Audrey Ann Red took a deep breath taking the first step onto the bus that was heading to the 'Swimming Champions'. The Swimming Champions is a special weekend-school where world-wide swimming champions compete with each other and participate in challenging contests to see who is the best.

It was Audrey's first day going back to Cape Breton Island to attend school after the long summer vacation. She had just turned 14 years old and wondered if she would find anyone her age.

"Here you go," Audrey tapped her bus card on the ticket machine and quietly walked to the back of the bus. She found a seat next to a girl who looked a few years younger than her.

Audrey looked at the girl curiously and said with a smile, "Hi, I'm Audrey, and it's a pleasure to meet you!" Audrey waited for a little while until realizing that there was no response from the girl.

She sighed, put her heavy bag on the floor, and looked out the window. She hoped that the year was going to be exciting with some new experiences. Once everyone got in, the bus started moving. Audrey's eyes moved around the bus to see all the new faces she will be swimming with this year.

She leaned back into her seat and slowly closed her eyes. She knew it was going to be a long bus ride.

An hour later the bus stopped. "Champions!" said the bus driver. Audrey opened her sea-blue eyes.

Audrey took another deep breath as she stood up and walked out of the bus. She turned her head and looked at all the Champion Schools that were around her. "Writing Champions... Fashion Champions... Art Champions...." she said to herself. "Ah, here it is," she said as she found her school beside the Sports Champions.

Each student was given their own room to stay in for the entire weekend. They could relax, change, have a snack, or do whatever they wanted in their free time, but most of the time they would go through training and lessons.

Audrey walked into her room and let her bag drop to the floor. She flopped onto her waterbed and waited for her roommate to arrive.

"Ten more minutes until our first lesson begins," Mr. Devin, Audrey's swimming coach, announced through the intercom above the bed. Audrey looked at her watch, giving it a final glance. "Time to take this off," she said, putting her watch onto her dresser.

Audrey took out her new swimsuit and brought it to her big walk-in closet to change. Her swimsuit was lighter than sky blue with white sport stripes on each side. When she was done changing, Audrey looked into her mirror and put her hazelnut hair into a tight bun, and put on her matching sky blue swim cap. She was finally ready for the first lesson of the season!

As Audrey was about to exit her room, her roommate Oceana ran inside. "Wow, someone's late," Audrey thought, as she saw Oceana run past her and into the closet. Audrey gave a small chuckle and headed for the swimming pool for the training. "Oh no," she whispered as she realized the bell was going to ring. She rushed inside to make it on time. She sat down on a bench and looked around at all of the year's swimming contestants.

"This year we have a surprise... come on, follow me!" said Mr. Devin as he guided everyone outside the swimming hall. Mr. Devin always gave the students surprises, and they were REAL surprises.

Confused, the students gazed out the windows to see that a bus was waiting for them outside the school. "Another bus ride?" Audrey thought as she walked along with everyone else.

After a half-hour drive of puzzling thoughts, imagining where they were going to, the bus finally came to a stop. As the students got out, each had an amazed expression on their faces. "Wow, are we really supposed to be here?" Audrey asked herself, confused. She saw that it was no ordinary swimming pool. "The Atlantic Ocean..." she gasped and whispered as she looked around with extreme surprise.

All of the students followed their coach and walked towards a large wooden dock and sat down on the edge. Everyone dipped their feet inside the cold water. "Let's begin! We will be doing a contest to see who can hold their breath underwater for the longest!" said Mr. Devin in a loud voice so everyone could hear above all the sounds of the waves and splashes from the ocean.

Audrey gulped as she looked at her swim coach and then the other students. "I can do this," she said in a whisper, encouraging herself as she slowly closed her eyes. The first student had already hopped into the water and held the dock until their coach said to let go. "One.. two.. three" everyone counted together, as they waited for the student's head to pop up from the water.

