Beneath the Surface

Chapter 3

The four of us head up the stairs that lead to the pool deck with some of the upperclassmen girls. We get up there, and as usual none of the guys are up yet. They always seem to take their sweet old time down there in the locker room, which always  leaves the girls to set up the pool by ourselves.

"Great," Erin says. "Looks like it's gonna be another long season of the girls doing all the work. I'm so sick of it already." We walk into the pool storgage room and each grab a kickboard, pool bouy, fins and paddles. We walk out to the pool and place them all next to each other by the same lane, claiming it as ours for the season.

"See? I told you they're all jerks. Stupid heartless jerks," I reply. "Those "big, stong" men are too cool to put a lane line in. They'd rather have the girls do it."

"Yea," Erin agrees. "but yet they still wonder why they're still single. Dumbasses." We start to walk over to where the lane lines are hung on the wall. 

"ha. Maybe if we tell them the secret to getting laid comes from hooking a lane into the pool," I say. "Then they'd all come running."

"What do they even do down there that takes so long?" Arianna asks, shaking her head as she starts to unhang the first line.

"Do you really want to know?" Andy adds, giving her that look.  Andy has six older brothers so she is very familiar with what boys do in their free time. She starts to walk away to grab an end of the line to pull it into the water.

Arianna shudders. "Ew. That's gross. Why would you even think about that?"

Andy shrugs her shoulders as she begins to drag the lane line. "Well. There's gotta be a reason that 'what happens in the locker rooms, stays in the locker rooms' exists right?"

"I guess," Arianna answers. She whacks herself in the head with a nearby kick board to try and erase the images Andy just put there. She then puts it back where she found it and joins us again." I'm sure they're not all like that."

I grasp the other end of Andy's line and drag it into the water. I follow around the edges of the pool as we drag it in to place. Andy hooks her end and then I follow. I reach into the water and begin to tighten it. While doing so, I say "I don't know. I'm pretty sure all their egos are bigger than their dicks...they just don't know it."

We all burst into laughter until suddenly the three of them all stop. I look at them strangely and am about to open my mouth to ask about it, when suddenly, I hear his voice. "Unfortunately, you're probably right." Coach Brent had snuck up behind me.

My entire body freezes like a deer caught in headlights. My face turns red from embaressment. I  can't believe that he just heard my comment. I sigh and slowly turn to face him. I instinctively cross my arms across my body. " I guess that means this is gonna be another long season?"

He laughs  just hard enough that the stop watch around his neck  bounces. "Just wait until you see today's sets."

We all groan as he walks away to help finish setting up the pool for practice. 

"It's like the guys have this uncanny power," I add to my friends, making sure Coach is far enough out of ear shot this time. "They always know when it' safe to walk up. They all appear just after the last lane is put in. Every single time.  Speaking of which, they should be up any second."

And just like magic, they all run up the stairs and push past us, nearly pushing us into the pool. They rush into the equipment room, pushing and shoving to make sure they get the best stuff. You know, the solid pool bouys and the unbitten kickboards. 

"You'd think by now, the seniors would have at least learned some manners by now," Andy says. " But then again, a couple of them will probably still have another year to learn." 

They start to run back torwards us. As they go past, I huff and  I make sure I'm loud enough for them to hear. " Why would they? They're all just a bunch of-"

One of them push past me and I lose my balance. My feet start to lose their grip on the end and next thing I know, I start falling into the pool. I brace myself for the ice cold splash that is sure to follow, but someone grabs me before I do.

I look up to see who caught me, and I see it's a boy. It must be the new boy, I think to myself, because none of the regulars would have done that. They all would have just stopped and laughed at my misery. I wonder if this is by chance the attractive new boy the girls had been gossiping about. While I'm this close to him, I can see that for once, the girls were right. He's really not that bad looking. And he has a sense of what manners. 

He pulls me back up onto the deck and I see my friends staring at us. I think they were just as shocked as I was by what happened. "Are you alright?" He asks with a slight accent that I can't place. It sounds foreign, definitely. 

" I'm fine," I answer. " Being nearly pushed into the pool is almost a daily occurrence with all these assholes running around." I don't even know who it was that pushed me, but does it really matter? They're all one in the same to me.

He laughs a whole hearty laugh.  " Well I'm glad to here it. Not that they're assholes, but that you're okay. I'm Arnesto, by the way." He extends his hand, the muscles flexing underneath is tan skin a he does.

"Lilly," I answer while reaching for his hand to shake it. He has a very strong grip, I realize. Before I think about it too long, I remember to point to my friends that were still continuing to stare.  "And these are my friends Arianna, Erin, and Andy. We're all sophomores."

" What a coincidence! So am I," he says. " I'm glad to meet all of you." That accent of his is really starting to grow on me. I think it's spanish, but then again, what do I know?

"So what made you crazy enough to join swimteam?" Erin asks. Arianna hits her and gives Erin a look, but Erin gives one right back. "What? it's a valid question. No sane person would ever be caught here."

Arnesto laughs. Gosh. He has such a sexy laugh. The kind that could make a whole room stop to listen. "I used to swim all the time back in El Salvador. It was my favorite thing to do."

"You any good?" Andy asks. 

"I like to think so," he says. " But I guess you'll just have to see for yourself."

Brent walks up and tells everyone to get in the water and start warm ups. He puts up the workout for today on the dry erase board and heard us towards the shallow end of the pool. Most of us take a quick moment to take a glance at what he's writing before he waves us off to get busy.

I shove all my hair in to my cap and tighten the bungie cord on my googles before I slide in. I let out  squeal of displeasure as the cold water slowly engulfs my body. As soon as I'm in though, I just go all the way under, trying to adjust quickly. Just before I push off the wall to start  a 200 freestyle,  I look at my friends and say "And so the torture begins."