• tab The temperature was perfect for swimming that night; even Dahlia expressed regret that Jenna wanted to go alone.
    tab “Just be careful and don’t do anything that I would do,” she warned before turning on the TV and sitting on the massive couch.
    tab To Jenna’s relief, the beach was practically empty. The day before she had seen a dock where kids had been practicing diving off of and quickly walked over to the now vacant spot. Placing her towel besides her shoes, she unzipped the windbreaker that Nate had given her, revealing her blue one-piece bathing suit. At home, she had a whole draw full of bikinis but Jenna, with the exception of the one her mother had packed, had purposely left them at home; she wasn’t ready to have guys staring at her again. After pulling her hair into a ponytail, she took a step back before diving into the cool, refreshing water.
    tab Closing her eyes, Jenna let herself drift along, letting the water her carry her for a bit before she started swimming clumsily. Her strokes were uneven and sloppy but she didn’t care. For the first time in weeks, she felt like her old self again. Jenna, the girl who didn’t give a s**t about what the world thought of her. Her friends understood that side of her, and other people appreciated that she dared to be different. But now things were different. Everybody hated her, called her a slut and a liar that just wanted attention. Turning onto her back, she struggled to stay afloat while she tried to banish the sounds of her schoolmates’ laughter.
    tab “The trick is inhaling.”
    tab Surprised, Jenna rolled off her back and saw someone watching her from the dock.
    tab “If you want to do it right,” Nate’s voice yelled over the sound of the water crashing against the shore, “you have to inhale.”
    tab Swimming closer to the dock, Jenna tucked the fallen strands of her hair behind her ear. “What are you doing here?”
    tab Nate sat down on the dock and placed something that looked like a soda bottle at his side. “Dahlia called me,” he replied, “she asked me to teach you how to swim, though I can’t imagine why.” Even though it was dark, she knew that he was smirking.
    tab Turning her back towards him, Jenna swam a few feet away. “I don’t need your help.”
    tab “Come on, don’t you want to try and beat me at the swim race next week too?”
    tab He was teasing her. Looking back, she wanted to splash him but he was too far away. “Sorry but I think I’ll pass on the swimming lessons,” she sneered bitterly.
    tab “Good,” Nate called as he stood up. “I wasn’t offering anyway. Your technique is awful, I’d be wasting the whole summer trying to teach you how to swim properly.”
    tab Facing growing red with anger, she swam a few more yards away. “Is there anything else you want to say or are you done humiliating me?”
    tab “Just watch out for jellyfish,” he replied knowingly.
    tab Jenna watched him start to walk away, when suddenly she called out to him. “What does it feel like to get stung?”
    tab Nate stopped mid-step, his silhouette dark under a streetlight. “They sting like a b***h,” he shouted. “First your legs feel like their cramping up, and then you feel like someone’s stabbing them with a zillion needles until it hurts so much you can barely move it. Then, depending on how often you’ve been stung, your leg goes numb.”
    tab He started to walk away again. “Nate!”
    tab This time when he responded, Nate sounded agitated. “What now? You want to know what a shark bite feels like?”
    tab Jenna shook her head, spraying water everywhere. “I can’t feel legs,” she cried, her voice wavering as she felt another shot of intense pain spread through her body.
    tab Suddenly Nate was in the water. He hadn’t even hesitated as he pulled off his shirt and his shoes before diving perfectly into the water. Dahlia was right; he was fast, really fast, his arms slicing through the water as if they were a razor sharp knife and the water a piece of bread. But even at the speed he was going, Jenna’s arms were tired from treading the water for so long and felt ready to fall off. She couldn’t stay up anymore; her arms ached almost as much as her legs.
    tab Nate was getting closer to her, she could hear him shouting at her to try and swim towards him, but she couldn’t. Her legs were in so much pain; she couldn’t even begin to describe it. When she had felt the first sting, she had thought that perhaps her leg was just cramping up, just like Nate had said. However, then she felt the other stings, each one more painful than the last.
    tab “Just hold on Jenna!”
    tab He was almost there, his body getting closer with each passing second but she couldn’t take it anymore. The pain was too much for her, in her legs and arms. Closing her eyes, Jenna took a deep breath before sinking underneath the water...

