There isn’t any time to check where anyone else is, or panic about my current place. My hands groove against each other and then spread as I push the water behind me and bring them up into a butterfly stroke. Pushing fast, holding my breath as I follow the black line on the bottom of the pool.
When I reach the other side of the pool, my body bends in half as I flatten my feet against the wall and kick off, swimming as far as I can under water until I come up for air.
Like a fish, my water adapts to the water, my body ripples against the current of pressure and performance. The second we reach the beginning wall I lift my head out and spray the water out of my mouth, exhausted. My eyes are on the scoreboard. I can’t believe the number I am staring at; it isn’t even close to number one.
N
