Disclaimer: I do not own these characters, they belong to the wonderful Charlaine Harris.
Chapter 1
Another day at high school.
It was the first day back after Christmas vacation and I couldn't wait until I was finished and could go to college. I was a senior, and 13 years of school was most definitely enough. However, this was the home stretch and there were only a few months and finals to endure, then I would be free for the whole summer.
I parked my car and made my way to my first class of the day, maths, just as the bell was ringing. My friend Tara waved me over and I went and took my seat next to her. We'd been friends ever since elementary school and she was one of the few people who had stuck by me through the aftermath of my parents' death when I was seven. They were killed in a car accident and I was quiet and withdrawn for a long time afterwards, most of my friends at the time started avoiding me. But not Tara, oh no, she sat with me at lunch and if ever I needed a partner for anything she was there. Soon we were inseparable and she was at my house all the time. When my parents died, my brother and I moved in with my Gran and Tara became a part of the family.
"Glad to be back, Sook?" Tara asked me with a wicked glint in her eye.
"Tara you know I can't wait to be finished with school", I replied.
"I know", she grinned back, "me neither."
"Are you swimming tonight?" she asked.
"Yup, sure am. Our coach has retired, and I hear they've got someone new in to replace him. I hope they're nice. I like Alec and I don't really want anything drastic to change."
Just then, Mrs Wood, my maths teacher walked in and immediately started today's lesson. We were starting integration today, apparently. I copied down the notes and examples and then started on the questions in the textbook.
As I was working, I started worrying about the new coach we were getting tonight. Shreveport Amateur Swimming Club wasn't very big and most of the members weren't really into the whole competition scene. I mean we attended the local galas and other events, but anyone who wanted to swim seriously moved on to other clubs. I had joined the club just before the death of my parents. My mom had had both, my brother Jason and I on the waiting list since we were old enough to join at the age of five. There wasn't a pool in Bon Temps and that's how we ended up in Shreveport. It was a bit of a drive but mom didn't seem to mind. She was really enthusiastic about us joining, and that carried down to me. I got so excited the first time we all went. Mom sat up in the balcony and watched us for the hour, waving down at me smiling every time I looked up.
After our parents died Jason gave it up, but I kept going. I loved it. It became my sanctuary. It is a very quiet sport and when you are swimming it's just you and your thoughts. I've used my time swimming many times throughout the years to sort through my thoughts and feelings on different things in my life. If you don't want to think, you can do that to, you just focus on moving your body through the water, and pushing yourself to do the training with your best times. Although I'm not a bad swimmer I'm not great either, I would say I'm one of the best in our club at breaststroke, but that's about it. Alec, our old coach, liked us making good times and encouraged us to enter into competitions but also understood that I really just liked swimming for swimming's sake and wasn't too fussed with all of the competitive stuff that goes with it. I got along well with him. Many of the younger swimmers didn't like him much as he didn't like it when they were lazy and just stood at the bottom of the lane talking to their friends, but I for one would really miss him as our coach.
***
The rest of the morning passed without incident. Tara and I went over and joined Sam and JB at our table for lunch. Tara had recently started seeing JB, and although she was trying to convince me that it was nothing serious, I'd seen how happy they had both been lately. Sam was the son of my bosses Peter and Susan, I worked weekends waitressing at their bar Merlottes. We'd all been friends for a while now and although I got the impression Sam had a soft spot for me, I didn't see him as anything more than a good friend. I think he knew that, as he had never said anything to me about it.
We were eating our lunch and telling each other all about our Christmases. Sam had just been with his parents for Christmas. I'd seen quite a bit of him as we were both working quite a bit throughout the holidays; I'd taken on a few extra shifts so that I could replenish my savings after Christmas, and he was helping his parents out behind the bar. Tara had come to ours for Christmas dinner like normal as her mum was not doing too well. She is an alcoholic and although she sometimes cleans herself up for periods, so far she has always reverted back to her old self. JB had been away visiting relatives over the holidays.
Just then, Bill walked into the cafe with Lorena. The SOB had the audacity to walk right past our table and smirk at us. I hold my head high and try not to let him get to me. The rest of my table all glare back up at him. I don't know what I ever saw in that guy. Tara never liked him and I should have listened to her, but he seemed like such a gentleman, at least in the beginning. In the beginning, he was kind and sweet to me. We dated for six months, and one night at a party, I walked in on him with his pants around his ankles, pounding into Lorena from behind. I was devastated. I've not spoken to him since then. He called constantly for a week, then I heard nothing more from him and I was grateful he had given up. I'm pretty sure Tara had something to do with that, but I never asked and she never mentioned it. Even almost a year later, he still sometimes got to me.
"Just ignore him Sookie, he's an idiot." Sam said under his breath to me.
I smiled at him in thanks and we all continued with our lunch, ignoring Bill and Lorena.
