The Twelfth Lane

Summary: "If you can't join them, beat them." Gou's swim team is cut due to funding changes at Iwatobi and the principal won't allow her to join the boy's team. So, in order to prove that girls can swim just as well as boys, she sneaks into Samezuka Academy dressed as a boy so that she can swim against Iwatobi in the competition at the end of the summer. But what should have been an easy couple of months gets a lot more complicated when she ends up rooming with the incredibly attractive co-captain of the team, Seijuurou Mikoshiba.

A/N: Yes, hello! Welcome to my summer project! I'm a huge die-hard SeiGou fan so it's only in my nature to write as many AUs as possible for my Free! OTP. This story is loosely based off of She's the Man (or rather, the Twelfth Night by Shakespeare) and Hana Kimi. Or any "girl sneaks in dressed as a boy" story you can think of. I'll try to update this story on a regular schedule if I can, but I won't make any promises, just in case. That being said, I really hope you enjoy my story!
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Chapter 1

Gou took a deep breath, letting the warm air fill her lungs as she walked to school. It was the first day that they were allowed to wear their summer uniforms, which meant that summer clubs and sports were just around the corner, and for Gou, whose whole life revolved around swimming, that meant her swimsuit was packed in her bag and ready to be worn. Gou lived for these days. The burning feel of the sun against her skin; the cool water lapping against her face; the rush of out swimming everyone else and beating her old record in the freestyle. Gou lived for summer. She lived to swim. Feeling that extra pep in her step, she saw her friend walking across the street in front of her and ran to catch up, calling her name. "Hana-chan!"

Chigusa Hanamura slowed down some to let her pretty redhead friend catch up and fall into step beside her. "Hi Kou-chan. You seem really happy today."

"That's because it's finally summer!" Gou said with a wide smile. "It's no longer cold and the pool will finally be open!"

"You're just as much of a swimming freak as ever," Chigusa said with a laugh. "Any more of this and you'll be the new Haruka Nanase."

"NO, no," Gou laughed. "Nobody can be as water obsessed as Nanase-senpai. Even if he does have good muscle structure."

Chigusa gasped and shoved her friend as Gou ran off laughing. "You're terrible!"

"Why? Because I can appreciate a guy for how good his biceps look?" she called over her shoulder. "Hurry up! There's a pool waiting for us!"

Chigusa laughed and chased after her.

Gou loved Iwatobi High School. It wasn't one of the more well-known schools for its sports, but several great swimmers that she grew up admiring took classes in its halls. Since Iwatobi focused more on its studies than its sports, Gou studied hard to pass the entrance exam just so that she could learn in the same classrooms and swim the same pools as some of the greats. She met some really great people and some of her best friends in the swim club there. She couldn't imagine a better place to be. As she approached the school's beautiful entrance, she saw her friends from the swim team waiting, who all jumped into a run towards her when they saw her.

"Kou! We have a huge situation here!" the one in front exclaimed. "The school cut the girl's swim team!"

Gou slowed to a stop, her carefree smile falling. "What?"

"It's gone!" another girl with curlier hair piped up. "The school wants to focus more on testing and cut the funding for the swim team in half. They can only afford to keep the boy's team!"

She held out a piece of official looking paper with bright red letters at the top. Gou snatched the paper out of her hands to read it closer. We are sorry to inform you, but funding for the girl's swim team has officially been removed due to financial obligations. We hope that you will continue putting your extra effort into studying—

"You've got to be kidding me," Gou breathed. "Are they serious?"

"Very," the curly hair girl said gravely.

"This is the worst," another girl said with a pout. "We had such a good team lined up this year. We actually had a chance of winning the title this time too."

"Yeah…"

"Man, I'm so bummed right now."

"I actually have a cute swim suit this year!"

"I just wanted to beat my old record. I was sure I could do it this year…"

"Maybe we should all just transfer over to Samezuka. They wouldn't cut their girl's team."

"I like Iwatobi though… I don't want to leave…"

"That's it!" Gou said loudly, startling them. "I'll go talk to the principal about this."

"Wait, Kou-chan," Chigusa said. "The principal was the one to cut our team in the first place. How do you think you're going to change his mind?"

"Don't worry," the redhead girl said, clapping her hand down on her friend's shoulder. "I'll think of something. You'll see."

And that was how she found herself standing in front of the principal's office, just before classes were supposed to start, wondering if this was really the best idea. Gou took a deep breath and reached up to knock on the door, her heart beating a little faster with nervous jitters. She heard a distant "come in" from behind it and cautiously stepped inside. She never really liked coming to the principal's office the few times she had been there before. It was lined with bookshelves stuffed to the brim with books of all genres, mostly just to make it seem like it was prestigious with all of that knowledge stuffed into one room, and the walls were covered with pictures of the principal and important people and banners proudly displaying the school's academic achievements. There were only a few things for the school's academic achievements, which inadvertently showed the principal's preference for where the school's funding should go. The man himself was a middle aged man with slightly greying hair and what could have been a kindly face if it weren't for the stress lines darkening his brow. He looked up when Gou stood before his desk and placed the slightly crinkled notice of their team being cut right in the middle.

"Ah," he said sitting back some with a look of reluctance. "I thought I'd be seeing one of you here today. What can I do for you, Matsuoka-san?"

