How Things Changed Forever.. PART - II

CH 2: Busy Routines

She was running, running for her life. It was a dark alley, she could hardly see a metre in front of her, her lungs cried for a reprieve, but she knew she couldn't allow herself one. One moment of rest and she was doomed. 

Something crashed against her skull, and she crashed into the street hard. Her head was bleeding when a hand closed behind her neck, choking her. Suddenly a bloody corpse stood in front of her "I thought of giving you a painless death, but now... I'll make sure you remember this day your whole life. Don't cry baby," it cooed. "You asked for this." It said, choking her and closing in for a kiss...

And suddenly, her eyes flew open and she was staring blankly at her roof. She was in her room, lying on her bed and it was dark outside. 'It had only been a dream silly', she tried reasoning with herself, but her treacherous heart wouldn't calm down. She layed still on her bed, listening for any signs of having woken her parents up. The house was still quite, she concluded after a few minutes. She was glad for not having disturbed them for the night, though she wasn't sure how long it could go on this way.

Her alarm glared three forty at her. Hillary sighed, there was no way she was going back to sleep after that dream. She had to be up in another twenty minutes anyway, so why not now? she decided. 

It was her first day of highschool, she remembered. She had absolutely no idea what to expect. She freshened up, ironed her uniform and packed her books and assignments for the day. After having a glass of milk, she took up her swimming back pack and set out for her daily swimming practice at Japan Swimming Federation's swimming pool.

 It was specifically reserved for professional swimmers. The coaching that was provided there was funded by the federation and didn't start before six. After her impromptu break so close to the national finals, she had been snatching every opportunity that came in her way to practice a bit more as soon as her bandages were removed. 

She boarded the first train of the day at four fifteen. The station and the train were empty except for a guy who was nodding off at a corner. Another victim of overtime working, she sympathetically mused. Being just two stations away from her home, she reached her destination just as the gates opened, that is, at four thirty. She quickly headed for the stalls, changed, showered, and got down to practice. 

The lack of practise combined with her damaging injuries and stress during those days had severely affected her performance. And unlike beyblading, the progress was painstakingly slow. Her shoulder still got sore after too much usage and it had already been two weeks since she had started her rigorous training. After an initial bit of warm up exercises and shoulder related workouts, she mostly stuck to laps, focusing on gaining back her kick strength.

Her speed had increased sure, but it wasn't enough. Her speed hadn't yet reached the level required for benchmark preliminary screening at national championship, which was definitely not flattering to the Tokyo champion, considering their predominance in the field throughout the years. 

The only person she had shared the reason of her sudden absence was her coach, and there too, only about her mother. She had slightly altered the story to explain her shoulder injury to be a consequence of the accident, as though she was with her mother, and had escaped with minor injuries, unlike her mother. She had desperately needed her permission to attend both the coaching slots. 

Suddenly, Hillary's feet were pulled from under her and Hillary slipped into the water. But her reflexes knew better and she twisted the next moment, swimming to the bottom and started tickling the culprit. Aubrey Sanders quickly let go of her to catch her breath. A fruity laugh filled the air around her, and she found herself to be laughing too.