    tab Swimming as hard as he could, Nate reached the spot where he had last seen the princess.
    tab “Jenna?” he called as glanced frantically around but there was no response. Violent rain fell from the sky and struck his skin with such force that it stung. Of course he had been in situations far worse than this; at least he hoped he had. Then again, the only times he had ever actually saved anyone from drowning had been in Fantasia, never reality.
    tab Taking a deep breath, Nate dove under the violent water just as a wave rolled over the surface. The world underneath the water was just as calm as always. Whales and dolphins frolicked with mermaids who took turns spinning around, enjoying the sight of their shimmering tails being caught by the moonlight. One of the mermaids noticed him and beckoned Nate to join them. Remembering the last adventure that involved mermaids, Nate shook his head and continued to swim down, prepared to reach the ocean floor if he had to.
    tab Earlier, he had overheard what Lena and her crew had been saying to Jenna. At first, he had expected her to laugh along with them before coming up with some new insult to throw at him and his friends. But when Jenna had turned their offer down, an offer any girl in his school would have killed for, he knew that he had once again misjudged her. Even though he knew that Jenna wasn’t a b***h like Lena, he had been positive that after how badly he and Theo had treated her, she wouldn’t even have hesitated to ditch them. But no, she had done what few girls had the guts to do. She turned down Lena, queen of White Sands high school, just so she could hang with three nobodies who passed their time by playing make believe.
    tab Pushing those thoughts from his head, Nate swam down deep, anxious to find the princess before it was too late. And if he didn’t find her, then he would turn in his sword. What kind of knight couldn’t even rescue a princess?
    tab He was just about to answer himself when he saw her.
    tab Floating a few feet away from the mermaids was Jenna. He watched her hands claw frantically at the water as she struggled to swim back up to the surface. In the bluish light, she looked almost angelic, her skin sparkling silver and her hair spread out, creating a coppery crown around her head. But Nate ignored the spectral beauty that the waters of Fantasia’s massive ocean were creating. No matter how beautiful it was Nate knew that the experience that Jenna was going through was anything but beautiful. Not wasting a second, he swam over to Jenna, took her hand and helped guide her to the surface.
    tab When they finally broke threw, the storm had increased in its wrath. In his arms, he could feel Jenna struggling to break from his hold on her.
    tab “Please Nate,” she coughed weakly, “please don’t touch me.”
    tab All ready besieged with the fury of the colossal waves, Nate felt Jenna being wrenched free from his grip as another wave crashed down upon them.
    tab No, he thought as he dove back under and resurfaced with Jenna held tightly in his arms. This was just another battle; only this time instead of some creature his enemy was nature itself. And as a knight, he would face this battle head on and, like all the other battles before it, win.
    tab “Nate,” Jenna whimpered as she once again tried to break free.
    tab He understood her pleas, she was afraid, afraid that he would hurt her like the evil wizard Jason had. Ignoring her request, Nate tightened his grip around her as he started to make his way to shore.
    tab “It’s alright, Jenna,” he shouted while she tried to kick him away, “trust me when I say that I’m not going to hurt you.”
    tab Jenna stopped struggling after that. Silently, he could feel her watching him battle his way back to the shores of Fantasia. Ignoring the weight of her gaze, Nate kept his eyes focused on the immense island that was slowly getting closer. Though his arms ached, he pressed forward, determined to remind the forces of nature why he was the best knight in all of Fantasia.
    tab When they finally reached land, Nate carefully lifted her out of the water and sat her down on the sand. Bending down besides her, he examined the places where the jellyfish had stung her. In total he counted eight stings spread across both her legs. These places were red and already beginning to swell up.
    tab “Why didn’t you say anything before?” he asked after returning with the towel that Jenna had brought along with her.
    tab Wrapping the towel around her body, Jenna pulled her legs close and rested her arms on top of them. “I didn’t think that you’d have cared,” she admitted.
    tab He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Don’t tell me you thought that I was just going to let you drown?”
    tab To his shock, Jenna nodded. “Ok,” he said softly, “from now on, whenever you’re in pain or sad, don’t keep it yourself....” Nate could hear how stupid he sounded and yet as cheesy as it was, he couldn’t seem to stop.
    tab “....get up and find the person whom you trust the most and you tell them, ‘I’m not ok,’ and if that person really cares about you, then they’ll listen and try and help.” He reached out and pushed a few strands of her hair away from her face.
    tab For a while they sat in silence listening to sounds of the waves hitting sand. Then Jenna spoke, in a quiet and fragile voice, “Nate,” she looked over at him and to his surprise, saw tears running down her face.
    tab “I’m not ok,” she whispered.