Let's Dive! (Ereri/ Riren)

The New School

The slam of the car door startled me even though I was the one who closed it. I quickly turned around leaning down a bit to wave a quick goodbye to my mom. She smiled and waved back as I stood up, facing the school. I took a shaky breath, feeling the roughness of my backpack strap in my hand. With each step all the muscles in my leg tensed and I could feel vibrations and shakes run up my body every move I made.

When I finally made it through the front doors of the high school I looked around seeing the crimson lockers and high ceilings. Just to my left was the office. I walked into the completely silent room, seeing a lady with brown hair and glasses. She looked up at me and an instant grin painted on her face while slamming her hands down on the desk to stand up.

"OH MY GOSH! YOU MUST BE THE NEW GUY!" She gushed and I slowly nodded my head, somewhat intimidated by how loud she was. No one seemed phased by her volume, though. "I'll get your schedule printed off right away for you! What's your last name again?" She asked with the smile still on her face and interest in her eyes.

"Jaeger with a J," I replied and eventually she had me write it down for her. It was German after all, it's probably hard to spell.

After Hanji (as I soon learned her name to be), who was an office TA, finally printed my schedule it was about second period already and that meant I had PE. I started on my way to the locker rooms and changed into my new PE clothes, reminding myself that I need to get my locker number from the coach. So, after class I met up with Coach Pixis and he said that I had locker 233. I nodded and thanked him, heading back to my new, black locker. It was a little worn out, showing some scratches and even some dents. There were some spots where the paint was a little worn and I could definitely tell this was an old locker. Heck, the whole school felt old to me considering it still had brick walls on some parts of it and the floor looked very scuffed and worn all over the place.

I was struggling with the lock for my locker when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned seeing a boy that was just a little smaller than me with blonde hair and a kind smile looking up at me.

"Hey do you need some help with that?" He asked and I nodded.

"Please." I said, chuckling and stepping out of the way so he could have a look.

Not looking up from the lock, the boy started to speak, "my name is Armin. You?" He inquired.

"Eren."

"That's a nice name."

"Thanks, I like yours too! It's very unique!"

"Thanks!" He smiled as he stepped back and away from my locker with an accomplished look on his face. I thanked him and put my things away. As I did, I asked him what class he had next and it turns out that our schedule is almost identical with the exception of first and sixth period. He told me that we have lunch together since the lunches are based off of what level of the school you're on for fourth period.

The schedule was kind of confusing. There were two levels to the school and if you had fourth period on the second floor, you had second lunch and if you had fourth period on the first floor, you had first lunch. I have second lunch but that's the simple part. On Monday we go through all six periods but on Tuesday through Thursday you only have four classes but the day was still 6 1/2 hours long. They did something called a block schedule on those days. Luckily, I'll have Armin to help me cuz I'm gonna need it.

As Armin and I walked through the halls to third period I noticed a brown bulletin board hung up on one of the brick walls. It had a bunch of flyers up. A specific one that caught my eye, though, was a big piece of paper that had a picture of a swimming pool and, in big bold letters, said "JOIN THE DOLPHIN DIVING TEAM!" My eyes widened as I snapped my whole body towards Armin to practically yell "YOU GUYS HAVE A DIVING TEAM?"

Armin jumped at my sudden movement and then chuckled a little bit. "Haha! Yeah! In fact, I'm on the team. You can come watch practice tomorrow if you want! We have it every Tuesday through Thursday after school till 5!"

"You guys practice for three hours?" I asked, surprised. I didn't think that they took diving too seriously in the western region of Washington State. Especially since it's cold here like all the time, from what I've heard.

"Yeah! Is that a problem?" Armin looked at me, kind of looking let down and I shook my head.

"No, that's great! At my old school we would only practice for like an hour and a half to two and I always felt like it was way too short!" I said excitedly. I was so anxious to get back up on the diving board. I practice sometimes by myself but it's not the same if you don't have someone yelling at you, telling you what you did wrong so you can improve.

"Oh, so you used to dive? What school did you go to before?" Armin looked very interested now.

"Well, I used to go to Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington D.C. When I was there my coach would call me his wood diver or Woody because, apparently, I am very straight and precise when I go into the water. My splashes were always small thanks to my good verticals but I was always just a little sloppy with my pike positions and twists. I still struggle with them but I really want to get better at them." I explained, trying not to ramble too much. Diving was always a subject I could talk for hours about. It never got boring.

"Wow! Sounds like you were pretty good!" Armin said with enthusiasm, nudging me in the arm a little bit.

"Yeah, I don't mean to brag." I stated, starting to feel a little guilty.

"Oh no! Not at all! In fact, I would love to hear more about it! You wanna hang out after diving practice tomorrow?"

"Sure!" I smiled. I was happy that I made a new friend so quickly. I was a little worried that I wouldn't fit in very well here but I felt very welcomed by Armin. He was so friendly and I was really excited to hang out with him tomorrow after seeing the dive team in action.

Right now it's only third period but that didn't mean I was any less excited and anxious (in a good way) about tomorrow. I was excited to smell that chlorinated air once again. To feel just as at home in the warm humidity as I always did. I smiled at the thought and the bell rang signaling that third period has started.