The Shark and the Stingray

Chapter 5

Mako was waiting outside playing with a stray kitten with a strand of foxtail millet, "Haruu!" I groaned, "Here, just wear this one," I threw him one of his swimmers, they all looked almost the same, purple and black. "Morning Mako," I dragged Haru after me once he changed and jumped down multiple stairs to reach Mako, "Come on, big day ahead, don't want to be late," He looks up at Haru. "Okay! We've got four offical swimmers on paper and the weather's getting warmer, I'm sure you're just as excited as Kou and I because you know what that means, we finally get to train in the pool so make sure you stretch before you go-" I grabbed on Haru's goggles and he tried to speed past me, "Take a dip," I finished my sentence and pushed him back to the rest of the boys. "These are some bizarre looking equations," Rei looks at the training regiment, "Wait what? Oh I see," Mako chuckles, "W-up stands for Warm Up, Kb stands for kicking practise, we'll use the kick board and Pull refers to when you use a pool buoy so you can train your arms, Med R's another abbreviation it stands for medley relay, that's when four swimmers take turns in equal laps in back, breast, butterfly and free in that order," Mako explains, "Butterfly breasts? What?" Rei was even more confused, "Ba for Backstroke, Br for Breaststroke, I'm sure you've caught onto the pattern here," Mako nods, "Of course, Fr for the Frontcrawl yes?" Rei touches his glasses, "Well actually the Fr refers to Freestyle, it means you can use whatever stroke you're most comfortable with, that said the Frontcrawl is generally the fastest one so it tends to be most swimmer's default," Mako points, "In comparison the Butterfly stroke is barely used," Nagisa looks at the paper, "Butterfly huh?" Rei leans over, "Anywho, this is super solid training regiment did you make it yourself Yuki?" Kou looks at me, I sat on the block, by now, Haru's already jumped into the water doing laps back and forth, "It's Rin and my old workout, back in Australia, during lunch and recess we'd get together and make a list of what we'd do that day at the pool," I leant my cheek on my hand. 

Rei was still stretching by the time all the boys were in the pool, Rei lined up in Lane 5, "Those muscles," Kou blushes, we all watched him, he brought up the courage to swim, finally! He dove off the block and belly flopped right in, he tries kicking but he kept staying under, "Well good thing he's tall enough to stand," I sweatdrop as he gasped for air, "Theory is great and all but I think you'll need to learn how to swim first," Nagisa says. "I think it'd be best we start with something simple first like the turtle float," Mako says, "Here, I'll demonstrate," Nagisa pulls his goggles on, "Hug your knees to your chest and relax, see easy stuff." I crouched down and smiled, "Not very graceful," Rei stares at Nagisa, "Just try it alright," Mako sighs, Rei did so and he floated, "Well at least he can float," Nagisa looks at him, "That's good. Now try to extend your legs out and swim forwards," Mako says, Rei stretched his legs out and he started sinking, "No good," Mako sighs.

"Haru, Yuki, Mako, we're here~!" Nagisa waves at us from our classroom door, "Would you quit pulling me around? It's embarrassing," Rei was pulled after Nagisa, "Lookie, lookie!" Nagisa drops a catalogue on our table, "Uniforms?" Mako looks at him, "Now that we're all offical it seemed like a good call, we can't be the only swim team without matching uniforms," Nagisa nods, "I like it, plus it would make the group look more legitimate, " Mako touches his chin, "I know right? We should totally go with this design and colour, the best part is we can add our own images as long as we add the school emblem!" Nagisa points at one of them, "Not the Iwatobi mascot," Rei leans over, "Yeah that was the plan," Nagisa looks up, "I was afraid you'd say that," Rei facepalms, "We could go for something cool like the shark and katana combo on Rin's jacket," I pointed out, "I'd be down for that, I vote for a rockhopper penguin sporting a flamethrower and a top hat!" Nagisa was so excited, Haru and I brought out our notebooks, while Haru drew a realistic picture of Little Iwatobi, I drew a thumbnail sketch to have IWATOBI printed on the back of the tracksuit jackets, "It's... so beautiful," Rei looks at our drawings. "There's no point thinking about uniforms when we haven't trained yet," Kou takes the catalogue, "But Kou! Designing the uniforms are the best part!" I clutched on her leg and cried, "I revamped Yuki and Rin's regiment to make up for the fact that our newest member cannot swim, Rei." Kou looks at him, "Uh yes, what is it?" He stands up straight, "Given the short amount of time we have before the district tournament, if we want a chance at victory you need to master swimming within one week," Kou snaps her book shut, "You're joking right? That's conceptually impossible." Rei laughs, "This is not a laughing matter!" Both of us run up to him, "Yes Ma'am," He flinches, "If you fail you won't be able to complete your training understood?" I wagged my finger under his nose, Kou showed him the sheet and his eyes widen.