Ronin Warriors Fan Fiction ❯ Family ❯ The swim meet ( Chapter 14 )

As the weeks passed by, Kento and I became really good friends. I had gotten to know the other guys pretty well too but I never really saw them all that much considering our grade differences. However, we still sat together almost everyday at lunch so at least the could speak for something. But my home life hadn't improved any so I can't say everything was perfect.

I had long since given up trying to call the orphanage. First off, the lovely couple I live with don't have a phone and second, I had lost the number. I tried going by once or twice but each time I went, everyone seemed so happy for me and always wanted to ask me about how my family was. So I would lie and tell them that everything was great. I don't know why but I just didn't have the heart to tell them that it was the farthest thing from great I could think of.

So here I am, once again laying on the floor in the attic and nursing my sore ribs. Covering the bruises was getting progressively harder to do considering I knew the others weren't buying my excuses and I was running out of long sleeve shirts. Each time I would show up with a new bruise on my hand or face, because that's the only parts of my body they ever saw, they would bombard me with questions and I would have to lie more. And we all know how fabulous I am at lying.
There's a swim meet later this afternoon that I've been looking forward to all week. It was a good excuse to avoid here. Granted, I wasn't looking forward to having to explain to my coach or teammates why I was covered in bruises and looked like I'd been caught in the middle of a Civil War, but I figured I had all day to work up a suitable lie. Yay lying!

I stood up slowly, putting light pressure on my newly fractured ankle and gasping. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how it happened. One minute I'm walking through the front door and the next I have a chair thrown at me. I had stumbled backwards over the back steps and stepped into a deep hole, falling back and leaving my ankle stationary in said hole. The crack was loud and definite and I knew immediately that I had done something terrible to the bone.

No use in trying to deny the break either. My foot had turned an ugly purple and swelled to the point that I couldn't put on my shoes. Sounds like a day for flip-flops! I'm going to be in the pool later tonight anyway so why the hell not? I tried wrapping it but that didn't accomplish anything and ice just plain hurt so I gave up trying to be a nurse for the night and just let nature take it's painful course.

I slipped on a sweatshirt and pair of faded blue jeans and limped downstairs quietly. Shimate and Takura were passed out, as was expected, and I quietly made my escape and walked out to the bus stop.

I swear to God it always rains here. It's always either cloudy or raining and there's hardly a middle-ground to look forward to. Today it had chosen to be a dreary, gray morning but I knew rain couldn't be too far behind.

A car sped past me, kicking up water and mud as it passed, and splattering my shirt with the debris. The water was cold and the fabric clung to my skin because of it, causing me to shiver even more than I had been. “ Can today get any worse?” I grumbled angrily, glaring up at the slate colored sky. Lightening flashed ominously and I bitched at myself for asking.

 

Boring, boring, boring, boring, boring, boring, boring! English is so boring! I don't care about who wrote what and at what time and how this affected the literary world we knew today. Yeah, Edgar Allen Poe was a brilliant write but he was a absinthe addict and he married his 14 year old cousin. A fact most English teachers like to paint over with readings from The Raven and The Fall of the House of Usher. To be blunt, the guy was an addict who had a passion for incest.

“ So, Cye,” Kento began. “ Are you psyched about the meet today? Everyone's been bustling about the swim meet for weeks now. Not nervous are you?”
“ Nah.” I replied, shaking my head slowly. “ I'm just a little anxious to get there and get going, you know?”

“ Mmhhmm…”

“ I've been looking forward to it all year.”

“ Mmhhmm…”

“ I wondering how many school are going to attend.”

“ Mmhhmm…”

“ You're not even listening to me are you?”

“ Mmhhmm…”

I looked over to see him balancing a pencil across the bridge of his nose, moving very slightly so it stayed in one spot. “ You have an amazingly short attention span, huh?”

“ Mmhhmm…”

I laughed a rolled my eyes as the bell rang and leaned down to pick up my backpack.

“ Hey man, don't sweat it okay? I hear you're the best swimmer we've had on the team in years so relax. I know you'll do fine.” He grinned broadly and leaned over to collect his things that were tucked under his desk. “ Your parents coming to meet tonight?”

