Mia got out of the crowd the only way she could – by swimming down, kicking and struggling in a mass of bubbles and legs. She opened her eyes underwater and they immediately started stinging. The light was strangely blue. She turned and kicked her way to the surface and gasped for air. Water sluiced over her head and she palmed it away from her eyes. Some of it dripped into her open mouth.

Yuck! It was salty.

Mia blinked her eyes open against the stinging.

She was submerged up to her neck, treading water.

But she wasn’t in the swimming pool.

“What?”

Hot sun beat down on her. There was nothing but blue, choppy water under a cloudless sky, all the way to the horizon.

3

URSULA

Mia’s heart pounded. Her eyes swept the horizon. She was all alone! She could drown here! There was nothing – no land at all. Could she keep swimming long enough to survive?

Then she saw the boat.

It was wooden, about as long as a bus, with one mast and a pair of patched red sails. It was heading away from her and Mia could make out a man at the back end, standing over a spoked steering wheel. The name Ursula was painted on the back.

“Hey!” Mia shouted. “Help! Over here! Help!”

The man’s head whipped around. He grabbed a U-shaped lifebuoy from the boat’s rail and threw it towards Mia with all his strength. Even before it splashed into the water, he was spinning on the wheel and pulling on ropes. The boat began to turn.

Mia swam towards the lifebuoy. Its U-shape meant she could just pull it around her and float in the water. The boat was coming towards her. The man fiddled with more ropes and the sails collapsed down. The boat coasted to a stop.

Mia swam the last few strokes towards it, and the man leaned over the rail to help her up.

“Welcome on board Ursula!” he said, smiling. “How are you?”

Mia stood barefoot on the sun-warmed wooden deck while a small puddle of dripping water gathered around her.

“I’m okay, thank you!” she gasped. “But I don’t know how long I could have kept going.”

“You’re a strong swimmer, but it’s tough out there.” The man was tall and tanned, in light, loose clothing and a fleece. He had a hat with a brim that shaded his face as he smiled. “Between the sun, thirst, and the sharks, something would have got you sooner or later.”

Mia looked at the sea and shuddered. She was glad to be standing on something solid, where sharks couldn’t get.

“Um – where are we, exactly?” Mia asked. She looked around but there was still absolutely no sign of anyone. Just a thousand miles of empty ocean in every direction. “It looks like the middle of nowhere.”

The man laughed.