Living Water

26. Alarmed.

The sharp blow of the whistle indicated the start of the race. The six swimmers dove into the pool, today's test was about speed and endurance, so they were to do three laps back and forth.

Timothy struggled to keep up but, he was determined to make a mark for himself. Yesterday he did so terribly the coach had to call him aside and warn him severely, he was even sent home on that account. It was an embarrassing experience for him. His mind felt like a wasteland after being through an emotional draining experience, he didn't expect his swimming to be so affected.

"Tims, nice one! One more lap to go." The coach cheered him on.

He was greatly encouraged by that and was determined to do his best till the very end. Freestyling was his best bet, but after trying to perfect his butterfly for a while, he was more than certain he was a beast in that swimming style. He mentally shifted gear and made up his mind to switch to butterfly during the last lap. He wasn't in the lead, but he was amongst the top three in the lead.

It was the final lap and Timothy was determined to win. He changed into butterfly style, gliding and sliding through the waters like an aquatic being. It took a lot of arm strength, so he was lazer focused on reserving and exerting his energy wisely. His vision through the swimming goggles he had on was limited to seeing nothing but the tiled pool floor beneath him, he never raising his head for once, timing his breathing sparingly. He didn't know how it happened, but he finally reached the end of the pool. The next thing he heard was a sharp whistle been blow.
He smiled. He finally did it.

"We have our winner for this practice. Congratulations Chinenye."

Chinenye?! He looked to his left and lo and behold, was the triumphant smile of a girl at the far corner of the pool. One by one the rest of the team reached the edge. Coach shook her hands and gave her a proud look, then turned to him. The smile on his face was that of pity. Timothy wondered how defeated he must've looked.
The coach walked towards him and bent down, a smirk on his lips.
"Why are you looking like this? Be a good sport and congratulate the winner."

Timothy removed the goggles from his eyes and hung it on his head. "I don't understand. There's no way she could've beat me, I was leading...at least I thought I was."

"You are right, you actually came first."

Timothy scrunched his brows in confusion, he was flabbergasted. This was not the time for the coach to be playing jokes on him, the competition was only few weeks away.
"Coach, then why did you announce her as the winner?!"

"Timothy, you have been in this game possibly longer than Chinenye over there." He pointed towards the girl, who was already drying herself off with a towel. "Yet you fail to follow the simple principles of swimming. Are you supposed to be changing swimming styles in the middle of a race?!"

Timothy shut his eyes in embarrassment of his own forgetfulness. How was he so ignorant?!
"I forgot."

The coach's eyes popped opened in a ridiculing manner.
"You forgot." He laughed like it made perfect sense, for an experienced swimmer like him to forget basic rules of swimming competitions. "I want to commend you on your butterfly, it was flawless. But on a competition based on endurance, it takes a toll on your muscles. I advice you to stick to front crawl, it's much safer and faster. You wouldn't get disqualified."

He brightened up a bit, he wasn't a complete failure apparently, just a bit reckless.
"Thanks Coach. I'm glad I did better than yesterday at least."

The Coach stood up and stretched his knees from squatting so long. "I'm glad too. Yesterday you were so terrible, that I actually considered redrawing you from the competition."