Safe // (Zach LaFrenière Fan Fic)

FIVE: Friendly Competition

After Emma had been dropped back at Jason's house, she walked into the living room to see Sienna and Jason cuddled up on the sofa; they both tore their eyes away from the TV to Emma.

"There you are," Jason sighed, as he sat up straighter. "Are you alright? I've been texting you for the past hour,"

"Oh, sorry I wasn't really paying attention to my phone," Emma chuckled awkwardly as she sat on the armchair next to the couple. "I'm fine though, I was with Zach,"

"Zach?!" Sienna sat up and raised an eyebrow, "As in our Zach? As in quiet, slightly closed off to people Zach,"

"Yea, our Zach and he's really not that closed off by the way," Emma chuckled at Sienna. "I fell whilst skating and it turned out that I was outside his house, he came out to see what all the noise was about and then patched me up!"

Sienna and Jason's eyes drifted down to the Spidey themed band-aid that was stuck on her right knee, Jason smiled slightly, "Wow, and that dude continues to surprise me."

*  *  *

The next day at lunch, after Emma handed over the money for her lunch, she wandered over to the table where everyone was sat and took the seat that was opposite Zach, this caused Van Dyke to look over at Brad and for the others to look around at each other awkwardly.

"Hey," Emma spoke up, completely oblivious to anything the others were thinking or doing, Zach looked up from his sandwich and shot her a small smile. Out of the corner of her eye, Emma could see Van Dyke's jaw drop ever so slightly, she chuckled as she watched Maggie tap her boyfriend's chin; causing Van Dyke to snap it shut. "Van Dyke, is there something wrong here?"

"No, not at all," The usually confident guy, let out an awkward laugh. Van Dyke took a bit out of his burger, "I was just curious to know when you two became so friendly?"

"Yesterday," Zach answered the question on basically everyone's minds, "How is your knee by the way? Is it healing okay?"

"Oh yea, it's fine thank you." Emma shot him a small smile, she could tell the group were slightly bewildered as to how she had befriended Zach so quickly, when it had taken the rest of them pretty much their entire school lives. "Unfortunately I had to change the band-aid, but it's started to heal over now,"

"Aww," Zach pouted slightly, before a smile broke out onto his face. "Well at least you're okay, how long have you been skating for?"

"Err, I have been skating for about..." She paused to think, "I think it's been something like 10 years? I started when I had just turned 7 and I've been skating ever since."

"That's pretty cool, not a lot of chicks around here skate," Brad nodded along with Zach to show that he was impressed. "Most of them either, swim, cheer or surf,"

"Oh, I used to swim for the girls team back in Michigan," Emma grinned. Jason looked over from his conversation with Adam, "I could swim laps around Jason that's for sure,"

"Now, that is something I would love to see," Adam laughed as Jason's face started shade itself red.

Van Dyke started to tease Jason, "That doesn't surprise me. Brad and I are still trying to get him up to speed for our relay team. Hey, why don't you and Jason race?!"

"Well I don't have a swim suit, plus lunch is nearly over." Emma chuckled awkwardly, praying they weren't hell bent on seeing the race, however it seemed they were as Brad suggested that they race in his full lengthed pool. Since the group was all so excited, she didn't have the heart to say no; Emma just prayed that her flashbacks didn't start.

A couple days later when no one had anything happening, after classes had ended Emma wandered from her locker out to the parking lot where she found everyone beginning to congregate around Jason and Van Dyke's cars, skating to the far end of the lot; she came to a halt behind Brad. "Hey, so are we doing this or what?"

