Six days a week. On Tuesdays and Thursdays an extra practice at six thirty in the morning. That was the deal.

My dads weren't too happy but they didn't protest. I spoke to Coach Williams about the decision he had to make about me having a place in the competition or not, and I was just grateful that he chose to include me in the team and not bench me. I couldn't care less if I had to get up before the sunrise every single day, as long as I made it to the competition and scored a good place.

The winter competition was on the final week before Christmas break and that meant that I had two months and a half to fully prepare for it. Which was why I was currently practicing, on a Tuesday morning, while it was still pitch black outside.

Lap after lap, I was unstoppable. I didn't even look at the big white clock that was hanging on the wall behind the bleachers. I felt alive. Immortal.

I rolled my body in a ball, pulling my knees up to meet my torso as I was approaching the wall. I performed a perfect backflip that led to a smooth send off as my feet hit the wall. And there I was again, going on another lap of breaststroke.

The best part of early morning practices is that I get the swimming pool all to myself. I'm not really a social butterfly so - and I am definitely not being sarcastic here -, you can imagine my amusement when I got there at six thirty and I had the large, olympic sized pool all to myself.

However, that joy didn't set up to last much longer. While I was focused on my breaststrokes, the sound of a dive was sending off all the alarms in my head. I didn't even make it to the other end of the pool. I stopped halfway and I got my head out of the water. Pulling up my goggles and resting on top of my head, I looked around. I didn't see anyone, I only saw a pair of slippers sitting neatly by the silver coloured ladder. I pulled down my goggles again, adjusting them to my eyes and went underwater, looking for the intruder in the pool.

I saw them. But I couldn't tell who it was. Working on their warmups, it was hard to tell. But it was easy to figure out it was a guy, since the only piece of fabric on them were a pair of black shorts.

I lapped my way to the border and got out, chlorine filled water dripping over me. With my feet in my pink rubber slippers, I walked to the other side of the pool, waiting for the unknown swimmer to come back.

When the intruder came back, he stopped at the border to take deep breaths and looked up at me when he noticed my shadow hanging over him.

Oh, no way.

"I usually prefer it when girls are below me, if you know what I mean, but I'm not opposed to this switch of positions."

"Funny." I showed Noah Wilson a fake smile filled with sarcasm. "I would love to know how you managed to get all of that hair inside the cap."

"It's kind of like how you do it." He pointed up at me. "But I could always show it to you one day."

"What are you doing here?" I asked, ignoring his previous words.

"I could ask you the same thing, Barbie doll."

With Noah looking up at me, and under the flourescent lights of the arena, I noticed his features for the very first time. His eyes were brown. Dark chocolate brown just like his hair, and they matched the freckles that gently decorated his golden skin perfectly. Like an imperfect, reckless painting.

"I'm here for early practice." I managed to explain, pushing aside my unwanted thoughts.

"Well, me too."

I stayed still, unable to move while the neurons in my brain almost had a shortcut as I tried to wrap my head around this news.

"Why?" Was all I managed to ask.

"First of all, it's none of your business." I instantly rolled my eyes at his response and turned in my heels to walk out of there. He continued his speech.

"Second of all, shacking up with you at the hospital caused me to miss out on a lot of practice so I need to make up for that." I immediately turned around and went back to where I was standing. "Plus, extra afternoon practices are out of the picture for me because I've got to go to work."

"Say that one more time and I swear to God I'll rip that cap and that hair out of your head altogether." I said through gritted teeth.

"So bitter." I heard him whisper that to himself. Whether he meant for me to secretly hear it or not, I don't know.

"What? Shacking up?" He chuckled loudly and shrugged his shoulders dismissively. "If you wanna touch my hair, just ask."

It made me feel unbalanced. This Noah guy and his constant remarks and comebacks threw me off. And I hated it. I hated how he always had something smart and witty hanging on the tip of his tongue, ready to just roll out and say it.

With rage and fury running through me, boiling the blood that ran through my veins, I saw no other choice but to just go. But not before turning around just before I get to the door, and shouting my comeback from across the arena.

"Don't flatter yourself."

I couldn't help but notice that he was in the exact same spot, broad shoulders resting on the edge of the pool, looking relaxed, and the bastard was watching me walk away the entire time.

He said nothing this time. He just saluted me goodbye and went back underwater, and I went to the locker room.

After washing the chlorine water from my body and hair, I put on my clothes and got ready for another day. I was blow drying my hair when my phone buzzed. I turned off the blow dryer and picked up my phone to read my best friend's text message.

Kyle: Are you done with practice yet? I'm almost there.

I quickly typed my response, letting him know I'd meet him at the cafeteria before our first class of the day.

And so I did. I finished fixing my hair before I checked my gym bag for the extra swimsuit and cap for the afternoon practice. I placed the bag inside the locker and made my way out of the locker rooms to the cafeteria, where I would be meeting my best friend.

Or at least, that was the only person I thought I'd be meeting with.

In front of Kyle was sitting Carter, who was sipping on his coffee.

"Hi!" I said before taking a seat next to my best friend.

"Buenos días, Zoey!" Carter flashed me a warm smile when he saw me approaching the table.

"Buenos días, Carter." I said, giggling at how bad my spanish accent was.

