Dancing in the Rain

Chapter 8

Sophie's POV

Will and I had been dating for a few weeks. The whole swim team knew of course and Will was a very sweet boyfriend. He had taken me on a few dates including to the zoo. I had to make up a few interesting lies so that my friends didn't know about it.

States has approached really quickly so now I am attempting to pack. I don't have an excuse for being away so I won't tell them anything. I had my swim bag packed and my suitcase of other things mostly packed as well. I was going to be away for a week and that includes 2 travelling days with a 5 hour bus trip each way. I had to meet the team at 5 am for the bus.

Will was the only one there apart from coach. He was loading his bags into the bus. We all would have one duffle bag with togs, caps, goggles, towels and all the other stuff and other bag with other clothes and stuff like that.

"Morning," he smiled kissing me lightly.

"Where is Thing 2?" I asked.

I had taken to calling Will and Henry Thing 1 and Thing 2 because they were ALWAYS together. He laughed and smirked. The rest of the team turned up. We were all in the team tracksuit as we had time in the pool as soon as we got there.

The bus trip was amusing. Henry and Will were having races up and down the bus until Nathan tripped Henry and he fell onto Em. We played truth and dare for a while as well which is rather interesting with 5 boys. Aaron asked the weirdest questions. We ended when we were ten minutes away from the pool.

Will and I had the busiest schedule. I was in the 100, 200 and 400 freestyle, 100 and 200 butterfly and backstroke and the 100 breaststroke. I was in the 200 and 400 medley, 400 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay. I was in 12 events and I don't think that Will was in many less.

My first heat was the next day in the 100 butterfly. All the heats were the first 2 days then the next 2 where semis and the final 2 days where the finals. Coach led us into the hotel place we were staying. I was rooming with Em which was nice.

The swim area was massive and this isn't even Nationals. We all got lanyards with our names and events on one side. Em was telling the media around the event here is massive because there is so many good swimmers come out of California. She also told me that Will was a pretty big deal so he would be expecting a lot of media attention.

Will offered to train with me and I took him up on the offer. We were all tapering at the moment. What it means is before a meet you don't swim as much as you usually do. So for this I would only swim around 2,000m when usually I swim 10-12,000m a day with morning and afternoon trainings now that I am more serious.

I was only in the pool for half an hour. I did a few laps of each stroke before giving up for the day. Mostly everyone else was going to keep staying but Em jumped out with me. There was already a lot of media walking around. Both Em and I had our tracksuit jackets on and they noticed that we were the same team as Will. Em led the way and we just kept walking. Neither of us commented on how well Will was or wasn't swimming and how his training was going.

I collapsed on the bed as soon as I shut the door. Em had already stolen the bathroom so I just lay there waiting for her to finish. Luckily she didn't take that long. Not many swimmers do because they know that they are just going to be getting in the pool tomorrow and getting more chlorine in their hair. I just give it a quick wash to get the chlorine out and sometimes I was it properly but not today.

After I had showered and changed Em and I sat on the floor and started to play cards. Tori and Ruby joined us once they were finished. Coach gathered us all together so that we could all eat together. Most of the swimmers were there and eating in their teams. Once I had gather pasta I sat down next to Will.