A Drop In The Lake

a kiss

Alessa

    "Bow pair, row us up to the starting line." Commands Mary into the cox box after we've finished warming up.

    As the bow pair moves in tandem, pre-race nerves begin to wrack my system. Loveladies High School is a tough companion. Their past in the rowing world is insanely impressive, from national and even international standings to their teams average two kilometre time, they are a force to be reckoned with. But we have an advantage in our teamwork and race planning, because while others stress over where they are going to execute their power tens and make their moves, before the race, we race the race. Our only preparation is the knowledge that our coxswain will make certain calls at some point during the race, and knowing what points push our opponents to freeze.

    Dana is the worrier of our boat, and while she can tend to freak out the rest of us, she supplies us with statistics on whoever we are going to race. She'll spend hours looking up their two kilometre times, old race videos, interested recruiters, lineups, anything she can find on the internet, and even some things that past competitors of theirs tell her.

    "Remember ladies, we're gonna run K2, so make sure to watch your breath on the drive, and relax into the recovery for the first half of the race." Speaks Mary, careful to not speak loud enough for the other boats to hear us.

    In addition to Dana being the worrier of the boat, our boat is just generally quite mythodical with our pre-race regimine. That includes making up code words for our different race plans. Because Loveladies tends to come out pretty strong in the first thousand metres, we have to conserve our energy while keeping pace with them, and then overtake them in the second half of the race. It's a hard plan to execute, because you have to be willing to be behind in the beginning without losing morale, and then drain the last bit of power you have left in your muscles and lungs, and just smoke them in the second half of the race.

    "Star boards hold." Demands Mary, lining us up to the starting dock.

    "All four hold water!" Shouts Mary, setting us up perfectly so that we can go straight down the center of our lane.

    "Pass it down Ale." Soothes Mary, the first bit of fluffy courage spilling into our hearts.

    I reach behind me, grabbing Brook's hand and squeezing it in mine and reaching down to plant a kiss on her knuckles. Brook returns the kiss and whispers a bit of loving encouragement. She then turns around and repeats the process, planting a kiss on Dani's hand, Dani continuing the link to Dana, and then finally, Mary. Each team has their own starting-line thing, but ours flows deeper, capturing the beloved tendency of Rhea to greet a person with a kiss on the cheek. In her loving memory, we repeat the action, fueling her bubbly personality into the foundation of our race.

    "Loveladies A! Loveladies B!" Begins the official, checking to see if each of us are ready to race.

    "Harvey Cedars A!" Rings his voice.

    "We have alignment. Ready?"

    "Boop" screams the officials megaphone, signifying the commencement of the race.

    "Three quarters, three quarters, lengthen, lengthen, full!" Screams Mary, pumping our muscles full of enough adrenaline to run around the world.

    Off the start we push ahead of Loveladies A and B boats. My blood pumps harder, pushing my muscles into our settle and out of our power twenty. We start ahead, but the moment our bow ball crosses the five hundred metre marker, our pace slows to a thirty, each stroke being lengthened out as Loveladies A boat creeps ahead of us. In my field of vision, the race behind us rolls off of my body as Loveladies B boat lingers two boat lengths behind us.

    "Remember to keep the pressure on and breathe. We're coming to the seven hundred and fifty meter mark, so I want to see the rate increase two every two." Commands Mary, as our boat soars past the seven hundred and fifty meter mark, the stern of the Loveladies A boat creeping into my peripheral.

    When my rate finally hits a thirty four, Mary screams through the cox box, "Now ladies! Now's the time we push!"

    Her words pull me into the race and out of a comfortable pace, pushing me into a fire burning thirty six pace. Our power ten pushes us into alignment with Loveladies A boat, the existence of their B boat now a fleeting memory.

    My throat burns and my muscles stretch to glide us past our power ten and into our high settle.

    "Come on Alessa, keep that power on. We're at a thirty, I want you to take it up two in two!" Commands Mary, pulling our boat two seats ahead of theirs.

    "That's it! They're on our two seat, I want them at our stern by the last five hundred!" Yells Mary, pushing my body into overdrive and into oblivion.

    Our lead continues to grow and we pick up our pace and stride into the final five hundred meters. At this point every sense in my body numbs, Mary's voice taking the backseat, and settling to nothingness. Before I know it, we're settling past the finish line and into first.

    This happens often, I blackout in the last five hundred meters of the race. My boatmates know, and have attempted to bring me back into the moment, but after it pushed us past first place in last year's MAPLE cup race, they've come to understand and embrace it as a form of extra courage.

    "Paddle." Soothes Mary, moving in her seat to organise herself before we have to row back to the dock.

    After we're given a chance to catch our breath and soothe out our post-race nerves, we congratulate Loveladies on a great race, and row back to the dock. We make quick work, putting our oars and boat away so we can relax and watch the rest of the races.

    I'm headed back from the boathouse when I hear Cameron call out to me.

    "Ale!" He screams, coming up to envelop me in a bear hug.

    I let out a hearty chuckle at his blatant show of childish excitement.

    "You guys kicked ass! I was so nervous seeing you behind at the half way, but you fucking killed it in the second half!" Exclaims Cameron.

    "Thank you," I chuckle, "You had a great race too." I soothe, recalling their fifteen hundredths of a second lead through the finish line.

    "You kidding me? My race was close, but your race was a nail biting underdog story line." Continues Cameron.

    My body settles into chuckling madnesses, when an unfamiliar voice calls out, "Cam!"

    "What?" I question, noticing Cameron's body tensen.

    "Ale... This is Kaya." Says Cameron, pointing at a curvy, five foot four, brunette.

    "Hi. I'm Alessa. Cameron's told me a lot about you." I greet, plastering a friendly face onto my hesitant stomach.

    "Has he? He better have chosen his stories carefully." She points, glaring at Cameron.

    "All good things, don't worry." I reveal.

    "Cam?" Sounds another voice from behind Kaya.

    Cameron turns to acknowledge his presence, a tense string pulling his body taught. If he wasn't stiff as a board before, he is now full on steel.

    "Alessa... This is Max." Confirms Cameron.

    All of the blood flees my face as my body fights the urge to lunge at him.

    "Hello Max." I greet tightly.

    "It's very nice to meet you Alessa."

__________
Okay, yes, I'm aware that it's a bit late in the day, but I had homework to do so I'm just getting around to posting. Anyways, today's chapter is very exciting because we be meetin' Max!!! TEAAAAA!!
So what I wanna ask today is, how do you relieve stress?
For me, I either like to go on a walk or run, or even write or draw. I just like to do something that doesn't require too much thought so that I can understand how insignificant my stressors are in the grand scheme of things.