ZAIN ZAFFAR'S POV:
April 29th, Monday
It's almost been a month since we first arrived to the school, and I couldn't help but feel a little homesick. We were informed earlier that we would be having our first swimming lessons today.
Someone was clearly excited...
"Good morning, Yamauchi!"
"Good morning, Ike!"
It was strange to see those two so early. In the one month that has passed since the I joined this school, those two were always the last ones to enter the classroom.
"Whew, man! I was looking forward to today so much that I couldn't sleep last night!"
"Yeah, this school is the best! Swimming is going to start soon! I say swimming, but girls are the important part! And by girls I mean their swimsuits!" Yamauchi said excitedly.
They were right. Even for the standards of a regular high school, this event was rare. In other words, Itsuki, Horikita, Kushida, and all the other girls will showing their skin. It only makes sense that the boys were excited.
Well, Ike and Yamauchi were probably too excited. The girls in the room backed away from them as if trying to not catch a transmissible disease.
Morning classes were over, and I ate lunch with a few of my classmates, namely Hirata, Karuizawa and her friends. Then, the time for PE slowly approached as we finished English class with Mashima-sensei.
Since the bell already rang, our PE time had already started. Many would think that it's an issue, but the gym teacher usually gives us 5-10 minutes to arrive.
Traditionally, it's the teachers that need to arrive on time for our classes. But for PE, the students have to travel and arrive at the next class on time. I'm surprised that Chabashira-sensei doesn't mind the late arrivals from PE.
"Ike's got his money on Hasebe's melons! How am I gonna win this bet?" Yamauchi resented his friend for a questionable bet.
Yeah... I'm just gonna wait for them to leave.
After a full minute, Ike and his band of four suspicious friends left the room. The girls must hate those two.
Now that I think about it, this will be my first PE class in terms of physical training.
Soon, I arrived at the boy's locker room. Moving towards my assigned locker, I noticed that my locker was between Fuutaro's and another boy named Akito Miyake. He was in the archery club, if I remember correctly.
Greeting me, Miyake spoke up. "Weird how everyone else forgot their swimming trunks."
It's not surprising that he noticed. Including me, there are 12 of us here. I know that there are 20 males in our class, so that's 8 of them absent. This wasn't too bad since the main issue pertained to the girls, anyway.
"I think that's natural." I said. "After a relaxing weekend, Monday morning usually rushes you, hence the neglect."
"Yeah, no kidding. I almost forgot myself, but Onodera-san texted me this morning, saying she was pumped for swimming class." Miyake chuckled with slight embarrassment.
"Damn, Onodera has the hots for you?" I asked.
"No, no. It's not like that." Miyake shook his head. "She actually likes Sudo."
Speaking of Sudo... He quickly changed into his costume, his body was toned because of him playing basketball.
After changing into our swimsuits, Miyake asked us a question. "Bro, you look rather built compared to me. Do you lift?" he pondered, observing my muscle tone.
"Yeah, something like that. Before I enrolled, I used to go to an American gym." I said, obviously not wanting to draw unnecessary attention to myself.
"Ah, I see. I'm guessing you haven't gotten to go to the gym here, yet." He nodded, understanding my situation.
"Yeah, something like that." I said, and the two of us walked out of the locker room, and arrived at the pool.
Walking through the other end of the locker room, we reached a room with white floors. There are plenty of windows and even a sunroof to allow for some shining light.
The refraction in the water reflected the time of the day, reminding me that I am about to swim freely.
Observing my surroundings, I noticed how Sudo hasn't been interacting with too many people.
From the things I've heard, it's his temperament that's the issue. His attitude needs to be managed. Hirata has managed to continuously strike some conversation with him, so that's a positive.
Soon, the murmurs from the girl's locker room could be heard. Majority of the girls however, didn't show.
Itsuki, Karuizawa, Sakura, Hasebe, among others were standing on the observation deck. It was obvious that they felt uncomfortable.
"Aw, but I thought we would get to see big breasts! Big breasts! I thought this was my chance" Contemplating suicide, Ike shouted in agony in earshot of Hasebe.
