//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Sour Love // by RomeoDKat //------------------------------// “So, you’re positively sure that you have an idea on how I can get more friends here?” I said to Lemon Zest, as I open the door to my locker collect my notes for physics, and to put my bag away. “Dude, will you relax? My plan is so simple, that you’re going to be surprised that you didn’t come up with it. Besides, do I look like someone who’s plans fall flat repeatedly?” she said with a sly smile on her face. “Do you really want me to answer that?” I simply respond with an eye brow raised. “…..Okay fine, I’ll admit that my plans aren’t exactly the best in the world, but I actually thought this one through.” I chuckle a little at her response as I rummage through my locker, “Okay, so what’s this plan of yours?” “Uh dude, it’s simple, join an extra-curricular activity?” Lemon said as though the answer was obvious. The more I thought about it, it honestly was. “That’s a pretty good idea, why didn’t I think of that?” “What did I tell you?” She said with a sly grin on her face. “So, what academic activities and/or athletic teams were you a part of in your own school?” “Well, I was a part of my school’s swim team.” “Alright, we’re on the right track, give me a few moments.” Lemon said as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. She scrolled through her contacts, then put her phone to her ear after selecting one. “…….Yo Zap, it’s Lemon, you got a minute?….Great, I’ve got another potential swimmer for our swim team…. Yes, it’s the new kid….I understand you’re not exactly looking for new swimmers right now, but can you please give him a chance? He might actually impress you……Great, when do you want him to try out?......Okay, he’ll see ya there. Thanks Indigo!” She ended the call and turned to me. “Okay, I just talked to my friend, Indigo Zap. She said that she’ll meet you tomorrow morning at around 6 A.M. at the swimming pool for your tryout.” “Okay, I’ll see if I can get my parents to drive me here tomorrow then.” “Or, I can get my friend Sugarcoat to drive us.” “Wait, what do you mean by ‘us’?” “Uh, it’s called giving my friend support. Besides, you’ll probably want me there to keep Indigo Zap in check tomorrow.” That actually stopped me to think about what she just said. ‘She might have a point. If the phone conversation is something to go by, she’s probably not looking for just any swimmer right now. She’s probably going to make it incredibly hard on me just to see if I’m actually worth something. Maybe having Lemon Zest there wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Deciding that Lemon Zest’s logic was sound, I turned to her and said, “Alright, I’ll take you up on your offer. It’s not going to be a bother to the person you’re going to have drive us tomorrow, right?” “Don’t worry about it, dude, Sugarcoat gets here around time anyway. Besides, she owes me a favor anyway.” “Alright, thanks a lot by the way.” “No problem, dude. What are friends for?” She says with a smile. I respond with a smile of my own, only to lower it as soon as I hear the locker to the left of me open up. I look in that direction and sure enough, there’s Sour Sweet going through her locker. ‘Okay White Foam, just continue on with the conversation and ignore Sour Sweet. So long as you don’t bother her, she won’t bother you, and everything will be just-.’ “Oh hey Sour Sweet, what’s up?” Lemon Zest exclaims as she walks over to Sour Sweet. ‘Oh come on!’ Sour Sweet just looks over her shoulder, before turning around completely to face Lemon Zest. I noticed that as she was turning around, she made a small glare toward me, probably her way of telling me to keep my mouth shut. “Hey, I haven’t been really up to much. Not like there’s anything to do around this time. So what’s up with you?” Lemon Zest doesn’t even bat an eye at that sudden change in tone as she responds, “Oh nothing much, just helping my new friend out with something.” “Oh, really?” “Yep!” Lemon states as she turns to me, “Hey White Foam, have you met Sour Sweet yet?” Before I could respond to her question, Sour Sweet decided to respond for me, “Oh don’t worry Lemon Zest, we have.” Now Lemon Zest responds to her change in tone, probably noticing when she changed it. “Okay, so you already know White Foam then? “I said I met him, we really didn’t get much further in our conversation. Not that I need to.” Lemon Zest looked like she wanted to talk with her further, before reconsidering the idea and turning to me. “Hey White Foam, let’s start heading to class. See ya later Sour.” She says before walking off I just simply nod, happy that Lemon Zest decided to end the conversation there, and followed her. When I did catch up with her, she took a look over her shoulder, and then turns to me before saying, “So now that we’re away from Sour Sweet, can I ask what happened between you two for her to be that sour towards you?” “I accidentally ran into her on the way to my locker yesterday. I tried to apologize to her, but she still gave me cold shoulder. After that, we both headed to our lockers, which caused her to think that I was following her. And then after that, she thought the same thing when we were both headed to class, which turned out to be in the same classroom. The rest of the day was pretty much spent trying to ignore each other as much as possible.” As I told her about my interactions with Sour Sweet yesterday, Lemon Zest just remained silent as she listened to the entire story. When I was done, she remained silent in thought before turning to me. “You said you had class with Sour. Which class is it?” “Physics, history, pre-calculus, and English.” “Wait, you have to deal with her in four of your classes?!?” I nod in confirmation. “Jeez, no wonder you were having such a shitty day yesterday.” She then turns forward to face the direction she was walking. “And she said that she was going to treat others better after the whole friendship games incident.” She said more to herself than to me. I would have questioned her about what she just said, but decided to keep the question to myself. Partially because I saw my classroom coming up, but mostly because what she just said sounded too personal for me to question. Even if it did involve Sour Sweet. “Hey, my classroom’s coming up. I’ll see you around, okay.” “Okay, see ya later.” When I went to my desk, I couldn’t help but think to myself. ‘What could have possibly happened to cause Sour Sweet to want to treat people better?’ The next morning, I made sure to be up early so that I can get ready for Lemon Zest and her friend to pick me up. I had to make sure that I had my goggles, practice swimsuit, and a bag to put them in, just in case I didn’t get a locker in the boy's locker room. Eventually, I heard a car horn outside, signaling that my ride was waiting for me. After getting my bag, I walked out the front door, then made sure that everything was locked up. I walked up the yard to find a Volks Wagon Jetta was waiting out front. I saw Lemon Zest sitting in the passenger seat waving to me and a familiar looking girl with white pigtails behind the driver’s seat. When I got into the back seat of the car, Lemon Zest immediately greeted me. “Hey dude, how’s your morning been? Oh, by the way, this is my friend, Sugarcoat. Sugarcoat, this is my new friend, White Foam.” I nodded to the girl, “It’s nice to meet you Sugarcoat. Excuse me for asking, but do we have a class together? It’s just that you look familiar.” She started driving forward before responding in an almost monotone voice, “Yes, we both have second period history together. I was the other girl that was with Sour Sweet.” “Oh that’s right. I’m sure that she’s told you about me.” “She had some choice words about you. But I didn’t take anything that she said about you seriously. You seem like a decent enough person to me.” Again, maintaining her almost monotone voice. The rest of the car ride to the school was spent getting to know Sugarcoat. As it turns out, she was pretty blunt and monotone when it came to everything she said. However, we did end up getting along pretty well by the time she pulled in to the school parking lot. When she pulled into a spot, the three of us got out of the car and started headed to the pool. “You sure you want to come with us, Sugarcoat?” I asked. “I usually just do a little bit of studying in the library around this time, but since there’s nothing coming up this week, I don’t really have anything else to do.” She answered. “Okay, whatever you say.” It took us around 5 minutes to get to the pool. When we did, we found a blue haired girl talking to various other students wearing swim gear. It was at this moment that Lemon Zest ran ahead of us calling out, “Yo Indigo Zap, we’re here!” The same girl haired girl turned to face Lemon Zest. She then smiled and gave Lemon a simple wave and responded. “Hey Lemon.” She looked over Lemon’s shoulder. “So, is this the guy you were talking about?” She said with a hint of curiosity and indifference. “Yep, this is White Foam.” She then turned to me. “White Foam, this is Indigo Zap. She’s the current captain for just about most of our sports teams, including swimming.” “It’s nice to meet you, Indigo Zap.” I say as I extend my hand out for a hand shake. “You too.” She simply says as she accepts the handshake, gripping my hand as hard as she could and giving my arm a rough shake. “So Lemon here says that you were a part of your previous school’s swim team.” “Yes, that would be correct.” I said, trying to recover from her attempt to dislocate my shoulder. Indigo just stands there as she looks at me, probably giving me a once over to see if there’s anything impressive about me. “Well, your height and arm length are good indications that you were practically built to swim, but other than that there’s not really a whole lot that’s really impressive about you. And, like I told Lemon yesterday, I’m not exactly too hard pressed when it comes to looking for new swimmers right now.” Honestly, I was expecting that kind of response. True, I had the height and arm length down, but then most of the team members I saw when I walked in seem to have that down as well and she hasn’t exactly known me long enough to know how good of a swimmer I was. Sure, it would have been nice to at least show off what I’ve got, but when you already have a full roster for a swim team, you can’t exactly just pick up anybody from the school to fill in an extra slot. I guess all I have to do now is to wait until next year to-. “Oh come on Indigo, haven’t you heard of not judging a book by its cover?!?” Lemon Zest suddenly blurted out, not exactly accepting what Indigo just said. “Look, we already have a pretty full roster for the team and I know that the coach gave me the okay to allow him to join if he meets my approval, but I can’t exactly just let anybody in on the team at this point.” “Yeah, but how do you know that he’s just anybody. You’ll never know how good of a swimmer he is until he tries. Come on, please?” Lemon said, adding the best puppy dog eyes she could make to the last sentence. Indigo for her part responded the same way anybody would to the action, with a deadpanned stare. “……If I come up with some sort of try out for him, would it stop you from embarrassing yourself?” Lemon just shrugged before saying, “Whatever gives him a shot of getting on the team.” Indigo just rolled her eyes