FYSH: Diving Deeper.

Chapter Six: Training (Pt 3)

It was possibly one of the most intense, agonizing sessions of my life. Or perhaps it was.

We swam for hours on end, doing non stop drills and exercises, all whilst in the water. Heat revolved around my body as I stroked steadily through the water, and it was as though steam tornadoed out of my ears. After an hour of constant swimming, I could feel my breath getting raspy and desperate, I was definitely not used to this type of uninterrupted exercise. This was on a whole other level.

Kai's teaching style was also nothing I was used to. He sat on the edge, feet in the water, just watching and etching little marks on his clipboard. He was like a hawk, every splash, every kick, he took note of. Meanwhile, the other trainers had very active and bonding coaching techniques, which I found interesting and colourful. Coach Latet made his five students swim seven laps of one style, take a thirty second break as he told them very quickly what they needed to work on and moved onto a different style. His ways were stringent and absolute, and seemed to be affecting his students more quickly than everyone else. Backstroke, butterfly, freestyle and breaststroke. Even when we had breaks, they were unable to join. Coach Kai made us swim medleys for forty minutes, and then gave us a five minute break, and then we had fifteen minutes of "intensive exercise" which was basically him forcing us to swim our strongest style against another person in our class with the same style. Survival of the fittest, much? Coach Anguis used a whistle that was wound around her neck twice to alarm her students regularly. She liked to begin with thirty minutes of pre-exercise, which included board paddling, dolphin/tornado for as long as they could, holding their breath for long periods of time, searching for glowing things in the deepest parts of the pool, and on and on. After that she solely focused on two strokes for the whole day. Freestyle and backstroke. She pushed her kids to keep swimming until they were exhausted, however she wasn't timing anything or counting the laps, and only stopped to give them a break when they all were tired. Coach Geo paced up and down with the swimmers, yelling in his deep voice nothing but encouragement. He made them swim medleys five times and not giving them a break but something called "standard layoff interval" where they treaded the water for as long as they could without letting their head neck enter the water, and if that happened, back to swimming they went, this time swimming the medley order backwards. Coach Fox had an odd way of training her students, and it was certainly different to all the other coaches, as well as something I had never seen before. Well, not that I could really see. She gave her students various tools and oxygen tanks so that they could do all their training underwater and as they met us up for break, they said they were prohibited from mentioning anything from their training. So as we skedaddled back into the pool, we watched Class E suit up and dive into the water, travelling down into the deepest parts of the pool, where they simply disappeared.

"Cool, huh? Bet you wish you were one of them!" A lively, snippy voice sang from behind me. My body instinctively spun around, and I turned to face, no one?

"Um, down here?" She laughed. I peered down and there she was. Perhaps I'm making her sound like a midget. She really wasn't that short, but certainly wasn't the leanest person here. She was like a tiny little fairy, all spunky hair and twinkling eyes. And I realised I recognised her. Little arms, little legs, sailing through the water as though she was just another wave.

"Hey, you're in my class!" I told her. Yes, she was. The top of my class actually. She was always at the front of the line, and Kai always doted on her.

"Yes, " She giggled, "I am. My name's Pam Uragiri, what's yours?"

"Atlanta. Ura-gi-ri? Is that... Japanese?" I asked.

"Yes!" She said. "Where are you from?"

"Oh, you probably wouldn't know! A little village in Europe called Salvadonia. Were an assortment of everything really. I can't be quite sure of what I am."

"Salvadonia! Really?"

"You know it?" I wondered. Not many knew my hometown, and if they did, it was never because of anything special.

"You have the really tough rules, right? Very strict over there?" She asked, her eyes sparkling with wonder.

"Hahahah, yes! How do you know of it?"

"There's a little cafe in this city, right near the Station! I've been really good friends with the owner for a long time now, and he said he was born from the same village as you!"

Pam's grinning face suddenly slowed down in my mind, and my body began tensing up and vibrating. That didn't make sense. No one left our village. Since young, we were always taught that the outside was unsafe, and anything unexplored was dangerous. The second rule of our village was that we weren't allowed to leave without authoritative permission. This man was a phony.

"Atlanta? Atlanta!" Pam's voice took hold my my brain and shook it, tugging me out of my own thoughts.

"Huh? Oh, sorry." I said.

"Are you oka-"

"Your break is over! Back into the water kids!" Kai's screeching tone crushed with the sound of splashing water and mumbling children, all which prompted Pam and I to look at each other.

"Let's get back in." I said hastily, eager to escape this odd situation that I found myself in. Wanting to ponder on this, I gave Pam an aloof smile and ran towards the water. But before I could jump in, Kai appeared behind me, calling my name.

"Atlanta?" He said.

"Kai, hi." I replied, trying to appear disinterested.

"Were going to begin diving, do you want to start us off?" He asked.

Is that it? I wondered. I began to reply, a nonchalant response curling out of my throat and slipping off my tongue.

"Sur-"

Kai's lips split into a giant smile. He loomed close, still smiling, still unblinking.

"Go on then." He mumbled, still smiling. He flicked his eyes for a second into the kids at the pool, who each were staring at us in confusion.

"Get out of the water, kids. And line up behind Atlanta." Kai said, in a suddenly much louder and aggressive tone. Startled, they paddled to the edge and clambered out, shivering and standing scattered behind me. I hopped off the edge and looked Kai in the eye.

"I change my mind. I don't want to dive." I told him.

"Are you sure?" He said in a sing song tone.

"Yeah." I said firmly, crossing my arms over my chest. Kai, in response, wrinkled his thick eyebrows, and beautifully entrapping eyes grew dark.

"Perhaps you need some... encouragement?" He asked simply.

He shifted his gaze to up in front of us, all the way to the other end of the pool. But I was too fearful in that moment to follow. A gut-wrenching feeling oozed over me and suddenly my feelings of suspicion and confusion swirled into unease and dread. But I did follow his gaze, and in that moment, I never knew I'd regret it for the rest of my life.

...