𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐋 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 𝐃𝐎 𝐔𝐒 𝐀𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 - ᴡᴀʟʟʏ ᴄʟᴀʀᴋ

v.

NOT SUCH RIVALS ANYMORE.

▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒

SCHOOL HAD NEVER BEEN AN ISABEL'S STRONGEST SIDE, AS IRONICALLY AS IT SOUNDS. Her marks were not great, that was why her father had always got her one tutor after another, depriving her of spare time completely. School had always been something her father wanted her to be successful in, she didn't.

Everything but music and sports was impossible for Isabel, she couldn't find any interest in a single school subject. She was one of the worst students in her year. However, her both sport and musical achievements covered up her messed up academical failures. Most of the time.

Isabel Baxter was a professional swimmer. She used to enter lots of contests which caused even more skipping classes. She was a star there. Just as Claire Zomer.

Their endless competition started when both of them were young. They joined the swimming team together, were neck-and neck as far as they could remember each other. Claire and Isabel were rivals for life. It felt like their rivalry wouldn't end even when they are graduated, both of them.

But Isabel died unexpectedly, and nobody could ever imagine that Claire would be an initiator for several search groups and fundraisers connected with the Baxter's disappearance. She even spoke during Isabel's vigil.

september 22, 2021
(one week after death)

"Everybody knows, Isabel and I are not friends," the girl started, having no idea Baxter was watching her. "We're the opposite, actually. But she's a huge part of my life, someone who motivates me just being there, in the same pool as me. She's the best opponent I could ever ask for. I wish she knew how much I appreciate her presence in my life. I wish she knew how I miss her."

An alive version of Isabel would never believe that she could possibly get emotional due to Claire's words. But on that day she cried, replaying that moment time after time in her head.

Despite their rivalry in swimming, they'd witnessed each other's hardest minutes. They'd lived in the same hotel rooms during their competition trips dozens of times, helped each other deal with anxiety attacks and surprisingly similar family issues.

They despised each other most of the time, all these years, but deeply inside they both were the closest.

Isabel wished she didn't have to die for them to understand how important their dynamic was, how deeply it had affected both of their lives, and how genuinely she was grateful for having this girl around.

present

So, even after a year after her death, after witnessing Claire and Xavier's cheating sessions and getting mad at them hundreds of times, Isabel could still find herself watching the Zomer girl in school. Sometimes she would follow her in corridors and sometimes in their place, in the pool.

Today she was accompanied by Wally, Rhonda and Charley. She was glad they stopped pointing out her habit of watching the girl she used to hate almost the entire living. They simply ignored it.

Isabel was now swimming in a way she had to while practising, for wear and tear. She wanted to forget about her brother's condition, the non-speaking terms she was on with Maddie, awkwardness she suddenly had with Charley, and, most of all, that weird gut feeling she had been having for days now.