"Gross." The girls muttered among themselves. Ike and Yamauchi were being far too obvious, so it was a surprise that the girls hated them.
A few of the girls who introduced themselves to me on the first day waved at me, and I waved back. They didn't join us, though, probably because of Ike and Yamauchi.
"Ike, don't be sad! Come on, there are still tons of girls out there for us!" Yamauchi said.
"Y-yeah, that's right. You got a point. I can't get down in the dumps now!" Ike cried.
"Bro!" Ike and Yamauchi reaffirmed their manly bond of friendship, clasping each other's hands.
"What are you two doing? That looks like fun."
"K-K-Kushida-chan?!"
Kushida showed up between the two boys. She was clad in the school-issued swimwear, which nicely showed off her voluptuous figure. In less than a second, nearly all of the boys' eyes were glued to Kushida's body. Her breasts are a lot bigger than what I thought was possible for a second year high schooler. Her butt and thighs were also much bigger than expected.
Okay, not this again. Focus on something else... The weather's so nice today, perfect for a walk. World peace? How about world peace? Nah, forget that, how about some mental peace?
"Why the pained expression?" Horikita, who has just arrived, examined my face closely.
"I am currently in the midst of an internal battle." I replied.
Horikita was in the school swimsuit as well, and uh- Well, how to put it...? Yeah. She looked good. Not bad at all. If I stared, I'd get the shit kicked out of me, so I just took deep breaths until I calmed down again.
"..."
For some reason, Horikita was checking me out all over.
"Zaffar-kun do you exercise?" she asked.
"Eh? No, not particularly. I'm not proud of it, but I was part of the go-home club back in middle school."
"Well, you say that, but... judging from the development of your forearms and your back muscles, you seem above average."
"I guess my father blessed me with his genes."
"I don't think that's the only reason."
"Gosh, Horikita, do you have a muscle fetish, is that it?"
"No. But if you go that far to deny it, I'll believe you." She appeared dissatisfied. Looks like she has quite the discerning eye.
But why the sudden interest in me?
"Are you a good swimmer, Horikita-san?" Kushida suddenly asked that to Horikita.
Although Horikita gave a slightly puzzled look in response to Kushida's question, she quietly answered. "I wouldn't say I'm particularly good or bad at it."
"I was really bad at swimming when I was in junior high. But I gave it my all and practiced really hard, and now I think I've gotten better." Kushida said.
"I see." Horikita gave a disinterested response and backed away slightly, clearly signalling that she didn't want to continue the conversation further.
"Alright, everyone, line up!"
A teacher brought the students together and started class. He may be the P.E. teacher, but he looks like the type that would attract girls.
"Only 16 of you, huh? I expected more people, but I guess it works." There clearly were students skipping class, but he didn't seem to mind. "After you warm up, I want to see what you can really do, and if you actually did anything last year or not. You'll be swimming for me."
"Excuse me, sir. I can't really swim, though..." A boy raised his hand apologetically.
"Since you have me as your teacher, you'll be swimming by summertime. Don't worry about a thing."
Everyone started the warm-up exercises. Ike kept repeatedly glancing at the girls to take a peak. Afterwards, we were instructed to start the 50m swim. Students who didn't know how to swim were allowed to touch the bottom of the pool with their feet.
Ever since last summer, I haven't been in a pool since. I stepped into the pool, getting quickly accustomed to the temperature-regulated pool. Then I started to swim lightly.
After I finished the 50 meters, I waited for everyone else to finish.
"Hehehe, that was an easy W for me. Did you all see my super swimming skills?" Ike crowed.
No, Ike, your performance wasn't really that different from anyone else's.
"Well, it seems like almost all of you can swim- for the most part."
"Of course, sir. Back in middle school, they used to call me the flying fish!" Ike boasted.
I see. In that case, I'll have you start competing against each other. 50-meter freestyle, separate yourselves by gender."
"C-compete?! Are you serious?" Ike cried.
"Weren't you the flying fish, Ike?" I mocked him.
"O-of course!"
"I'll give the first place winner a bonus: 5,000 points. On the other hand, last place will get supplementary lessons so prepare yourselves." Our coach said.
Oh, yeah. Points. I completely forgot about them.
