The Reason To Swim (A Free! Iwatobi Swim Club fanfiction)

Chapter 4- Just One Short

  

    "Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe."

-Gail Devers

    I open my eyes and sit up on my bed, already forgetting the dream I just had. What was I dreaming about? I reached for my phone and dialed a number. After a few seconds of holding it to my ear, he picked up.

    "Hm? Ama-chan? What's up?"

    "Tell the others I can't make it to school today. I have some things to take care of."

    "Really~?" He was quiet for a while. "Okay, be safe today atleast." Thank you for not questioning.

    "Umhm! Bye!" I say with a smile and hang up. Now, what do I want to do?

    Or rather...what was I dreaming about? I saw myself swimming...then not. Swiming...then not. Maybe I just wanna swim again. No kidding, genius. I felt my fingers begin to tingle at the thought. Maybe quitting was a huge mistake. What if it was something mpre important to me than I thought? Really? Swimming is what your passion could turn out to be? It's possible... I stand up and stretch, dress in something comfortable, brush my teeth and grabbed a handbag and put my phone and wallet in them since I wore shorts that didn't have pockets. I put my hair up in a ponytail and left the house. Setsuna and Hayato knew what I was doing right away; Hayato honestly doesn't care but he'll be textinf to ask if I'm alright every halfhour, and Setsuna actually does this as well from time to time, and I've never told.

    I feel a pang of regret from pretty much ditching school, but I'm sure Nagisa would tell them I got sick or something. I usually do this but it's on very specific days that the teachers are used to me being gone. Well, my first year teachers anyway. Maybe they notified my teachers for this year...

    My first stop is the mall. Why? There's one reason. Or two. Or three. I need a suit, cap, and goggles. I find one suit that's a solid light blue. It's was probably the fifth one I saw but I just wanna get this over with. I ask someone to take a guess of my size, but I  then ask what a more 'leisurely' size would be like just for practicing. The sale's clerk said a 29 or 30. With that, I settle with latex white cap and clear swimming goggles. The suit is really tight, don't get me wrong, but that's just how they are supposed to be. I really missed wearing a swimsuit...

    It all didn't cost as much as I thought, but that's good because it was what I wanted to do with these new items that might get a bit pricy. I learned of a gym with an indoor pool nearby. 25 yards a lap. It's too expensive to go for just the winter, but from saving up birthday and Christmas money along with babysitting money (it became a new hobby the past few years), I can go in for a day without that much of an impact on my savings. But geeze, the water better give me super powers for these prices.

    ~

    And there it is, the pool! My hands start to shake from excitment, my stomach swirls and my heartveat kicks up. I had already changed into the suit and put my things in a locker. I tie my hair up and put the cap on (which took a few tries). It's pretty empty; maybe because it's early and people are at work or school. I find a free lane, walk towards it, and eagerly fit my goggles over my eyes. I get a sinking feeling in my stomach. Do I remember how to dive? What does it... I see myself falling into the water, first my hands, then my arms, head, chest, and then my legs. ...feel like again?