Swimmer Boy (Book 1)

Chapter 4 ~ Captive butterfly

"Rei are you still stretching?" Nagisa asked during practice. I can't blame him, though. It's been about 15 minutes since practice started and he's still stretching.

"I just want to be as safe as possible." Rei answered.

"You'll be fine. It's okay if you just want to take it slow." I told him.

"Don't worry about me." He said. "I've finally mastered the theory. It's just a matter of putting it into practice." He then stood up and got on the pool starting block. His posture was great. He should do fine. At least, that's what we thought.

He dove off the block with wonderful form and the perfect amount of force. However, as soon as he tried to swim, he sunk straight down. He was still swimming, just down and not forward.

He came through the water and gasped for air. "Theory is great and all but I think it might help it you learned how to swim first." Nagisa smiled.

"Right. Let's start with something simple." Makoto said and they all got into the pool. "Let's do the turtle float."

"Here, I'll demonstrate." Nagisa said and got into position, hugging his knees to his chest and relaxing.

"See? Easy stuff." Makoto said.

"Not very graceful." Rei commented.

"Just try it, alright?" Makoto exasperated. I giggled. Rei got into the position and was doing great.

"Well at least he can float." Nagisa said.

"That's good. Now slowly extend your arms and legs and try to move forward." Makoto said. Rei did so but again just sunk. He came up and gasped for air.

"No good." Makoto shook his head. "I wonder what the problem is."

I sighed. "I wonder what's wrong." I commented. Kou and I were sitting by the pool's edge, watching.

"I hope we can figure it out before district." She said. I nodded. Haru then swam up to us and took off his goggles. "I've got a question for you, Haru." She said. "Is there a reason you like to swim so much?" He stares at us before answering.

"Don't know. I guess I never really thought about it." He said.

"I was just thinking of my brother's dream of competing as an Olympic swimmer." Kou said. "That's why he went all the way to Australia to study."

"He can have his dream." Haru quickly said. "That's all it is, and I've got nothing to do with it."

"You might be right about that." Kou said, looking down. "But if swimming with you guys brings him closer to it, then that's a good thing. It'll spark something in him. Like the time you did that relay together." She smiled but he just looked down at the water, like he was thinking about what she just said.

Time skip

The next day before practice the boys showed Kou and I their idea for matching club jackets. It wasn't a bad idea, and their design was pretty good, but I'm not sure if we should spend our time and energy on that right now. Kou snatched it out of their hands.

"There's no point in thinking about uniforms when you haven't even trained yet." She said and held up a training regiment. "Here."

"Wait is that-" I started.

"Yep." She said. "I revamped the entire regiment to make up for the fact that our newest member can't swim. Rei."

"Yes, ma'am?" He said.

"Don't forget. We need you to master this in one week. Now let's get going!" She said.

Time skip

Deciding that it would be the best choice, we decided to have the other guys take turns trying to teach Rei their swimming strokes. Nagisa was first. "We're going to hop into the frog style." He said.

"Also known as the breast stroke." Rei said, very maturely, as usual.

"Alright, now take my hand and show me your frog legs." Nagisa said. Rei did so and was pretty good at it. "You've got perfect form."

"Naturally." Rei smiled. "I'm ready to let go when you are." Nagisa nodded and let go of Rei's hands, doing the swim on his own. He was very good at it, except... he again went down instead of forward. He swam up and gasped for air. "But why?" He said to himself.

Time skip

The next day was Makoto's turn. "Since breast stroke is giving you trouble, let's trying the back stroke." He said. "The key difference with back stroke is that you always keep your head above the surface, so it tends to be easier for people who have a problem with water."

"Sadly it's the water that seems to have a problem with me." Rei said and turned around. He laid back into the water and Makoto lead his arms above his head and guided him along.

"That's it. Nice and easy." Makoto said.

"At least he's got the floating part down." Nagisa said.

"Naturally." Rei commented. "I'm in far better condition than yesterday."

"Okay, I'm letting you go then." Makoto said.

"No problem." Rei confidently said and started doing the back stroke on his own. Just like the breast stroke, he was great at it but, unfortunately, sunk. "What's the problem?" He asked himself.

"Haru, I'm sure if you taught him he'd definitely get it." I told my brother.

"Nah, too much effort." He said. I sighed.

We have five more days... can we do this?