Despite The Doubt

One - Swimming Struggles and Surprises

Just one more 50. I said to myself finishing my 200 kick. "Nice Job on that set Jess." Coach Will said to me as I came into the wall and took a huge swig of water.

"Thanks," I said trying to control my breathing. I had just finished our warmup which was a 1000 or as I told my non-swimmer friends 40 laps. Looking at the clock I saw that we had an hour left of practice. This was gonna be a long hour.

~#~

"Ok guys! Go get changed! Don't take too long!" Coach Will said to us as we all climbed out of the pool, the boys racing each other to the locker room.

"Hey Jess!" My friend Lara yelled when we got in the locker rooms, as though she hadn't been next to me for the past two hours.

"You really need to work on that whole not being hyper after workouts thing Lara." I said as I looked over to her. She gave the puppy dog eyes as I added "I still love you, don't worry" giving her a tight hug and going over to my locker. Lara was 11; two years younger then me. She had medium-length dark brown hair that was always curly. She was kind of short and you could see the muscles in her arms and legs.

"Oh my gosh guys, I had to do a research project for Science and she only gave us two weeks! It was horrible!" Sydney said rolling her eyes. Sydney was my age and definitely one of the better swimmers on the Tiger Sharks Swim Assembly. Sydney had short brown hair and was average height for our age, the only things that set her apart from the average girl were her huge muscles and crazy personality.

"I'm so sorry for your loss". Claire said laughing. Claire, the clown of our group was always happy. She was the same age as Lara but almost my height. With strawberry blonde hair she definitely stuck out in a crowd because of her freckled face.

"So what's new with you Caroline?" I asked changing the subject. Caroline was very tan and had curly brown hair that she never wore down, although it looked amazing when she did.

"Nothing, much. I am getting new suits soon because the ones I have now are too small." She said in an aggravated voice. Caroline hated going suit shopping, or any shopping, it just wasn't her thing.

"Ooh! I am going to my cousin's birthday party I forgot!" Avery said pulling on jeans and a nice shirt. Avery was only 10, the youngest in the group with light brown hair and an electric smile.

"Oh yeah! I'm going too." Olivia said brushing through her long brown hair. Olivia was the shortest, although a year older than Avery.

"Wait, so everyone is coming to conditioning tomorrow, right?" Chloe asked. Chloe was my age but a lot shorter. She had short brown hair and was always joking about something. "Because I'm not sure if I can handle hat alone." She said laughing it off a bit.

"Yeah, I'm 100% there. I need a six pack bad!" I said patting my four pack. All the girls and I packed up our stuff and everyone filed out of the locker room. I waited a bit to brush out my long blonde hair. Looking around the locker room I left feeling satisfied with another successful practice.

~#~

"We're home!" I yelled to my dad and my older brother Daniel. There was still some food left on the counter, although I had already eaten, I needed more dinner after swimming. "I don't understand why you eat so much," Daniel said walking into the kitchen as I sat down to eat some chili.

"Ok, you try doing my workout and then not eating!" I said laughing it off.

~#~

"Jess? Can I talk to you for a second?" Mom asked coming into my room.

"Yeah sure." I said looking up from my summer reading.

"Well, I know you really wanted to get into the STEM academy in Hyannis." Mom said taking a deep breath and looking me in the eye. I got real scared for a second. I NEEDED to get into this school. Not only did they have a pool and a swimming unit in gym, all of my friends were going there next year and the last thing I wanted to do was spend another year at my K-8 school.

"Ok...." I said urging her to continue.

"You got in! I'm so happy for you honey!" Mom said giving me a tight squeeze. I suddenly felt washed with relief. Swimming was my life. My friends were practically my sisters. We did everything together. Except going to school, but now Sydney, Chloe, Caroline, and I would be n the same classes! And Lara, Caroline, and Olivia would be in the same classes! The only one who wouldn't be in the same class as anyone from swimming was Avery. I felt bad for her sometimes but she didn't mind being the runt.

Me👑: Hey guys! I know you all got into STEM! Well guess what.... I DID TOO! This is so exciting! See ya tomorrow @ practice!
Chloe🌺: Wooh!

School started in a week. I could not contain myself any longer. All eight of us went to the mall to go school shopping. Sydney's mom drove because she has a minivan.

"We should all get matching backpacks!" I said as we walked around the Cape Cod Mall.

"That a great idea! I saw some cute backpacks over at Target if you wanna look there!" Avery said. So we all headed for a Target.

"I like this one." Olivia said, as she pulled out a sequined gold backpack.cIt was one of those backpacks that had the flap over the top and drawstrings to keep it closed. "And there are nine or ten more!" Olivia said looking through the shelves.

"Yay! I love them so I say, let's get them!" I said, we all grabbed the gold backpacks and put them in Lara's mom's big shopping cart. "Now, we don't need new lunch boxes right?" I asked looking at everyone.

"I want a new lunch box! My old one got peed in by my cat!" Said Claire. Everyone laughed at that. "No I'm serious, my kitchen counter is right next to the litter box."

"Ok, so Claire needs a new lunchbox obviously." Caroline said laughing.

"Girls, we only have an hour left here before we go to Sydney's house to eat and then drive to swimming." Sydney's mom told us.

"Ok Mom, Ooh! Let's go get notebooks and folders and stuff now! Everyone got their list right?" Sydney asked. We all nodded and ran down to the school supplies isle.

~#~
Hello Readers! Welcome to my new story! This is all about the life of swimmers. Some of you may realize that there is a character that has been inspired by you! If so, CONGRATULATIONS YOUR INSPIRING!!🎉🎉 If there is something untrue about "you" in this book or something you don't want to be portrayed as, please notify me, I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable. Anyway, I have written novels before, I just deleted them because they were not good. I hope this book is different and that I can update a chapter at least once a week. I know there is a lot of confusing swimming terminology in this book. So for any non-swimmers I will be posting some swim terms in the media section possibly chapter three. So thank you for everyone who reads this! Please vote, follow me, and comment if you have questions! I am open to ideas also if you just DM me or whatever they call it on Wattpad. Thank you!💋💋

-Sophster46

Update: Wednesday or Thursday

Please be patient! I'm not a fast writer!💋💋💋