-"Come on, bunch of punks!"—Mr. Hartman yelled, before taking another big bite out of his BLT sandwich—"Iph havenph spentph my dayph traininph youm laphy aphes for you allph to be tiph—"
He stopped talking, almost choking in the process, to gulp down his food, and then went back to his screaming.
-"I haven't spent my ENITRE day training your lazy asses for you all to be THIS incompetent!"
Connor finished the lap, and stopped on the edge of the pool to catch his breath. He could feel his chest going up and down with despair for air, clearly overworking himself more than usual—and he wasn't the only one; every single member of the team seemed to feel exhausted. Even Shawn, who had much better resistance than the rest of them, was struggling to keep up and not drift off through the pool like a floating log.
Today was the last day of swimming team training before the break they would have for a little while, since the holidays were coming closer and stuff. Mr. Hartman had decided to be more demanding for some reason, and on top of that, most of the team members were tired and out of shape due to the rather prolonged break they had after their so-called-coach called in sick for a little over two weeks. It was common knowledge that Mr. Hartman wasn't the happiest man in the world for having the job; but there had to be some standards every once in a while, even for him.
Right now, Connor was having a tough time paying attention to Mr. Hartman's unintelligible words, as he kept on munching to his sandwich instead of talking to them properly. From what little he could see around in the rest of his teammates, it was a general issue.
-"You know what? I don't have time for this—You're all dismissed! Like hell I'm gonna ruin my day screamin' at ya lot... I'll be damned the day I give two flying roaches if this so called 'team' does not cooperate..."
-"Gee, somebody is moody today..."—one of the kids said out loud, earning everyone ten more 50 meter laps, which isn't really that much, but it still got him the cold shoulder from the rest of the teammates.
At the expense of his arms' and legs' strength, Connor managed to finish and leave the pool, along with everyone else. He had been giving more into his training as of late, as a means of distraction from Alexis isolating from him at home. That, and the idea of Dustin's proposal, which still haunted him in his mind. Even if he had rejected it immediately the second he heard it, and he loathed the sole idea of it from the very start, he couldn't help but wonder if perhaps he should have listened to Oli.
Swimming was a good way to take these thoughts out of his mind; or more so in a fifty percent success rate. The other fifty percent of the time he would be inside the water he had nobody to talk to but his own thoughts, and that meant thinking about that, and it was torture. It was even tougher because he had no real friends in the team. He thought he had been starting to at least get along with Shawn, but the latter seemed to be determined not to talk to Connor no matter what. Connor kept suspecting it had to do with Red nonetheless what he had said.
So, today especially, with him being this tired mentally from all of the things going on back at Grace's house, Connor thought like he really needed to talk with someone, anyone, who just didn't know shit about it. And since Lisbug had been unavailable, he figured talking with Shawn would have to do.
When he entered the changing room with the rest of the team, he headed towards his locker like he did every day and took out his change of clothes and towel so that he could take a shower. Most of the kids in the team showered in the changing rooms, because it was pretty much the same thing to do so there or at their houses. Connor would do so every now and then, he was used to it since little at other swimming teams he had been in the past. Today, the ones that did stay were having a chat about how Mr. Hartman was in serious need of a girlfriend, or perhaps even rehab. Connor thought the man had no saving, but he couldn't have been able to care less if he wanted to.
YOU ARE READING
Algid (#TronnorAU)
Random"Let me tell you the story, about what happens when a heart as cold as ice meets one made of gold." What happens to the things that nobody can remember? Are they forgotten? Did they mean anything at all? Did they even exist at some point? All his li...
