richpez for mae

2

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They swam for an hour and a half, finishing 30 minutes early to go and get ready before heading back out for talks with the coach about the upcoming season. Joey pulled himself out of the pool, ruffling his hair and pulling off his goggles as he and the other swimmers headed towards the showers. The session was steady, and he was excited for the season ahead of them.

The boys stood under the 8 showers and started to rinse, washing their hair and ridding their bodies of the chlorine from the pool.

"So how did you newbies find that session?" Darren, the captain of the swim team asked them while he shampooed his hair.

"Good yeah, took it steady and really enjoyed it." Joey smiled.

"Same here, think we're going to have a good season together," AJ replied.

"Glad you boys are liking it. I might as well formally introduce the rest of the boys to you. So hi, I'm Darren, in the corner, the blonde one, that's Clark, then we have Andrew, Dylan, Robert, and Joe."

They all awkwardly smiled and said hi to one another before slowly filing out of the showers to go and get dressed. Joey was one of the last ones out, relishing in the warmth of the water before reluctantly slipping away and drying himself off, changing into some jeans and a jumper before heading back out to the poolside, a towel around his neck.

When the others joined him, they sat on the benches by their coach and listened to their training plan for the season. They were each handed a folder with their timetables for swimming and the mandatory gym sessions through the first semester. Joey checked his timetable in hope that he would have free time for his other passion. Musical Theatre. He was a musical theatre major but was accepted to the college through his swimming talents, which made it that he had to do more swimming and less acting. Of course, he was happy about swimming as it meant he didn't have to pay any college tuition, but he hoped that he would also have time to audition and act as well as swim.

Looking down at the documents in front of him, his first semester was quite light, having less training than he thought, and even looking at his second semester, he was busy but still had free time. He thanked his lucky stars that he had free time to actually be a college student and do some theatre stuff in between.

"So now that you have all of your things, I'll let you head out. have a good day at class and I'll see you all later on this evening." Coach Donovan smiled as all the boys thanked him and headed out through the changing rooms to grab their things.

"So what's your major?" AJ asked as Joey pulled his bag out of his locker along with his shoes, slipping them on his feet and throwing his bag over his shoulder.

"Musical Theatre, you?" Joey asked.

"Business, but I'm minoring in Musical Theatre Composition," AJ replying, motioning towards the door as he followed.

"Oh, nice! We probably don't have any classes together but it's still cool that we have another thing in common." Joey smiled.

"Did I hear musical theatre?" a voice asked from behind them as they turned to see Darren smiling at them. "That's my major!"

"No way, mine too!" Joey beamed, "And AJ's doing a minor in composition."

The boys left the changing room and stood in the hallway to let the other swimmers pass to head towards class.

"That's awesome! If you guys need help with anything please let me know and I'd be happy to help."

"That's so kind man thank-"

Joey was interrupted by a high pitched girl shouting down the corridor at them.

"Darren?" The girl shouted as she walked through the doors at the end of the corridor, looking at the group of boys milling by the boys changing room door.

"Lauren!" He shouted back as she hurried towards him, enveloping him in a tight hug. Her arms wrapped around the back of his neck and his arms safely around her waist, lifting her off the ground slightly as she squeezed him.

"How was your summer?" He asked eagerly as he lowered her to the ground and let her go, keeping his hands on her arms.

"Really good thank you, I went home to my parents and then went to go see Julia and worked a fuckton. What about you?"

For Joey, the conversation between the two had already faded away in his mind as he stood mesmerized at the girl in front of him. She was short, no taller than 5'3, but even then he was pushing it. Her long brown hair was up in a high pony as she stood in sports gear that was a white, long-sleeved jersey with the number 8 on her chest and extremely short shorts. She was wearing knee pads and little black trainers on her feet with pink laces. Darren must have said something funny because as he looked back up at her face, her mouth grew wide and she laughed, tipping her head backwards and clapping her hands in front of her. She then brought her hands to her cheeks as she grinned, her smile almost infectious as he found himself smiling at her for no reason other than the fact that she was. Her eyes were dark and Joey could easily get lost in them, and Joey hoped that the conversation hadn't been brought over to him because he hadn't been listening.

He couldn't say how long he had been staring at her, maybe a couple of seconds, but to him, it felt like a lifetime, and he couldn't put into words how beautiful he thought she was. But Joey had never felt like this before, about anybody. So he quickly snapped himself out of it as Darren turned to them.

"So Lauren I must introduce you to our new freshmen scholarship swimmers, Joey and AJ. And, get this, Joey majors in musical theatre and AJ minors in composition."

Her face lights up at the sound of musical theatre and Joey's heart nearly bursts out of his chest when she grins towards him.

"That's so crazy! What are the odds that we'd all do something musical theatre-related, that is so wild. Musical Theatre is my major too! I'm Lauren." She smiled as she stuck her hand out to shake.

Joeys brain stalled as the petite brunette held her hand out for him to take. He stood awkwardly for a second before snapping back and taking her hand, shaking it gently and feeling the softness of her skin against his. Their interaction lingered as their gazes locked with each other, Joey never wanting to tear his eyes away from hers again, but all too soon, she let go and moved to shake AJ's hand too, his fingertips still tingling from feeling her touch.

"Anyway, I do have to go. It's like 8:15 am and I'm hungry again so I'm going back to the cafeteria to eat. Are you in room M107 at 9?" Lauren asked Darren.

"Yeah I am, I'll see you at 9." Darren smiled.

"See you later, it was nice meeting you guys!"

Lauren hurried off down the corridor as Joey saw the surname 'Lopez' written on her back before she turned the corner and was out of sight. He let go of a breath that he didn't know he was even holding as they all turned and started to walk towards the exit.

"And who was that!" Joey asked, a little too eagerly as Darren laughed and patted his back.

"That my friend, was Lauren Lopez."