All I Never Wanted

Chapter 13

Annie shook and jiggled her arms and legs, picturing them as spaghetti as she loosened up for the diving portion of the meet.  She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to soothe away the nerves and stress.  She had never lacked the energy to compete at a meet but tonight her body felt like a lead weight.  All she wanted to do was get it over with and relish the opportunity to sleep in the next day.

She never imagined she’d actually look forward to finals, but this semester they beckoned, promising relief from the stress of her Senior year.  She hoped and wished that the second half wouldn’t be so demanding.

“You feeling ok Annie?”

Annie opened her eyes to find Coach Lenner standing in front of her, arms crossed over his chest, gazing at her with concern in his eyes.

“I’ll be fine.  I’ve just had a busy and stressful couple of weeks.  I’m a little more tired than usual.”

Coach Lenner nodded.  “Hang in there.  You’ve been placing in the top five consistently and I really think you’ve got what it takes for the NCAA.  Stay focused.  Take care of yourself.  Let me know if I can do anything to help.”

Annie nodded and watched him walk away, rolling her head and stretching out her triceps.  She glanced up into the bleachers, searching for Luke and Matt.  When she finally found them they waved and smiled, Matt giving her two thumbs up.  She gave them a tired smile in return.

Her gaze drifted from them and landed on Brent who sat on one of the benches toweling off.  His races were over and now he got to sit back and relax.  He was watching her and their eyes met briefly.  He offered her a sad smile before giving her a thumbs up of his own.

Annie looked away, not wanting to dwell on Brent or the way it felt to see the hurt in his eyes.  She needed to concentrate on her diving.  She would be showing off some of the new dives she’d been practicing and her head needed to be in the game if she didn’t want to screw up or hurt herself.

Thankfully this wasn’t an invitational with multiple schools competing.  Fewer divers meant a quicker meet.  The sooner this was over, the sooner she could go to bed.

Annie joined the rest of the divers congregated behind the spring boards and platforms, waiting for the announcer to call the first diver.  She had drawn eight in a field of nine divers.  Normally she preferred an earlier spot to settle her nerves but tonight she didn’t care.  It gave her time to sit and rest.

She watched the first six with a tired detachment, noting that two of the six competitors were pulling dives of the same caliber as her new ones.  Their scores put them at the top of the leaderboard.

When the seventh diver climbed onto the springboard Annie hauled herself from her chair to loosen up and prepare herself for her dive.  Platform diving was her favorite part of the competition but she didn’t mind the springboard.  Platform simply afforded a bigger adrenaline rush and more complicated acrobatics.  Annie thrived on the challenge.

Each diver had three opportunities to show off their skill and by the end of her third turn Annie had nudged her way into second place.  Those three dives had sapped her energy and as they waited to transition to the platform she found a bottle of Gatorade and a chair, determined to dredge up energy from somewhere to finish the night on top.

She looked up in surprise when she heard someone slide onto the seat next to her and realized it was Brent.

“Hey.” He offered.

“Hey.” Annie echoed, taking a long sip of her drink.

“You did good, as always.  But you don’t seem to be in top form.  You feel ok?”