The Shark and the Stingray

Chapter 3

"This is actually the first time Rin's come back since he left right?" Makoto asks, "No, Rin came back every year during the holidays without fail," Kou shook her head, "Hold on are you saying Rin came home every year and didn't keep in touch with us? Man what a jerk." Nagisa leans across the table.

"Alright here's the deal, since everyone's on board I got us an application," Nagisa held up a sheet of paper, "You don't mess around," I looked at him, "Trust me if you don't get the ball rollin' now it won't ever happen, let's see. The main purpose of our club will be to train our minds and bodies, improving our overall education through the recreation of swimming!" Nagisa starts writing down, "You really know how to market an idea," Makoto looks at the sheet, "Since there's four of us we're the founding members, Mako how do you feel about being our captain?" Nagisa looks at him, "Hey, hey, hey, who said I'm signing up to this? I just sit with you guys during lunch and hang out with you guys," I held my hands up, "Since we started hanging out, you can be our manager, we can even as Kou to be the vice manager," Haru lays down on my legs, "Geez, you three are a bunch of water loving freaks," I closed my eyes and leant back, "I dunno shouldn't it be Haru he's the faster swimming," Mako shakes his head, "Different people have different skills this isn't about speed it's about leadership," Nagisa points out, we all look at Haru on my legs, "Listen up people, all first years are on clean up duty, second years are in charge of the chlorine third years, stretch out those quads and start training!" Haru was a completely different person to what we were imagining, "Yeah no way," Mako sweatdrops, "So Mako, you're the captain, then that means Haru gets to be your second in command," Nagisa looks up, "Guys, please don't volunteer me," Haru peeks one eye open, "Please, relax. The vice captain is just the figure head, you'll have zero real responsibilities," Nagisa waves his hand, "Nagisa, I think you just offended every vice captain there ever was," I looked at him, "And I'll be the treasurer, now we just need a faculty advisor," Nagisa runs his finger along the empty box, "Got anyone in mind?" I ask, "Sine you bring it up I thought we'd ask Miss A, "You think she'd be interested?" Mako looks at him, "Well based on a rumour I'm pretty sure she would," Nagisa smiled. "What? That's a sweet offer but no I teach classical lit so sports aren't really my thing," Miss says, Nagisa, Mako and I were in the faculty office, "Yeah but Miss, I was told that until last year you had a job in Tokyo that had something to do with swimwear," Nagisa says, Miss flinches and jumps right up, "I'll need you to keep quiet and tell me where you heard that," She whispers, "Mashimoto told me, how come we're whispering?" Nagisa says, "So this previous job of yours were you working for a swimsuit designer or something?" Mako asks, "Ah yes, I suppose you could say that," She nods, "In that case we'd be very honoured and excited to have you advise us in the technology that goes into competitive swimwear," Mako steps forward, "We need you!" Nagisa nods, "Pretty please," The two of them bowed, "Leave some room for the woman to breath you two," I knocked both their heads, "I'm sorry Miss about their rash behaviour but please, would you be our faculty advisor?" I bowed, "I suppose if I'm genuinely needed," She slowly says, "Thank you very much," Mako rises back up, "Alright!" Nagisa punches the air. 

"Well, I have some very important news regarding the swim team application you submitted. This is an extremely serious matter so I need you to listen carefully, congratulations your charter was approved!" Miss Amakata shows us the sheet that had a nice red stamp in the corner, "Now as all official student organisations are required to have five members you'll need to find another person and quickly, also there's one more little issue you'll need to address," Miss holds the sheet up, "Anything!" Nagisa nods, "Name it and it's done!" Mako nods. We made our way to the outdoor pool, it was the only pool Iwatobi had, it was covered in grass, weeds and was filthy, "It's in pretty bad shape," I look at it, "So we'll..." Mako looks at it, "Yes I'm afraid the price for admission is making this pool usable again," Miss nods, Mako and Haru started to take a step back, Nagisa held onto Mako's hand and I grabbed onto Haru's hand, "There's no running away guys," Nagisa had a sickly sweet smile on his face, "Don't forget you said you were willing to do anything," I had the same face on, the rest of the day the four of us were working up a sweat and we started by pulling the weeds out of the cracks, "Hey guys!" I waved them over, I pointed at the cracks in the pool floor and walls, Miss Amakata drove us to the nearest hardware store and we bought some spackle and new pool paint, "Hey guys... were did Haru go?" I nervously look around, I dashed off, "HARU!" I saw him start to unbutton his shirt, he already took his pants off and he was in his swimmers, "I'm so sorry!" I bowed over and over again at the employee, he was about to hop into the tank displays filled with water, "Keep your boyfriend under control," He scolded us, "HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" I shouted and blushed bright red and threw his pants back at him and told him button his shirt back up. We went to the art club, we decided to draw and paint some posters to advertise the swim team, we needed a fourth swimmer, Nagisa's was bright, colourful and abstract saying, 'Let's swim together, Iwatobi Swim Club', Haru and I also made some posters, Haru's said, 'Join us and Swim, Iwatobi High School Swim Club' Mine said, 'Come over and swim with us, Iwatobi Swim Club', The art club tried to drag Haru and I into their club instead, Nagisa and Mako dragging the two of us back, both clubs fighting for us. While Mako and Haru were using the spackle to patch up the cracks, Nagisa and I were clipping the overgrown bushes and repainting the chainlink fence, "Uh Ma'am, is there anything else you can do than just give us moral support?" I stood up straight and stretched my back using the mop as stability, "No there is not, UV rays are an absolute nightmare for complexions like mine. We fair skinned folk have to be extremely cautious about the sun," Miss A had an umbrella above her head, "Suck it up and put some sunscreen on," I grumbled and continued to brush the dirt away, Mako and Haru overheard me and chuckled lightly, "Wow incredible job you guys," Kou walked up, "Oh thank God, please take my mop and finish my job, I'm about to melt," I look at her.