before turning to me. “You,” she spoke to me as though she were a drill sergeant, “get changed in the boys locker room. I hope you brought your own suit with you.” “Don’t worry, I brought just in case.” I said as I headed to the boys locker room. It took me a few minutes to walk to the locker room, change, and walk out of the locker room. When I returned, I found Lemon Zest and Sugarcoat waiting patiently outside, but I couldn’t find Indigo Zap anywhere. “Hey, where’s Indigo?” “Well, she just said that she came up with something for you when you left and just walked into the girl’s locker room.” Lemon Zest explained. “I don’t know what she’s up to, but don’t worry; she assured me that she was giving you a fair chance to try out.” I breathed out a sigh of relief. I walked in not expecting much to happen, but now I’m actually getting a fair shot at getting on the swim team. Maybe things are starting to look up. Suddenly, the girl’s locker room opened, revealing Indigo Zap wearing a dark purple one piece swimsuit, a dark blue swim cap over her head, and a pair of goggles in her hands. I didn’t know how to react, Sugarcoat just raised her eyebrows slightly, and Lemon Zest was completely shocked. Indigo just walked up to us before saying, “Your tryout is several races against me. Try to keep up.” She then walked over to one of the lanes, signaling me to follow. Before I did, I turned to the two girls next to me. “So, on a scale of one to ten, how screwed am I?” Sugarcoat just maintained an emotionless expression and shrugged saying, “She’s probably not going to go easy on you.” “That bitch lied to me!” Lemon suddenly yelled out in anger. “Okay, eleven. Got it.” I said, suddenly thinking that this tryout wasn’t exactly fair anymore. Sugarcoat was right, Indigo did not go easy on me. She beat me in every single race that we’ve done so far. The only two events I was able to get close to tie with her was the 50 meter and 100 meter freestyle, but that wasn’t enough to impress her. After the break she had us take after the 100 meter butterfly, she turned to me and said, “Okay, we’ll have our last race for the day be the 500 meter freestyle. If you don’t impress me there, than your last chance will be with the 200 meter I.M., but seeing how well you did with both backstroke and butterfly, I’m not really expecting much with that one.” I nodded in return, agreeing with her presumption, since the 200 I.M. was one of my worst events, along with the 100 meter butterfly and backstroke. But fortunately for me, the 500 meter freestyle was the event that I was good at, excluding the 50 meter and 100 meter freestyle. It was one of the only events that required people to swim long distances, since it was a 20 lap race in a sport that was usually revolved around swimmers swimming on average 100 meters a race, which scared some people from actually swimming it, but swimming long distances was something that I trained myself to do. But I’m also sure that this event was also something that Indigo Zap could beat me in as well. After we waited for two of the swimmers to go to the other end of the pool to count our progress, Indigo and I put our goggles over our eyes and got on the starting blocks, ready for the event to start. When the swimmer who was operating the starter saw that the both of us were ready, she spoke through the pool’s PA system. “Swimmers, get set.” Both of us got to our starting positions. *bzzzzt* At the sound of the buzzer, both of us dove into the water. My strategy for this race was simple, start off slow and progressively build up speed. The idea was to keep my stamina during the race until the last 100 meters, where I would swim as fast as I can possibly go. And that’s exactly what I did. I first started off a little bit faster than what would be considered a warm up, progressively getting faster with each lap. But I soon as I started the last 100 meters of the race, I moved as fast as I could. Sure having just swam 400 meters makes the process of swimming that much harder, but you have to do whatever you need to do in order to win the race. I didn’t care if I didn’t beat Indigo Zap at this point, since I’m sure she just finished when I started the last 50 meters of the race, but I continued moving anyway. Maybe I could impress her enough with a strong finish, so I swam until the very end of the race and reached as hard and as fast as I could. I took a hold of the edge of the pool to catch my breath, expecting Indigo Zap to already be out of the water and look at me with a smug grin. Instead, I found nothing but looks of shock on the faces of everybody in the room. Even Sugarcoat broke her neutral expression. When I looked at Indigo Zap’s lane, I found out why. She was only halfway done with the 17th lap, but instead of finishing the race, she decided to just finish the lap she was on, apparently noticing that I had already finished the race, and turned to me and said, “You know, we haven’t had a swimmer go the 500 meter freestyle as fast as you have for quite a while now.” I raised my eyebrows in response. ‘She’s not saying I actually made it right.’ She then swam over so that she was closer to me before reaching her hand over the lane line. “Congratulations White Foam, you’re now officially a member of the Crystal Prep Swim Team!” I smiled as I accepted her handshake, which thankfully wasn’t as rough as her previous one, while everybody else was clapping in congratulations. Except for Lemon Zest, who was cheering as loud as she possibly could. I climbed out, thinking that nothing, not even Sour Sweet, could possibly ruin this moment. After all, what could possibly stop me stop me from joining the Swim Team when I got the okay from the team’s captain?