Swim Meet

1| Swim Meet

I arrive at the pool an hour before the meet, practice starting in 15 minutes. Knowing that I would not have enough time to change into the swimsuit, I put it on before putting on a hoodie and sweats.

At the locker room, I strip off my outer layer of clothing to reveal a black swimsuit with gray spotted pattern on the side of the suit and gives a bumpy texture if you touch it, and shoved the rest of my clothes in the swim bag. I sling my swim bag over my shoulder and make my way to the pool deck, feeling the familiar mix of nerves and excitement twisting in my stomach.

As I exit the locker room, I hear chanting of my school and I quickly drop my stuff onto the closest empty chair and I quickly but carefully make my way to the group and join in on the chant.

As soon as the chant ended, Coach yells, "Alright, everyone from my school! Into the water now! Practice is starting!" My heart jumps, a little faster than it should.

For a 5'5 skinny woman, she has a strong voice and will. I slip into one of the three lanes assigned to my school as the other three was for another school.

At this meet was all the middle schools in this city, and one of them contains one of my 5th grade friend I haven't seen in three years. We parted ways after 5th grade and we would occasionally text over the phone but it was never in person due to going to different middle schools until today.

Though his school doesn't have the same practice time as mine, I look forward to finally talking to him. I might have had a tiny crush on him in 5th grade, but it was nothing serious. A little flutter of anticipation rises in my chest anyway.

"Alright, everyone! We are going to swim 200 freestyle and then 200 IM!" Yeah that is a serious coach I have who so is hard right now, but she is a really nice woman.

Groaning, I quickly slip on my goggles before ducking into the water and I use my legs to push off the wall with all the force I could muster and streamline until my lungs burn. I resurface and start to swim freestyle, heart pounding, senses sharp.

As I pull my arm out of the water, I take in a sharp, cold, pool-smelling air before bringing my face into the water again and do 6 more strokes before taking another sharp breath.

I can feel the water tickling off my arms every time I bring them out of the water to complete a stroke. Looking ahead I could see the wall getting closer and so I look down so I can see the black rectangle. My mind hones in on it, counting strokes like a metronome.

Reaching the black rectangle near the wall, I take one more deep breath, I stroke twice before flipping, splashing some water out of the pool and breathing out from my nose, and I turn to streamline into my next strokes.

Lungs burning a bit, and the water flashes light into the pool, making cool patterns on the bottom of the pool. I feel myself slowly down as I start the IM due to the water resistance and as I am doing one of my worst strokes.

Back is not my best stroke, but I don't like fly even more. I accidentally drink a bit of the chlorine in my mouth as I started my back stroke and try to streamline most of it so I don't have to swim that far. A wave of determination pushes through me—just a little further, just a little faster.

As I finish the practice with a brutal fly drill, my head gets a bit dizzy and my legs feel like they could give out on me at any second. I almost slip and a hand catches me from behind before I could fall.

A familiar voice asks me, "Hey, you okay? You almost trip."

I look up to see Milo holding me up, Milo, the one I had a crush on in 5th grade, and I get butterflies in my stomach. I quickly look down, feeling my face heat up. I realize he is still holding me up, and I slowly pull away.

"Um... Yeah, I'm just a bit dizzy after that drill. Not the best at fly." I try to laugh it off, but I get hit with another wall of dizziness and I gasp softly as my legs collapse under me.

But before I could hit the hard, wet, pool deck floor, Milo catches me once more. "Yeah, tell me that and almost collapse again is not the best way to lie. Here I will help you to the chairs."

So then he nudges me a bit by bit, holding my lower back and my left hand, guiding me towards the chairs with my things on it. My face is still flushed as I feel a swarm of butterflies in my stomach and I am praying to all the books on my bookshelf that Milo doesn't recognize me just yet.

He helps me to chairs and bids me farewell as he needs to get to his swim practice before the swim meet. I look up and he is whispering something to my coach? She nods and says something to him and he turns and goes into the lane he is swimming in as my coach approaches me.

"Hey, Joy. You okay? Milo just told me what happened."

"I think so. I can swim the meet, but I think the fact I ate not a lot for breakfast and the lack of oxygen during the drill made me dizzy. But I do have water and I promise I will drink it."

"Alright, I trust you, Lin, but do rest and don't get up before the meet starts which is in 20 minutes so stay and drink the water."

I nod and she leaves to instruct the high school volunteers on what to do during the meet.

I look at the stands where the parents and friends sit during the swim meet and I spot Ryan, my best friend since the first day of 6th grade, and Lila, his girlfriend and my very close friend, coming in and searching for me. I am sipping my water as I wave one of my arms at them and Lila finds me almost instantly, and they both wave back and throw up heart signs as if they are telling me I'll do really good during the meet.

I hope I do.