True Identity

Chapter 28

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'This is my favourite stroke.' I thought to myself as I swam through the water. Front crawl in a freestyle race just fit and most of the time I could just let my muscles take me where I needed to go, not realising what it was taking out of me until the end.

I lifted my head out of the water when I reached the wall and checked my time. Little slow but that could be fixed in training. I looked around seeing one of the other swimmers reach the wall a few seconds after me and I realised I had won. Not just my heat but the whole category. My final one of the three and I had won them all.

This feeling never failed to give me a little high as I grinned at the cheering around me. It wasn't big but there was clapping and cheering from others family members and I think I heard Eli cheer out my name which I smiled widely at.

I pulled myself out of the pool and grabbed the towel from one of the other coaches from my team while congratulating me on my win.

"You are unbeatable, Williams." A fellow competitor told me, slapping me on the back on the way past.

"Get me in a pool with Ledecky and you'd see I'm very beatable." I called after her laughing. I pulled on my clothes and grabbed my bag to head out for the flight. I loved my fellow swimmers, they were all so nice even if I didn't know them that well.

"Miss Cordelia Williams?" Someone asked as I was about to leave the pool area.

"It's Coral, but yes?" I answered politely, turning around to look at the man in Stanford training gear.

"I'm from Stanford and I was amazed at how well you swam." He announced, clearly trying to put on a show to win me over. If he knew he'd already lost the battle.

"Thank you, but I really need to get going." I told him, looking forward and seeing a line of about ten different coaches. Looks like I'd be turning down a lot of people today.

"Oh, well let me give you my details, I would love for you to consider our programme." He said, handing me a card with his number and name on it.

"Okay, I let you know if it becomes an option." I said, nodding my head and moving onto the next person who immediately grabbed my hand.

"Hi Coral, I'm from USC in LA..." and that continued with University of Georgia, Berkeley, Virginia, TAMU, Ohio State, Texas, Florida and North Carolina until I managed to get out of there fifteen minutes later, finally feeling the effects of competition. I was practically being pushed by one of the coaches to where Eli was standing.

"Hey, I think congratulations are in order, Bright Eyes." He smiled, opening his arms out to me which I happily went into, wrapping my arm around his waist and putting my head on his chest, which he happened to kiss giving me flutters in my stomach.

"I won all my races and I'm now tired. So tired, so the sooner I'm on that plane back to Boston, I'm out because I won't survive school tomorrow." I complained, closing my eyes as we stood in the middle of the foyer of the aquatics centre.