Apparently, the Advanced Nurturing High School offers points as rewards for activities. You can use them to redeem rewards at the school's entertainment building. I wonder how that system works?
"Eh, what's the point? Koenji's gonna win it again, anyways." Someone said.
"Because there aren't too many girls, I'll split you guys into two groups of 5 and give the fastest time the overall victory. For the boys, I'll take the top 4 times and then hold a final round."
When the girls started their race, the boys sat on the side lines and started to cheer for them.
"Kushida-chan! Kushida-chan! Kushida-chan!"
Kushida garnered popularity from the boys in a whirlwind. One thing I've noticed is that the girls across our grade are quite popular.
Kushida and Karuizawa from my class. Ichinose and Hinami from Arush's class. Sakayanagi and Yukinoshita from Agrim's, and Nino and Ichika from Ritvik's.
If you only talked about faces, Horikita was definitely among the top, but her bad personality dropped her popularity down. However, she was still fairly popular, so when she stood at the start line, there were a few cheers.
Hirata, Sudo, Miyake and I stood in one corner, watching the race away from the others.
The whistle blew, and the girls jumped in. Matsushita was in lane 1, while Horikita was in lane 2. Taking the lead in the beginning, she maintained her lead at a distance. She confidently came in first place while Matsushita came in second.
"Oh! Horikita-san did it!"
Her time was about 28 seconds. That's pretty quick. Without even breathing heavily, Horikita slowly got out of the pool.
Then came the second race. Onodera was in lane 1 and Kushida was in lane 4. The boys were waving and cheering with smiles on their faces.
"Woooooooo!" They're some aggressive boys.
During her introduction, Kushida said that she wanted get along with everybody. It seems like her wish came true. She was constantly having friendly chats with all the boys around her. Kushida has an atmosphere that attracts other people to her.
The second race started. It was pretty one-sided. Onodera won the race in a landslide. Her time of 26 seconds was clearly the best time. Kushida got a time of 31 seconds, which was pretty good but only got her fourth place overall.
Onodera posed triumphally in front of the girls.
"Hah! I won!" she said as she placed her hands on her hips. "Now let's see which one of you gets the prize!"
"It'll be me of course! I'm winnin' this thing for sure." Sudo said while patting his chest.
"Is that a challenge, pal?" I asked him teasingly.
"Bring it, Zaffar!"
The first race of the boys was up next. Sudo was in this one with our other classmates. Finishing the 50m stretch with great speed, Sudo looked up from the water. The boys and girls let out a voice of admiration.
"That even possible, Sudo? You finished in 25 seconds."
"Sudo-kun, you should join the swimming club! If you practiced, you'd compete pretty well." Onodera exclaimed, approaching Sudo.
"Nah. I plan on just playing basketball. Swimming's just for fun."
Not even breaking a sweat from that small amount of swimming, Sudo calmly got out of the pool.
"Oh, wow, he's a beast." Ike elbowed him, feeling jealous.
"Hirata-kun!" a girl let out a scream of joy from the stands.
Hirata was in the second race with Yamauchi, and two other boys I don't know the names of.
While Sudo's body gathered the admiration of the boys, Hirata's body gathered the admiration of the girls. He's slender but still well-built. You can call him a slender macho man. Hearing the cheering from the girls for Hirata, Ike made a spitting gesture.
When the teacher blew the whistle, Hirata jumped in with great form. As Hirata paddled his arms, the girls on the side were cheering him on. His swimming form looks uselessly cool.
"He's surprisingly fast." Sudo calmly commented.
The other 3 boys were quite a distance from Hirata. His lead incited the girls to cheer him on even more. He took 1st place, to no one's surprise. The loud cheers reverberated in the big indoor pool.
"Sensei, what was the time?" Ike impatiently asked.
"Hirata's time is... 26.13 seconds."
"All right, you can do it Sudo! You can definitely win against him!" Ike encouraged Sudo.
"Let's not get hasty shall we, gentlemen? You haven't seen the real flying fish in action yet." I commented while stretching.
"I'll wipe that smirk off your face when I win in the finals, heh!" Sudo said.
"Hirata-kun, you were really cool! You're not just good at soccer, but also good at swimming!"
