Enemies to lovers I made on a rainy day.

Vinh #1

I stroke with all the force I can muster. I kick with all my might, feeling the water sift, churn and push past my arms and legs. After what feels like a century yet no time at all, I hit the ringer at the end of the pool. The familiar feeling of cold embraces me as I start lifting myself out of the water.

The moment I pull my goggles off my eyes, I feel a heavy, scratchy towel getting tossed onto my head. After the slightest pause of recognizing where it came from, I grab it and start shuffling the towel over and around my head without a sound until I feel like I've done a good job drying my hair. I take in the bright lights of the huge school pool as I take the towel off my head and start drying the rest of my body, at the same time turning to face the person who tossed me the towel.

"So. Feeling good about this day next month?" Coach Skyler's voice is deep and rhythmic, the words slow and unrushed, almost like the water he coached me in. He held his clipboard and sat the way he always did, legs hanging over the newest, toughest diving board we had. Earned from a good long month of complaining relentlessly to the school about the old, rusty one before it(which I have no idea why they didn't replace with literally the entire school. It was practically the only thing in this school that stayed the same after the big renewal 5 years ago in 2018), one I've only used once in freshman year.

"Of course," My words are as confident as I can make them. I know in my brain that I have every right to be confident, but per usual, something - no, everything - wavers in me. Nevertheless, I hold my chin high at my coach. "I've been practicing, right?" And because I knew it would make him smile, I added "Besides, with a coach like you? I can't lose."

It's become a habit for me to throw in compliments whenever. To anyone. I adopted this at a young age, because I've learned it saves me from a lot of shit in multiple different ways. Sometimes it made me think I was a people pleaser, but mostly I just let that thought slide. I had a reason for trying to make people like me, after all. My motto has always been "One more friend is one less enemy", although a "friend" in this scenario isn't much of one. For the most part, they were just people who you didn't particularly dislike. I try to stay neutral in others' eyes, although keeping a low profile hasn't been working particularly well.

At least, as I expected, Coach Skyler gave me the smile I had aimed at.

"Glad you know that." I smile knowingly when he says that. My expression turns serious as I ask my question.

"And coach, my score..." I trail off, waiting for his answer expectantly.

Coach Skyler smirked. That could mean two things. #1, I was completely off my game and failed and am going to get laughed at by him. Or...

"Forty-seven sixty-four." Or #2, I just beat my past score.

It was #2.

IT WAS #2!!! I jump up and down in the air, feeling light and floaty still. I stare at him in utter disbelief. All he says is, "Hey, no jumping on the pool deck." while trying to keep a nonchalant expression. Like I care!

"Wow. Just, wow. Thanks, coach." I smile the way you're supposed to make it genuine, letting my eyes crinkle up, allowing my teeth to show. I pour my well practiced honesty into my words. "Thank you."

Coach Skyler gave me a signature grin, then switched to coach mode and gave me the usual about eating, resting, stretching when I needed to. After one more exchange of words, coach turned and walked back into his office leaving me feeling crazy high on the edge of a pool. I was in fact, so high, that I didn't even watch him walk away as always.

Grinning like an idiot at myself, I sway into the changing room, goggles still in hand. After stepping into the changing room and taking 3 whole tries to open my locker(I swear I'm not usually like this, I'm just too excited), I change quickly, pulling on a plain cream shirt and black sweatpants, putting my silver necklace back on. My swimming locker is the only locker in Kamiak that I care about, which just means there's a picture of my first swimming medal and a mirror stuck in the back of the locker. I look at the poor mirror stuck to the back of my locker, ready to be pulled off in case anybody judged me for it. I had finally gotten the courage to put it up sophomore year, and it's been there for a school year and a half since, nobody saying anything about it yet. Thankfully. I ruffle my wet Korean mullet in the mirror, then smile at my shy Vietnamese features. I'm not ugly, but I wouldn't say I look good either. I swing my backpack on then slam my locker shut. The thoughts about my mirror had muffled some of the excitement of my score, but I was happy enough. Checking one more time that I had my phone and that my smartwatch was on, I turned and left the locker room.

I tread lightly until I'm at the glass doors, leading out of the pool part of the gym and into the courtyard, and sprint all the way into the next courtyard, rushing past staring people. I'm ready to bolt home when I see a reason not to walk over to a bench and sit down next to her friend.

Venus Wilson.

My not-quite-nightmare-but-definitely-not-dream, known by the public as my crush. And I now have to go prove what the public thought. Reluctant but trying not to show it, I venture slowly behind Venus and tap her on her shoulder. I catch the blur of emotions on her friends face - tension, excitement, awe, and jealousy more or less. Venus spins to look at me, hip length straight-as-sticks brown hair swishing a hair's breadth from my face.

She was the "goddess of beauty" of our school for more reasons than her name. Her eyes that now stared into mine were of the deepest, warmest hazel, shiny and watery in the afternoon light. She wasn't very tall, only about 5 '4(meaning that I was depressingly only a few inches taller than her), her build was small and curvy, pink lace mini-skirt and dark pink tank top showing it off. She was pretty, especially for a girl, her German-Greek lips plump and pink against her pale skin, slightly pink eyeshadow tinting her eye, dangly gold earrings on either ear. Her long lashes batted at me, but her gaze was soon somewhere behind me. I turned to follow her gaze, and met with a pair of searing brown eyes alight with accusation.

I blink at those eyes that were somehow prettier than Venus's. They were black - no, brown. Gray? But...a little bit amber? His eyes were a brown so dark it was almost black, with touches and flecks of silver and gold, and they were beautiful. Then the person backed up, and I was able to see their full face. The second I did, I remembered his name.

Andres Roux.

My "rival in love". The smartest, most popular boy at my school. His reputation was legendary, passing all his classes with straight A's, his SAT, SBA and everything else my faraway dream. His family was rich, his grandfather on his mom's side owning a bunch of Boeing stocks, and his dad a CEO of his own company of some sort. And he was hot too. Unlike his eye color, which I used to assume was just black, I knew about his looks before today from seeing him in the hallways and in 3 of my classes, which were biology, trig and economics. So maybe I paid a little attention to him. He had darker skin and mostly Latino features from his mom, with touches from his fathers French genes, including a sharper eye shape. He looked pretty amazing in just a gray hoodie reading "If it's free, it's mine" in bubbly graffiti text and pastel blue jeans.

"Hi, Vinh." He nodded at me with a faint smile, and then turned to Venus, his face brightening. "Hey, Venus. What are you and Vinh up to?" He glanced coldly at me, and unlike what I would usually do - try to get on their good side - I found myself glaring subtly back. And trust me, it's not because of Venus, who I hardly know and don't actually care about. I feel confident saying I'm 5'9, but this guy was like 6'2. It wasn't by much, but I found that Andres was still broader than me by a little, which was weird because it's a known fact my PE scores are always better than him. I almost feel like backing down and playing nice like I would, but something about his aura just set me off.

We stare at each other in silence while Ve-erm-should-I-say-something-idk-nus continues thinking about what she should be doing.