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

Chapter 5- The Butterfly In Need

   

    "There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up."

-John Holmes

    "Okay! We officially have 5 club members, along with our fourth boy member, and it's warming up outside." Kou starts off, holding a paper beside her. We were standing in front of the six lane pool with the heat outside noticably taking a toll on everyone at school today. "Since the temperature had been rising, we can finally begin training in the pool today..." Haruka zips past her and dives into the pool.

    She drops the paper as she turns around. "Hold on! Could you listen to what I have to say first, Haruka-senpai?! Please Haruka-senpai?! Come on!" Would I get in trouble if I pushed her in the pool right now?

    Rei picks up the paper and looks at it like it was written in another language. "Is this some kind of formula?"

    "Where?" Makoto asks while looking at the paper.

    "What is this?"

    "Oh. You know what warming up means, right? 'Kb' means kicking practice with a kickboard. 'Pull' refers to when you use a pull buoy to train your arms."

    "Is this someone's name?"

    Makoto laughs. "That's an abbreviation for medley relay. It's a relay where the four swimmers swim equal legs usimg back, breast, fly and free in that order."

    "Back, breast, fly..."

    "Back refers to backstroke. That's my best one." Just for fun I copy the way the stroke looks while standing. "Ah, like that, hehe. Breast refers breaststroke."

    "That's my favorite." Nagisa says while lundging into the picture.

    "Fly refers to the butterfly stroke."

    "And free refers to the front crawl." Rei says while fixing his glasses, trying to sound smart.

    "No, free refers to freestyle. You're allowed to use any stroke. But the front crawl is generally the fastest stroke, so that's what most swimmers use."

    "There are a few swimmers who go with butterfly." Nagisa comments.

    "The butterfly stroke?" Rei repeats.

    "Yep. Anyways, this is a solid regimen. Did you come up with this yourself, Gou-chan?"

    "Can you stop calling me Gou?..." she gives up. "Forget it. I found that when I was cleaning the house. It's my onii-chan's old regimen."

    "Lemme see." I ask and Nagisa hands me the paper.

    ~

    W-up             500 choice

    Kb                  10×50 IM+choice

    Pull                10×50 IM+choice easy25/hard 25

    Swim             12×100 1~3ba easy50/hard50

    Cooldown     200 choice

    ~

    "Wow, this is pretty good."

    "Oh yeah, and what does IM mean?" Rei asks.

    "IM?" I repeat. " 'IM' stands for Individual Medley. The order is Fly, Back, Breast and Free."

    "Then, why is there a difference with the relay order?" He asks with eagerness to know.