Demonic Regime

Chapter 24: Swim Team

"So, are you doing anything fun over Christmas?" asked Case, as he folded a paper plane from a piece of old homework.

"Nothing, it's the same as every year." I shook my head. "We're going to spend some time at the mansion and a few days at my grandma's house."

"The one that's human-born?"

I nodded.

"How does that go over?" Case tossed the plane across the room. It didn't fly far.

"We don't talk about it when we go to the mansion. My parents sat my siblings and me down and filled us in on why my grandpa gets so uptight when my grandma is mentioned."

"That must be hard. Then again, having an alpha as your uncle and grandpa—" He shook his head. "That's scary. Your cousin is going to be the next one, right?"

I nodded. "His alpha hormones showed up a few months ago. Max got so mad he broke a window."

Case's mouth fell open. "How?"

"My uncle has a heavy paperweight on his desk, and Max kind of threw it. He has it under control now, mostly."

"Wow." He shook his head. "Your family sounds more stressful than mine."

"No, I think you have me beat there." I stretched my arm overhead and glanced at the paper on my desk.

"Are you going to go?" Case gave me a smirk.

I shrugged. "Maybe."

"Rudy, go," he replied. "It's an introductory meeting. You're not committing to the swim team. You can change your mind."

"What if I'm not any good?"

"No one starts off as being that good. I watched some old videos of me when I started soccer, and I get why my parents never looked excited during my games. They're hard to watch."

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I stood. "Okay, I'll go."

"Good luck."

"Thanks." I put on my jacket and left the room.

My heart was pounding, I was nervous. I knew how to swim but at a basic level. I watched a few videos to get an idea and it seemed complicated. I took a deep breath as I started down the stairs. If I wanted to do a sport, swimming was it. Everything else required werewolf form at some point.

I stepped outside and shivered at the cold air. It had snowed last night. I hated winter. Thankfully, it didn't last long like in other places. I hurried to the building with the indoor pool. I noticed some other boys entering through the front door. They all looked older. Hurrying inside, I rubbed my hands together as I looked for the entrance to the pool. I noticed the groups of boys walking down a hallway.

Following them, I started to smell the chlorine in the air. I opened the glass door to the pool and was hit with a wave of humidity. It was warm inside, at least. I unzipped my coat and went to sit with the others on the bleachers.

It was a smaller group which was to be expected. The other teams had a lot more people. The others all seemed to know each other. I didn't see anyone from my grade. If there wasn't a giant pool in front of me, I would have thought I was in the wrong room.

A couple more boys joined us before an old man walked out of the locker room.

"Hello, team." He smiled and stood in front of us. "I'm excited to kick this year off and start working on conditioning." He eyes a few of the bigger boys. "Hopefully, none of you have been slacking during the off-season."

A few chuckled.

"Alright." He took out his clipboard and scanned the bleachers. "We have a new face."