"Swimmers on your mark! Prepare for the two hundred meter freestyle."
The announcement caught all four players off guard, especially Eugene and Tim. Lindsey and Judy might be stuck in some weird virtual strange body, but at least they were women's bodies, and they had some prewired references.
Eugene and Pete however, were strangers in a stranger land. Eugene, at least, had played first person video games with a female character, though that was hardly proper training for being encased in a female body. Pete didn't even have that background. And Pete had another secret that was about to surface.
One of the things that all four players were about to discover was their new bodies had the muscle memories of excellent swimmers, among other abilities. When the starter gun fired, those muscle memories kicked in.
Well, almost all of the muscle memories kicked in.
Up until age thirteen, Eugene had been a competitive swimmer, and was a very good one too. If his home life hadn't fallen through, Eugene might have gone to college on a swimming scholarship. His coaches all thought Eugene could have developed into an Olympic caliber swimmer.
Unfortunately, not long after his thirteenth birthday, Eugene and his mother had to leave the house in the community with the Olympic pool and training staff. By age eighteen, Eugene and his mother, through a combination of an academic scholarship, grants, loans and savings, could afford to send Eugene to Northpoint University. But the dreams thirteen year old Eugene had once had, had long since vanished.
But somehow, when the starter gun fired, the new body and old memories meshed, and Eugene in his new body almost flew through the water. It would be an exaggeration to say Eugene finished the race before the other three even started it, but not by much.
Second place went to Judy. Judy may have not had Eugene's swimming background, but her family spent summers on the water, whether it was floating, rafting, sailing...whatever. Judy's body didn't react the way Eugene's had, but when the starter gun went off, and she saw Eugene start swimming, she followed suit. Her comfort with the water, combined with her new body's abilities, let her come in second.
Lindsey was strictly a pool party and water park swimmer. She was comfortable enough in the water, but not to the extent that Judy and Eugene were. Plus, when the starter gun had gone off, she had been examining her hands. She was sure that this was all somehow some super advanced virtual reality program, and she was trying to figure out how it worked. So it took her a couple of seconds to realize that a race had started. Plus, she was geeking at how real the water and everything felt.
Pete was never a threat, though. First, Pete couldn't swim. So even with his body's abilities, he splashed and walked around more than swam.
As soon as the four climbed out of the pool, the pool disappeared, and was replaced by a green lawn.
The four students still had the bodies they swam with, which were still dripping wet.
Eugene was still a little freaked out at being a woman, and Lindsey was still geeking out at how "real" everything felt. Judy seemed to be the one who was adjusting to this immersion experience best. She was keeping an eye on her boyfriend, though. If Eugene looked like he was freaking out, Pete looked like he was just a few steps away from going catatonic. Judy had initially found it pretty funny that Pete had gotten stuck in a woman's body, but now she was a little worried. Well, more than a little worried.
Jody was about to start a conversation with Eugene, to compliment him on how he dominated the swimming event (and try to draw him and her boyfriend out of any shells that they might be trying to dive into), when
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