My Life As A Synchronized Swimmer

Chapter 1-What A Bad Synchro Day Is...

"Again!" Rebecca,my coach, screams. She has her poker face on, a very bad sign. I check her eyes, and yes, they are fierce, staring right at me. If looks could kill, I would be dead right now. I cough again, trying to get the water I choked on out of my throat.

Again.

A word that our coach uses abundantly, & pierces my heart every time. When I push myself harder, try to make myself better every time, & get an "again," I feel so disappointed in myself. Just because I did an error, like forgetting expressions because I'm so busy counting the music, it feels like all of my work: my pointed feet, my being-on-time, everything. It's all gone.

I splutter a bit, feeling the others behind me doing the same & turn to swim back to the beginning of the pool. I tug on the 2.5 pound weight encircling my waist, trying to breath a little better. I climb out, trying to slow my breathing & pounding heart. I need to prepare myself for laps, or I'll be dead after & we still have an hour & a half left of practice. The music starts and I panic a bit. I'm not ready yet. I'll choke, I'll fail, I'll die...Too late now. I jump, feel the water around me, & steady myself for the first boost. Higher, stronger, faster, arms up! I smile, smile as if this is easy, as if my muscles aren't burning already, as if I'm not preparing myself to stay underwater for 25 seconds.

I concentrate myself on the leg movements & not on my screaming, burning, aching lungs. I stare at the wall in front of me, push harder with my arms as I feel the weights dragging me down. The two, smaller ones around my ankles are also pulling at me, daring me to sink, to drown. Somebody kicks me in the side & precious bubbles of oxygen escape my mouth. My stomach twists angrily & I blink. Shoot. I should have ate more. I feel kind of bad. My mind goes blank, my body aches, but I need to keep going, I-

Black spots cover my vision. I float back up to the surface. Not because I want to breath, well of course I do but I wouldn't go back up for that- oxygen is overrated anyways, after all,- but rather because I'm not strong enough to stop myself. I realize my error as I gasp at the surface & hurriedly go back down, hoping Rebecca didn't see.

She's staring at me as I drag myself to the side of the pool. The seconds stretch, my hand is about to touch the wall before she stops me: "What are you doing?"

Uh. Giving myself a well deserved break?

"All of you, go back. You're synchronized swimmers for god's sake. You should be able to hold yourself up." We all groan, surprised at this. She was in a worse mood than I thought... "Shut up, all of you! Do you want extra cardio? And you, Chloe-" She turns & my attention snaps to her eyes- " give me a 25, two if you fail the first." I nod & turn, my eyes catching Lea's.

Her mouth hangs open & she looks angry enough to do some serious errors. You don't mess with Rebecca. You shut up and do your best. But Lea was new to this team, she didn't know how to keep that big mouth of her's closed. "But that's so unfair! I kicked her, I should do it, I mean..." Her words quiet down as she sees our coach's face as she sends me a "sorry" look before awkwardly looking away.

"Do YOU think, my dear Lea, since you know everything & have an opinion on everything, that CHLOE here can just pop up at the surface because she FEELS BAD in a COMPETITION? NO. You know what, choke, faint, whatever. I DON'T CARE as long as you do what you're supposed to. And Chloe didn't so she gets 25. Go. NOW."

I start my painful underwater lap. About a quarter through, my head is pounding, my muscles aching & my lungs burning so painfullyI almost let my bubble of air out. I stared down, looking at the floor underneath. Light danced on the pool tiles, the sight making me forget a second of my pain. Halfway through, I hear screaming, & I know that one of the girls is risking getting caught underwater to encourage me. I keep going. Almost there. Normally, this would be way easier but after doing two sets of a thousand meters of laps with three weights, I'm so tired I could fall asleep on the spot. The tip of my fingers touches the wall. Finally!
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Author's Note

Hey! Are you enjoying the story so far? If you are, let me know in the comments what you want to happen! If not, tell me why you aren't liking it so far. I'll try to fix things to make the story more enjoyable!

Now that you see from a synchronized swimmers perspective, do you think that the synchro life is hard? If so, that's good! That is the point I'm trying to make here.👌If not, you wait and see because that is just the beginning of this roller coaster. All we are doing is going up!🎢🎢🎢

Just keep reading!🐠🐠🐠

-Huntleigh💕