Pii!
Coach Sarah Martin's whistle pierced through the air. She was a tall dark woman who had kept her hair in ponytails for so long that her hairline had started receding, giving her a larger forehead.
"Ok, that's it for practice!" She yelled at the top of her lungs as I pulled myself out of the pool, reeking of chlorine.
"Great job today, everyone," Coach Sarah continued. "But we're not done. We have practice again, same time tomorrow. As you already know, we have our first meet for the semester coming up in a week's time, and we all need to be in our best shape. Drink lots of water, spend more time in the gym, work on your form and your strokes. Yes, I'm looking at you, Seth."
The biggest guy on the team tried to hide an eye roll as he pulled off his swim cap.
"Your backstrokes are getting sloppier, make them better or you won't be participating in the upcoming meet," she warned. "We need to win this if we want to move to the regional level. Amina has the..."
Tuning Coach out, I yanked my swim cap and goggles off, plopping down on a nearby bleacher. I had completely worn myself out after practicing for a whole two hours. But on the bright side, I'd managed to improve my time and speed for breaststroke, all thanks to... when my eyes landed on her, they threatened to bulge out of their sockets because the scene before me was both astounding and revolting, to say the least.
At the farther end of the pool, quite close to the doors leading to the locker rooms, Princess had her arms wrapped round Ethan's neck. He also had his arms locking her waist, squeezing her ass from time to time, and Princess appeared to be enjoying the gesture since she kept giggling anytime Ethan's hand moved.
Triggered by the scene, Akunna and Deon's narration of the couple's relationship echoed in my ears. The cold hard truth was right in front me, and as much as I didn't want to believe it, it didn't stop Ethan and Princess from sharing a very passionate kiss.
"Appiah!"
My head darted away from the scene and I jerked up from the bleacher.
Coach Sarah approach me with all smiles. "That was some stellar swimming today," she complimented and I realised half of the team was looking at us. Daniel in particular was eyeing me like some hawk locked on its prey.
Coach continued regardless, "Keep it up and you might become one of the prodigies on the team."
"Wow, umm th-thanks Coach." I nervously scratched the back of my head.
As a response, she let out a soft chuckle before dismissing everyone.
My eyes immediately veered back to the spot close to the locker rooms, only to discover that Ethan and Princess were no longer there. I picked up my swim cap and goggles, making my way over to the showers to wash away the strong smell of chlorine on me. I understood that it was necessary for the chemical to be in the pool to keep the water clean. But the janitor really needed to tone down the amount he puts in there.
The showers were already occupied by the time I arrived. It was an open rectangular room with tiled floors, walls and a long drain in the middle, dividing it into two equal parts. Each part had six separate shower heads sticking out from the wall. Boys huddled under the sprays of water, washing away the chemical amidst amicable chatter.
"Hey!" An arm suddenly clamped me on the shoulder and I turned to find a grinning Ethan. "Heard Coach acknowledged your swimming today." He steered me in the direction of a shower head that had less people underneath. "You must be stoked, huh?"
"Yeah," I replied before inserting myself under the shower. "I'm just hoping that's enough for her to put me in one of the beginning heats during the meet next week."
"With your rate of improvement, you don't have anything to worry about. You'll definitely be in the meet," Ethan assured me, and since he was the team captain, his words put me at ease.
"I remember when I first joined the team. After just two weeks of practice, I was selected to represent the team in the 100meter freestyle and butterfly events while the so-called 'big dogs' were all benched. You should've seen their faces on that day," he chuckled. "They were so pissed."
"Hope they didn't clobber you." I stepped out of the shower so he could have his turn.
"As if they could," Ethan remarked. "The selection is not about how long you've been on the team; it's about how well you swim and those guys clearly weren't good enough. Cuz even after those two events, I still had the strength to do a relay with Daniel and the others in the finals."
"Wait." My eyebrows raised. "You swam in a relay with Daniel?"
Ethan swiped water out of his face then gave out a flat yeah. "But that was a long time ago, you know. Before he became a pussy."
"A pussy!"
The venom riddled tone was all it took for my stomach to clench in fright. I turned to the left and surely enough, Daniel stood a few feet away from us, hands balled into fists. "Is that what you call someone who found out the truth about you? A pussy?"
The sudden outburst drew attention to us, and I found myself fumbling. "Um, Daniel, calm down. Ethan didn't mean-"
"Look D, I don't know what the heck is wrong with you." Ethan screwed the shower closed. "But it's obvious that you're still delusional."
Daniel's nostrils flared at the insult but Ethan wouldn't stop talking. He faced him with his own mask of anger. "The only truth about me is the one you're refusing to accept. It's the fact that I'm a better swimmer than you are!"
"That's bullshit and you know it!" Daniel spat, drawing closer and I stepped out of his way. The dude was minutes away from punching someone, and the last thing I wanted was to be tangled up in a fight. "You're a liar and a cheat! Everything you have; the captain of the swim team, the two-time champion of Penfield's Annual Swimming Competition, you earned all that through dubious means. You don't deserve them because you're a fraud!"
Ethan threw his head back in laughter. "I don't deserve them, but you think you do? Is that why you joined the team again? Oh God, this is so funny." He bent over, laughing even harder and ignoring all the eyes on him. "But it's good. It's good that you joined again." Ethan regained his composure, brushing away a tear of joy. "It's very good. This way, I can wipe the floor with you a second time, then the message will finally stick in that thick head of yours, asshole."
In the blink of an eye, Daniel sent a tight fist flying right into Ethan's face. My body scrambled into action, catching my friend as he staggered backwards. A spritz of red touched the blue tiles and when I pushed Ethan back onto his feet, a hefty amount of blood trailed out of his nose.
