Let's Dive! (Ereri/ Riren)

Watching Practice

"Sorry, mom, I totally forgot! Yeah, I'll try to be home before dinner. Well practice is three hours and then I'm going over to Armin's. He's a friend. I met him yesterday. Sorry I didn't tell you I really am but can I please still go? Yes! Okay thanks!" I finished my phone call with my mom after remembering that I didn't tell her my plans for today. It was lunch time so it was okay to call her.

I walked back to the table and sat next to Armin and his friends, Mikasa, and Marco (which is funny because there was a kid named Marco at my old school that was also on the dive team).

"What was that about?" Armin inquired.

"Oh well I totally forgot to tell my mom my plans for today so I wanted to call her before it got too late." I explained, chuckling a little at how stupid I am sometimes.

"Oh, okay!" He laughed.

I smiled and turned my thoughts back to practice today after school. I'm so very excited, like, I'm ecstatic! Even though I'm just watching, the pool gives me so much comfort. At one point I wanted to enter the olympics for diving, that's why I started in the first place because I saw them on TV and I thought it looked really cool and fun! I trained really hard for a while but then decided that my goal was too surreal and so I quit my hard training and just continued on my high school diving team until I moved here.

It took us about a month and a half to move into the new house and get settled in so I barely had anytime to go to the local pool and practice. I think I only got a chance twice but both times weren't as great as being on a team and having a coach correcting you. But, while we moved, I stayed in shape by doing my daily exercises that I do for diving like sit ups, squats, push-ups, planks, all that jazz. Sometimes I think I take diving a little too seriously.

*DING*

The bell sounded and we all headed off to class. Only two more classes left in the day. Those classes were the slowest I had ever endured.

              ++++++++++++++++++++

I sat on the oddly cold poolside bench with my knees into my chest, watching Armin climb up the ladder to the high dive. Right now they were doing a relay and Armin was put into a group with Marco and Thomas. They had to climb up the ladder as fast as they could and complete the specific dive. There were different dives for each time they went up and each teammate had to dive 5 different times. Once they got to the bottom they slapped the next person in their groups hand and then it was their turn. Not only did I think that they wouldn't take diving seriously at all here I didn't think it would be taken this seriously. They're way more serious about it here than at my old school so, like, just about as serious as me.

"Alright, girls, I think that's enough for warm ups. Now let's get down to business. The captain is going to split the team into two groups: one will go over to the weight room and start strengthening their core and hip flexers! I want ten sets of ten for each exercise you do! The other group will stay here and practice consistency and flexibility! That means that we will stretch and then practice your launches and controlling your splashing! So, captain, please split up the team." The coach yelled. He seemed very intimidating. I like him.

"As you wish," I heard a deep voice say. A short guy with black hair and an undercut came up to the front in the same attire as everyone else: a speedo. He turned around and faced the team. He started splitting them up according to who needs more help in what category. The team was about even on both sides. When everyone broke off, he headed out with the group that was going to the weight room while the coach stayed with the group that was in here.

Halfway through the practice the group switched and I loved every minute of it. It barely felt like an hour, let alone three, when it was over.

When the coach dismissed the team I walked up to Armin and told him how much I enjoyed the practice. I thought it looked really fun! He told me that I should go ask the coach for a sign up sheet and I told him that I would do it tomorrow since it is the same coach that I have for PE, coach Pixis. Armin nodded his head with a smile and I walked off to go wait for him outside of the locker room.

As I waited, the first person out was the guy I recognized as the captain. He gave a short glance and walked past me like I wasn't even there. That's okay, though, I wasn't expecting him or anyone to come up to me and just randomly start talking to me. About three minutes later Armin walked out with a blue draw string backpack on his back that held his wet speedo and towel and wore a light blue sweat suit on, same as everyone else.

"Come on, let's go!" He said and we began our walk to his house.

Thankfully, he didn't live far from the school at all. When we got to his house, his mom had laid out some cheese and crackers for us and we took the plate upstairs to Armin's room. It was a very small room but very homey. On the right side of the room there was a bed pushed up against the blue, slightly cracked painted walls and a small TV was positioned in front of it.There was a personal bathroom to my left and it was very small. I would've called it a powder room if it wasn't for the tiny shower in the very back.

"So, what did you think of diving practice?" Armin smiled, kind of already knowing the answer.

"It was everything and more," I said jokingly. We both laughed while sitting down on the soft carpeted floor.

"No but seriously," Armin still chuckled.

"I thought it looked really fun! A bit brutal, but fun!" I smiled.

"You can say that again!" Armin agreed.

After a little bit of vocal silence and a lot of crunching of Ritz crackers Armin finally asked a joking question, "so, Woody, got any pointers for me?" I laughed and continued eating, occasionally taking a couple sips of my Sprite until I noticed an inquisitive look on Armin's face.

"What? Were you serious?" I asked kind of surprised and he nodded his head. "Oh... I don't want to be bossy and I'm not even sure if that's the way your coach tells you how to do things. It would be wrong of me to go against Coach Pixis' word."

Armin nodded his head but continued to try to further convince me to give him some tips, "yes, but truthfully he hasn't really taught us a lot, he mostly just tells us what a move is and how it is executed, not really any technique tips. I don't really pick up as fast as the others... I wish I could learn as fast as the captain does but I feel like maybe if you gave me a couple tips, if you're as good as you say you are, then I might just be able to catch up to everyone!" He begged, looking up at me with puppy dog eyes. I was kind of surprised that he was this desperate for my input but I just sighed and started to try to remember what I saw from Armin today.

"Well," I started, Armin gaining a big smile upon his face, "for starters, when you do your pike you need to straighten your legs and tuck in just a tad bit more so try doing a little more ab work and focus on your flexibility throughout your legs and lower back. Also, when you twist, your legs come apart a little bit so try focusing on that but your upper body is killer when you twist. Oh and when you land in the water make sure you pierce the water with the tips of your fingers instead of the palms of your hands. It will reduce the splash and give less water resistance."

Armin blinked. "You saw all of those tiny things?" I started to get a little nervous. Was I too harsh? I slowly nodded my head. "Wow that's really impressive, Eren! You have a really good eye!" A sigh of relief came rushing out of my mouth and I could feel my heartbeat slow down even though I didn't even know it sped up in the first place.

"Oh, Armin I was gonna ask, who's your captain?" I was very curious. Armin spoke so highly of him but he kinda came off as a little bit of a jerk but at the same time very authoritative and responsible. Kind of like an older brother to the whole team.

"Oh! Yeah! He's like the best diver on the team! He picks everything up so quick and not to mention he has really good abs," Armin said smiling, chuckling a little at how ridiculous he sounded. "He's a really good scholar too! Nothing but A's and B's for him!"

"Wow! He sounds really cool! What's his name?" I asked, kind of excited now.

"It's Levi Ackerman but everyone calls him Captain Levi or Captain for short."