Caught in the Act (A 'Free! Iwatboi Swim Club' Fanfic)

Chapter 5 - The Plot

Somehow, I found the group of four stalkers waiting outside of the pool building for me on a Sunday morning.

"Ohayō, Mei-chan!!" Nagisa, Rei and Makoto waved around wildly. Haru just lifted his gaze until it met mine.

"Ne, ne. What are you doing here early today?" Nagi asked all sparkly-eyed. I sighed, holding my fingers up to my temple and massaging it.

"I could ask you all the same. I'm cleaning the pool today."

"We'll help you!" Rei jumped in excitedly. I made a shooing motion with a hand as I unlocked the pool door, signalling that they could do whatever.

I walked over to the storage room and the boys followed me. I handed each of them a sweeper and a diluted sample of bleach and soap. They headed to the pool as I went in the opposite direction to the technician room to drain most of the pool water out.

Leaving enough water to cover the bottom of the pool, the five of us began to scrub. Most of the time, none of us carried a conversation and I was fine with it. Mako kept shooting worried glances towards me, but being used to other people's treatments, I ignored it.

We took a short break in between here's getting right back to work. A good five hours later, it was already early afternoon. We spent another two hours scrubbing the floor of the building and then rinsing it.

"Ugh, I'm so tired!" I moaned dragging a raft out for me to lounge on.

"How long does it normally take if you were doing this alone?" Mako asked.

"Definitely not seven hours. It'd be a good fourteen hours, from 8am to 10pm." I smiled tiredly. "You guys can swim if you would like to. I'm going to take a quick nap." I pushed the raft into the water and jumped on top of it, making it sink a bit before floating again. A content smile of bliss appeared on my face as I fell asleep.

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(3rd Person POV):

"I think we should get Mei-chan to join, ne?" Nagi pried. "Ne, ne?"

"We can't force her to join, Nagi-chan." Mako replied. Haru looked up at the ceiling, "I only swim free. Even if Mei joins, we don't have a girls' team. She'll have to swim with us, but we'll have to change the rules."

Rei, Nagi, and Makoto stared at Haru, surprised at his input. Then they all continued to plot how to get Mei to join their swim team.

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I awoke to something smelling awfully fishy. At first I thought I was in my room, but then the gentle rocking told me that I was still in the indoor pool.

"Shit, is something on fire?" I looked around for the source of smell, only to find the four boys still here. They were sitting on the bench eating something. Rei glanced up and saw me sitting up on the raft.

"Mei-chan, Nanase-kun made some grilled mackerel!" He shouted. Eww, that was the smell... I hopped out of the raft and waded my way back up the ladders. Still a bit groggy, I rubbed my eyes and made my way towards them, sitting down in between Makoto and Nagisa. They beamed a smile at me and that's when I felt it: something fishy was definitely going on. Mako handed me a small bowl of rice with chopped mackerel on top with a chopstick. Nagisa was the first one to speak, "Ne, Mei-chan, would you -"

"Join our swim team," Haru finished. I had just put a piece of fish in my mouth when I heard Haru's suggestion - no, more like command. I choked on the fish as Mako quickly patted me on the back. To make matters worse, there wasn't any water for me to drink, and they were all staring at me.

After I finally regained my composure, I gave them each a long, hard stare.

"You know about my condition. You know how I don't swim in front of others anymore. Today was just a friendly race, just for fun. It's not the real thing, where millions of people around the world know who you are and are watching you. None of you know the pressure. Friday's dive during practice was also for fun - not like there were people judging me," I forged ahead. "The adrenaline that rushes through your veins? It feels incredible, like you're on top of the world. But what happens once you can't feel it again? You come crashing down. I can't push myself too hard, since I might drop dead during a competition. I can never feel that adrenaline rushing through me ever again. Even after 200m of all four strokes in one run, I can't get my time back."

"That's right!" Rei exclaimed. That totally didn't help the situation. He continued, "Mei-chan's fastest record ever for the 200m of all four strokes in one run was 7:25:09! She was an entire minute faster than the world record. Mei-chan broke it when she was twelve against high-school students and adults." I swear I could see an evil glint in Nagisa's eyes. He chuckled, catching our attentions.

"Mei-chan would be a wonderful addition to our swim team. We could definitely take down all the other teams! Then, we'd move on to the Olympics!" He shouted jumping up.

This time, I really was irritably annoyed. "How can I join a team when I don't go to school? Baaaaka."

"Ehh?"

"I've only been to school for a year and a half, from sixth to seventh grade." So much for the 'I followed you on television,' right, Rei? I snickered.

"Transfer to Iwatobi High!" Nagi replied happily. I swear, Nagi never got tired of butting in and throwing in a stupid solution.

And guess who was just as stupid as Nagi to go along with his plan?

Me and the other three guys.

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A/N: anyone else caught the puns in this chapter?? Hehehe