"Let go off me, you assholes!" Daniel tried fighting off Seth and the others who were doing everything they could to hold him back.
"Fuck you!" He clawed at Seth's bicep. "Fuck you all! You're helping the faker! He's got you all fooled! It's only a matter of time before he shows you how stupid you've been!" His rage filled eyes moved from Ethan to me and I flinched at their intensity.
"You think he's your friend, think again!" He bellowed out. "He's going to hurt you. He's going to hurt you so bad you'll even curse the day you met him!" Daniel wrestled forward, but the boys pushed him back, hauling him out of the showers.
"Fuck," Ethan grunted, cradling his bleeding nose. "This is why I told that dumb Coach not to put him back on the team." He turned the shower closest to us on, and began washing away the blood.
Water droplets pelted hard against the tiled floor, but they did nothing to drive out the echoes of Daniel's words ringing in my ears.
¤¤¤¤¤
Hooking my sports bag on my shoulder, I exited the locker room with my next destination being the Science building.
After the whole shower incident, Daniel was taken to Coach Sarah's office whilst Ethan headed over to the infirmary to have his nose fixed.
It was so hard to believe that those two used to be friends. The way Daniel glared at Ethan after he'd punched him...it was like he'd been harboring ten years of pain and anger. If Seth and the others hadn't intervened, I was absolutely certain that Ethan wouldn't be breathing by now.
"Hey bestie!" Princess appeared at my side, and as if on cue, the image of she and Ethan kissing flashed in my head. I hurriedly brushed it away.
"Where are you heading?"
"The Engineering Science building, for my club meeting."
"Oh the nerds."
"They're not nerds."
"They definitely are," she chortled beside me, "All of them, including you. But the only difference is that you're a cute nerd."
My head snapped in her direction. The last time a girl called me cute was back in senior high school form three, and she only did so because she wanted me to teach her during our WASSCE exams.
Dude, relax my subconscious chipped in, she's just flirting.
Flirting? Why would she be flirting? She already had a boyfriend and speaking of him, "Hey, shouldn't you be at the infirmary?"
"No, why would I be there?" Princess lifted an eyebrow.
"Ethan is there. He got hurt this afternoon."
"So?" She let out a light chuckle. "I'm not his babysitter. Ethan can take care of himself." With that, she slipped past the building entrance.
I could hardly call myself a relationship expert, but I was also a hundred percent sure that no girlfriend would behave this way after finding out that her boyfriend had been hurt. She would either panic or freak out, but to act indifferent? My gaze locked on Princess as she descended the stairs. Is she really dating Ethan?
Pushing past the doors, a swell of hot air hit me in the face and I immediately began missing the AC inside the Sports Complex.
"Hey, Akwasi." Princess waved at me from the bottom of the stairs. She had stopped a *FanYogo vendor and was happily sucking on a FanChoco packet. "Which flavour do you want?"
I quickly jogged down the stairs. "You know, Coach would kill us if she saw us buying packets of processed sugar."
"Mm." Princess pulled the packet out of her mouth. "She's even lucky I didn't add a pastry."
I chuckled before turning to the vendor. "Den na ÉwÉ ho?" [What do you have in there?] And the vendor began listing the variety of yoghurt flavours he had in the icebox attached to the front of his bicycle.
"Ok mame Funky Banana baako." [Ok give me one Funky Banana.]
The vendor slotted a hand into the icebox and pulled out a frozen Funky Banana packet, wrapped it in paper, then handed it over.
"Nti meenu no bÉyÉ sÉn?" [So how much will the two packets cost?] I asked, pulling out my wallet to pay for both mine and Princess' yoghurt.
"Three cedis," the vendor replied and before I could open my wallet, Princess slapped a fifty cedi note in the vendor's hand.
"Gye, fa change no." [Take, keep the change.] She smiled.
"Oh medaase!" [Oh thank you!] the vendor beamed, delighted with the gesture.
"Ah, no. Wait," I opened my mouth to protest, but Princess had already started moving away. The vendor too shoved the money into his vest pocket and mounted his bike.
"Ah Princess, wait!" I darted past the vendor, sprinting towards her. It was only when I grabbed her shoulder that she turned around, still sucking on the cocoa treat.
"What?"
"What do you mean what?" My eyebrows dipped low. "You just paid fifty cedis for two packets of yoghurt that cost less than five cedis."
"Yeah, I know," she pulled the pack out of her mouth, lips crawling into a smirk. "And you saw how grateful the vendor was, he needed the money."
Her feet started moving again and I quickened my pace to be at par with her. "Yeah well as much as I admire your generosity, I still think you should've saved that money and let me pay."
"Oh please." She spared me a glance and scoffed, "With the money Ethan showers on me, I could even buy you."
"Ethan?" I stopped dead in my tracks. "Wait, Ethan gives you money?"
"Yeah." Princess flashed me a grin. "That's one perk of being friends with the Mayor's son."
A number of questions stacked themselves up in my head. But before I could sort out which ones to ask first, Princess tossed an "I gotta go" over her shoulder.
"See you at practice tomorrow!" She added, running across the street to a group of girls from the cheerleading team.
I sighed, watching her until my phone whistled with a text message. Shola's name glowed on the screen.
Change in our meeting venue.
We're all grouping at the department's lab.
See you soon.
*****
*FanYogo ~ also known as FanYoghurt, is a skimmed frozen yoghurt treat produced by a company called FanMilk. The product comes in a variety of flavours; strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, mango and passion fruit, funky banana and cocopine. They're usually sold by vendors on bicycles with a medium sized ice box on the front and another box of pastries at the back.
Thanks for reading this week's update. Have a great dayâ¤