It's just WATER!

“Cassie Blake? What stroke do you swim?” The rest of the team was in the water, but the coach had sat me down to drill me for a few minutes.

“Um, I tend to do well at free and back and fly, but I’m horrible at breast. I’m not an IMer either.”

“Okay, I’ll stick you in the free lane today. See how you do and then I’ll put you in back tomorrow and fly next week. Lane four, just follow the others unless you pass them.” The coach walked away to talk to one of the lanes that had finished it’s warm up and I jumped into the water in lane four to have the lane finish it’s own warm up and all five girls stared at me. “You’re Cassie, the new girl?” One of the girls spoke up as she pulled off her goggles to look at me. “I’m Sarah and the lane leader. You better be able to keep up with us, you are starting very late into the season. Oh, and welcome to Jenkin’s High.” She pulled her goggles back on, looked over at the clock on the wall and then took off to the other side of the pool. I looked at the four girls left, but two had taken off before I could ask what we were doing.

“We are doing sets of 500 today. Just keep swimming until I’m done, unless you end up passing me, then just finish whenever whoever is in front of you is done. I’m Linda.” The last girl to leave before me said as she ducked under the water to start the set. I sighed, pulled down my own goggles and took off after her. I learned that the other girl’s names were Terry, Colleen, and Becky after a few more sets. After practice was over, was able to find Mariposa, who was in the fly lane, and shared her showerhead since the locker room didn’t have enough showers for all the girls to have one to themselves. 

“Sarah is a bit of a b***h, so just ignore her. Linda is really sweet, so you two might hit it off, but be careful of Colleen if you aren’t into dating, ‘cause she is all about girl on girl action.” Mariposa explained to me as we walked from the locker room to the main building of the school.

“Girl on girl?” I asked with my eyes blinking. Cassie was starting to turn out to be fun, even though the way I made her was that she could have been a bumbling idiot in modern standards.

Mariposa looked at me with a smile, then looked around and spotted a two kids kissing in the hallway. As we passed them she pointed to them, “See that? That is guy on girl, as in straight. Colleen is about having two girls kissing, which is slightly curved.”

I looked at her and smiled back, “Why are you bringing math into this discussion? Straight, curved, girl on girl, it’s all the same to me; stuff that goes over my head and lands on the other side and then curls around my brain to make me suffer.”

She laughed, “Ha, you should go write poetry, that was actually a very entertaining image.”

My smile froze, “Poetry? I don’t think so. I like history more than writing. There’s just something about already knowing what happened instead of wondering what is going to happen that makes me smile.”

“Then we should go through history homework last since it appears that it might be the easiest for you. Tonight, after practice, we’ll finish up math and possibly start in on science.”

I stuck out my tongue, “Ugh, science. I prefer science fiction, like unicorns and fairies.” I could not believe that sentence came out of my mouth. I was going to shoot Mickey with Cupid’s arrows and then slice him open with his own sword and let Cerberus finish him off.

“You are cute, almost too cute to be in high school. How did you end up this cute? You’ve only been here a day, yet I’ve heard rumors about your brother being a bit of a prick.”

“Ordy? He’s always been a wild child. Our parents try to keep us separate and it seems to do us both some good. We love each other and he watches out for me, but he doesn’t involve me in his life. So, after practice and avoiding Colleen while ignoring Sarah, we finish up with the torture and continue onwards with the less torturous torture?”

“Sure thing, girl. See you at lunch. Take care of yourself until then!” She went off to her first class and I wandered around for a few minutes until I ran into Leo. Looking up at him, I gave him a small wink that only he could see and huge sisterly smile that those around us could see. He smiled back and acting like a big brother, gave me a one armed hug and whispered into my ear, “I was able to talk to Riley,” before he went off to his classes.

School was easier that day then it had been the day before, but given all my knowledge collected over the years, it was easier than smiling anyway. Practice went great and afterwards, Mariposa and I were lounging on her bed, finishing up with math.

“So, even after dating Mark, are you still interested in guys, or have you turned to Colleen’s way of thinking?” I asked out of the blue, hoping it wasn’t going to destroy my cute idiot image.

“Not right now. Sure, there are some cute looking guys on the swim team and once the men’s season starts, you might see some guy that catches your eye, but this year I want to focus more on school than pleasure.”

“Would school include submitting a poem or random piece of artwork into any of the school contests concerning those subjects?” I gave her a huge smile and then rolled over on my back and looked at her ceiling.

“I don’t see why you are so interested in me letting other people know how much I am into art. It’s just a hobby; I could easily compare it to having a grapefruit for breakfast once a week. It’s not something that big, something I really care about, I just do it because I want to whenever.” She flipped over onto her back and stared at the ceiling as well. A few minutes of silence passed between us and then she spoke, “I have no idea how you just did it, but I guess I’ll pull out an unfinished piece of mine, finish it and submit it to next months art contest. Happy now?”

I rolled back onto my stomach, flashed her another smile and pulled out my science textbook, “happy enough that I won’t grumble about doing science homework. Are you going to let me help you make dinner tonight or are you going to lock me in the bathroom again when I don’t realize it?”

She laughed, “I didn’t lock the door to keep you in, I locked it to keep Aaron out. Sorry about that anyway, I didn’t think you’d finish your shower that quickly.”

“So I get to help you make dinner tonight?”

“Not on your life. Go take a shower, you reek of chlorine.”

I got up and bounced over to the door to her private bathroom, “One of these days, you will have to let me help you. It’s polite for guests to help out where I come from.”

I turned on the water in the shower, let it run for a few minutes, then was just about to jump in when the droplets melded together and Leo was staring at me. I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around myself. “What do you want, you melting glacier?”

His jaw clenched and then he folded his arms, “I just want to know how much closer are you to getting her to make another transformation and to finishing this.”

