Poolside Romance [Watty Awards 2011] COMPLETE

Fart Bombs and Sweaty Palms

Dedicated to another BFF who has agreed to actually edit this story for me. I love you fool :)

I’m scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I’m with you.

-Dirty Dancer

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Chapter 7

To my absolute delight, I didn’t come across Andrew or even see him around the next day. But the previous day’s scene was still terribly fresh in my mind. No matter how hard I tried to push it further and further away, right to the back of my brain, it still managed to pop out over and over again. I could barely think of anything else.

Being the last official day of the competition, there was a lot going on in and around the campus. Finals of several events were being held, pending prizes were being distributed, the total points of each academy, school, institution and club was being counted and there was a tense hustle-bustle all around. But honestly, I was quite comfortable with it all because I had done my bit and had won myself a gold medal and we had placed second and third respectively in both the relays I participated in. Over all, a not-so-bad performance by Millie-friggin awesome-Myrtle. I was awfully proud of myself and didn’t miss any opportunity to toot my horn.

Our coach Ms. Javier was constantly in a series of arguments with the heads of the tournament, persuading them to give us a point here and there for rubbish like cheering and behavior and whatnot. Not that anyone succumbed to Ms. Javier’s requests.

 Then there were my teammates themselves.

Shane, who was so terrified of the finals of his event that his eyebrows were always furrowed and his hands were constantly burrowed in a packet of chips. He had been eating so much all morning that involuntary and accidently let out a smelly fart. But being the supportive team mates that we were, we didn’t tease him in the least, or even point out to poor Shane that he had let out a terrible stinky fart because he didn’t seemed to have noticed.

 No, we just sat there, faces scrunched up in disgust, fingers pinching our noses tightly while we used our mouths to breathe. Really, the sacrifices we made for our friends.

Meanwhile, Geez, who had a final event as well, was pacing up and down, hands behind her back and a look of absolute concentration on her face. She barely spoke the entire day; really, she didn’t even mumble a comment at the stench that covered the air.

Mariah, who was competing in not one event, but two, was always huddled up under her blankets, with a fat book open in her hands.

It was undoubtedly Harry Potter, probably the sixth installment in the series that she was reading because the previous night I had once heard her mumbling ‘He’s got the memory, catch him!’

All this proved that, the only thing in the atmosphere wasn’t the combined smell of stale hotdogs and peanut butter from dear Shane, but a general air of tension blanketed our entire team as well.

Most of my day was used up in comforting Gisele, Mariah and Shane. I had volunteered to fetch Mariah from her hide out and try to bring her into the sun. I had volunteered to hide all food from Shane and to get Gisele to sit, at least during lunch.

Though I had miserably failed in all three endeavors, it had helped take my mind off of other uncomfortable things I didn’t want to be reminded of.

By early evening, to everyone’s delight, Ms.Javier had told us, between combination of hysterical laughter and tears, that we were now placed second in the entire competition.