This choice: Jessica struggles through physics but Victor takes to the water swimmingly • Go Back...Chapter #6Jessica struggles in class but Victor gets on well by: Jenny Amara   Later, at the university swim center, Jessica inhaled deeply as she entered the pool area. “Ahh, chlorine… *cough* *cough*, ugh, that’s not as pleasant as I remember it,” Jessica said to herself before her new body rejected her enthusiasm. Jessica had spent the last 15 years of her life in pools and had become accustomed, if not affectionate, to the distinct aroma of an indoor pool area. She found it calming to start and then this feeling amped up to one of excitement as she considered how she would soon be accelerating through the water.
That wasn’t going to be the case today though. Jessica looked at the crutches under her arms and felt the her first sense of loss since she had left her home country for the United States for university. Leaving behind all her friends and family had been disruptive to say the least. Meeting Victor had been a blessing, she hadn’t felt comfortable in her new home until she met him. Afterwards, Jessica felt that ease that had always been there before. The ability to tell someone about your day and look forward to the conversation. Also in reverse, Jessica looked forward to hearing about Victor’s days as well.
Jessica scanned the pool area for any sign of Victor and was pleasantly surprised to see him out in the lanes swimming laps already. “Good genes, must literally be in his blood now to want to get out in the water, hehe,” Jessica reveled in the excitement of a plan that was coming together just as she had expected. Watching Victor swimming laps, she was immediately reminded of how skilled she was at swimming. Victor seemed to flow through the water as effortlessly and expeditiously as she was accustomed to. She wished that the same could be said about her experience at Victor’s physics class. Victor only had a few more weeks of class left before the summer semester would start. Jessica always stayed for summer semester but Victor would usually return home to southern California. If Jessica didn’t get her act together, Victor would need to stay the summer semester to retake physics.
Jessica put that from her mind for the moment though, Victor was just getting out of the pool and she wanted to talk to Victor about how he felt swimming.
“Soooo, how did it feel? You looked pretty good out there…”
Jessica watched as Victor toweled off *her* body. It was surreal to see Victor drying off from this perspective. It was like watching herself in a mirror, but also highly unusual. The things she saw didn’t match up with the things she was doing. This created a sense of otherness for something she was otherwise very familiar with. She could practically feel the cool air on her skin as the remaining moisture brought a chill. The feeling was short lived though. Jessica looking over Victor’s body noticed something uncomfortably out of order with Victor. He hadn’t shaved.
“You were totally right, I took to the water like a fish. I’ve never swam butterfly, never even tried it, but your body just made it so easy. So, I think we’re in good shape,” Victor answered Jessica’s question but paused as he saw that Jessica was clearly staring at his crotch. “Earth to Jessica, nothing down there you’ve haven’t seen before,” Victor said placing his hand on his hip again to show his discontent with Jessica.
“Yeah, it’s just, you’ve been putting on a bit of a show it would seem,” Jessica said as she finally redirected her attention and took on a critical look. “You’ve got to shave down there now. Otherwise you’re going to be looking like, we’ll like this,” Jessica said once more looking between Victor’s legs.
Victor looked down and saw the pubic hairs sticking out from both sides of the swimsuit and proceeded to cross his legs. “Yeah, noted. I’ll take care of it,” his face turned beet red.
The two started walking back towards the changing rooms to let Victor get changed out of his wet swimsuit. “Oh, how did physics go?”
“Yeah, it went. Hehe. I’ll have to spend some extra time studying,” Jessica said while scratching the back of her head with her arm up over her head.
“That doesn’t sound good. What happened?” Victor stopped walking towards the changing room.
“Your professor called on me to answer a question from last week. I tried my best, it’s just… I thought I could make something up. He got super mad and told me off in front of everyone. So, yeah, I fucked it up pretty bad, but I’ll make it up to you. I’ll get you a passing grade. I promise.”
“You better, or you’re going to be the one to retake the class for me. I’m not going through that dull as a doorknob class again.”
As Jessica was about to reaffirm her commitment, another woman came by to celebrate *Jessica’s* success in training.
“You looked great out there Jessica! Awesome work!”
Jessica turned to see Natalie Costa, her fiercest rival on the swim team. They both worked extra hard to try and one up the other. So far, it had only been Jessica taking the top spot, but Natalie was undeniably improving. Her performances of late were impressive enough to give Jessica a little doubt. Not enough to be worried, but enough to know that she would still need to help Victor with his training in the run up to the Olympics.
“Earth to Jessica, you got water in your ears?” Natalie said again as Victor made no effort to respond. Jessica stood there next to Victor and pinched his backside to get his attention. “That’s you…,” she whispered under her breath.
“Oh, hey Natalie. Sorry I was just talking to Victor about classes. He owes me a favor so I wanted to make sure he followed through with it,” Victor said glaring at Jessica.
“No worries, I just thought you’d like to know I hit a personal best today in the 400m freestyle. I heard you are going to try your hand at it,” Natalie said as she got right up in Victor’s face. “Don’t get any ideas. This is my race to win, you don’t want to embarrass yourself at qualifiers on Saturday. So, I’d recommend giving up now,” Natalie said with venom oozing from every word. Jessica looked to Victor with trepidation, how would he handle this first confrontation?
“Natalie, a personal record in this pool is as common as pee in the community pool. You know the lanes are short by over a full length. So let me know when you get a good result in a regulation length pool. Oh, and I’ll see you Saturday for the qualifiers,” Victor said as he winked in Natalie and Jessica’s general direction. This was enough to send Natalie off in a huff. Jessica was pleasantly impressed by Victor’s clap back.
“Where did that come from? You sounded like me!”
“Girl, I’ve watched you for years now. I know how you bring it. It was easy to send Natalie packing.”
“And that dig about the pool length? How would you know that?”
“I was just trash talking. I have no idea if that’s true, but Natalie’s self esteem is so low that I figured it would work anyways.”
“You’re so bad! Honestly, that was awesome to watch.”
Victor struck another pose to demonstrate that he was in charge of the situation. He was about to go back into the changing room when he remembered something Natalie had said, “Why did she say you were entering the freestyle race? Don’t you usually just swim the butterfly?”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you. I told my trainer I was going to try out for the freestyle. I’m sure it will all be alright though. Like you said earlier, you took to the water like a fish. You’ll do fine. Worst case we don’t qualify in Natalie’s race, but that’s not very likely. Especially after you knocked her down a notch.”
“Yeah, just promise me you’ll fill me in on any other things I need to know tonight. I don’t want any more surprises.”
“You got it. See you back at the apartment?”
“Yeah, I’ll see you there.”  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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