richpez for mae

1

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He submerged his body in the cold water of the swimming pool, instantly feeling more alert and at home with the water rushing around him. His eyes opened and he stared into the blue abyss in front of him, relaxing his body a feeling it start to sink. He pulled himself to the surface and held onto the wall next to his coaches' feet.

It was 5 am and still dark outside, the white floodlights being the main source of light filtering into the room as he looked up at his coach from in the water. For some, being awake at 5 am let alone being in the pool at that time was their idea of hell, but not for Joey. This was a routine that he had gotten himself into pretty much every day for the past 8 years. And now he had gotten a scholarship with his college for swimming, so he wasn't about to break his routine now. Although it was an unfamiliar environment for him, the facilities at his college being a lot better than the ones at his local club, the lights being a little bit brighter than he was used to and the water being just a tad colder than at home, he was still there to train and compete, even if his body was still getting used to the move from California to Michigan.

He looked to the other 7 lanes in the pool at the boys who occupied them, seeing a mix of nervousness, excitement and tiredness on the athlete's faces. There was a mix of first to third years in the pool with him, and knowing that he was one of only two freshmen, he knew that he needed to be on his A-game all the time to keep up with the more experienced third years and to beat his freshman competitor.

"Okay boys," His coach started from the sideline, "As this is our first session and you've all been moving, your schedules and whatnot will have been messy this past week, we're going to have a gentle ease-in session just to get the feeling back in you all. I would like to introduce you all to the new members or our elite team who you've hopefully already met in the changing room this morning, Joey Richter and AJ Holmes."

Both boys gave a little wave to the older boys from the 7th and 8th lane as they smiled back and turned to look at their coach once again.

"We're going to start by warming up, followed by a gentle pyramid just to get the range of motion back into your bodies, and then we'll finish early and have a talk before I let you all go to class."

The boys nodded and turned back towards the 50m stretch of water ahead of them.

"And remember, some of you haven't swum in a while so don't push yourself too hard, this is your gentle session. Freshmen, don't think that because the seniors are swimming at a faster pace than you that you have to speed up to catch them up right now. They have more experience and maybe faster swimmers than you and that's okay. For now, stick to a speed that you're comfortable with and then as we start doing more sessions, we can work on that."

Joey and AJ nodded, looking at each other and smiling before looking around at the older boys next to them. One by one, the boys sank into the water and pushed off against the wall to begin their warm-up. Joey eagerly submerged himself and kicked off, feeling the familiar feeling of the water rushing over his body before resurfacing and beginning his warm-up, the sound of the water splashing around him and the occasional breath of air from a nearby swimmer relaxing him.

-

Lauren's alarm blared at 5 am, much to the horror of her roommate who didn't have to wake up until 8 for class. Julia groaned from the other side of the room, shoving a pillow over her head until Lauren finally awoke, turning off the alarm and sighing.

"I've not missed that stupid alarm going off every morning," Julia mumbled, already slipping back into slumber.

Lauren and Julia had roomed together since their freshman year. They had become almost inseparable, both majoring in theatre, so they had all their lectures together and all their free time they spent together, going shopping, going to the movies, rehearsing and performing. They were almost inseparable. But Julia definitely hadn't missed Laurens early alarm to go to training when she just wanted to have a full nights sleep without the ringing interrupting her.

"Sorry!" Lauren whispered back, checking her phone to see if she had ay notifications before placing it back on her bedside table.

She looked up into the dark room, her mind and her body fighting internally to stay awake as her practice started in an hour and she didn't want to be late to the first session of the season. Luckily for her, her dorms were a two-minute walk away from the sports centre so she didn't have to leave until the very last minute to get to training on time.

It was the first day of her senior year and Lauren was so excited for her last year at the University of Michigan. She had made so many amazing memories from her time at college and had made friends that she knew were going to last her a lifetime. From doing theatre and volleyball, her college life was jam-packed, and she didn't even know how she was managing to do it all, 24 hours in a day being way too short for Lauren to get everything done that she wanted to.

Reluctantly, she dragged her tired body out of bed into her cold college dorm room and started to get ready for volleyball practice. She hadn't played since the end of last season in May so she knew that after her session her body was going to ache and that's even before her day of college classes. She quickly showered and brushed her teeth before getting changed into her jersey and shorts, double-checking that she had everything in her bag before quietly leaving her room and heading down the corridor to the cafeteria for some breakfast. The only other people that were in the canteen at that time were other sports players who also had early starts like herself.

She grabbed some toast with some juice and headed over to sit with her friends for breakfast. She chatted aimlessly to the other girls on the table about the upcoming volleyball season ahead of them until she finished her breakfast, grabbing her bag which signalled them to do the same before clearing their tables and heading towards the sports centre for training.

The girls walked inside, joined by other sportspeople heading in their own directions for their early morning training. Lauren lead the way, turning left and walking down the long corridor to reach the sports hall. The length of the corridor had doors to studios and gyms on the left, and a long glass window on the right, looking out onto the swimming pool arena. She watched the swimmers glide through the water as she did every morning on her way to training, not being able to watch them over summer but was happy she was back and slipping back into her routine.

The window ended and she reached the doors, pushing them open and heading into training in the cold sports hall.