Penelope clutched her gym bag nervously as she and Jezz walked through the doors of an Olympic sized swimming pool that was attached to the school she was now signed up to attend next year. Lilly had offered to go, but Penelope had turned her down, not wanting to disappoint her if she didn't perform well enough to be taken on. Instead, she had asked Jezz to join her, who gleefully agreed after realizing that her last appointment of the day would be done in time for her to go.
A rather sexy looking guy in a lifeguard uniform was monitoring the front desk, and another gentleman was standing in front of it. He was tall, dark skinned, and sported a black Nike tee with a matching pair of pants. He had a somewhat muscular build and stood tall as he patiently waited. A stopwatch dangled from his neck, telling Penelope that this was probably the person she was looking for. "Excuse me. Are you Jeff?" She asked.
"I am. I take it you're Penelope?" He replied, extending his hand at Penelope's nod of confirmation. "Pleasure to meet you."
"You as well. And thank you for taking the time to meet with me today. I really appreciate it."
"No problem. This is a bit unorthodox for how I usually don't do this, but your mom is very persuasive." Jeff responded. The ladies locker room is the last door on the right here-" Jeff said, pointing down the hall that went behind the desk. "And your friend can follow me to the pool deck."
"Okay. Thank you!"
"See you out there, Pennie!" Jezz beamed. She smiled back at her friend, making her way to the area that Jeff had pointed out.
Several minutes later, Penelope emerged onto the pool deck ready to swim. Her hair was tucked up in a swim cap. It had been so long since she had worn one that it felt like it was compressing her head. Penelope realized that she was so nervous that she was uncomfortable in her own skin! She made her way to Jeff, who picked up a clipboard.
"So, I'm not entirely sure how I want to go about assessing you. I know your mom said it has been some time since you last competed. Which means I don't have any scores for you to compare. What events do you perform best in?"
"Well, I used to be good with nearly all of the individual events. 1500 meter freestyle was my favorite, but I also did well and enjoyed IM, because I got to challenge myself with butterfly and breaststrokes, which are a little bit more difficult." Penelope fought the urge to tell the coach how she hadn't swam in a long time, and how she didn't even think she was good enough to make the cut anymore, but she held her tongue. She was going to do this, if not for herself than for Lilly.
Jeff hummed, tapping the pen he was holding against his chin. " Lets do a 10 minute dynamic warmup, and we'll go from there."
"Yes, Coach." Penelope said, finding a spot at the end of the pool to start. She lowered herself into the water, absorbing its cool touch as it enveloped her body. She decided to focus on the water as she kicked off the side of the pool and began her warm up with a breaststroke, swimming a few laps before switching to a backstroke and then some kicks along with a few water exercises in between. She went at her own pace, focusing on her technique as she glided through the water.
Time passed, and Penelope wasn't sure if Jeff was timing her or not. So when she felt like she was warmed up enough, she stopped at the end of the lane and looked towards Jeff, who was writing down notes. She noticed that he'd already had a page flipped over the clipboard. What did all those notes say?
When he stopped writing and looked back at Penelope, he asked "Are you done?" When Penelope confirmed that she was done, he huffed. "Well, that was more than 10 minutes, so we'll have to work on that if you want to compete."
"Oh, I'm sorry Coach! Did you call time? I guess I was enjoying myself a little too much. I must not have heard you."
Jeff looked at her, sightly stunned. "No, I, uh." He cleared his throat. "You know what? I'm just going to let it slide. Lets go ahead and start with freestyle. How do you feel about 100 or 200 meter? We can work our way through each of the individual events from there. You think you could pull that off if we do one after another?"
"How about 200? We can see what my times for both are since its only two laps. I'd like to know if I slow down at all after the first hundred. Is that okay? As for the rest of it, I'm up for the challenge." Though Penelope wasn't sure how her stamina would hold up with doing everything at once. She wondered if there would be a break in between.
Jeff nodded with a half smile. "Alright! Lets see what you can do. Set yourself up."
Penelope set herself up to start while Jeff set up his stopwatch. "On your Mark, get set, GO!"
As soon as she heard the words Penelope pushed off and began to sprint across the pool in a front crawl. With each stroke, she felt her body gliding through the water as if it were effortless. She focused on her breathing and her technique as she made her way to the end of the pool. Before she knew it, she was at the end. She turned, kicking off with power as she headed back to the other side. Again, she found herself there, and again, she turned and kicked. One more, and she was done. She powered through, not thinking about anything else, because nothing else mattered. As soon as her hand touched the end of the pool one final time, she had to tell herself to stop.
Although she wanted to keep going, she gripped the edge of the pool and looked towards Jeff, who was writing down her time. Jezz, who was standing nearby was staring at Penelope with her jaw dropped. "That. Was. Amazing, Pennie! Oh my gosh!"
Penelope grinned at her, but Jeff showed no emotion as he looked up. "200 meter breaststroke. You ready or do you need a minute?"
"I'm good. Lets go!" She said, setting herself up again. The energy was flowing through her body as excitement built up within. As soon as Jeff shouted at her to go, she took off, once again gliding through the water as she focused on her technique and her breathing. The thought of competing was exhilarating, and she realized that she wanted this more for herself than anything. It made her feel so free to be able to finally do something that she wanted to do. Before she knew it, she was back at the finish line again, with Jezz cheering her on between sets.
Jeff then had her do a breast stroke. Than the butterfly, both of which she did 200 meters. By the end of the butterfly, she was starting to slow down. So she took a break and drank some water to regenerate her stamina. When she got to the final event, individual medley, she felt confident and ready to go. She gave it every ounce of strength she had, switching between styles as flawlessly as she could as she worked through them. By the time she was done, Penelope was exhausted. Finishing felt amazing to her, though, and she hoped that she had impressed Jeff enough for him to take her on.
As soon as she stepped out of the water, her nervousness came back to her. Jeff was pawing through several pages of notes that he had taken as he observed Penelope swim. "Your times are pretty good, Penelope. You slowed down during the IM, but I'd still say you held up well. Its been some time since you practiced, right?" At Penelope's nod, Jeff asked "How come you quit?"
"It wasn't my choice." Penelope admitted, hoping that Jeff wouldn't push farther.
Jeff huffed in understanding. "Well, your scores aren't exactly on par with what I expect from my Varsity students. You seem pretty determined, though. I think that with the right kind of conditioning, we can get you there. Are you willing to do the work?"
"Yes, Coach!" Penelope promised.
"Good. Then I will put together a plan and we'll see you bright and early on Monday morning. 7:00 AM. Don't be late."
"Yes, Coach!" Penelope grinned.
Jezz, who had been watching excitedly from the sidelines followed Penelope back to the locker room. As soon as the door shut behind them, she immediately pulled Penelope into a hug and they both began to squeal with delight. "Oh my gosh you were so amazing out there! I can't believe you did all that, girl! I am so speechless right now!"
Penelope smiled and blushed. "Thank you. I was wondering why you were quiet the whole time."
"Oh, that? Dude, as soon as you started your second round, that guy basically told me to stuff it and be quiet. I couldn't even cheer you on! Freaking jerk!"
"That is kind of weird. Competitions get so loud with all the people who cheer. I wonder what his deal was."
"I don't know. He was writing a lot of stuff down. Maybe he thought it was too much of a distraction? Whatever. I'm over it. Now you get changed and lets go celebrate with some coffee!"