The Shark and the Stingray

Chapter 16

Future Academic and Career Plans. Year 3. Class 1. Miller.

I look to my side and sure enough, Haru and Mako both hadn't put a mark on their paper like me. "No one showed up today either..." Kou sulks, Nagisa, Rei, Kou and I were at the swim club waiting for new members, "Course not! Until we swim our relay that earns our team a rep for style and athleticism no one gonna care about four guys and a pool," Rei crosses his arms, "It'll be summer before we can show off the goods we can take our theme from the membership drive to the next level and prance around in our swimsuits!" Nagisa holds his head, "Why is that the first place your mind goes?!" Rei groans, "Hey it's either go naked or disband the team! Which one of those options is worse?!" Nagisa asks, "They're equally bad! We'll get new members with our clothes on." Rei balls his fist up, "I got it! What about a swim team jingle or something!" Nagisa knocks his hand, "Who do you expect to write it?!" Rei asks, "You." Nagisa says blankly, "And who do you suppose will do the singing?!" Rei asks, "You." Nagisa says blankly again, I sighed and rested my chin on my hand.

"I'm sorry, what does this mean?" Miss A reads my future academic and career plans sheet, I circled C. Other (Don't know). "Oh, uh pretty much exactly what it says," I tap my shoes, "Yeah I was afraid of that, Miller, I know of your swimming and athletic background, why don't you pursue something that relates to that?" She puts my sheet down, I shrug, "There's an old saying that I think applies here. If you don't try, you'll never know and you'll have no room to complain." She smiles, I walked out of the room and I met up with Mako and Haru, "Same response for you too?" Mako asks, I nodded, "I don't know what I want to do. I know it sounds stupid but really." I lean on the windowsill, "It's not stupid to not want to know what you want to do. I guess we're all in the same boat for that one." Haru looks at me, I smile and nod, "I guess so huh?" I grin. 

"The best part about being inside is that you don't have to worry about getting sunburned!" Miss A sat on a fold out chair by pool deck, we were all at Iwatobi Swimming Club, "You wouldn't be working on your tan right now anyway, and we can only use this place till the weather turns," Kou looks at her, "It's great though! Getting a head start on our practice like this means we can get the regionals by storm!" I perk up, "And after we win nationals we'll be so famous people will be falling at our feet to join! You know, I think Haru and Makoto should work here after they graduate." Nagisa leant on the side of the pool with his goggles on his forehead, "Woah, woah, I didn't rebuild this place for a freeloader as a ticket!" Coach Sasabe defends, Mako chuckles. Rei got out of the pool, "What's this?" He walked closer to a poster that was at his eye line, "Iwatobi SC Returns Grand Opening Event. Sprashu Fes?" I tear the poster off and read it, "Ah! I had a print shop cook up a dozen or so of these for the grand opening!" Coach unrolls another poster, "Neat huh? Make yourselves useful and distribute some of these around," He holds it up, the boys crowd over, "Uh what is that supposed to say?" Rei squints, "Is it like a culture festival or something?" I ask, "Well it'll have lots of fun stuff going on here you'll see." He laughs, "Give us details Coach," Nagisa looks up, "Well to kick things of a kick board race for kids who can't swim, followed by a contest to see who can hold their breath underwater for the longest, then, Samurai squid style swimming! He grins, "Squid style what?" Rei asks, "I've heard of that it's a special technique soldiers used in the Sengoku period to cross rivers in full armour! Wow that's a great idea!" Nagisa points his finger, "There's a big hole in the schedule for the main event I'm open to any ideas you might have." Coach looks at us, "It's gotta be epic! I'm sure we can figure something out right guys?" Nagisa looks at us, we nod, "Miss Amakata I feel bad for asking but uh, would you mind in helping us out a little if you could spare the time of course," Coach looks at her, you could almost see her fiery aura light up, "I'm juts a tad busy at the moment," She had a sickly sweet smile, "Right! Got it!" Coach screamed and was sweating aggressively.