Synchronized Swimming

Chapter 4: Punishment

A/N: To get Knox gelatin out of hair, it is necessary to use very hot water- pretty much as hot as it can get without causing burns or other injuries.

Sang

The long car ride back to Illinois was eerily silent. Normally it was filled with Avidite's angered comments about my swim, but today she just laughed and dragged me into the car. My instincts were screaming a warning; I knew that something bad was coming, but at the moment I was too tired to care. Competitions were exhausting, and the silence was a welcome reprieve.

Staring out the window at the shops whizzing past us reminded me of just how little freedom I had. My whole life revolved around synchro—I was either at the pool, practicing, or at home doing flexibility and strength exercises. Officially, I was home schooled by my stepmother, but in reality she could care less about learning. Ever since I started synchro and she pulled me out of regular school, it had been my job to keep myself educated. Avidite wouldn't take me to the library to get books and other learning materiel, so I used our family's one computer to stay on top of things. I couldn't even ask Marie what she was doing at school. Around eighth grade, she started acting out, and without hesitation my parents sent her to a boarding school. My contact with her was very limited, and even when I got to call her, she rarely responded.

My father traveled often for business, so usually it was just Avidite and me at the house. Depending on her mood, that could be a good or a bad thing. Most of the time, she watched TV in her bedroom and left me alone as long as I kept improving in synchro. Any imagined infraction on my part could bring her to a rage, however. I feared that my poor swim today would incite one of her destructive moods. I shivered in my seat, then glanced at her to make sure she was still looking at the road and didn't notice.

Our house loomed over us as we pulled up the driveway and into the garage. Avidite had a habit of closing the garage door before getting out so that no one could see what we were doing, and today was no different. I didn't think that I had ever stood in our front yard—why she was hiding me, I didn't know. Our address had to be registered with the official synchronized swimming organization, so if someone really wanted to find me, they could do so fairly easily.

"Sang," Avidite said. I startled and looked at her. Her eyes, normally alight with some kind of anger, were flat, dull. My heart rate started beating a rapid tempo; beads of sweat danced over my hands. "Why don't you head up to go shower, get that Knox out of your hair."

I didn't trust her, or that she would let me go without any sort of punishment. When she made no move to stop me leaving the car, I hurriedly grabbed my swim bag and rushed upstairs to my bathroom. Locking the door, I slid down to the floor and held back tears. I truly hated this woman, that she could inspire so much fear with a simple sentence. I began taking the bobby pins holding the headpiece in my hair out, my movements stiff and jerky. Standing up slowly, I placed them on the counter before going and turning on the shower to let it heat up. I was too tired to take off my swim suit, so I stepped under the warm spray without undressing and started rubbing at the Knox. It'd take a few minutes for it to soften up enough to come out. Squirting some shampoo into my hands, I finally started to relax when I heard the door click. I froze, any tiredness displaced by a rush of adrenaline.

The door opened slowly. "Sang?" Avidite called out.

"Yes, what do you need?" Worry tinged my tone. She had never done anything like this before, and I could think of no reason why she would be here now. Except—the punishment. Panicked, I reached to turn off the shower when her hand suddenly appeared on the control knob, turning it all the way to hot. She tore open the shower curtain, and I saw her eyes. They held no emotion. The only light in them was reflected off of the metallic fixtures.

Steam was now rising out of the shower. I tried to push past Avidite, to get out of the blazing water, but she stood resolutely blocking my way. "I thought you might need some help with getting the Knox out," she stated, voice dead. Roughly, she grabbed my head and forced it under the stream of water. I tried to scream, but water filled my open mouth. Avidite started tearing at my hair, pulling out bobby pins and barrettes at random.

The pain was excruciating. My skin felt like it was on fire, and my scalp burned from her ripping and shaking. I was sobbing, but Avidite continued holding my head under the shower. "This is the price of your failure. You are a weak, horrible swimmer. Only more practice can compensate. Be ready to start again tomorrow," she said. Passion crept into her dull eyes, giving them a manic edge that terrified me even more than her previous apathy. Abruptly, she turned off the shower and stalked out of the room.

I knelt in the shower, skin red, eyes burning from the water and the Knox that washed into them. Minutes, maybe hours passed before I found the strength to stand up. The water had long since ran off my body, so I skipped drying off. It probably would have just hurt my tender skin anyway. Cautiously, I snuck out of the bathroom and into my room. Muted noise rushed over me. I presumed that Avidite was watching TV again. Her return to her normal routine seemed like a dismissal of the severity of her actions. Had she forgotten what she'd done already? My mouth pulled down into an ugly frown as loathing grew inside of me. Only a few more years before I was rid of her for good.

Once in the safety of my room, I twisted the lock on my door. Although it wouldn't stop her, it should slow her down enough so that I had enough time to prepare myself if she came looking for another confrontation. I slipped off the suit, put on my pajamas, and crawled into bed.

Then, I closed my eyes and cried.