COTE: Pawns

inevitable swimming episode

"If you had the power to do anything, you would use it."

———

A week passed and I walked into class and witnessed Ike and  dancing around joyfully whilst being early to class which was not the norm for them. When the professor walked in, the three of them started mischievously planning something in secret. Perhaps it had to do with the swimming class we'd have later on in the day. Not my problem.

As others had begun doing, I also went on my phone and decided to research social normalities. This 'Google' was quite handy if I do say so myself.

Time flew by and I was in the changing rooms slightly earlier than most and began changing. Disappointingly, the males weren't allowed to wear rashguards for some bizarre reason and sadly, this would most likely draw attention to me.

I had walked outside and since I was the first person out, I decided to enter the pool by myself to warm up. I calmly swam laps around the pool at a slow pace to not draw attention but that didn't work as everyone was staring at me.

I decided to climb out of the pool and once I did, I ran my wet hair through my hands, "Is everything alright?" I asked those who were staring at me, predominantly girls. Most had their jaws gaping.

"Ayanokoji-kun, do you exercise?" Kushida asked. 

"Sometimes." I cut the conversation short and sat by the pool awaiting the instructor who happened to be a few minutes late.

"Alright, class! Can everyone swim?" He asked, and everyone nodded.

"Of course we can! They even called me the flying fish in middle school!" Ike proudly said, nodding at his words.

No, they didn't. I thought, well, I said it out loud because everyone turned to look at me and started laughing.

"Well, since everyone can, let's do some races!" There were many more males than there were females so they decided to do the female races first and undoubtedly Onodera won since she was a part of the swim team, Horkikita coming second shortly after.

Although there was prize money for coming first place, I decided not to go for it. One, it'll cause too much attention and two, it'll cause too much attention. On the other hand, placing last would get me supplementary lessons and I'd rather that not be the case, so why don't I go for the middle option?

Judging from my athletic body, if I placed in the low half of the class it would gather unwarranted attention from me. The top three boys from our class would most likely be... Koenji, Sudo and Miyake. Since there are roughly 16 males taking part, I should probably place around 5th place.

And so, I did. Since the races were four people per race, I didn't manage to get a spot in the last race which was highly beneficial to me seeing as everyone's attention was automatically drawn to the four fastest swimmers in our class.

It's a shame I didn't get the prize money, but that doesn't matter for now.

Once the class had finished, I tried my hardest to get out of there and leave quickly but to my disappointment, Kushida Kikyou caught up to me and grabbed my shoulder, "No running away this time." She said, smiling. Through her smile, I could sense great disgust for me for some reason.

I averted eye contact with her, "I was in a rush."

"I just wanted to ask you something." We both started walking in a direction as we were talking.

"Continue," I replied.

"Are you friends with Horikita-san?"

If I recall correctly, Horikita didn't and probably hasn't, told anyone her name. So why in the world does Kushida know it?

"No." I said, "Is that all?"

"Oh-." I saw her slightly grit her teeth together but then returned to a cheerful smile, "Yes that's all, thank you for your time Ayanokoji-kun!"

There was something suspicious about this girl. Let's just hope that I don't get involved with her any further. Even so, I'll be sure to always be on guard. "Who knows what could happen at this school?" I muttered under my breath, looking out of the corridor window and watching people walk outside.

What a troublesome place.

———

If you could reincarnate into any anime world, which one would it be?