I made my way out to the school pool. It was one day after that awful recruitment show that they made the first years sit through, but I already knew what I wanted to do. I adjusted my skirt as I walked through the changing room. Why was I the only one who wanted to join? And I'd be the first girl to ever join too, unlike at my old school, where the girls almost outnumbered the boys. It was still to cold to swim, but I figure I'll find someone from the swim club there. As I got closer, I saw that the whole team was in fact there. There was the manager, Gou-senpai, the breast stroke specialist Nagisa-senpai, the butterfly specialist Rei-senpai, the backstroke specialist Makoto-senpai, and the freestyle specialist Haruka-senpai.

"Um, excuse me." I said timidly approaching them. They all looked at me curiously, no doubt I wasn't exactly what they were expecting when they said they wanted new recruits. They probably wanted big, buff guys. Not brown haired girls who were short for their age.

"Yes, can we help you with something?" Gou-senpai asked, smiling at me. So she was the muscles fanatic, huh?

"Well, yes. You see, I'd like to join the swim club." For about a minute, they all just stared at me.

"You. Want to join the swim club? Like, this swim club?" Nagisa-senpai asked. Why did they all seem so shocked?

"Uh, yes, I do." Was it really that surprising? True, I was small for my age, but I was hardly weak or frail. And I'd been on the swim club for my old school too. "Why? Do you not allow girls on your team?"

"Oh, uh...no, we do. It's just that you don't really seem like the swimming type..." Makoto-senpai said, scratching the back of his head in a nervous gesture.

"I don't?" I asked, pouting, "but I've been on a team for four years! I was even on one of the highest ranking teams in the region with over 70 members!" They all just looked at me.

"You've been on a team before?" Rei-senpai asked. In my personal opinion, out of all of them, he seemed the least used to swimming, relatively new.

"Yes. I joined a high school level swim team in my second year of middle school and began doing meets with them as well as the less prominent summer swim team. I even went to regionals that very first year, ranked second in my heat, and was 1.564 seconds away from placing for the second day. After that I joined one of the best teams in the region, the SHARKS. That was shortly before my third year of middle school. I had done summer swim awhile before I actually joined an official team, but my records are still very good."

"That's a very interesting resume," Makoto-senpai said, looking me over. They all seemed more curious now, if not impressed, "what do you swim?"

"I swim all strokes although I'd have to say my least favorite is back," Makoto flinched, "I'm weakest at butterfly," Rei adjusted his glasses, "freestyle is ok," Haru looked confused, "and breaststroke is my favorite. It's also what I went to regionals for so I'd say its my best as well." Nagisa looked overjoyed.

"Really! What's your time?" He asked enthusiastically. Slinging his arm around my shoulders, I figured he'd be happy when he heard what my best stroke was, after all, breaststroke is one of the less popular strokes out there.

"My personal best in that stroke is 33.5." His eyes widened, as did his smile.

"That's really good! Uh, oh, we don't know your name yet."

"My name is Ushio Takahashi. I'm a first year. Nice to meet you all." I bowed

"Ushio, it means tide." Haruka-senpai pointed out.

"Yes, yes it does." I said smiling.

"So I take it you like water?" He asked, I could tell this was a serious question, but then again, the answer was easy.

"Yes," I admitted, "There's really nothing like it. It's like it erases all your worry and just lets you be...free, you know?" His eyes widened and I continued, "I've tried other sports before, but none of them really clicked like swimming did, I just felt like I belonged there, in the water." I finished my little rant and saw them all looking at me with knowing smiles. I giggled.

"Well Shio-chan, lets go get you an application form!" Nagisa-senpai said, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the direction of the teacher offices. The others laughed and followed us down the steps. I felt like I was really going to fit in here. Up ahead, there was a red haired guy standing under a tree staring at us.

"Rin-chan!" Nagisa-senpai called, "Meet our new recruit! Shio-chan!" He yelled, pointing at me.

"Shio-chan huh?" He said, touching the brim of his hat.

"I'm Ushio Takahashi, nice to meet you." I smiled.

"Kind of small, aren't you?" He asked with a teasing smile. I laughed. This group was so fun. They were smiling and joking with each other. This was gonna be the best! We arrived at the teacher's office, and found who was more than happy to have me on the team.

"Well now that you've joined, what now?" Makoto-senpai asked me, smiling.

"Hmmm, go swimming!" I said, grinning. All of them began laughing and my smile widened. This was gonna be a good year...

I kind of think this is what I would do if I went to join the Iwatobi swim team. Oh, if only... As for any questions about swim protocol or anything, I'll answer them if you want me to. But the time she said was her best, is actually a decent time for that stroke, I know because that's actually my best time. I still got second though... *sigh* And yes, I did just use the name of the daughter from Clannad...which I'm watching right now. I really based this character off myself in a lot of ways. I was going to make this a full story, like with chapters and stuff, but then I'm like "ehhh...nah" That and I'm just lazy. Well, have a nice day! B-)