I hit the wall. I looked up at my coach, he looked disappointed. And angry. I climbed out of the pool dreading what he would say to me. "Rowen I've seen you do better on an empty stomach with no sleep for 24 hours. What was that?" I shrunk down and wished I could disappear on the spot. "I don't know, I just kind of faltered out there in the water. Also I slipped going off the block." "You give me that lame crap as your excuse?!!" I wanted to aback away but I didn't, something that day kept me standing in front of that abusive coach, I don't know what. Maybe it was fear, courage, or stupidity. But there is one thing I did know, even at the age of 10, and just barely at that, today was my 10th birthday. I would tell him that, right now. I took a deep breath and started talking, "ok look, I know I messed up, and I know I could've done better. But yelling at me isn't going to change what happened. Swimming isn't about winning, it's about having fun doing something you love. Maybe higher up this will matter, but right now, at a small meet among the hundreds I will go to, one failure isn't going to define me forever. Why does it always have to be about the numbers on the stopwatch. I tried my best, and I'll do better next time." He stared at me, open mouthed. I turned on my heel and walked away.

I gasped as I sat up, awakened from the weirdest dream I'd had since my coma. Or was it a dream? I shook my head and grabbed my cell to call Ava. I hadn't bothered to check the time first. "You better have a good reason for why you woke me up at four in the morning," she growled on the other end of the line. I glanced at my bedside clock and mentally slapped myself. I got over it. Ava had known me before the accident, we hadn't exactly been best friends but we knew each other. "What happened at the meet the day I turned ten years old?" I asked excitedly, "Rowen may I ask why you need to know this now?" "I had a dream." "A dream?" She asked skeptically, "yes a dream Ava, try to stay with me. But I don't think it was a normal dream, I think it may have been a memory! Or something like that! It was all way to real to be just a dream." Ava sounded very awake now. "Hold on two seconds I'm coming over." Exactly two seconds later I heard a knock on my door. (Ava had been staying in the room next door) but that was still impressive considering the girl had to wake up an hour before we left for school to be ready on time, and even then sometimes we were still late. (Ok that might have been me but still) Ava walked in and started pacing as I sat down on the couch. "Ok so the meet on your birthday five years ago...hmmm...oh yeah! I remember now! Who could forget!" She snickered to herself, "we all remembered that one. You lost your 50 meter race, first long course meet too, but you'd done pretty well otherwise. It was your 50 fly, and fly never was your best stroke." "Still isn't," I muttered under my breath. "The coach......what was his name again? Oh yeah! Coach Daniels. He was meeeaaann." "Well that I remember loud and clear," I said. "Yeah. Anyways, yeah I remember you yelled at him-" "I didn't yell!" I responded indignantly. "Ok fine, very loudly told off when he got mad at you. You quit Sunrise Swimming two days later. Half of the girls there followed you. A lot of us idolized you, including me quite honestly." I stared at her, "Ava that matches my dream exactly. Maybe not the little details like what race it was or the name of the coach, and I also don't remember quitting but that's doesn't matter!" My voice was getting louder as I got more exited. "No don't you see Ava?! My memory is coming back!" She and I looked at each other and then she pulled me into a crushing embrace. I held my best friend tight. As I pulled back I saw that she was crying. I touched my face a realized I was too. I let out a choked laugh/sob and hugged her again. I was remembering. I was finally going to get back all the years I'd lost.