Penfield's Greatest Swimmer

🌊~18

I blinked at the screen, unable to comprehend the words before me.

Ok this has got to be a mistake or a prank, I thought. And the same thing must've occurred to Princess because she typed a similar reply in the chat.

Is this some sort of joke, Amina?

The response was fast.

No, it's not!
Listen to this audio!

A sound bite popped up next on my screen and took about a minute to download.

"Hey Ak-"

"Sssh!" I tapped the play button, ignoring Chad as he drew closer. A crackle fizzled out of the speakers, mixed with a few shuffles, then Coach Sarah's voice entered the blend.

"...and you promised me you wouldn't let Ethan get to you, now look what you've caused!" She sounded quite frustrated and I could visualize her rubbing her temples.

"You can't pin this on me!" Daniel's defensive tone joined in. "Ethan is to blame too, he's the one who kept provoking me."

"Well you should've ignored him instead of choosing to break your goddamned captain's nose! I cannot let that go unpunished!"

"But it was an accident, Coach. He made me so angry, kn-

"That's not an excuse! Accident or not, you hit your team captain and I'm a hundred percent sure it would've gotten worse if Seth and the other boys hadn't stopped you." Coach heaved out a sigh, "You have issues, Daniel. You clearly haven't gotten over that incident that happened two years ago, and it was my mistake for believing that you have and putting you back on the team."

There was a brief pause. "What are you saying?" Daniel asked in a very cautious tone.

The person secretly recording the convo must've gotten excited because there were a few rapid shuffles, in an attempt to move closer to catch the juicy details on tape. When Coach spoke again, her voice came out clearer than before.

"I'm taking you off the team, Daniel. Go and clear out your locker."

"Oh my God," a feminine voice whispered with a chuckle.

"What the fu-" Daniel cut the curse word from flying out of his mouth. "That's not fair!"

"It is in my eyes," Coach countered. "It will give you enough time to get over that stupid grudge you insist on carrying. That competition happened two years ago. You lost, accept your defeat and move on for crying out loud."

"No! I'm not going to because Ethan cheated!" Daniel was yelling now. "He was on drugs! But you were all so dumb to ac-"

"That's enough, Daniel!" Coach had finally reached the end of her rope. You could hear it in her voice as she roared, "Get out of my office, now!"

As to whether Daniel did or not, I couldn't tell because in the next second the audio came to an end.

"Woow!" Felix chortled beside me. "Talk about drama."

"I know, right," someone else responded.

When I lifted my head, I met all nine faces of my group members. They had stopped working and were now surrounding me, drawn in by the audio from my phone. I pushed down on the power button, causing the screen to go black. "Ok guys, shows over. Let's get back to work."

There were a few mumbles but everyone retreated to their initial position. Thankfully, Shola and the other groups hadn't noticed the disruption. They were still occupied with their section of the robot. I also did same, picking up a screwdriver and getting back to work.