Penfield's Greatest Swimmer

🌊~31

The chants continued in the bus all the way back to campus.

Sports bag in hand, I stepped out of the vehicle, said bye to a few of my teammates and started walking down the familiar path to my hall.

"Hey Akwasi!"

I turned around to find Ethan and Seth jogging my way.

"Where the heck are you off to?" Ethan's eyebrows dipped low. "We still have the afterparty, remember?"

"Uh yeah I know, but parties aren't really my thing." I shrugged. "Plus, my engineering club has their Science Fair tomorrow and I really want to be there to support them."

"Aarrgh, but you can't miss this party broseph!" Seth placed an arm round my shoulder, shoving me into his armpit. "You're the Legendary Shark, the one who kicked Yooku's ass!"

"Yeah, if you're not at the party, who are we gonna celebrate?" Ethan added.

"Umm, I thought the party was to celebrate the fact that we qualified for Nationals," I quipped.

"That too, but you're the one who took us there," Ethan replied. "C'mon Akwasi, you need to be at this party. You already skipped out on the Regionals afterparty remember? So you have no excuse to miss this one."

"But the Science Fair-"

"Oooh, the Science Fair can wait," Seth grumbled.

"Spending an hour or two at the party won't stop you from going to the fair," Ethan continued to insist. "Besides, there's a saying that celebrating the little things in life opens doors to greater things. You never know, maybe coming to this party might guarantee a win for your club tomorrow."

"But the party isn't a little thing." I lifted an eyebrow.

"All the more reason why you should be there!" The big guy on my side pushed me forward. "C'mon, it will be fun."

I rubbed the back of my neck. "I-I dunno guys..."

"A-kwa-si! A-kwa-si! A-kwa-si!" Just like that, Ethan started a chant and it wasn't long before Seth and a couple of guys joined in.

"Oh guys nooo..."

The pressure was mounting up and even though I tried moving away from them, they followed me, championing the afterparty agenda loud in my ears. It lasted for about five minutes, until I couldn't take it anymore.

"Ok! Ok!" I gave in. "I'll come with you to the party!"

A victorious cheer coated the air.

"Yes!" Ethan patted my back. "Come on, I'll drive us."

"Sure, lemme just text someone first." I pulled out my phone. Both Akunna and Deon had sent me congratulatory messages, asking me to come celebrate with a gaming session.

I felt bad typing out an excuse. But since I had already committed myself to the party, I had no option but to hit the send button. My eyes then fell on Shola's chat and I suddenly had this tiny feeling to send her a quick heads up that I might be late for the fair tomorrow, but I soon discarded the idea.

I'm not going to spend the entire night at the party, I said in my head. It's only nine pm. I'll just hang around for a while and by ten, I'll be back in the hall. No biggie.

A loud honk blasted me out of my thoughts.

"Yo Akwasi!" Ethan sat in the driver's seat of his Hyundai Elantra. "Get in! This party isn't gonna last forever!"

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Eden's Lodge was a guest house located on the east side of campus, far away from the students' residential area and lecture theatres.