After ten minutes of mind-numbing 80s pop music in my mother's car, we finally pulled into the San Fran Swim Complex. Rain still pattered gently on the windscreen as my mom's Fiat 500 stopped by the doors of the large building.
"Have fun and see you at home at about 10, ok?" My mother said as I opened the door and grabbed my swim kit bag and skateboard.
"Yeah yeah. Bye!" I replied, slamming the door and rushing inside. Once I opened the door, the strong smell of chlorine engulfed my senses and I relaxed. This was home.
"Good evening, Cascade!" The receptionist, Ella, called as I walked towards the changing rooms. I waved at her and rushed into the changing rooms. After I had chucked my clothes, skateboard and towel into a large locker I padded through to the main practice pool and tightened my goggles. As I made my way towards the rest of my swim team, I looked up at the spectators area, and to my horror, found Rachael sat down at the front, as usual. She looked up from her phone and stuck her middle finger up at me. I stuck my tongue out at her as I approached.
"I knew you would turn up, Cass. You think I'm stupid? I've known you for years and I know a dodgy text when I see one." Rachael exclaimed, grinning down at me.
"You're annoying." I said, walking towards my team at the other end of the pool.
"Like you then!" Rach called after me.
After the coach warmed us up with a few training exercises out of the water, it was finally time to dive in and get swimming. My body ached for the water as two girls in front of me launched themselves into the water from the 3 meter diving board. Our first few laps were a race against another member of the team, and unfortunately for me, I was against the most annoying team member.
"You ready to get beaten as usual, Cass?" David drawled, poking my arm. I rolled my eyes. David seemed to have the delusion that he always won, but all of his opponents were ahead by miles. I don't even know why he's on the team to be honest.
"It's you that gets beaten, not me, David." I replied, watching the two girls ahead of us race through the water.
"I beat you last year! Don't ever forget that!" I groaned. Last year, there was one Monday evening where I had the flu but insisted on swimming. My body was slowing and flagging, so David beat me by half a meter. He hasn't dropped that one win since.
"I had the flu, you idiot." I muttered as the coach instructed us to climb the ladders leading to the two boards. I scrambled up the ladder and looked down at the glistening blue water. As I waited for David to embark the ladder next to mine I scratched the palms of my hands. They were still itchy from the crash earlier, but upon inspection under my microscope at home there was nothing wrong with them. Weird.
Finally, David was at the top of the board next to mine and the coach instructed us to get ready.
"Get set..." The whistle blew loud and clear and I launched my body off of the diving board and into the water. Relief flooded through my veins as the cold water engulfed me, and I began swimming upwards towards the surface, preparing to break out into front crawl. As I reached the surface I filled my lungs with oxygen and began surging through the water. At the end of the pool I flipped my body around swiftly and began swimming back towards the boards, where the race finished. I glided through the clear blue aqua and finished the race as David touched the opposite side of the pool.
"Another fast time, Cass. Great work." The coach said, looking down at me in the water. I grinned and looked over at Rachael, who was pointing her phone in my direction. I held my hands in the peace sign as she took the photo, and looked back at the coach as he called for attention.
"We'll be working on individual strengths this week, so I'll let you do whatever you need to do in the water for next week's meet. I'll be monitoring you all, so let's go!" The whole team crashed into the water, with a few others ascending the boards and preparing to jump. I looked around and found a lane with not many people in it, except for Lacey and Harriet Williams. The two brats of the team. They are twins, but not identical, and they're cheerleaders and beauty pageant queens. Air-heads, basically. They annoy the living daylights out of me and I try to avoid them, but seeing as their lane was pretty much empty, I decided to just wing it and avoid them. As I began swimming, I noticed ahead of me that they were frolicking at the end of the lane, splashing one another. I controlled my annoyance and continued pushing my body through the water towards them, vowing to myself I would make a quick flip over and return to the opposite end of the lane.
"Hey, Cascade." Lacey said as I swam past them. I ignored her and flipped over in the water, but I was stopped by Harriet standing in the path of my swimming. I stopped and began treading water. We were in the deep end after all, the bottom of the pool was 1.8 meters below me.
"Can you get out of the way?" I asked, my hands itching as I trod water, keeping my body afloat. Harriet smirked as Lacey swam to join her twin.
"Nah, we want to ask you a few..questions." Harriet said, looking mischievous. I looked up to Rachael for assistance, but she was busy on her phone, probably stalking some poor person and laughing at their old selfies.
"Well, what do you want?" I said, kicking my legs under the water as I used my hands to adjust my goggles. Lacey cleared her throat.
"What happened to your dad, huh?" I gulped. My father left me and my mother exactly 5 years ago, when I was 10. He had formed powers to become a villain. He can use electricity to control people and kill them mercilessly. Only a few selected people know that my father is ElectroNite.
"He..left..." I stuttered, not sure of what to say.
"We know who he is, Cascade." Lacey spat, emphasizing my name. My hands began itching again, with a pulse of anger. My blood began boiling (metaphorically, of course,) and I wanted to swim again.
"Get out of the way." I bellowed, causing a few swimmers around us to look at me.
"No." Harriet declared. "As rightful citizens of San Francisco, we have the right to hate villains and anyone related to them. You make us sick." That was it. Under the water, I kicked my legs with full force towards Harriet, pushing her under the water. Lacey swung her fist forward and knocked me on the jaw, but it wasn't strong. My hands were itching like hell as I kicked both of the girls under the water. I was struggling to tread water whilst fighting against the two, and I felt my mouth fill with chlorinated water every now and then. Suddenly, the twins lurched out of the water towards me, and I put my hands out to stop them, but found torrents of water began powering out of my hands, into the twins faces, pushing them under the water. I gasped and looked at my hands, which were no longer itching. The twins resurfaced, looking pale.
"W-W-What..." Lacey stammered. Harriet launched herself at me again, her fist plummeting towards my face. In self defense I put my hand out again and once more, a jet of water sent Harriet screaming under the surface.
"Hey! What's going on?!" The coach came sprinting over as the twins gawked at me in horror.
"She...she has powers!" Lacey cried, her voice echoing all over the pool. I scrambled out of the pool and raced towards the changing rooms, not even bothering about the 'No Running' signs.