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

Chapter 9- The Prelims

   

    "Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is." –Vince Lombardi

    My alarm goes off and pulls me from my sleep. I reach over to turn it off and lie right back down, resting my left forearm over my eyes. Today's the day... My heart pumps faster and I can feel the blood surge through my arm. The excitment gets me out of my bed and I realize that I fell asleep in my suit and jacket. These have litterally grown on me. Haha. And so I walk to my mirror and begin the debate. Shower, or no shower? Shower. Yes. No. Yes. No. Your hair will be a [female dog] to brush...but why wash it now if it's going to be soaked in chlorine later? You wanna smell like chlorine the whole time? Well what kind of swimmer doesn't smell like chlorine? The ones who swim in salt water. Shut up. I walk to my bathroom and brush my teeth, getting the overnight taste mixed with the chips I ate away.

    I walk back to my room and slide the on the sweats to the tracksuit, then take off the jacket to put the Iwatobi-chan t-shirt on and then smooth out the jacket to make it look suitable, then tie it around my waist. I grab my small duffle bag and stuff extra clothes (hey, you never know why), my goggles, and two towels (I don't know why) into it. I put my phone into my pocket with the earphones plugged in and I listen to music while I wait for Makoto to appear at my door. Setsuna had told me that she will get there her own way, and I had given her Amakata-sensei's contact information a little after the club officially restarted. She'll know where to meet up.

    *Ding-dong*

    "Amaya~. You there?" Makoto's voice says behind the door. I stand up and slump my bag over my shoulder and walk to the door.

    "Yo." I say.

    "Ready?" He asks. Haruka is right behind him.

    "Yeah."

    "Hold up." Setsuna's eager voice says. The next thing I know, her arms are locked around my waist from behind. "Did you seriously think you were gonna leave without a good luck hug?" 

    "There, there." I pry her arms off of me. "Time's up."

    "Do your best! I know you'll qualify."

    "So this is your younger sister?" Makoto says.

    "Oh." She perks up and then flips her hair. "So...you've heard about me?" I place my entire hand on her face and push her back. After struggling to get free, she asks: "So who's this?"

    "Makoto." I casually answer.

    " 'Makoto', she says."  (<--- Paaoorradyyyy!) 

    He laughs. "Tachibana Makoto. It's nice to meet you :)"

    "And the one over there who's not even looking and probably won't talk at all is Haruka."

    "Oooo, mysterious." I hear her mutter to herself, and then I elbow her in the arm. "Well, good luck to all of you. I'll be there as soon as I can!"  I walk out the door and we begin walking, heading for the train station. "Bye!"

    "Bye~." I say loudly in reply.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    "Guys!" Nagisa calls out with his hand high in the air, waving. "Over here, over here! Check this out!" He points to Rei, who looks like he's just a tiny bit nervous with his worried eyes with gray bags under them. "Rei-chan was so nervous that he didn't get any sleep!"

   "I wish I had nerves of steel like you." He says tiredly.

    "You'll get there soon enough," Nagisa encourages. "Relax, relax. Okay! It's time for the tournament!" His hand shoots up like he's a cheerleader. "Let's do our best and get ourselves a bigger budget!"