"Hey Zo, Carter was just telling me about this party next Friday night." Kyle said while he scribbled on his notebook, writing down the answers of the science homework he did not do over the weekend.

Carter eyed me, waiting for a response and when I said nothing, Kyle spoke up again.

"It's not gonna be one of those wild parties seniors go to, alright? Tell her, Carter."

With his latin accent, Carter explained how the whole thing was going to go.

"Look, I don't even think we could call it a fiesta. It's just a little gathering of friends, we're going down to the beach, have some drinks, celebrate, you know the drill."

"I don't actually-"

I was about to explain to Carter that no, I do not know the drill. Because I don't do parties. The last party I went to was my birthday party, and the only person there that wasn't family was Kyle. But I didn't get to finish my explanation because someone grabbed my shoulders from behind.

"Zoey, you're here!" I shook in my seat at the squeals. Chloé sneaked up from behind me, causing me to sigh in relief when I realized who it was.

"I haven't seen you around. How've you been?" She said while taking a seat next to me.

"Good." I shrugged and flashed her a smile.

Carter finished his drink and got up from his seat to throw the paper cup in the trash. "So, can we count you in for Friday night?" He asked while looking between me and Kyle, waiting for an answer.

I looked at Kyle, hoping he was just as indecisive as I was, but he went and blurted out an assertive reply. "Yes, of course."

Carter kept his hazel eyes on me, waiting for a response while he impatiently tapped his fingers on the back of his phone case.

"Sure." I said with a shrug of my shoulders, utterly and absolutely unsure about my decision.

"Ah, you're coming on Friday! I'm so glad, Zoey!" Chloé said before giving me a side hug. "You know, whenever we all get together I'm always the only girl and I'm sick of it! It's going to be so cool to have you around this time."

Kyle interrupted her to speak. "Hey Zo, I'm gonna go with Carter, I promised I'd show him the theater while no one's there yet."

I knew all too well what was going on. But I chose not to say anything just yet and simply nodded him goodbye. We could have this conversation some other time.

However, I couldn't help but gossip about it, so I turned to Chloé's side and smiled before speaking. "Those two are getting close."

She nodded in agreement while she was fishing for her lipstick inside her purse. I decided to ask a question that popped in my head a while ago. "So, what's the occasion?"

She looked confused at my question, and I explained. "Carter said you'll be celebrating on Friday night."

"Oh!" She said in realization. "We're celebrating Noah's comeback!" She answered, in an obvious kind of way, as if I was supposed to be aware of this.

"Oh." I was the one who said it this time, in realization as well.

So, this is going to be a party about the guy that can't stop being rude to me. I was about to turn down the invitation right then and there but I liked Chloé. And Carter. And Ben. And my best friend was going as well, so the second I opened my mouth to speak up, I shut it immediately.

Although the realization surprised me, curiosity took over me as well. Since I back out on the party and I was actually going, I might as well know more about it.

"Hey Chloé," She turned her head to me, carefully closing the small pocket mirror she was using to look at her lips while applying the lipstick, and gave me all of her attention. "What really happened to Noah?"

Her eyebrows frowned in confusion at my question. "Oh, I thought you knew."

"Well, when he barely speaks to you the entire time and whenever he does, he's just plain rude, it's hard to know about him."

"Look, he seems rude but he's not. He's just... going through a lot right now."

I couldn't help but show my surprise at her description of Noah, and my facial expression was my biggest giveaway. She explained and I listened.

"A couple of months ago he had a small shoulder injury in swim practice. What seemed like a small injury, after he ignored it, turned out to be a massive injury to the point where he couldn't swim. That was when he decided to see a doctor. He's had surgery once to fix it and some physical therapy but that didn't really work out. Look, I don't know the details but the tissue was infected and antibiotics weren't doing their thing and they had to operate on him again. And the rest... well, the rest you already know."

"Oh." I said in a whisper, the pieces of the puzzle finally putting themselves together. That was why he was assigned to my room, because the infection was caused by an MRSA bacteria.

The bell rang, signaling that it was time to head to the first class of the week, and it knocked me out of my lingering thoughts.

"Well,I gotta go." Chloé announced. "I got a Biology test now." She groaned in annoyance and rolled her eyes before getting up from her chair. "Anyway, I'm glad you're coming on Friday. See you around!" And with that, she made her way to the hallway, her figure growing smaller as she got mixed in the crowds of football players and mean girls that overpopulated this high school.

"Bye." I smiled before yelling out loud as she walked down the hallway. "Good luck!"

She turned in her heels while walking backwards and gave me a thumbs up while her wide smile graced her face, before turning back around and walking forward to the classroom.

The thing with this whole group was they weren't popular. They were seniors but didn't hang out with the cool, popular seniors. And they didn't want to either, they were just fine doing their own thing by themselves.

And I somewhat liked that. Probably because it made me feel less alone, it made me feel like I wasn't the only one feeling like an outcast of society. They made me feel like I actually belonged.

We were all outcasts in our own little way, yet together, as a group, we were the cool kids.

And I've always considered myself to be pretty cool.  

* * *

author's note: our girl zoey just had a moment of clarity and i am totally ✨ here for it ✨ 

i hope you liked this chapter and i hope you're enjoying this story of mine and if you are, please vote and don't forget to leave your comment, cause you know i love reading those :) 

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xoxo, mars