Raven Saga 01 - Raven

gymnasts. The other girls looked impressive, as they fluttered about the room like brightly coloured butterflies, full of elegance and composure. December, on the other hand, thought herself more akin to Alice in Wonderland's caterpillar.
    Imagine December's surprise when she began to hear the gentle whooshing sound that usually accompanies an overflowing bathtub. A noise that slowly became louder and louder, until water literally began pouring into the gymnasium from all directions. And it wasn't even raining.
    “What the...?” Miss Finnegan screeched.
    “Everybody form an orderly line and exit the gymnasium as soon as you can!” she yelled in her posh English accent to her students, after turning puce from blowing so hard on the red whistle that always hung around her taut, blotchy neck.
    December knew something wasn't quite right with the whole scenario, considering the gymnasium had never posed a flood threat before and the fact that there was no plumbing anywhere near the building. The changing rooms were situated at the far end of the school... a design she had never quite understood.
    As all the girls and boys panicked and flocked to the exit in one mad rush, December slowly took her time. It was only water, after all, and a little bit of water never hurt anyone. Well, it had never hurt me , she thought. Exactly at that moment, the water that had begun seeping into her black plimsolls and wetting her feet, receded, leaving her feet and ankles entirely, and strangely, dry.
    Eyes wide in amazement, December surveyed the scene around her as one last student ran across the large mat in the centre of the room, it squelching beneath her feet. She was the last to leave. Even Miss Finnegan hadn't waited to make sure all her students had escaped unharmed and dry.
    The water continued to pour in from each corner of the room, large droplets plopping around her from the ceiling and walls. Bits of green painted plaster broke away from the wall and fell down, bobbing up and down in the ankle high water below. December looked down at the floor and noticed that water was everywhere except within a small circular area surrounding her feet. As she moved, the dry circular area moved with her, like a bouncing bubble.
    Before she could work out what was happening, gymnasium equipment began to fall and crash to the floor with the force of the running water.
    How can this be? She thought. Then she remembered her silent wish, s urely not? No, there had to be a rational explanation to all of this. I couldn't possibly be responsible. But the dry bubble around her told her a very different story.
    As much as December wanted to hang around and enjoy watching the gym fill up with water, abruptly putting an end to her least favourite subject, she knew Miss Finnegan would eventually notice she was missing. So she skipped from the flooded room and out into the unusually bright sunlight of the October English afternoon.
    #
    It had been nearly a year since her best friend, Lilly, had left her behind in England and moved to Canada. It had proved to be a long and lonely year for December.
    After Lilly's parents had completely vanished, she had moved to the other side of the world to a town called Powell River in the province of British Columbia. December had been so sad that her friend had to go, but she was also really pleased for her. They had stayed in touch and Lilly had sent numerous emails telling her all about the beauty that surrounded her and the wonderful loving family that had welcomed her with open arms over there.
    December suspected that there was more to Lilly's new found happiness. She suspected there was something her friend wasn't telling her. After a few years of being the very best of friends, December knew Lilly too well to not know when something was going on, but she hadn't asked her about it. She knew that Lilly would tell her, whatever 'it' was, when the time was right.
    For now, December had her own boring life to worry about. Since Lilly's departure, her life had returned to the same awful day-to-day experiences of having to stay out of her Aunt Penelope's way and dodge the cruel comments by some of her more horrible classmates. She secretly daydreamed about the day that her own mother would return to take her home, to rescue her from her only other family member; the rich aunt, who had only agreed to look after her because her late brother, December's father, had requested it.
    That and the fact that there was