Drowning With You

CH. 4 ❄️

WINTER'S POV

That might have been one of the stupidest things I have ever done. There is no hope for Louise, she sucks at freestyle. Her breaststroke might be flawless, but this is terrible. Once I got to the pool and waited for ten minutes, I lost my patience and found her dorm.

She wasn't even there, I was livid. I still am. She even had the nerve to be snotty after blowing me off! I mean, it was planned!

Oh, she also ruined my dinner. I got to the dining hall late and all that was left was salads, which I guess is a sign. It means I have no choice but to pick the healthier option.

God, my legs hurt from all laps she forced me to swim, only of breaststroke. I wouldn't have gotten tired of it if I was used to it, but of course it's much different movements that I had never taken the time to learn.

Angry. That's all I feel. Louie is infuriating. Sent from Hell to drag me down with her.

Swim team practice is way too early, but all of us get our asses out of bed and are there on time each morning anyways.

5:45-7:15am, Monday-Friday, we swim laps until we give out and the dining hall reopens for breakfast. Somehow, our bodies are awake enough to keep swimming.

It's only early because they wanted practices before classes, so we all have time to work on school work and clubs in the afternoon and evenings. I think it's also a good motivator for the students to wake up and exercise.

Either way, I'm here and my hair is a mess, but so is everyone else's. I probably look even worse than usual, since I have my black eye, and more that are covered by my swimsuit.

Fuck Louie Monroe.

Speaking of the devil, she walks in and straight to her locker, looking perfect like always. Even with her ratty ass hair, she can pull off anything. I'd die to look like her. As she removed her shirt, I get a glance at her breasts, which are pouring out of her lacy bra.

She catches me staring and I quickly divert my eyes to anywhere else, although I can basically feel her smirk from across the room. Fuck.

"Wanna rough me up too, Monroe?" One of the girls joke as they undress to put on their swim suit.

"Want me to? Look at your queen bee over there. I can make you look even worse than her." She taunts and the girl just rolls her eyes and turns away.

They started to tease her, unprompted. It's strange, how they all side with me without me giving them anything in return. It's all fear, right? I'm the captain, sure, but enough to hate on another girl for me?

As the team captain, I shouldn't condone this behavior, but I also did punch her, as did she to me, so I let it go and finish changing.

Louie is strange. I know she can be a nice, decent person, because I've seen it happen. I've seen her and her friend laugh and smile, talk to others as if they have known them for their whole lives.

But around me, around the rest of the team, the rest of our classmates, she is rude and impulsive. It's confusing, to watch from afar and see her being nice and shit, then turn on us. She truly gives no fucks, and I wish I could feel like that. Just stop caring.

Like a few weeks ago in English class, the teacher called on her to ask about her opinion, and when she disagreed with the entire idea that Ms. Jones had, she held her ground and told the teacher to stop interrupting her.

Some thought it was rude of Louie, but I think Louie was in the right. Ms. Jones had asked her, then stopped her once she had a unique perspective. Louie didn't care that Ms. Jones looked pissed as fuck, she continued to finish her thoughts, then asked the class, "Any questions?"

That whole class stayed silent and Ms. Jones sent her out for being disrespectful. She shrugged and walked out, genuinely unbothered.

Swimming goes as normal, I'm in a crowded lane with five other girls, luckily we are in an order that works perfectly and doesn't lead to too many of us having to pass each other.

Next to me, Angela laughs and points at Louie, who is completely behind us all because of her slow flutter kick. Damn, it's terrible.

Coach Naomi yells at her to pick up her pace, she ends up using some breaststroke kick to catch momentum and then starts back up on her flutter, but we are already turning onto our next twenty-five meter as she starts hers on the other side.

"She's a terrible swimmer. Why is she even here? She doesn't even try." One of them says, although I know that's untrue; she really does try, she just can't get it right. That's the truth. I'm realizing it after we met up the other day.

"The meet was even worse. Her breaststroke was shit-- at this point, I'd quit. It's embarrassing." Says another.

"Girls, she's your fucking teammate, show some respect." I bark out, slowly kicking at their pace. They glare at me, all of us aware that I insult her on the daily, throwing worse comments than any of them combined.

I'm a hypocrite, sue me.

The set is over and we are all back to the wall. Louie is done, her face is flushed and tired, she obviously is exhausted.

"300 cool down!" Coach yells over the loud gutter on the edge of the pool. Of course, I got straight into my freestyle, watching Louie in the other lane as she rips her cap off of her head and starts her breaststroke.

I finish before everyone else, Louie takes her time with her cool down, giving me a minute or two to watch her swim when I could just be going to the locker room to get changed.6

As usual, she's majestic as fuck, her glides are flawless and despite being a cool down, she never takes much time with her breaths. It's all just a continuous loop that she's perfected. Goddamn.

We hop out of the water and Louie grabs a towel and walks back to the locker room. Before I can leave, Coach stops me.

"How did your first lesson go with Louie?" She asks, crossing her arms. I take my goggles and cap off, shrugging. "Did she work with you? Did you work with her?"

"It went fine." I don't mention how she didn't show up even close to the time we were supposed to or how it mostly consisted of yelling at each other while we were doing lap after lap. "Y'know, we did what you told us."

She nods, skeptical. "Hmm, alright. I hope you guys work well on this. It's really not that much work, two hours a week is nothing." Coach reminds me. That's not counting the detention we are also stuck in.

She begins to grab her planning notebook and extra papers, "You both need to know that your actions have consequences and you both need to spend time working on both your swimming, but also your team work. You are our best swimmers on this team, and you are our captain. I know you can do better and I am giving you this chance to change."

I know I have responsibilities and I know I messed up, I just hate that I hadn't thought about it before I hit her back. Sure, she deserved that hit, but it shouldn't have happened.

"You are the person who the team should look up to. Violence is unacceptable. I am glad you are working with us on this."

I nod and she waves me off to leave. Louie leaves as I walk in, her bag over her shoulder, her wet, wavy hair resting on her shoulders, and her resting pouty face present as always.

I guess I can't blame her, she's the outcast of the team and we all know it, I would be grouchy too. Then why does it bother me when others talk shit about her? I can do it without being bothered, because it's me, but when they do, rage fills my veins.

God, the raging bitch is going to drive me insane.

A/N: GUYS I HAVE THREE SHIFTS TODAY AT WORK BUT I ALSO HAVE AN HOUR-ISH OFF IN BETWEEN SO I'LL WORK ON THE OTHER CHAPTERS THEN !!

also how is it so far?? ik i suck at banter IM SORRY

love you!!!