina's hand and ran to her. 

'Okay. Come on Peppa, we really need to start getting ready for the competition time to go inside to Mum!' After checking the time there was an hour to go.

*

'Don't be worrying Ruby, we've been training for months!' Salantina reassured her friend as she heard her mother shout from downstairs. Her mum wanted to be early so she could get a good seat.

'Coming now!' They grabbed the packed bag with butterflies in their stomachs.

'Ready girls? I've packed some protein bars and fruit for you both. We need to keep your energy levels up.'

Her mum was organized, like always. They got in the car thanking her and off they went with anxiety levels rising.

When they arrived at the pilrigs pool the next town over Ruby's hands were shaking. 'Take deep breaths okay, we will be fine.' Once she stopped shaking they got out of the car.

 The girls didn't change straight away. They looked around outside and met with the other girls from the Ballycree team who were also competing. Brian showed up not long afterward and told them to change and they'd warm up before the day started. It was three races before Salantina's first, and if she won, she had to win another to get to the final. There was also the team competition where they all swam a length before handing over a bar to one another. It was going to be intense.

The day went by fast. Salantina came first in the first two rounds, and now she had made it through to the final swim. Ruby was happy too. She came second in both which meant she couldn't compete in the final, but she was still placed. Ballycree's group came first in the team final which was followed by huge cheering from the stands.

It came time for the overall swim, and Salantina couldn't believe it. She had to face the same girl Robin, whom she was against last year. The girl who beat her. Robin was fast and outside of the pool was a shy girl. Her physique was slender and tanned with long black hair. They were in the lanes right beside each other for the final swim... obviously, the judges had thought it might be a close call again this year.

'Did you get a new tattoo? I really like it!' Robin smiled, looking at her hand.

'Tattoo?' Salantina asked confused.

'On your finger, the green line... it's cool. Sorry, I couldn't help but notice it just now,' she replied looking a little embarrassed. 

'Oh sorry, it's not a real tattoo but thank you,' Salantina lied, covering her hand. She was surprised she had forgotten about it. Taking a deep breath to stop her from getting anxious, Salantina focused her mind. Even though she still wanted badly to win Peppas words from earlier kept swarming in her head. Why do you want to win?

Moments later the whistle blew and they all jumped in. Salantina shook the thoughts from her head and surged through the water as fast as she could. Hitting the far wall in what felt like seconds, she turned in the water and kicked herself off the wall for speed. This is the first time she noticed that Robin was slightly behind her, but not by much.

'Keep going... faster,' she screamed to herself, pushing through the water, accelerating as quickly as she could. Hitting the wall again, she put her hand up and could hear the whistle blow! Brian pulled her up out of the water.

'You won Salantina, you won!' He gave her a hug and Salantina pulled off her hat and goggles - she couldn't believe it! A full three seconds ahead of Robin!

It was at that very moment that Salantina realized that even though she finally won what she thought was the one thing she wanted, she still didn't feel happy. That empty feeling returned to her stomach as everyone ran around her. This is what she wanted, isn't it?

Using her best fake smile for the rest of the day passed in a blur of celebrations and photos but for Salantina she just wanted to go home. 

Authors Note:

I found this chapter incredibly hard to write because I wanted to emulate how I personally felt in school being the over achiever that I was. I wanted so badly to do well and yet, when I did, it made me feel awful. Why? I can say now years later that it was because I didn't enjoy the process. The end result isn't everything in life and I learned that by burning myself out and thinking of nothing else I forgot to be happy and enjoy what I done. Grief is a funny thing too. And after the death of my loved one I went onto autopilot and just worked and worked. This contributed to the reason why I didn't feel good winning. It isn't everything - who you are and how you feel about yourself is. Which is why I wanted to show Salantina winning and her feelings afterwards.

This is why I never fully understand people who say they don't like spoilers now because even when I know the ending of something that doesn't bother me because I'm there for the journey.

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