Rival Squad

New Rules

The first thing I notice when I show up to training this morning is that there are about 30 more people here than last week already. Boys anywhere between grades 7 to grade 11 are running about, talking to whoever they see, bursting with an energy that no one should have at this time of morning. I mean for god sakes, it’s the first official day of holidays and they’re still ridiculously excited.

“Nice to see you’re alive Lyons, haven’t spoken to you since Saturday,” greets Lachlan who walks in just after me.

“Yeah I haven’t been bothered to reply to your texts. Sorry, my phone was always too far away from the couch,” I complain.

“Like I believe that. I really wanted to talk to you about what you did though,” he says, moving over to lean against a wall while we talk.

“Dude if you’re going to sit there and tell me I’m an idiot then I don’t want to hear it.”

“Ok well you are an idiot for doing it with him – hey your words not mine – but I just wanted to warn you about what some of the other people might say, and I wanted to do it before you saw everyone,” he says with surprising concern that I never knew he could have.

“I’m listening.”

“Well, not sure if you knew this, but the same thing happened with Amy this time last year. That was a bit weirder though – I mean she was very young,” Lachlan starts.

“Who was it with?” I ask. I knew she wasn't a virgin, but she had never really given me the story of it before.

“Dion. But after it happened things got very messy. Coach has taken Amy under her wing since she was about ten years old and he is practically her second father. He eventually found out because boys are not great at keeping secrets. And he didn’t take it well. Mr Carmichael did not in any way expect perfect little Amy to do it with one of his squad members.

“Since then, the relationship between the two has been strained. Yeah, I think they sat down and talked it out at some point, but it’s not the same. As for Dion though, Coach’s reaction was very, very different. Dion was worked three times as hard as any of us and if he missed a session he would get yelled at for a good half an hour. Even though he was one of the fastest in the squad because of all this overworking, he only got one race and a B relay at the interschool championship,” Lachlan continues.

“Now I can already tell that Mr Carmichael has taken a liking to you, but I don’t know what his reaction will be. He gets excited having good female swimmers on his squad, so when it comes to you guys, everything is taken very seriously.”

Wow, I think. I didn’t think through what would happen when Mr Carmichael found out. All I was worried about was the reaction of the rest of the squad. God, what would Darvad have done if I was back at Eastwinder and it was one of his boys? Things wouldn’t have gone down well. Thankfully Lachlan had the sense to warn me. Man I feel like such a slut. I guess that’s ‘cause I am now hey?

“Thank-you so much for telling me all this bro. What do you think is going to happen?” I ask him, fingers starting to shake in fear and regret of what I’ve done.

“I honestly have no idea. But I’m warning you, it’s not going to be pretty,” seeing my shaking hands he pulls me into a hug. “Don’t worry though, it’ll be ok in the end. I’ll be here for you the entire time and so will Aims, Zander and Benny. We’re a team and we’re in this together, no matter what stupid drunk mistakes you make,” he says, causing me to giggle. “Ok now let’s go in there before we’re late for warm up.” Lachlan takes my hand and pulls me with him, out to be eaten by a pack of wolves.

That’s only a slight exaggeration.

When we reach the grandstands, everyone is already sitting down and the only seats left are at the front. There are about 70 people here, which is way more than just the coach’s favourites. With a grand total of two girls, I feel myself shrinking into Lachlan’s side, completely intimidated by all of them staring me down.