"You think so? Thank you." Hirata replied.
And so on. Hirata's popularity exceeded frustration and is a shocking thing to watch.
"Come on, girls, knock it off. Please don't fight over me. I belong to everyone. I want to be everyone's friend. Besides, what if someone who's better at swimming comes along?"
I don't know what he was hearing, but Koenji mistook those cheers for himself.
With a refreshing smile, Koenji put his foot on the start line.
"Hey... Uh, why is Koenji wearing those speedos...?"
"W-what?"
Wearing speedos were allowed by the school, but no one else were wearing those. The girls looked away from Koenji's crotch area.
However, for the third race, Koenji was the centre of attention. His posture at the start looked like an athlete's.
Not only his posture, but Koenji's figure is even better than Sudo's. The boys who were proud about their physicality, including Sudo, watched Koenji swim while gulping.
"I don't really care about winning or losing, but I don't like losing."
Sudo muttered to himself. At the sound of the whistle, Koenji jumped into the pool with great form.
"Tch!"
Sudo let out an annoyed voice at Koenji's aggressive swimming. Hirata was also looking in amazement.
His speed was really impressive. Looks like I actually have to try today.
Recording the time, the teacher looked at the stopwatch once again.
"Time is... 23.22 seconds."
"As usual, my abdominal, back, and psoas major muscle are in shape. Not bad."
After getting out of the pool, Koenji smiled and brushed his hair. Still breathing evenly, it doesn't even look like he swam.
"I'm fired up...!"
The fourth race was going to be the one I would be competing in. Our group consisted of students I actually knew the names of. Miyake, Ike and Yamauchi.
"Zaffar-kun, do your best!" Somehow, a lot of the girls cheered for much like they did for Hirata.
Seems like it was a good idea to hang out with Karuizawa and her friends.
"Ready!" The whistle blew and all of us dove into the pool. Let's see... Let's get this party started, shall we?
Water splashed as the four of us dove in. I wasn't exactly used to swimming regularly, but the comforting sensation of the water helped stabilize my form.
"Oh, incredible! 23.69 seconds for the first place, and 26.84 for the second place!" The instructor announced with vigour.
"Oh man, I couldn't even get into the finals..." Miyake lamented.
"Don't worry about it. You're surprisingly quite fast."
"You too, man. It's a shame I had bad luck on the groupings" he asked me.
"Yeah, you're right..."
"Kyah~! What was that? That was amazing!"
"Zaffar-kun was super-fast!"
"He looked so cool~!"
"What the hell was that, Zaffar?!" Sudo yelled at me.
"What's up?"
"I expected you to be fast, but not that fast!" Sudo continued with a pissed expression.
Skill issue.
"You can always get your revenge in the final round. We're both in the top places, remember?" I said, holding out my fist.
"Tch, I'll destroy you next time." Sudo replied with a determined smile, bumping his fist against mine.
Amidst the cheering voices, Horikita briskly walked in my direction. She stopped right in front of me.
"...Is something the matter?" I asked, facing her cold glare.
"What was that?" she asked.
The fuck you mean, 'what was that?'
"What do you mean?" I acted dumb.
"..." Horikita continued glaring at me, but thankfully, we were interrupted by the arrival of Kushida.
"Zaffar-kun, you were amazing!" She called out to me. "I didn't know you were so fast! I'm looking forward to the finals!"
Seeing Kushida appear, Horikita quietly slipped back to her spot, away from the crowd.
"Yeah..." I replied, trying to not to think about the swimsuit clad beauty beside me.
Crap... Standing so close to this girl, I'd entered a state of emergency, my heart pounding in my chest.
"Hmm? What's the matter? Your face looks red for some reason? Are you not feeling well, by chance, Zaffar-kun?" she asked.
"Oh, no, no, that's not it at all..." I said, trying to deflect the situation.
"Well, even so, something seems unusual. Why do we have swimming classes in April, anyway?" she asked me.
"Because we have such an incredible pool." I said, finally figuring out a topic of discussion to take my mind off of Kushida's body. "Oh, yeah, that reminds me... You were pretty fast Kushida. I can't believe that you were bad at swimming in junior high."