"Hey there! Interested in joining the swim club?" Nagisa was asking pretty much everyone that passed by. "Ugh this really stinks, not one single person wants to join." Nagisa flopped onto a bench, "I'm starting to think we cleaned out that pool for nothing," Mako sat on a chair backwards and leant his face on the back of the foldable chair, "Don't say that!" Nagisa sits up, Haru was still carving Little Iwatobi mascots Nagisa was marketing that they'd get if they joined the swim club, "It's time to use our secret weapon, Yuki needs to give us her shirt off her back!" Nagisa looks at Mako, "Hey what do you mean by that?" I looked at him with a side eye, "People might not want to join the swim club but I bet they'd love to see her prance around in a swim suit right? We have to be proactive. Did you see her body when Rin pulled her into the water!" Nagisa throws his hands in the air, "I'm right here," I say between my teeth, "I see so the shirt off her back comment was literal but you do have a point," Mako whispers, "I still here!" I punched them both in the head. "I'll leave this juice here incase you get thirsty," Kou walks up to me, I was in the middle of painting the chainlink fence, "Thanks, want to join me?" I look at her, "Sure!" She nods and grabs a paint brush, "You know, have you heard anything from Rin? I went to Samezuka to drop something off but turns out he isn't in the swim team," She looks at me, "Seriously?" I was shocked, "Yeah, Rin doesn't take losses very well," She looks down, "What do you mean? Rin won, that night when we went to Samezuka, Rin won the race between him and Haru, I thought that he'd tell you about it." I dipped my paintbrush into the paint, "Rin didn't response to any of my attempts to reach him so I just assumed that he was super embarrassed about losing the race," Kou went back to painting, "You know, now that you mention it, Rin didn't seem too happy about winning, in fact between the two of them Haru seemed happier," I touched my chin, "But a teacher who heard the commotion busted us before anything got out of hand," I wiped my forehead and without realising swiped a teal green streak across my forehead, "But why would losing make Haru happy?" She looks at him, "I'm guessing he just probably wanted to swim freely, he rediscovered his love for swimming," I smiled, "Well I hope that Rin can return back to his old self," Kou looks down, "So am I wrong but are you still short one member?" She asks, I nodded, "Then I'd like to join, Rin needs to get back on track this would light a fire under him, if you're willing to let me officially join I think I can really help you in becoming a vice manager to you or something," She leans up to me, "Did she say what I think she said!" Nagisa shouts all the way from across the pool, "Yeah Kou just offered to be our fifth member!" I shouted back, "You know what this means? The swim club is officially up and running for business! Whoohoo!" Nagisa whoops, we all laughed. 

"Alrightly, congratulations on the swim club being approved," Miss A says, "Cheers to the swim club, the six of us raised our cups of orange juice and drunk "Even though it's not quite warm enough to start swimming just yet we went ahead and filled the pool with water as a test run," Miss turns around, "After we toss these in we're all set," Miss hands us each a chlorine tablet, we all stood on different sides of the pool, "Here goes!" I grinned," And we all threw our tablets in, "Looks like the swim club is officially official!" Nagisa smiles "Yeah it's just too bad that we can't go in yet," Mako nods, "Haru, don't you dare take your clothes off," I tied to stop him from throwing his shirt over his head but he dove in and brought me along with him, my teeth were chatting, "HARU!" I screamed.