Jonathan’s recent confidence trip was demolished if it had not already been before this moment. There, Jonathan stood in a red Speedo, mortified. “You ready kid?” The coach bellowed from the opposite side of the pool. The more Jonathan looked to the end of the lanes, and the more he realized how nervous he was, the longer the lanes appeared. “Um, yeah I guess so. Gimme a sec.”
Jonathan then progressed to wedge an earplug into the cavity of his ear. It was made increasingly difficult as his hands shook, but by god he would do it. “Good luck.” Gauge appeared from behind, placing a hand on Jonathan’s quivering shoulder. “What? Oh, thanks.” Jonathan’s confusion distracted him from the violent shove Gauge delivered to the shoulder his hand occupied.
“You bastard!” Jonathan hollered, half stifled from the water filling his open mouth. Gauge stood above him, as he always did- whether or not it was figurative. Smug and self satisfied, Gauge retreated to the steam room. Whether or not the coach even scolded the swimmer was unknown to Jonathan as he pulled himself out of the water. He lost his earplug. “You ready to start now?” The coach bellowed again.
“Yeah.” His voice broke with humiliation and fury. He dove into the water with mediocre grace. Arm over arm, gotta keep going. Kick and scoop, that’s the way. Breathe! Jonathan’s head bobbed above water, gasping, but not stopping, until now. He heaved his upper body onto the side of the pool, wheezing. The coach hoisted him out of the water and waited for the boy’s breath to come back to him.
“Sorry kid. If you can’t do a 100m stretch, well I’m sorry.” The coach shook his head and turned on his heal, leaving the humiliated student to gather himself and get changed.
At this moment, Jonathan was far too angry to shout. It was Gauge’s fault. If he wasn’t already so worked up he could have made it! Not only could he have made it, he could have made in a damn good time too. Fuckers.
The next day, the anger still hadn’t come to a simmer. It boiled inside him like the water he used for the macaroni he made that morning.
He slammed his tray on the first empty table he saw. He whipped the chair out and back to sit on it. He stabbed his Jell-O with an awe-inspiring force. “Um, do you want me to leave?” Oh. There was someone at this table. “No, sorry I didn’t see you. I’ll go.” Jonathan muttered, gathering his injured Jell-O when the guy opposite him interrupted him. “No, it’s ok really. My name’s Andrew, what’s yours?” Andrew leaned forward, oddly enthusiastic. “Uh, Jonathan.” He answered, a bit taken back by Andrew’s assertiveness. “Cool. I see you have orange Jell-O. A nice choice, but I bet Obi Wan would go for green.”
Andrew, the strange blond boy smirked. If Jonathan was only a little taken back by the purple stripes and white tear-aways , now, he was aghast. Was it that obvious that he was a Star Wars geek? Or was Andrew just that strange? “Um, that’s nice, but I’m allergic to the lime flavoring. Plus, I think he would choose blue.”
“No, no, no. The Enterprise would destroy the Ubrikkian Talon Combat Cloud Car in a race across the Galaxy! The Enterprise can go at LIGHT SPEED! Your Cloud Car can ONLY GO 1500 KM!” Andrew shrieked, arms flailing. “Hmm..Well it would kick ass in an obstacle course.” Jonathan added, realizing he’d been beaten. “Touche young grasshopper.” Andrew grinned.
“So why were you so hostile at lunch?” Andrew asked. “That’s blunt.” “That’s avoiding the question!” “I tried out for the swim team.” “Ah, didn’t make it?” “No. I didn’t even finish because of that a-hole Gauge.” “You should have used the Vulcan Death Grip on him.” Andrew chimed in. “I wish, but I was too busy inhaling chlorine to do anything about it.” Jonathan fumed, and Andrew’s eyes nearly jumped out of their sockets. “You tried out for the swim team and you couldn’t swim? Silly, silly-” Andrew was abruptly cut off. “I know how to swim you dolt! Gauge pushed my in the water, and I wasn’t expecting it.” Jonathan’s bitter mood returned to him, as it had left with all the wonderful Star Wars and Star Trek discussion. This guy Andrew was strange indeed, but could he ever keep up a conversation. “Well that sucks, but do you want to come for supper at my place tonight? My Mom is making burritos.” Andrew asked with such a phony Mexican accent that Taco Bell would have cried. He grinned with hope as he waited for Jonathan’s response. “Sure.”
Jonathan made a new friend. Not the first, but just about the only at the moment. It wasn’t like he had no acquaintances, but the conversations with others were always quite dull. With Andrew though, they were strange to the point of insanity, but they had a welcome friendly tone with everything. Plus Andrew loved Star Wars as much as he did.
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