"You're too fast yourself, Zaffar-kun."
"I guess. But I don't really like to exercise."
"Is that so? But you look like a really manly guy, Zaffar-kun. Even though you're so slim, I could say that you're even better built than Sudo-kun, and he plays basketball."
Kushida examined my body in shock and awe, as if she were thinking "Really? Really?". Looks like this one here also has a discerning eye.
"I was just born naturally muscular. There's no special reason behind it. To tell you the truth, I'm not in any clubs. And besides, look at Koenji, he has an amazing physique as well."
"Ahaha, you're certainly right."
"Zaffar-kun, that was awesome! Were you on a swimming team back in middle school? You must be, right?!" Onodera was the most fired up of the bunch.
"Nope. I guess I'm just pretty fast." I replied, rubbing my left arm.
"Well, since Zaffar-kun is from America, he must be used to seeing fast swimmers."
"Aah, that makes sense."
The finals were about to begin so Kushida and I stopped our conversation and I made my way to the start line.
The teacher had assigned the other students with timers, and assigned another student to supervise them. The groupings were like this.
Lane-1: Me - Matsushita, Karuizawa
Lane-2: Koenji - Horikita, Satou
Lane-3: Sudo - The teacher himself
Lande-4: Hirata - Kushida, Fuutaro
"Let's have fun, Zaffar-boy." Koenji said, without looking at me.
He's pretty confident.
"Are you ready, Koenji, pal?" I asked him.
"A perfect existence such as myself deserves only the finest competition." He answered with a smirk as he got ready.
The starter gun went off and all of us dove in instantaneously.
Alright, genetically altered spider... Let's show them what we've got.
It was over quickly as soon as my hand hit the wall. I bobbed my head out of the water to see Matsushita there with a timer.
"2-21.01 seconds." Matsushita stutteringly conveyed to me. "I didn't miss the timing, right, Karuizawa-san?"
"Y-yeah... Your timing was perfect, in my opinion." Replied Karuizawa.
"HOLY SHIT! That was insane!"
"Those guys were basically zooming in the water!"
"What is this shit? The Olympics?!"
"Did Koenji win?"
"Nah! Zaffar won!"
"Bro, it was so close!"
"Zaffar-kun, you were amazing!"
Everyone was going crazy at this point. Even the students sitting on the observation deck stood up and came closer to the action.
"You went even faster, you bastard!" Sudo barked, glaring at me in frustration.
"Bruh... It'd be an insult to you if I held back, right?"
"...You're right." Sudo replied. "Ahh, shit! Fine, you win, Zaffar! But I'm still better than you at basketball!"
"No arguments from me." I said, playfully punching Sudo on the shoulder.
Our conversation was cut short when the swimming instructor came over to us.
"Haha! Zaffar, you got first place! Hold out your phone. I'll transfer the points now." He said, patting my shoulders with his hand.
The teacher left us to play around using the remaining time. The girls instantly swarmed me, more than they did with Hirata.
Really wish I had Ritvik's invisibility powers right about now.
"Alright, everyone. You're all confusing Zaffar-kun. Please calm down." My knight in shining armour, Hirata. Thank you.
From the corner of my eye, I could see Matsushita staring at me. when I turned to look at her, she immediately averted her gaze. I then turned my gaze over to Koenji, and decided to approach him.
"Koenji. That was a close one."
"Exactly as I predicted." He said curtly, walking away soon after.
"You're not angry?" I asked his retreating form.
"A perfect existence doesn't mean to never lose. It's not to allow losses to affect your progression moving forward." Koenji answered, not pausing in his exit.
What a chad.
I moved over back to where I was standing, and saw Kushida smiling at me.
Something's tingling, and it's not my spider-sense.
When the class ended, Karuizawa and Hirata invited me for karaoke. At the same time, Kushida and her friends asked me to hang out with them too. Sudo also wanted to teach me some basketball. In the end, I humbly declined all of them. After all, someone else had already asked me first.
TO BE CONTINUED...
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
Writing the COTE parts of the story as second years is actually quite annoying.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Appreciate all the support. See ya next week ;)
- ZZS101