A few minutes later it was Audrey's turn. She took a deep breath before hopping in the water with a big splash. She tasted salty water that she was not used to! When the coach said to let go, Audrey had let go of the edge of the dock, held her breath, and dipped her head under the water while everyone watched. When she was sure that her full body was underwater, she started swimming ahead. She heard nothing but the waves and movements of the water around her. She felt like she was in a different world, nothing like the regular swimming pool she was used to. She had started to count in her brain while swimming '36,37..38'. A minute later, Audrey popped up her head and gasped for some fresh air.

She expected to see her team and coach in a distance, but with surprise, she didn't see anyone at all. There was nothing to be seen other than the blue sparkling water surrounding her. Her legs tread quickly and her heart started to panic as she looked around and tried to find out where she was.

Audrey started to swim in the direction she thought she had come from. She had been swimming for minutes that felt like hours and she was becoming tired. Soon she saw a small area of land ahead of her. "Finally," she thought out loud as she swam as fast as her legs could push her. When she got to the land, Audrey flopped onto the soft sand to take a rest and catch her breath. All the swimming she did made Audrey exhausted. Within a couple of minutes, she felt her eyes dropping and fell fast asleep.

A warm wind swooshed in the air and the girl woke up, shivering, her hair still wet from the salty water. She slowly crawled under some trees to find some comfort. Audrey had no idea where she was. She stood up and wandered around for a few minutes before going back to the sand. "Where am I?" she thought over and over. After looking around she went back to the trees and realized they had large leaves she never saw before. She gathered the biggest leaves with the longest stems and broke off some soft branches. Her mind started working and guided her to tie them together to make a small hammock to rest on. She tied the ends of the new creation to two trees. She slowly layed down on it and saw if it was strong enough to hold her body. Audrey smiled as she figured that it did. "Now this is nice," she said happily.

Audrey looked up and saw it was getting dark. "Oh no. I still need to find food to eat and I'm so hungry". She quickly glanced around and found a small tree with dark smooth leaves a few meters away that looked like a fruit similar to mangoes. 'At least it's something' Audrey thought, walking toward the tree. Once she got there she put one step up and started climbing. She shook the tree, as a few mango-looking fruits fell down.

Audrey climbed down the tree and picked the fruit with smooth deep orange and yellow skin. She used her nails to unpeel the fruit and took a big bite of the juicy fruit. "Yummm!" she said to herself as she felt a small amount of juice dripping down her face. "This is awesome!" She quickly wiped her face as she finished the fruit to the core. It satisfied her hunger and thirst at the same time and found some energy back in her body. Suddenly she remembered that she was all alone and it was getting dark. "Will anyone come to find me? What do I do" She looked up to the sky and then towards the water far ahead. It became darker as well. Audrey loved the water, so she wasn't afraid. "I'll just wait till someone rescues me," Audrey reassured herself and walked to her hammock.

Audrey laid down and wondered why her coach didn't try to come for her when she was still underwater. She closed her eyes as she climbed onto the hammock and fell fast asleep, not even realizing how exhausted her body and mind really was. Hours of peace paced and the sun shone brightly down on Audrey and she realized it must be morning already. She heard the lovely chirping of birds that sounded like soothing music to her ears. She smiled as she looked around and everything looked beautiful. Her wavy hair flew with the wind as she started walking on the sand. "Ah," Audrey yelped, quietly as she heard a few sounds, which made her heart jump. She walks towards the sounds, trying to figure out what made them.

"Aw," she said smiling, as she saw a baby sea lion sitting on a rock. "Woah," she said under her breath as she jogged to the huge rock by the edge of the water.

"Hey, there bud," she said smiling as she slowly tried to pet the sea lion. "I'll call you..." she said thinking. "Oh! I'll call you Silv. Short for Silver." Audrey said, smiling with joy. "How did you get here? Do you live around here?" she asked as if she could talk to the animal.

"Err, Er" Silver, the sea lion said joyfully. The response that Audrey got back made her laugh for a few seconds, before returning her attention to Silver.

"Come on, Silv!" Said Audrey happily as she ran across the beach's sand. She smiled, as she looked at her new friend. There was only one thing wrong. Audrey started to get a weird feeling that she couldn't figure out.

