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Troubled Waters

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Gym class hits the pool, and everyone has to get in — everyone except Lucy. The reason is a story Mike would rather not tell, and one Lucy relives in painful detail from the quiet of Room 104.

Troubled Waters
Chapter30 of 127 (list of chapters)
PublishedJanuary 16, 2007 (2007-01-16)
Page count12
Major charactersLucy, Mike, Paulo, Daisy, David, Yashy
Minor charactersTess, Sue, Abbey, Sir Poodles of Noodles, Gym Teacher (High School)
LocationsRoseville High School, Park
Collected inVolume One, Omnibus 1
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Synopsis

A new marking period sends the gym class swimming, and no, Tess, there are no alternative activities.[1] Only Lucy is excused, packed off to Room 104 for the rest of the marking period while her classmates wonder why. Poolside, Tess presses Mike about Lucy's "trick," and he wearily admits she's deathly afraid of the water, all because of something he did a long time ago. Tess reaches the worst available conclusion: "You tried to DROWN LUCY?!?!" The entire class turns on the mortified Mike.[1]

Room 104 turns out to be Mr. Noodles' detention room, though he's relieved to be minding Lucy instead of the usual regulars.[2] Left with her homework, Lucy watches the seniors gathering outside the window, and the sight of two of them embracing sinks her mood. She tells Mr. Noodles she's just a little tired, puts her head down, and lets the memory come.[2]

Her memory goes back to the summer before sixth grade, when Paulo challenged Mike to a tree-to-tree race with a distant apple tree as the finish line.[3] Daisy, who has been tagging along after Paulo, protests that the race is unfair, which only makes Mike take it as an official challenge. Midway through, Mike swerves in the air to avoid landing on a terrified bird in its nest. He slams into the trunk instead and drops straight into the river below.[4]

In the water, everything goes wrong in a hurry. Mike grabs hold of a rock, only for David to leap in heroically and land on his hand, knocking him loose.[5] Lucy can't swim, so she holds out a broken branch instead. Mike manages to catch it, but Lucy slips in the mud and loses her grip. His head cracks against a rock, and the current drags him away unconscious.[6] Yashy spots him floating face-down downstream, and Lucy wars with herself over what to do. "IT DOESN'T MATTER!! I NEED TO TRY!!" She dives in and reaches Mike, but she can't keep either of them afloat. Both are going under when Paulo grabs her hand and pulls everyone to the surface.[7][8] On the bank, Lucy shakes Mike and presses on his chest, begging him not to leave her, until he jolts awake coughing up river water.[9]

Lucy quietly slips away while an adult checks Mike over, and she isn't in a forgiving mood for some time afterwards. When a bandaged Mike later greets her like nothing happened, she erupts. She hates him, he almost killed her, she nearly drowned because of him. When he tries to speak, she shoves him away.[10] Her fury eventually collapses into tears, and Mike pulls her into a hug. "I promise.. Never again.. I never want you to risk yourself like that again.."[11]

 
For once, hugging Lucy doesn't end with anybody getting hit.

Awake at her desk, Lucy stops Paulo before the boys walk her out, and finally gives him the proper thank-you she never managed after the river. She hugs him, assuring him that "this one's a freebie."[11][12] Paulo floats through the rest of the day on cloud nine. He admits to a stunned Mike that he never mentioned the rescue because he didn't want Mike feeling indebted, then ruins his own nobility by gloating that he's better at climbing and swimming both.[12] The next day, Mike tears through the pool for a new school record, telling Paulo he's "been motivated by someone very important to me" and leaving it at that. Daisy, for her part, sinks flustered beneath the water.[12]

Character dynamics

  • Lucy and Paulo: Paulo was Lucy's first crush, something the flashback quietly backs up every time kid Lucy blushes at his arrival.[13][3] Her present-day affection usually arrives as a punch,[14] which is what makes the ending stand out. Reliving the rescue moves her to hug him voluntarily and thank him outright for saving her life. Paulo, after years of pining, can hardly believe it. "So this is what it feels like to hug you, huh?"[12]
  • Mike and Lucy: This shift happened years before the present day. The kids' carefree squabbling ends with Mike's near-death and Lucy's failed rescue, and her grief-driven outburst collapses into the hug where Mike promises never to let her risk herself like that again.[10][11] That accident is the origin of Lucy's deathly fear of water,[1] and the memory still weighs on her in the present, where she goes forlorn at the sight of the embracing couple and wakes murmuring "I'm sorry.."[2][11]
  • Mike and Paulo: Mike learns for the first time that Paulo was the one who pulled him out, and that Paulo kept quiet so Mike would never feel he owed him. Mike is genuinely impressed, but the truce lasts about a minute before the rivalry reignites. The chapter closes on Mike's pool record and Paulo's defeated "I just can't win.."[12]

Trivia & observations

  • Veronica's commentary under the first page notes this chapter exists in at least three versions: an old drawn version that was never posted, the 2010 web release, and the Omnibus-era rewrite that stands today.[1]
  • In the original version, Mike was headed over a waterfall. Veronica rewrote it with Mike battered against rocks instead, calling the waterfall clichéd and unrealistic for a public park.[6]
  • Veronica originally planned for Lucy to save Mike single-handedly, but changed it. Sudden swimming ability would've been unrealistic, and a successful rescue would have undercut Lucy's fear of water. As written, Paulo's rescue confirms her fear was well founded.[8]
  • Per Veronica's commentary, the two hugging seniors who set off Lucy's flashback are based on Bill and Briana, class-bully characters from her old series who were "madly in love with eachother."[2]
  • Veronica's commentary mentions Oliver suggested it would've been funnier if Mike coughed the water up onto Lucy. She agreed, but kept the scene serious.[9]
  • The first page went up alone on March 22, 2010, and the remaining eleven pages all followed the next day.[1][12]
  • Lucy's fear of the water was visible long before it was explained here. She winces at the sight of a river as far back as Simple Pleasures.[14][1]

Related chapters

  • Carry On: The swimming unit continues right where this chapter leaves off, with Lucy still excused and still stuck in her quiet classroom.[15] It adds a second flashback about her fear of the water, and Lucy sourly rejects Mike's promise at the river's edge ("I don't need his promises").[16] It also introduces Augustus at the pool.[15]
  • Gone Fishing: This middle-school aquarium trip shows the promise being honored between the flashback and the present day. Mike reminds a frightened Lucy, "I gave you my promise.. A promise I fully intend to keep!"[17]
  • Under Pressure: The swimming unit pays off a few chapters later. The gym teacher names Mike, Paulo, and David the best in the class,[18] and Mike dives in to rescue a sinking Daisy, this chapter's drowning replayed with Mike as the rescuer.[19]
  • Intervention: Years later, the roles reverse. After Mike falls into the water saving Lucy during Search and Rescue, she strikes him and screams "I DIDN'T WANT YOU TO DIE TRYING!!", mirroring her own outburst at the park in this chapter.[20]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 1
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 2
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 3
  4. ↑ Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 4
  5. ↑ Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 5
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 6
  7. ↑ Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 7
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 8
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 9
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 10
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 11
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 Chapter 30: Troubled Waters, page 12
  13. ↑ Chapter 27: Flirting with Disaster, page 2
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Chapter 1: Simple Pleasures, page 4
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Chapter 31: Carry On, page 1
  16. ↑ Chapter 31: Carry On, page 6
  17. ↑ Chapter 10: Gone Fishing, page 4
  18. ↑ Chapter 35: Under Pressure, page 3
  19. ↑ Chapter 35: Under Pressure, page 4
  20. ↑ Chapter 44: Intervention, page 1
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