"Yea, we were just waiting for you to come out!" Erin beamed from where she was sat on the bonnet of Van Dyke's hummer, on Emma's arrival everyone began climbing into their cars, Emma jumped over the side of Jason's VW Bug and slid down into the seat. Erin and Maggie waved from the windows of Van Dyk's car as they passed them, "We'll meet you at Brad's"

"See you there!" Jason called out with wave, before turning to his cousin with a cheesy grin, "We'll head to ours to get your swim stuff and then it's on,"

"Oh, you are going down relay boy!" Emma laughed as Jason pulled out of the parking lot. Once they got to theirs, Jason waited in the car as she ran into the house and up to her room. Dumping her board and bag on the floor inside her door, Emma went over to her chest of drawers and shoved her swim suit, goggles, spare clothes and a towel into it. Pushing the drawer shut with her hip, she grabbed a hairband and went back downstairs back to the car. "Let's go,"

After another 5 minute drive, the cousins arrived at Brad's house and slowly made their way to the back garden. "Hey Brad, is there a bathroom I can use to change?"

"Yea, go back through the kitchen and it's the first door you see on the right!" Brad called over his shoulder as Erin helped him to separate the 25 metre full length pool into two lanes. Emma power walked into the house, suddenly feeling buzzed and determined to beat her cousin in this mini race. Once she had changed into her swimming costume, Emma tied her hair up into a tight bun and slipped her goggles on without putting them over her eyes, once she'd put her shorts away, she folded her shirt up and placed in her back. Walking back outside, she placed her bag on one of the many chairs that were lined up along side the pool and threw her towel over the back of it. Noticing that on left side of the pool stood, Zach, Bella, Maggie and Van Dyke, to the right was Adam, Sienna, Erin and Brad. Jason walked out of the kitchen behind, also throwing his stuff onto one of the deck chairs.

"Right, you two over here now!" Van Dyke called over, Jason and Emma took their places either side of where the pool had been split down the middle length ways. Emma took the left and Jason took the right. "Rules: 1. This is a simple five lap race. 2. Swimming down and back counts as one lap. 3. The race will be freestyle so swim however you wish to. 4. Don't let this cause a family fall out because we will not be held accountable for bickering."

Everyone laughed at this as Emma and Jason eyed each other up, "You're going down flipper boy,"

"Oh no, you'll be the slow-poke." Jason flashed his cousin a grin as she playfully glared at him. They both pulled their goggles over their eyes, as they shuffled around and took their places; briefly stretching as they got into their starting positions.

"Okay guys, ready!" Brad called, as Jason and Emma exchanged determined looks.

"Set." Belle yelled, the two cousins looked back to the pool and took a breath.

"GO!" The entire group yelled, Van Dyke started the timer as Emma and Jason thundered into the pool, Jason swimming breaststroke as he did for the relay, was making some speed in the pool. The guys on Emma's side of the pool cheered as she pulled ahead of Jason whilst swimming backstroke, as they neared the first half lap, Emma hit the end of the pool and spun around before Jason had even hit the end. Maggie and Belle were cheering as Emma was already three quarters of the way through the first lap, Jason barely a millimeter behind her. Van Dyke whooped incredibly loudly as Emma hit the starting point and started on to her second lap with butterfly, Jason leveled with her as he swam using front crawl. However, Emma still managed to pull ahead as she slapped the end of the pool and spun around as quickly as possible, charging ahead of Jason as he had only just spun. Jason again managed to come back up to speed as he became neck and neck with his cousin. They both slapped the starting point at the same time, however as Jason changed to butterfly and Emma changed to front crawl, Jason seems to be left behind as the adrenalin pumping through her veins gave Emma a boost of speed that was almost that of a cheetah's when chasing prey.

Already making it halfway through her third lap, Brad and Van Dyke watched in amazement as one of their own champion swimmers was being thrashed. Finishing her third lap and starting on her fourth using breaststroke, Jason started to level with Emma again as he swam using backstroke; her speed was still keeping her ahead of her older cousin. Emma slapped the end of the pool once again, marking that she was halfway through her fourth lap. Jason slapped the pool a split second after and once again the two competitive cousins were neck and neck. Finally reaching the starting end again, Jason and Emma started on their fifth and finally stroke, both swimming with their strongest strokes, Jason swam with breaststroke as Emma chose to swim front crawl.

That was when everything started to go horribly wrong.