Chapter 31 #2
“Ladies, give me a full lap around the track, and then we’ll start sprinting.
” I take off with Holly, jogging around the track.
Holly asks me about my history running track, so I tell her, simply stating that I took last year off.
She doesn’t push for more information, sympathizing with the pain my legs are in.
She also offers to help with training after school if I want.
I think I have two new friends to add to my life.
We spend the rest of the practice lining up and running 100m and 200m sprints. Coach takes pity on me and lets me sit out the last few runs. I’m way slower than the other three girls, but I expected that. I sit on the grass and stretch my legs while the girls finish their sprints.
After practice, I follow Holly and Jaxon back to the gym.
We exchange numbers before I head towards the pool area.
Entering, I see students still diving, so I take a seat in the stands to watch.
There’s a girl setting up on the high dive.
She does two twists, then enters the water with a small splash.
A few pairs follow who seem good to me, then Bay and Alex are up.
They’re perfectly synchronized and hit the water with hardly a ripple.
Wow. They’re incredible, and I did not notice the tiny speedos or all those abs.
Nope, did not notice. I watch another round of dives, but no one comes close to the guys.
That seems to be the end of practice as everyone heads to the locker room.
Bay and Alex are quick to come back out and move my way, so I meet them at the bottom of the stands. “Hi guys. Your diving is incredible,” I exclaim excitedly.
“Thanks, Summer,” Bay smiles, looking a little tired.
“Yes, thank you, Summer,” Alex replies with a nod. I follow the guys out to the parking lot and wave goodbye to Alex as I get into the Honda with Bay.
Once we are on the road, I comment, “you guys really were great. No one else I saw was even close to as good as you guys.” I see Bay blush cherry red in my periphery.
“How did you and Alex begin diving?”
“I was actually diving solo in junior high. Alex was my competition from a different school. We traded wins back and forth until he lost to me in the finals in eighth grade. He wasn’t happy about it, so his solution was for us to team up for pairs.
He knew I wanted a diving scholarship for college, and pairs offered me a better chance at that if we were good, so I tried it. We were good,” he shrugs.
“It’s mesmerizing to watch,” I reply.
“How was your first practice today?” Bay switches the subject.
“Pretty good. I think I made a few friends, but there are some of Cara’s friends there, too. I might hobble for the next week with my sore legs,” I joke.
“We’ll carry you around if we have to,” he offers.
Chuckling, I warn him, “I wouldn’t promise that if I were you.” Bay looks over and smiles at me.
We drive in comfortable silence the rest of the way to my house.
I thank him for the ride and go straight for my shower.
Afterwards, I take a long soak in the tub, massaging my legs.
With the recovery cream applied, I move to the kitchen to make dinner.
Deciding on a Cobb salad, I make extra for Zander and leave it in the fridge.
I spread out on the couch with the tv on to do my homework, and Seb calls as I’m finishing AP Biology.
“Hey Seb.” I answer, putting him on speaker.
“Sunshine, I miss you. I didn’t talk to you all day, and you were practicing after school.” There is a little pout in his tone. Laughing at his dramatics, I remind him he’ll see me in the morning. “It’s too long. How was practice?”
“Good, but tiring. I made some new friends.” Of course, he wants to know who they are, so I tell him about Holly and Jaxon, as well as the twins.
“Hey, I know Holly and Jaxon. They’re nice people, best friends like us.
They’re in love, though they’re both in denial.
You’ll see it when you watch them,” Seb continues.
“I’m not sure when it happened, but they have puppy dog eyes for each other, but neither has told the other. So what’cha doing?”
“Homework.” I ask him a history question that I’m working on, then he tells me he’s bored out of his mind. So dramatic. “Are you home alone? Where are Gabs, E, and Nick?” I ask.
“Gabs is here, but one of her friends is over, so they’re in her room. E left after we finished homework. Nick isn’t home, so I’m assuming he went to visit a girl after martial arts.”
“I thought Nick didn’t date, Hurry.” I finish answering the last history question, then close the textbook. Onto AP Chemistry.
“He doesn’t, but I thought that sounded better than he went to fuck some random girl.”
“Ah, yup, it did. Hey, I’ll call you back when I finish my homework. Is that okay?” Seb pouts a bit more, but it’s hard to concentrate on my work and follow the conversation. After I promise to call him back later, he lets me go.
Zander arrives home a little after 6 pm.
I tell him there’s salad in the fridge, which he happily eats, as I call Seb back and we talk for an hour while I stretch my poor legs.
When Zander joins me on the couch later, I ask him to take me for my written test this week. “Of course. When are you thinking?”
“I’ve got stuff after school every day this week, so I was thinking I could skip gym one afternoon and we could go?”
“Alright. I’ll check my schedule in the morning and let you know.” He turns on another Marvel movie as we relax until bedtime.