Poolside Predators

The fluorescent humming of the overhead lights matched the buzzing in my chest. First day of freshman year swim tryouts, and I was about to humiliate myself in front of everyone. Including her.

"You're gonna be fine," Marcus whispered, slapping my back with enough force to send me flying into the pool. "Just don't bull your way through the breaststroke like you did in gym class."

Easy for him to say. Marcus was a natural, gliding through water like some predatory creature. Me? I swam like I was fighting for my life.

Coach Ramsey's whistle cut through my spiral. "Alright everyone, pairs for the 50-free sprint!"

Of course. Of course I got paired with Skylar. The girl who'd somehow managed to be varsity captain as a sophomore, whose red hair caught the chlorinated light like fox fire in the dimness. She didn't even look nervous.

"Hey," she said, adjusting her goggles. "You're the new guy, right?"

"Yeah. Liam. I'm gonna be terrible at this."

She laughed, and something in my stomach did that annoying flip thing. "You'd be surprised. Ramsey says I've got terrible form. Says I'm fighting the water instead of, you know, swimming with it."

"You? Terrible?"

"Looks can be deceiving." She stretched her arms. "You know that old saying about how you can't teach an old dog new tricks? Yeah, sometimes you can't teach a fifteen-year-old competitive swimmer how to stop muscling through every lap either."

"Wait, so you're actually bad at this?"

"I'm fast but I'm exhausting myself. I need to learn to flow." She grinned. "You nervous about the social stuff?"

"What?"

"The social stuff. The whole freshman-could-get-eaten-alive-by-the-team-seniors vibe. I saw you clutching your phone like it was a life preserver."

I felt my face heat up. "That obvious?"

"You've got that bear-about-to-hibernate look. All tense and shoulders-up-by-your-ears."

"Wow, thanks."

"Hey, I'm saying I get it." She shrugged. "Everybody thinks they're the impostor. Even the seniors. Especially the seniors."

"Doesn't feel that way."

"Yeah? Well." She stepped up to the block. "Show me what you've got in this sprint, and I'll tell you if you're as bad as you think you are. Fair?"

The whistle blew.

I didn't think. I just moved. And somewhere between the dive and the turn, the panic dissolved into rhythm. The water wasn't fighting me. I wasn't fighting it.

We hit the wall at almost the exact same moment, gasping.

Skylar yanked off her goggles, eyes wide. "Okay, I take it back. You're definitely not terrible."

"Neither are you," I managed, my heart hammering for a completely different reason now.

She laughed, pulling herself out of the pool. "See? First day jitters for nothing. You're gonna fit in just fine, Liam."

Maybe freshman year wouldn't be so bad after all.