Lights and Sirens

Chapter 9

KAMMERRON ROSE MONROE'S POV
Today was our first swim meet of the school year, therefore, Kona and I had to drag our light blue parkas around with us, to every class. It wasn't that bad...kind of. We had our douffel bags with our white swim caps, goggles, shampoo and conditioner, towels, energy bars, extra clothes, and our black, white, and blue swim suits. Kona was a sprinter while I usually did the 500 (20 laps) and the 200 (8 laps). In short, I was a long distance swimmer. My time for the 500 was under eight minutes. I was pretty happy and glad about that. The 200, on the other hand, I worried about. The thing about eight laps is that you don't know whether it's long distance...or a sprint. Kona had the 50 and the 100. We both had the medley relay and the 100 freestyle relay. The medley was weird. It went , , , and then, finally, freestyle. The swim meets were co-Ed, meaning that both boys and girls competed. Boys' events were odd. By the end of the day, I was relieved to get out of Math class an hour early even if Kona said that the meet wasn't that far away. The whole team met up outside near the vans. We piled in, using three out of four vans. I hadn't checked where the meet was at, so when we pulled up at Appleton High School, I was really regretting not checking the schedule and pretending I was sick. I was guessing Kona was thinking the same thing because she was sulking and scowling the corner and nobody seemed to want to mess with her.
Once Kona and I got out of the van, we bolted for the girls' restroom to get changed. As soon as we returned to the pool, we claimed Lane four and started warming up. The other girls joined us shortly after and we had lanes four, five, and six occupied with girls diving, trying to up their endurance or practice. After forty-five minutes, the meet had officially begun and I was on the diving block, in position, going first for the 100 freestyle relay. The alarm went off and I dove off the block, sprint to the opposite end of the pool and back. As soon as I reached the wall, the next girl dove off after a shrill yell from Kona. I climbed out of the pool and stood next to the girl who was last and would be going after Kona. The girl is the water touched the wall.
"Go!" I yelled instantly and Kona dove off the block. We came in second which wasn't bad at all. In fact we were pleased with our results and our time. I say down on the giant blanket. The girls on our team had set up a little picnic spot on the grass near the black fence. They were sitting around, chatting, talking about the events, explaining things, helping each other out or writing events on their arms. We had chips and salsa, fruit, granola bars, four packs of oranges (courtesy of Coach Hadley who most likely had sixteen more in the van), packs and packs of bottled water, and other food in the middle of the blanket. Since the 200, my next event, wasn't going to happen soon, I grabbed an orange and started peeling it.
"Lucky," Kona muttered.
"What?"
"You get to eat,"
"You want to swim twenty laps, Kona?" I asked, popping a piece of the orange in my mouth.
"No, but I just want a piece of watermelon, but the 50 is two events away and I know that you shouldn't eat right before your event,"
"You'll get to eat after the 100,"
"I know but I'm starving,"
"You had lunch,"
"It's four o'clock, Kadence,"
"You. Had. Lunch."
"So!"
"Did you like throw it away when I wasn't looking or something?" I asked, trying not to laugh. Kona gave me a look and raised an eyebrow. "Never mind, then," I muttered.
"What you guys doing here?" A voice behind us made us both jump.
"Swim meet. What are you doing here?" Kona asked, narrowing her eyes at Ashton who was behind the black fence.
"I got to school here, remember," Ashton replied.
"Oh...yeah," Kona murmured.
"So what events are you guys doing?" Ashton asked. Kona and I glanced at each other and snorted. "What?!" Ashton demanded.
"What do you know about swimming, Ash?" I asked raising my eyebrow, smirking.
"Try me,"
"Fine. I'm doing the 500 and the 200, Kona's doing the 50 and the 100,"
"Didn't know you were long distance, Monroe. Twenty-eight laps?" He whistled.
"Hey! Would you look at that! Ashie's not a dumby dumb after all," Kona grinned and laughed.
"Shut up," Ashton rolled his eyes. He smiled though.
The rest of the swim meet went by fast. I improved my time on the five hundred by a couple of seconds and the same happened with the 200. Kona got her time down for the 50 to 34.12 seconds which was really good. She was really proud of herself. We could tell because she was smiling the whole way back to the school and every question we asked her, she answered with her time. I swear we asked her who she wanted to date and she answered 34.12 seconds. I'm not kidding. We even tried how she wanted to die-shotgun or knife. 34.12 seconds. Very creative, Kona, very creative. We got back to the school by eight o'clock. Briar picked us up. We dropped Kona off and by the time we got back home, it was eight-thirty and I was exhausted. I into the house to see Ashton and Austin playing video games. He must've been watching my younger brother while Briar was gone. I, not caring that Ashton was over, went up to my room. I hung up my swim suit, threw on black leggings and my Saints football hoodie, and went to bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was asleep.