Mexico dipped her toes into the warm water as she padded along the edge of the pool, waiting for the rest of the class. She had had a swim during their break, as she was on the Swim team and it was good to get some practise in.

The rest of the class arrived slowly but surely, and eventually the two Coaches piled in, too. They both acknowledged Mexico with a smile and a nod - she was one of their best swimmers. Barbara-Ann immediately came out to Mexico with a grin, nudging her as the others filed in in their bathing suits.

Girls weren't allowed to wear bikinis and boys weren't allowed to wear skintight boxer trunks - so they all looked stupid in oversized baggy trousers and some of the girls looked pissed in swimsuits.

Barbara-Ann hoped to God that none of the trousers would come off in the pool: that would be a scarring sight.

She watched Alisha as she stepped into the water, acknowledging her long hair and wide hips with a mixture of frustration and envy.

"ALISHA!" Coach Lauren screamed, blowing her whistle twice. "NO ONE IN THE WATER UNTIL I SAY!"

At this a few students burst out laughing, then quickly smothered their giggles as Coach Matthew glared around the pool. Lauren had an incredibly strong Southern accent which would send even the most serious students into fits of laughter. She sounded like an adult version of Honey-Boo-Boo, and didn't look that dissimilar, either.

"Okay, kids, gather round. Today we gon' be learnin' 'bout how you do some good ol' divin'!"

Barbara-Ann exchanged a mischievous smile with Mexico. They in particular enjoyed mocking Coach Lauren and always found swimming lessons extremely entertaining because of her.

Both coaches demonstrated a headlong dive into the pool and Coach Matthew took the boys to one diving board whilst Lauren stayed with the girls on their board.

"Alisha, you can star' us off."

Alisha climbed onto the board with relative frustration, knowing that she wouldn't be able to make the leap correctly. She stood paralysed for a few minutes, before Coach Lauren bellowed for her to jump.

Alisha tumbled into the water in fright, just managing to clumsily tuck her legs underneath her before crashing into the water. Her blond hair floated around her as she swam annoyedly to the side of the pool.

One of the girls sniggered, and someone burst out with the common catchphrase - "A-least-ya-tried!". Alisha emerged from the water with a scowl, glowering at Pencil who had called her out from across the pool.

"Fuck off, Rubber-boy." Alisha said loudly, at which Coach Lauren rolled her eyes.

"I'll be rubbering up for you in bed." Pencil murmured lustily under his breath. Thankfully none of the girls nor the coaches heard it - only Pencil's best friend who sniggered quietly.

"Righ', les have Mexico givin' it a go on highboard nex'!" Coach Lauren announced enthusiastically.

Mexico pulled a poignant face of disgust before slowly making her way up. She'd been on the school's swim team for the past six years of her life, so she could just about manage a nine-foot dive.

Lauren and Matthew both clapped enthusiastically as Mexico executed a perfect dive, cutting through the water as cleanly as Trump's wall would cut through the Mexican border.

Barbara-Ann extended her hand for a high-five, chuckling as Mexico simple rolled her eyes boredly.

They gradually made their way through the rest of the group until everyone had had a go - then Coach Lauren and Matthew simply sat back and let everyone dive into the pool and swim around to have some fun for the remaining half an hour. As you can see, their school wasn't particularly big on rules.

Barbara-Ann looked around the room self-consciously as she stepped into the water. Bluebell-Rose and Jock were already passionately tearing at each other in a corner of the pool - she knew that within seconds one of the coaches would threaten to forcibly rip them apart if they didn't separate.

She felt a jolt and suddenly she was sent sprawling into the water, landing painfully on her stomach, turning around just to have Mexico splash her playfully. Barbara-Ann discreetly re-directed her eyes to the clock on the wall.

"Look at them go." Mexico commented, nodding at Jock Primrose and Bluebell-Rose Honey Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby making out in the corner of the pool. "I would much rather be a virgin than be like her."

"Definitely."

"But don't call her a bitch. Then we're the ones stooping to her level."

"I'll call her a bitch when she acts like one, which is, like, all the time."

"We need to be the better people, Babs. Let her say shit if she wants to. Look at her - she's the one that should be shamed." Mexico rolled her eyes. "I'm British!" She exclaimed in a terrible fake English accent.

"Let me have some tea and scones! Pinky up!"  Barbara continued loudly.

"Oh, yes, my dear, what about the Queen?" Mexico practically shouted. Bluebell-Rose detached herself from Jock and glared at them, and Mexico snorted.

Everyone knew Bluebell-Rose wasn't actually British - her real surname was Potter (arguably cooler than her unpronounceable sextuple-barrelled one). When her parents had gotten married, they had gotten their names legally changed to Heathcote-Drummond-Willoughby and fabricated the lie that they were descended from posh British families.

They had then given their poor daughter a long flashy name to match, resulting in the creation of an epic six-word tirade - which was called out at the beginning of every lesson by mocking teachers when they took roll call.

"Shut up, you fucking prude!" Bluebell called a few moments later. It had obviously taken her a long time to think of this witty insult. "I'm not surprised, to be honest, it's no wonder no one wants to go near you!"

"We had this conversation like, yesterday, Ms Pillow-Coat-Hecking-heck."

Bluebell-Rose sneered contemptously and turned back around, instantly attaching herself to Jock and convulsing strangely against him, like he was a bare light and she was a moth sizzling sexily to death on him.

"I hope her fake-ass weave falls out." Barbara-Ann spat viciously. She wasn't the best at insults - besides swearing and commenting on people's hair she was a bit limited.