***
After handing in my essay for English Lit that I did over the holidays I headed on out to my car. My car wasn't anything special, it was yellow and rather run down looking, but it had character and it got me where I wanted to go. I jumped in and turned on the radio looking around for Tara, I spotted her making her way towards the car. I was giving her a ride home as her mother had once again decided to take the car out whilst under the influence and managed to drive it into a tree. She was fine, but the car wasn't. Tara got in and I dropped her off on my way home.
As I walked into the house, I caught a whiff of something that smelt delicious coming from the kitchen. I walked in and there was Gran, standing over the stove stirring the wonderful concoction that was causing my mouth to water. Gran loves cooking and is always on the lookout for new recipes to try.
"Hi Gran, I'm home. Do you need any help?" I ask.
"Oh hello dear. No, no, I'm fine. You go on up, I'm sure you have plenty to do. Dinner will be ready in an hour. Did you have a good day?"
"Ok Gran. Yeah it was good to see everyone; I did get given quite a lot of homework today so I suppose I should start some of that." I replied.
I headed upstairs and got my bag ready for swimming. I sat down at my desk trying to decide what to start first. I figured I would start with what was due in first, which happened to be maths.
After I'd attempted a few questions and only managed to complete two, I gave up and headed downstairs for dinner. It was delicious and I was gutted that I was unable to have seconds as I had swimming and so didn't want to eat too much before hand. I thanked Gran for the wonderful meal and quickly did the dishes for her, before running up and grabbing my bag for swimming. I gave my Gran a kiss on the cheek and told her that was me away.
Gran was incredible and I loved her deeply. When our parents died she took both my brother and I in even though she had already raised her own children. She ferried me to swimming and Jason to football without complaint, and was there for us whenever we needed her. She held me when I woke up in the middle of the night crying and helped me start to live my life again.
I got in my car and drove the 45 minutes to Shreveport. Swimming started at seven and I was there in plenty of time. I went down the stairs and found an empty cubicle to change in. I changed into my suit - I was quite exited to wear it, as it was a new. It was a Speedo endurance one, black with a red design at the top and an open back. It fitted great, I sometimes had a bit of trouble as my breasts were quite large and I hated not feeling secure in my swimsuit. I grabbed my water bottle, cap, floats and my goggles and threw the rest of my stuff into a locker. I didn't bother locking it as it was just the swimming club that was in tonight and no one really bothered. There was nothing valuable in there anyway and the key just got in the way.
The pool was quite a new one with flumes and a wave machine. Of course we didn't get to use them when we where there with the club but the staff sometimes put them on for the younger ones at the end of their session. That was what was currently going on, so of course the kids were going nuts over them. I remember that being the best part when I was little. You would swim for 45 minutes and the remaining time was spent running up the stairs trying to have as many goes on the flumes before they were closed again. The less able swimmers had their training before ours and we went in once they had finished.
I headed over past the showers to the poolside to wait until the last of the lanes empty out. I spotted my friend Amelia sitting over on the steps. The steps were on the bridge, which connected the baby pool to the big pool. Amelia had joined the club when she was 15. Her dad had been pushing her to enter all the competitions and do the whole training seven times a week thing but she eventually put her foot down, quit her old club, and joined here instead. I've known her for two years now and we have become good friends. She is a year younger than me but was planning to leave school after this year and go to college. She had met Tara a few times and we all got on well together and we were thinking about getting a flat together next year when we all went to college. I was looking forward to it immensely.
"Hi Ames," I called as I made my way over to her.
"Sookie!" Amelia cried as she jumped up to give me a hug. We hadn't seen each other since before the holidays as Christmas was two of the four weeks out of the year that swimming wasn't on. The other two being sometime throughout the summer holidays.
"How was your Christmas?" She asked me.
"It was good", I replied. "Tara and Jason came round for presents and Christmas dinner. How was yours, did your dad make it back?"
"Yes he did, and he got me a new car!"
"Oh wow, Ames. That's great."
Amelia's Dad was some big business man and was rarely around. He seemed to think that was fine as long as he lavished her with expensive gifts. Amelia really hated it but had decided a couple years back that it wasn't worth getting worked up over anymore.
As we were chatting, everyone else had arrived and were putting their stuff next to their lanes ready for training.
"Oh. My. God. Sookie, look behind you." Ames whispered to me.
What? I slowly turned around. I think my jaw hit the floor. He was breathtaking. There, standing in front of me was the embodiment of Adonis himself. He was gorgeous. He had striking blue eyes the colour of the sea on a clear summer's day. His hair was tied back and was an almost identical shade of blonde as mine. He was wearing a black tank top, which showed off his well-defined torso and muscled arms...
Ugghhh, yuummm.
A/N: Please be nice as this is my first ever story and I've not written anything fictional since standard grade English. I don't have a Beta so all mistakes are mine. I've read over it a couple of times so it shouldn't be too bad, but if there's anything I'm consistently doing wrong please let me know.
