Synchronized Swimming

Chapter 20: Apples or Blueberries?

The Greensboro synchro team is fictional, all though the swimmers on it will be based off of my teammates. 

Sang

"Sean? I thought that you weren't coming until later?" I ask Sean in confusion. He just grins at me before pulling another chair up to the table and falling into it.

"I made room in my schedule to come early. What are you guys doing? Eating ice cream? Planning what to get me for my birthday?" Sean say as he stealthily inches his hand toward Gabriel's ice cream.

"Of course we're eating ice cream, and no you can't have some!" Gabriel yells, scooting his cup out of the danger zone.

"I'm hurt! Pookie, you'll share a bite of your ice cream with me, won't you?" Sean asks me with puppy dog eyes. As much as I want to give some to him, I already finished mine so I hold up my empty cup as proof.

"No matter! I'll just get some later. Now, I was promised shopping, not sitting around watching these three eat ice cream slower than a turtle!" Sean exclaims, and I giggle as I picture the boys slowly extending their heads out and nibbling on the ice cream one bite at a time like a turtle would.

Building on that thought, I imagine the whole team as turtles in my head. Silas would of course be the largest, but I also seem him as being the friendliest turtle, despite his intimidating size. Kota would be a smallish green turtle that didn't look very powerful, but once he started moving then he could outpace almost any of the other turtles. Gabriel could have orange stripes on his shell! Really, the possibilities for a turtle team are limitless.

"Sang, is everything all right?" Victor asks me looking concerned, and I realize that they have all finished their ice cream while I was daydreaming.

"Yeah, I was just thinking about turtles. So, is it shopping time now?" I ask excitedly. Victor grins and nods. "Yay! Let's go!" I scream, and North winces a little at the piercing noise.

"I believe you needed goggles North, so let's get those first." Victor suggests, and both him and Gabriel smirk at the suddenly uncomfortable looking boy.

"That sounds good." he mumbles, ignoring the grins.

As we're walking towards the swim store in the mall two men walk towards us. Sean stiffens next to me, and I wonder if he recognizes them. One of the men is grinning at us, but the other is assessing our group with calculating eyes and I swear his gaze lingers on me.

"Sean, fancy seeing you here!" the friendly looking one says.

"Nice seeing you Jon, Adrian." Sean greets them back. The one who I'm guessing is Adrian steps forward and introduces himself to the boys and me, because it seems like the boys are just as clueless as to who these people are as I am.

"My name is Adrian Falk, and this is my coworker, Jonathan Blythe." he says in a cool voice. It wasn't unfriendly, but it didn't exactly inspire rowdiness either. I can feel my sugar high disappearing in the face of his complete control.

"These are three of my team members, Victor Morgan, Gabriel Coleman, and North Taylor. This is the camper Owen was telling you about, Sang Sorenson." Sean says, and all of the boys nod, so I follow their lead and dip my head down as well. When I look back up again Adrian has a small smirk on his face and I wonder what caused it.

"Nice to meet you guys! Sean, is there a place we could meet to discuss this weekend? Perhaps a place with pie?" Jonathan asks, causing Sean to perk up.