Audrey just didn't feel right, she knew something was about to happen. She looked up at the sun that was shining brightly. She covered the sun from her face. Audrey Ann Red turned around and looked at Silver. "Do you think you can help me get back to my home?" "Err, Arei" said Silver in return. Audrey laughed as she slowly walked up to the sea lion, to give it a hug.

The two new friends played for a few more hours before having a small snack. Audrey walked to her fruit tree while Silver was swimming in the water, trying to catch fish.

A loud sound echoed from the sky that sounded like a thousand hummingbirds. Audrey looked up and saw a mini-helicopter that looked like a Police chopper, white and blue, with its propellers zooming in circles. "Oh," she whispered as small tears fell down her eyes. She didn't know if they were tears of joy or sorrow as she had mixed feelings swell inside her. She knew it was time to go back to Cape Breton Island. She wished she could stay, but she also wanted to go. She tried pushing her tears back, but it was useless. She struggled, and fell to her knees, and covered her face with her hands, allowing many of her tears to fall onto the sand. Emotions of relief exploded uncontrollably.

The pilot announced from the chopper that he was from the Search Police Services and that he was going to land. As he came closer to the ground, another man hopped out of the gigantic machine with a small blanket and ran over.

"Audrey?" his friendly voice shouted over the loud humming. She looked up with wet but happy eyes.

"Yes" she nodded her head.

"Are you okay?"

Again, she nodded her head to indicate "yes".

"Let's get you home to your swimming team! Your parents are waiting for you there! He smiled, giving her the blanket to wrap herself with. He turned around and gave a thumbs up to the pilot.

She leaped up with excitement, tied the blanket around her waist, and walked over to the helicopter with the policeman.

"Hop in," said the pilot, raising his brow as he gazed at the sea lion, waving his flippers. Audrey quickly ran towards Silver, hugging the sea lion tightly. "Take care Silv," she whispered, "It's time for me to get back to my real home. I'll miss you!" and she turned away fast, not wanting to look back and feel the pain.

When Audrey got in the helicopter, she realized she would be in the air for the first time. She steadily squeezed into the back seat and quickly sat down. Her eyes ran towards Silver as she looked out the window, buckled in her seatbelt, and took a big sigh. They had just met, and it was already time to leave each other's side. "Let's go," Audrey whispered, turning her head to the pilot. He agreed with a great big smile and pulled the lever. In no time the propellers swirled faster and lifted the helicopter up into the light blue sky, above the dark blue water.

Audrey sighed as she turned back to the driver and gave a half-smile. Without another thought, she tried to speak of her adventure. "I-I got lost in t-the ocean.."

Audrey fell silent all of a sudden. She couldn't get any more words out of her mouth. The pilot looked at her through his rear mirror, shrugged his shoulders, and flew Audrey back home to safety. When the helicopter landed, Audrey unbuckled herself and ran out to hug her family who was there waiting eagerly for her. A big crowd watched Audrey as she hugged her parents. It felt good, as she smelled the familiar scents of her mom's hair and dad's cologne. She was "lost" in a different world for only 2 days, which felt like a month. "Was it a dream?" she thought, but then shook her head, "No, it was real life".

"Oh Audrey, we are so glad you are safe and sound!" her mom squealed with joy.

"That's our super swimmer and survivor!" added her dad. "Let's get you dressed and have Dr. Ali check up on you. You'll have to rest for a few days at home before you return to Champions and especially the ocean."

Audrey's mother grabbed her daughter's shaking hand and led her to her Champions room. She took a quick warm shower and closed her eyes as all the images and memories flashed in her mind. That was quite an adventure, she thought. She dried herself and put on her cozy jogging pants and matching shirt. Her mom brought her some warm chicken soup that Audrey devoured in a few minutes. "Ocean, I'll meet you again soon," she thought, and started her trip back home, as the ocean's beautiful waves awaited her for another mystical adventure.