| Anton
"Push!" Coach whistled.
I watched the water break pass my goggles as I swam. Ahead of me I could see Yeorin getting tired and slowing down.
She stopped swimming and panted, grabbing the edge of the wall. She looked tired and her face had went pale.
"Yeorin, get it together. You have 6 more laps. Let's go!" Coach yelled from across the pool.
She waved her hand to show that she heard him. but couldn't seem to get to swimming. I caught up to her and looked behind me to see that the other kids haven't been on their way from the other side of the pool yet.
"Uh, I can go in front of you" I tapped her shoulder.
I figured if I went in front of her she would have some time to catch her breath.
She had her hand at her chest and shut her eyes in annoyance. That may have gotten on her nerves.
"Yeah, go ahead" she said breathing heavily.
I'm gonna guess that it did.
"Hey—" I was gonna to ask if she was really okay but Coach blew the whistle at us again.
"Hustle you two! The meet starts in 20 minutes, stop messing around!"
She didn't seem to have heard me call out for her so I just went ahead and swam in front of her to give her more time.
Yeorin was interesting. Something about Yeorin made me want to talk to her more. I would admit I did tease her often at practice, but how she responded to me were so witty I couldn't help it.
This was the first meet of the season. It was more like preseason, our official meets starts in 2 weeks. But coach got us to do a meet with another school for practice before officially starting.
Our race times and our lane placement for our races today would help organize our spots and skills with the other schools in the next few meets.
Faster times meaning swimming in the middle lanes. Middle lane meaning you're the fastest. Fastest meaning you are the scholarship magnet.
I grabbed my goggles and swim cap making my way to the block when I heard them call out the event before mine. I felt my heart thumping out of my chest and my arms stiffening.
I got up on the block to see Yeorin on the other lane too. I heard cheering at the end of the pool and from the stands but I could only focus on Yeorin grabbing onto her chest again.
She was breathing heavily before turning over to me.
Yeorin gave a small smile. I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle that that made her mouth out some words to me, "You're dead." she motioned a cutting motion across her neck.
The whistle blew and I could see in the corner of my eye that our reaction times were about the same. I watched the bubbles move across the surface as I swam beside her.
Yeorin and I were the two that were eye to eye ahead of everyone else. Once we flipped turned this was where we would know who would really win.
I felt my feet touch the wall and pushed off with all my strength I had left. I looked over and I could see I was ahead of Yeorin about an arms length.
This was the thrill. The exhilarating feeling I would get when I was reaching for the finish line and forgetting about my sore body. Swimming like this made me forget all my responsibilities and only about the race. I practiced and practiced for this exact feeling.
But my feet slowed down. The whites of the water started to slow down behind my feet. I turned my head towards her from underwater and saw Yeorin pass right by me.
