Play Date

13 The Swimmers.

The swim team tryouts take place at Buckler's long-course aquatic facility. Boys swim lanes one through three; girls swim five through eight, presumably because the boys swim faster.

Missy is checked in, measured and weighed before the assistant coach leads her to lane four. Jona takes a last-minute stretch, waiting to dive into lane three. The boys' coach instructs Jona to do one lap of each of the four major strokes: backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and end with freestyle. The girls' coach reads Missy's stats and sizes her up.

"Missy, you just do one lap of backstroke, and one freestyle," the girls' coach instructs. She has no idea of Missy's ability and makes the call based on Missy's appearance.

"But..." Missy protests but the boys' coach doesn't wait for her to speak. 

"Swimmers in the water," he barks. As Missy and Jona jump in and position themselves. Jona doesn't hide a smirk, confident he will finish his four laps in less time than Missy will take to complete just two. Missy seethes at the gender bias.

"Swimmers, listen up," the boys' coach yells. "On the first whistle, lane three swims. On the second whistle, lane four swims. Got it?" Missy and Jona nod.

The Boys' coach blows his whistle and starts a stopwatch. Jona pushes off. Two seconds later, the girls' coach blows her whistle and Missy takes off like a dolphin, gaining on Jona. Just past the halfway point, Jona sees her approaching and picks up his pace.

Jona reaches the far end of the pool and pushes off into breaststroke. Less than a second later, Missy hits the wall and pushes off toward the starting line. Instead of freestyle, Missy goes into breaststroke and catches up to Jona before the lap is halfway done. Jona sees Missy and the race is on. This gets both coaches' attention. The race stirs up excitement in the students on deck who cheer and shoot video to add to their online stories.

Jona and Missy hit the wall together and push off into butterfly. They both have excellent form and Missy keeps pace with Jona stroke-for-stroke. Again, they push off into the last lap of freestyle. It's neck and neck for the first third of the lap but Missy, full of adrenaline and determination, picks up speed and takes a commanding lead. Jona swims his hardest but Missy out-paces him to the finish line for the win!

The kids go wild in disbelief of the upset they just saw. Missy back-floats and inhales as much oxygen as possible to cool her burning lungs. Jona tags the deck in an embarrassing second-place finish.

They both climb out of the pool and everyone cheers Missy's upset. Jona hunches over, catching his breath. Several kids shoot shameful video of him. Connery comes to Jona's side and hands him a towel.

"Dude," Connery says. "You got beat by a girl."

Jona pushes Connery into the pool and sulks away while Missy soaks in the spoils of victory.

That evening, Paige and Riley enter a house lit only by candles. Arlene and Missy meet them at the door.

"Hey, y'all," Arlene says.

"What's going on?" Paige asks.

"The power is out," Missy answers. Paige turns to her husband.

"I'll call the DWP," Riley says. Paige turns to Arlene.

"Did the security company come?"

"Nobody's been here." That's odd.

"They're supposed to come when the power..." Paige stops and sighs. She realizes Riley has paid neither the power nor the security bills. Arlene tries to be helpful.