The Crazy Adventures of Aqua Girl

Chapter 44 - Back In The Water

"Cascade! Get in the pool and stop chatting!" Coach Sterling barked from the other side of the water. I turned back to Rachael as I adjusted my goggles.

"Yeah, that sounds great." Rachael said, unlocking her phone with her fingerprint and yawning. It was early morning swim practice, which I knew Rachael despised, but she still managed to crawl out of bed in time. As a compromise, we had just arranged to go shopping later that afternoon, much to my disgust. But Rachael said she would allow me to buy band merch, and go to the Converse store. I was happy with that. "Now go, before the coach chops your head of and leaves it dangling from the diving board."

I shot a disgusted look at my best friend as I padded quickly around the side of the pool to the blocks, where my fellow teammates were plunging into the water, one-by-one. Lacey and Harriet Williams were absent, again. Good riddance.

"Cascade! It's good to have you back. What were your reasons for the absences?" Coach Sterling asked, clutching his clipboard. Uh oh.

The real reason was that I was too tied up in zooming around the city trying to defeat villains, but I was sure my coach wouldn't believe that. I stuck with the obvious one.

"I had the flu, coach. I didn't want to strain my body too hard." I muttered, looking up at the burly figure. He simply nodded, obviously satisfied with my answer.

"Now get in the pool! We have another meet next weekend! Let's get some new personal bests!"

Unable to stop myself, I began grinning like a maniac once I was on top of the block, positioning myself to launch into the water. With one last glance at Rachael, who was sat, tapping away at her phone, I held my hands together in front of me and leaped from the block, smashing into the water at a great force.

And boy, let me tell you, there is no better feeling than that.

I was so glad to be back in the water, where I belonged. Where my worries, and alter ego were banished. 

I wiggled my way back up to the surface and broke out into front crawl, racing through the water effortlessly. Soon, I had completed the coach's requirement of 10 laps of the pool for warm-up, and I climbed out of the water to be met with a nod from the coach.

"First one out, Cascade. Great work."

Turning back to the pool, I realized that even my teammates that had jumped in before me were still in the pool, swimming their way through warm-ups. From a young age, people could see I had a specific talent in the pool. At the tender age of 5, I was racing alongside 14-year-olds in meet-ups, and my bedroom was packed full of swimming trophies and medals. I don't know why, but I find swimming just so...easy. I zoom through the water effortlessly, and climb out breathing normally, while my teammates are panting for oxygen. Mom always said that I would be in the next Olympics, but I'm not sure whether I'd want a career in swimming or not. I mean, I know it could always be a backup.

After the rest of my team had climbed out of the pool and stocked up on their oxygen supplies by breathing loudly, the coach started our main practice regime. An hour later, once the clock struck 9am, we were dismissed and trotted back to the changing rooms. I grinned at Rachael as I walked past the spectator's bleachers, and stuck my tongue out as she aimed her phone camera in my direction.

Quickly changing and moving around the changing rooms to grab my clothes and shoes, I found myself sat next to Kylie Victoria, a girl in my grade at school. Curious as to what my school thought about the recent events in our cafeteria, I struck up casual conversation with her.

"Hey Kylie!" I exclaimed, whilst tying the laces of my Vans.

"Hi Cascade, how's it going?" She replied, squeezing her hair of water. Kylie was a petite, blonde-haired girl, who was pretty, and happened to be dating one of the footballer's on our school's team, but she was one of the crowd. Always following what every else was doing. I knew I would get the whole school's opinion on the events out of her.