The Clock Doesn't Lie (A Swim Story)

I Want To Give Up

*Camilas P.O.V*

Some one was shaking me. That someone being my father. I knew what he was doing and why.

But I was too content and warm in my blankets to open my eyes and pull myself out of bed.

"Cam." My dad said in a soft voice trying to get me up.

I groned slightly and rolled over digging my face into the pillow. I tried to mumble "5 more minutes" but no noise came out.

"Camila." My dad said a bit louder. "Fine you don't want to get up this early? I understand, but you were the one who requested to weight lift before morning practice.

Rolling back over in bed. I opened my eyes and looked at my dad, then my clock. 4:00 am.

My dad got up and exited my room shouting behind him.
"10 minutes!"

With a grunt of disgust I got out of bed and put on my work out clothes, threw my hair up into a pony, then put my glasses on. Preferably I would wear my contacts while weight lifting, but I had morning practice. And after my eye got infected due to the chlorine water in my contact I stopped wearing them while swimming. This caused me to be blind to anything but the big red clock numbers telling me when to push off.

Making my way down stairs, I looked out the window at the still dark sky. I love being a swimmer, and I love weight lifting. But sometimes 4:00 in the morning is just too god damn early.

I shook my head and rubbed my eyes trying to diminish the tiredness I was feeling. A granola bar was shoved into my face by my dad as I entered the kitchen. I opened the wrapper and shoved it into my mouth, the taste not sitting well on my tongue.

Its too early to eat, I thought while putting on my tennis shoes. Slinging my prepackaged swim bag over my shoulder, signaling to my dad I was ready to go.

*awkward time jump sry*

My shoulders burned as I wrapped my hands around the bar ready for one last rep. Lifting up, my shoulders protested. 1, arms down. Lift up. 2. Arms down.

8 more. Think of the record.

Lift up. 5, arms down.

Think of the relay.

Lift up. 7, arms down.

Think of beating Hannah. Wiping her smug smile off of her face. Think of her reaction when you lap her-

Lift up. 10, arms down.

Carefully I set the bar down, my dad looked at me with a smile.

"Thats 20 more pounds then last week." He said with pride.

I smiled back at him before taking a drink from my water bottle.

"Look, I have to stay here to coach my practice, but you take the car and go to yours."

He handed me the keys and my swim bag I walked out of the weight room ready for morning practice.

*Zoeys p.o.v*

I stood next to Camila, alittle nervous to get back into the pool. Last practice had killed me, I wasn't nearly as fast as the other three girls in my lane.

"Camila" I said the groggyness in my voice showing.

"You can call me Cam, Zoey." Cami- Cam said correcting me.

"Cam." I said again,"I, I don't think I can do this." I said honestly.

Practics yesterday made me cry, I wasnt going to show it in the locker room or on the pool deck. But the second I shut the car door I had burst into tears.

Cam looked at me confused my comment clearly not making any sense to her.

"Why not?" She asked,the confusion clear in her voice

"Cam, it's, its too hard. I can't keep up, and every muscle in my body hurts from yesterday." I exclaimed keeping my voice quiet.

Other swimmers were walking behind us getting into their said lanes. Camila looked at me with a small smile and took a deep breath before speaking.

"look, Zoey. I know this is hard. You're a freshman struggling to keep up with 2 juniors and a senior. Its not easy, believe me I know. But that doesn't mean you can just give up. Every sport has its difficulties, everything you doing is going to get hard at some point, but the only thing you can do is keep working at it so it gets easier. Saying its to hard and refusing to get into the pool is never going to make you better." Camila slid into the pool and stood next to kennedy in the water.

"Yeah, plus Zoey, most of us swam over the summer. I'm willing to bet you didn't. The only reason we're faster then you is because we are already in swimming shape." Kennedy added.

I smiled at them, they were right and as painful as it was to admit. I needed to get into the pool.

"Any more advice you have for me?" I asked with laughter in my voice.

Almost on cue, Luke and his posay walked through the pool doors and on deck. Cam rolled her eyes so hard they might have touched her brain.

"Yeah stay away from the sexist bitch and you'll be fine." And with that comment she left on top to begin warm up.

*ight not my best chapter, but its a chapter, ok! See you next chapter fishes, And just keep swimming!*

Word count: 912