༄ Heart of the Sea༄ ༄ A lull in the sea fanfic ༄

Chapter 2

I sit on the ground as my lungs burn from exhaustion, every inhale and exhale leaving a scorching path through my throat. Without warning, a water bottle appears in front of my face and I snatch it, quickly opening it and gulping down the water that was in it.

The glorious relief that swept my body was unlike any other as the water fueled my body once more.

"Woah, Mizuno-chan! It's like you're dying of dehydration!" One of my classmates laughs from beside me. I nod in response, not taking the bottle away from my lips. After a few more gulps, I finally inhale as much oxygen as possible and lean against my savior's leg. "I was dying out there! It's too hot to be running for PE..." I close my eyes and end up falling to the ground when she jumps away from me.

"Ew, you're going to get your sweat all over me!" She scrunched her face and wipes off her leg. I frown in response, "You're already sweaty enough, what's a bit more?" I roll myself upright to watch as its now the boys turn to run their laps. Us girls had the pleasure of being first, not that I was excited about that at all.

While my friend goes on a tangent about whose sweat is whose, I watch the boys run and smile when I see Tsumugu in the lead.

"Show off." I laugh to myself even though I knew he wasn't trying to race anyone else, Tsumugu just seemed to be naturally gifted at so many things!

Behind Tsumugu, one of the boys from Shioshishio begins sprinting, slowly beginning to catch up to Tsumugu. "Ooohh!" I lean forward to see if he's going to pass Tsumugu, what was his name...Shimashura? No... Sakishima! Yes! As he gets closer catching up, he suddenly trips over his own foot, causing him to crash into Tsumugu and both of the boys slide harshly on the ground.

It's hard for anyone to not flinch at the sound of a body sliding on the ground and I quickly bolt up. Sensei shouts at them but it's obvious that they could have hurt themselves from a fall like that, "Senseiii!" I call out and dash towards him. "I'll take them to the nurses office to get patched up! Their scrapes could get infected."

Sensei nods and waves me away as I quickly jog over towards the boys who have barely started to sit up. "Hey! Tsumugu! Sakishima!" I wave as I run over. My hand reaches out towards both of them as I smile down at the pair, "We should get those scrapes cleaned up! Don't want them getting infected!"

Tsumugu grabs my hand without hesitation and I pull him up. Meanwhile, Sakishima-Kun seems to be glaring holes into my skull. "These are nothing! And why would I accept help from a stinky pig surface person?"

Wow, feisty. Either way I roll my eyes slightly, "Yeah, Yeah. I'm a big stinky pig who'll make anyone pass out from my awful smell." I hold my own nose before holding my other hand out again. "You'll just have to make sure you hold your breath the whole time you're getting patched up!" I laugh a little.

The brunet's eyes dart down to my hand again but he instead lifts himself up with a grimace. I retract my hand, not really offended by his actions or anything, it seems that he's not too thrilled about having to go to school with the surface people. I don't want to make him any more annoyed so I'll leave it at that.

"Great! Now that both of you are up, let's get out of the way as everyone else finishes their laps." I clap my hands and turn on my heel to march to the school. As I'm walking, I notice Sakishima wince the slightest bit but I don't want to point it out because he might explode again. He seems like someone who doesn't like to have his weaknesses brought to the light.

It's obvious to anyone that almost our whole class was glancing at us multiple times and whispering, putting us in the spotlight. I'm not exactly sure why it's such a big deal that the Shioshishio kids are coming to our school but I want to try chipping away at any wall that might be separating everyone!