"Let's just forget about her." Mexico shrugged. "Tell me about what happened yesterday!" She dived under, getting her hair wet again and throwing her head back to create that arch of water over herself that you see in 12-year-old's Instagram profile pictures.

"Oh my god, it was so fucking awesome. So I get home to find that the movie was literally broken - like I hadn't touched it or anything but it was snapped in half! I called the shop cause I was so fucking pissed, like that's not chill, and..."

"What movie?"

Barbara-Ann blushed. "I can't remember right now, but anyway, so she told me that I would get my money back, so I took my receipt but fucking hell, as I went into the shop I saw a fifty on the ground, and I stepped on it real fas-" Ann broke off. "You even listening to me? Sweet Jesus, of course you're not." She shook her head disappointedly.

Mexico was watching Jeikeh enamouredly as he flexed his paltry muscles, showing off to the small group of girls around him. He attracted some admiration - not as much as Jock but enough to be desirable to Mexico.

He more or less had the smouldering good looks of an average bad boy - but in reality he ate too much and didn't go to the gym, meaning he had little to none muscle mass. He also enjoyed getting fake tans a little too much, and the strange addiction had led to a build-up of colour on certain parts of his body - such as his neck - where the skin was almost orange.

However, he'd managed to achieve a perfect golden shade for his face, and that was all Mexico cared for - he could always wear a turtleneck whilst the fake tan wore off.

"Don't you think he's smoking  hot?"

Barbara-Ann raised an eyebrow as if she couldn't possibly ever find anyone hot. "Who?"

"Jeikeh, duh!"

"Yeah, uh..." Barbara-Ann regarded Jeikeh with thinly veiled disgust. Only Mexico was gullible enough not to detect her distaste. "He's okay, I guess, uh... eh."

"You don't like him, do you?"

"Oh, hell no!" Barbara exclaimed rapidly. Mexico assented - she immediately knew her friend was being serious - glad that she had less competition for the prize.

"I think he's very sweet." Mexico giggled girlishly as he glanced at her with a smile. They'd been good friends for a long time, and they had a wide friendship group that included herself, Barbara, Jeikeh, and then a string of others including Daisy, Maddie, RJ and Stephen, and Alisha.

The closest members of the group - Jeikeh, Barbara, Mexico, RJ and Alisha had been planning a roadtrip for an eternity. They were all so excited to graduate and they needed some way to mark this life-changing moment.

And what better way to get lost than with an old classic roadtrip? They would all rejoice in wanderlust  and eat tons of crap and have the time of their lives as they sped off down bleak, grey and boring American highways.

They would drive up to New York, then out to Kentucky, then back down to Virginia.

Originally they had wanted to go down to Florida, but it was too far and anyway, the South at the moment wasn't the safest place to take a black teenager, a Venezuelan teenager and three unassuming white ones.

They were both distracted by a new commotion across the pool. Rainbow was being ordered out of the water by Coach Matthew, who bore an angry expression.

"Rainbow, forcing yourself on other students is not correct! AND NO PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION!" He bellowed, directing himself in part to Jock and his illustrious mate. They broke apart only to resume seconds later.

"You wouldn't be telling me off if I was a guy!" Rainbow snapped angrily at the coaches.

Anyone sane human would think that she was making a feminist claim - but in reality, she was making a homophobic remark, arguing that the school would consent two boys kissing but not a boy and a girl.

Rainbow angrily made her way out of the pool stroppily, swaying her hips as she walking over to Lauren and Matthew.

Barbara-Ann found it absolutely wild that someone called Rainbow could be a homophobe - yet here she was in the flesh. She had a few anti-gay cartoons taped to her locker and DIE FAGS scrawled on many of her binders and notebooks. Last year she'd bullied a bisexual boy to the point where his parents got in touch with the school and she was suspended for a fortnight - but she hadn't stopped there.

"Does she even know that Matthew is gay?" Mexico asked Barbara, who chewed on her lip pensively as they watched Rainbow shout the two coaches down, complaining that in today's perverse world a guy and a girl could no longer be intimate in public for fear of offending the gays.

Rainbow delivered a solid tirade for five minutes until Matthew simply rolled his eyes and gestured for her to go back to the pool, talking quietly to Lauren for the next few minutes.

The only other remarkable person in the pool was Vlad - well, not exactly in the pool.

He was - quoting - "morally opposed" to having to undress in front of his classmates (everyone secretly thought he just didn't know how to swim). This meant he got to sit out of all swimming lessons, and he normally sat there reading his scripts in preparation for the next school play: he always got the main male role.

Coach Lauren blew her whistle loudly - that was her favourite part of her job - and people began to slowly emerge from the pool. No one had swum so much as a lap, except Jeikeh who had swum two laps (before getting a cramp and having to be rescued by Coach Matthew) in order to impress some girls.

"Well, that was fun!" Mexico exclaimed sarcastically, then turned to Lauren with a more serious expression. "Is training on today?"

"Naw, not today, Mexico. Next week we're gon' have three sessions instead o' two."

"Awesome, thanks Coach."

Barbara-Ann and Mexico headed into the locker rooms, which were always a nightmare for both of them (but particularly Barbara-Ann) because of the long queues for the showers. However, eight or nine girls were gathered around Bluebell-Rose as she told them about how she'd had sex with Jock six times already, so Mexico was able to sneak into the showers before all them.

"Swimming sessions are always weirdly entertaining."

"They are." Barbara-Ann muttered through gritted teeth. "So much fun."

A/N

Sorry for the delay in posting guys, hope you enjoy this chapter

xox