Stonebrook High School

Chapter 84

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Jess heard the door slam shut behind her and she turned around to see Lukas walking out with his wetsuit on. "So, we both have a wetsuit, huh?" she jokingly commented. Brushing her wet hair out of the way, she gestured for him to get in, droplets flying off her hands as she waved.

"So... you said this wasn't going to be easy?" Lukas jumped in, gritting his teeth from the sudden cold. "Please explain. I'd like to know how I die."

Jess dived under and quickly came back up to fix her hair. As she wiped her face, she tried to describe the exercises as clearly as possible. "Well, we do multiple kinds of water workouts. Aqua cycling, deep water aerobics, holding our breath in stressful situations... heck, even Insanity we do in the water. We've also meditated in the water before but that's a different thing."

"Wait, wait, wait. You mean to tell me you guys do Insanity in the pool?" The awe-and-thunderstruck look on Lukas's face made Jess feel much better about being in the water and she tried to hold in a laugh. "And," he continued, "you guys have meditated?? You focused on something else other than breathing and lived to tell the story?"

"To be honest, I very much prefer meditating to doing Insanity." Jess gently pushed against the water around her to stay afloat and looked into the depths of the pool. "When I meditate I don't think about being in the Witherstorm again. It's just emptiness and quiet. And I like that."

He sighed and shook his head. "I'm... sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

"I know. I'm still working it out - it's not your fault. And it isn't mine either, so let's just get started by holding our breath."

They began by doing dead man's float for a few minutes, Jess testing Lukas to see how long he could hold his breath. Around 115 seconds, she saw bubbles emerging from underneath his face and then watched as the water flung into the air as he lifted his head up. "Almost two minutes," she announced. "Pretty good. You probably haven't practiced holding your breath, have you?"

"Not on a regular basis," said Lukas, rubbing the water off his face.

"Okay - now try to hold it even longer. Go for three minutes."

"Three? I felt like I was dying at two."

"Have you really been working out then if you can't hold your breath for at least three minutes?"

"Oh, now you've done it."

Jess's face curled into a smug smirk and she held up the waterproof stopwatch. "I'll do it with you. But I'll probably hold it much longer. You'll see I'm being serious about this."

"You're on."

They watched each other as Jess counted down. "3... 2... 1... NOW!" Both of them dipped their head under the surface and began holding their breath. She pressed the button on the timer to begin and watched as the hands turned around in circles. Turning her face to see her competitor, Jess saw Lukas with his eyes closed, focused and determined to win as he retained his calm manner. His long hair splayed out in every direction, swaying with the motions of the water, giving him a funny Naruto-like look, especially as he stood there bent at the waist, arms laid back as if he was doing the run. She wondered how she looked, her hair practically enveloping her face into a void. Most likely, she did not look like a mermaid - perhaps a sea urchin was more appropriate. The thought of her walking around with her hair spiking like a sea urchin made her want to laugh but she suppressed it, wanting to win against Lukas. However, before she returned to her flow state, she swept up all of her hair and put it over her right shoulder, tying it into a side ponytail.