I winced as I put a little too much pressure on my more than likely fractured ankle, biting my lip tight. “ Nah, they couldn't make it tonight…they're going out of town…” I replied, making up a quick lie. God, I've gotten better; which is extremely morbid in a way.

Kento nodded and shouldered his bag, weaving his way between the other students. “ Well, I'd come if I could to root you on but I promised my dad I'd help him at the store tonight since we have a bunch of specials on Thursday nights.”

I nodded, limping after him as inconspicuously as possible. “ Understandable.”

We scooted out way passed all the people and went our separate ways, Kento towards the parking lot and me towards the swimming pool.

 

“ Great job today boys!” Coach Mortin beamed happily, looking every bit like a taller, darker-haired version of Chuck Norris. “ You all did fantastic today and did an excellent job of representing your school!”

I sat quietly, fiddling with the tiny gold swimmer on top of the trophy I'd received. The sweatshirt covered my bruises that I had to bargain my soul for an excuse as to why I had a boot imprint in my lower spine. That was a tough one to get passed when everyone saw it and wanted to know what had happened. I think my lie had something to do with going to rave or a mosh pit because it sounded logical at the time. And I was doing so well with my lying…

“And congratulations to Cye Mouri for winning first place! Let's give him a round of applause, huh?”

Everyone began clapping and I blushed, trying to hide the smile that desperately wanted to make itself known. Someone patted me hard on the back and I gritted my teeth sharply, holding back the urge to turn around and beat the crap out of said person.

“Alright kids,” Coach Mortin continued. “ Everyone go get dressed, no practice tomorrow!”

A roar erupted from my teammates and everyone jumped up excitedly, running to the locker room to change into dry clothes. I pulled myself to a standing position slowly and heard someone call my name.

“ Hey Cye!!”

I looked over to see Ryo on Rowen come running over to me, smiling brightly like everyone else had been that night.

“ We saw the whole thing! You were amazing!” Ryo exclaimed, sliding to a stop in front of me.

“ Yeah, man. You looked like a fish out there…it was kinda creepy for a while.” Rowen added, ruffling my hair gently.

“ Thank a lot you guys. I didn't know the two of you were going to come today.”

“ You kidding? This time of year is defined by swimming and you dominated the pool tonight, buddy!” The blue haired boy went on, glancing over to the last of the other team that had been shooting me “go-to-hell” looks all night. He shot them a glare and they quickly retreated to the locker rooms.

“ We just wanted to come by and say congratulations on you win.” Ryo said, patting me on the shoulder. “ We're about to leave before it gets too late, you should to the same.”

I suddenly wondered why it was that everything Ryo said sounded like an excruciatingly polite command. There had to be a reason for it, or maybe it's just me. I have water in my ears.

“ Will do, and thanks again for coming by, it really means a lot to me.” I replied honestly, smiling unconsciously.

They both nodded and told me to be careful heading home and walked off, leaving me alone by the pool again. I watched them go and waited for several minutes after they had left before turning around and making my way to the locker rooms.

 

The T.V. was blaring loudly as I walked in, and the last of my teammates were heading out the door to go home. The local weather channel scrawled across the T.V. screen in bright color indicating the different weather patterns.

“…and tonight expect heavy rains with periods of sleet and snow. The high tonight should be in the mid-30s with a low of 23*. Remember to wrap your pipes and turn that heater up, folks, tonight's going to be a bad one. For tomorrow's high…”

The channel was immediately switched to an American football game, the announcer's voices echoing through the empty locker room.

Highs in the mid-30's? Damn. I heaved a heavy sigh and pulled on my shoes. Absolutely wonderful, I have to walk home in this…Dam again. I stole a glace at my watch and sighed even louder. 6:53. Perfect, alright, okay. So not only am I going to freeze my ass off it's going to be dark to insult to injury. You know, that really is a horrible saying. Adding insult to injury would be like writing “You're a jerk, you completely deserved this.” on someone's cast. Off topic again.

I bundled up as tightly as I could, pulling my bag onto my shoulder and waving to Coach Mortin as I walked by, pushing to the gym door open as soon as it started raining. Of course.

 

Cye: You're going to make it rain on me? Seriously?!

Me: Hell yeah, it adds drama.

Cye: I think I'm going to cry…