“You are the most impatient immortal in the universe. It’s only the second day and you want to know if the fox has become a fox. No, she hasn’t. But I did get her to decide to submit a piece of artwork. She and Riley can meet that way, but it’s going to take a lot of Riley’s willpower to get her to fall for him. She doesn’t want to date this year, she wants to spend more time focused on school.”

Leo gave a small groan and threw his head back. “Damn it, I was hoping this would be an easy assignment. At least she’s thinking of going artsy on us so they can at least start hanging out together. That has got to give us some credit, right?”

“Leo, just go, let’s give this another week before complaints are made.”

 

A week later, things were looking fine. Leo had finally sorted out the mess of his room and had come up with some interesting images from the crap that he had found. Using piece of trash, he was able to create trash statues of gods and goddesses. I was finally placed into the backstroke lane for swimming and had gotten completely caught up in all my homework. Aaron had stopped harassing me whenever I walked past him. I had also met Riley through Leo and had taken an instant liking to him. He was sweeter than sugar, with a quiet voice and a fox like grace to him that I was envious of. I had taken to eating lunch with him and Leo every other day, which Mariposa found curious. She even took lunch with us once and after meeting Riley, both their eyes grew wide, like they were shocked at something. Looking into their heads, Leo and I found out that Riley knew what she was by her smell and Mariposa thought he was cute, but his handshake was so tight she didn’t want to think of him as boyfriend material since he might be rough all the time. Mariposa had finished her piece of artwork she wanted to submit to the school’s monthly art contest. She showed me what it was and I was shocked into submission.

“It’s beautiful! Where did you get the idea?” I asked her when I knelt down next to the statue she had dragged out of her closet and had set up on the floor.

“Years ago, before my parents died, I remember sitting in the car one day and looking out the window to see two foxes romping around in the field the car was parked next to. I just based this off that memory of those foxes.”

The sculpture was a blur of red and black with a touch of brown and white here and there. It was of one fox lying on the ground, minding its own business. It almost looked like it was about to fall asleep while staring at a piece of grass swaying in front of it. The other half of the sculpture was of another fox in mid leap from next to the lazy fox. It had its jaws open and was on its hind legs, appearing to snap at a passing butterfly or cricket that was annoying it. The sculpture was so lifelike that I could almost smell the grass the two were in, see it swaying in the wind and watch the butterfly escape the frustrated foxes jaws time and time again. “It’s beautiful.” I whispered it again and looked at her with amazement. She might not have shifted into her fox shape for years, but parts of her still wanted to be the fox.

 

The art contest was more of an art show that the students could vote on to see what pieces would go on to be judged at the end of the year in a district wide art show. Leo and I walked through the pieces of artwork, talking about the similarities between some of the pieces we saw here and some that we had seen thousands of years ago. We came to a painting that was of two wolves howling at a moon that a man behind them held in his hands. I stopped and looked to see who had submitted it. Riley Tel. Of course Riley would have something like that to show for himself. Leo had found out that even though Riley’s father was an art critic, Riley had the same feeling about art that Mariposa did. He didn’t do it often, but when he painted or sculpted, he put his entire heart into it. When the time for the judging came, I wasn’t surprised that both Mariposa and Riley were among those who would be judged by the rest of the district. Leo hadn’t submitted anything this time, thinking that if he did, it would diminish either of their chances of moving onwards. I hated to agree with him, but he was correct. Thousands of years of experience of life and he was a master at anything he did. Both Mariposa and Riley hadn’t even made it to the age of 20, so their artwork still had millennia to become as good as Leo’s.

“Hey there sweetheart!” Mariposa came up to me and gave me a big hug. “Did you see all the amazing pieces here? I wasn’t shocked to here that Tel’s painting made it to the next round, but I was truly shocked to hear that my sculpture also made it.” She gave me another hug and then ran off to find Mark.

Riley came up behind me, “She is amazing, isn’t she? Wish she would call me by my first name though.”

I turned to him, “Are you going to do swimming this year? Should be fun.”

 

A month later and I was sitting at lunch with Mariposa when Mark came and slammed a newspaper between us. It was opened to a page on sports and I quickly scanned it, not seeing anything that should catch my eye, so I looked up at Mark with a question on my face.

“Right there. That foreign exchange student is going to kill our team this season. We are so dead!” He pointed at a small blurb that I had overlooked, thinking he wanted us to see something more prominent.

Mariposa picked up the paper and read the contents out loud, “Hailing from Germany, Frej Miller is the new blood that is here to stay until the end of the year, making Leroy High a school that few will be able to defeat. Giving Leroy a new record in football of a winning streak of 13-0, Miller is going on to the swim team to give them the same score. Yesterday’s swim meet, the first Miller was in, was an jaw dropping event in which Miller defeated Quigley High as anchor in the 400 Varsity relay by a mere  tenth of a second, the first time Leroy has defeated Quigley in any sport since 1989.

Will this new face defeat Jenkin’s High at tomorrow’s swim meet, or was it just a fluke. Find out in Friday’s edition.”

Mark groaned, “We are so screwed! I'm normally anchor in the 400 Varsity!”

I looked up at him and gave him a smile, “Don’t worry, if you mess it up, you have Riley and Ordy to fall back on. I’m surprised my brother decided to come out of the closet with his abilities, but the fact that Riley is so good should give you the advantage. You have three strong swimmers, Leroy just has Frej.”

Mark gapped like a goldfish for a few seconds. Mariposa giggled and turned to me, “You just killed him. He was thought to be the best and now you tell him that he’s not the best because there are two others just as good as him. Way to kill a man’s ego. That deserves some applause.” She clapped and continued to giggle a little while Mark stalked off, mouth still agape.