"Why was our team cut?" Gou asked bluntly.

"Unfortunately, the school board decided that we needed more funding for our afterschool education programs," he said simply. "The money had to come from somewhere."

"But you didn't cut any funding from the boy's team," Gou challenged. "The money should have come from both teams. That way, we could still have a team."

The principal made a face and reached up to rub the bridge of his nose. "Listen, Matsuoka-san. This is nothing against you and the other girls in your team, but there have been too few competition wins coming from the girl's side. The boy's team makes it at least to the semi-finals every year."

"And we made it to the finals last year," Gou interrupted.

"Yes… That is true," the principal said slowly. "But overall, the costs of funding the girl's swim team was outweighing the profits. I'm sorry. That's just how it has to be."

Gou bristled slightly but reeled it in. "Okay… Then how about this: let us join the boy's team."

The principal blinked in surprise before coughing a laugh. "What?"

"I want to join the boy's team," Gou repeated. "Half of the girls on my team already swim better than most of the guys on the boy's team right now. Having us on there would only increase the school's chances of winning a competition and getting more money and funding for sports."

The principal laughed as he leaned back in his chair, lifting a hand up to wipe away a stray tear. "Matsuoka-san, listen to yourself. You can't seriously be thinking of joining the boy's team."

Gou frowned. "What's wrong with that?"

"It's just that… Girls aren't as athletic as boys. You would never be able to keep up, let alone help the team to any new victories," he said. Gou's mouth dropped open. She could feel her anger boiling inside her, but just as she went to defend herself, the bell rang. "I'm sorry your team was cut, but the decision has been made." The principal picked up the notice off his desk and handed it back to her. "Go ahead on back to class, Mastuoka-san. Before you're late."

Gou bit her lip to keep from shouting, despite the rage that burned through her veins and made her fisted hands shake. "Yes, sir."

He waved her off and she left, feeling humiliated, degraded and all the more determined to prove him wrong. She just had to think of how.
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"You're going to what?" Chigusa stared at her best friend like she didn't even recognize her. "You know I was joking when I said we should join the Samezuka swim team, right?"

"Yeah, I know," Gou said, letting her long red hair fall from her ponytail. "But I thought about it throughout school today, and it actually sounds like a pretty good plan."

"A pretty good plan-? Kou, you do know what you're telling me right now, right?" Chigusa said agape. "You're talking about sneaking in as a boy to swim on the boy's team to prove to our principal that girls can swim just as well as boys. Am I the only one who feels like this is the most insane plan they've ever heard?"

"It's not insane," Gou protested. "I can do it. Guys are thin enough to look like girls already and they make those full body swimsuits now. I'm flat-chested enough already, no one will know the difference."

"It's not the swimming I'm worried about," Chigusa said to the side. "I mean, have you really thought this through? Do you know how much trouble you'll be in if somebody catches you?"

"I'm not going to get caught," Gou said firmly, placing her hairbrush down to turn and face her friend. "Listen, Hana-chan. Do you know what the principal said to me when I went in to talk to him? He said, 'Girls just aren't as athletic as boys.' That's what he said to me when I asked if we could join the boy's team. I've been swimming competitively since I was six years old. Six! I was a better swimmer than half the boys on the team when I was eleven." She looked at her uncertain friend and lowered her voice slightly. "I know you're worried, Hana-chan. But, this isn't about just swimming anymore. It's about proving a point. Both to our prejudiced principal and for myself."

Chigusa bit her lip and stared at her friend for a long moment. She wanted to say that she was making a mistake. She wanted to tell her that she should just let it go. But Chigusa knew Gou. She knew she would fight for the things she believed in, even if that meant sneaking into Samezuka Academy as a boy. And there was nothing she could say in that moment that could change her mind. "This is insane," she said. "You're actually going through with this?"

Gou looked at her frankly. "I'm actually going through with this."

Chigusa sighed to herself and placed a hand against her cheek. "I swear, Kou-chan. You never cease to amaze me."

"It's what I do best," Gou said with a wink, turning back to her vanity. "Now, will you help me out with this?"

Chigusa pulled a face. "Look, I know this is important to you… But, do you really have to cut your hair?

Gou lifted the scissors from the table of the vanity and pulled out a strip of her long red hair. "Yes, I do."

Chigusa squeezed her eyes closed as the scissors snipped and Gou's long hair fell short against her forehead.
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You can do this. You can do this. Just breathe. Gou sucked in a deep breath, filling her lungs as much as they would go before releasing it in one heavy breath. Never in her life had she felt more nervous than she did standing in front of the gates to Samezuka Academy, bags packed and slung over her shoulders, dressed in the baggy boy's uniform with her hair as short as a boy's and a school ID in her pocket with her picture and her real name on it. Taking another deep breath, she stepped forward to make her way in when she was bumped from behind. She hit the ground with force, her heavy bags knocking the wind straight out of her.

"Damn, Yamaguchi. You knocked over a freshman," a boy said, bending over her. "Hey, are you alright?"

"I'm good," Gou choked out, struggling to push herself up.

"That's a lot of bags for the third day back to school," the guy commented. He seemed to be a nice guy with spiked dark hair and brown eyes. He was dressed in exercise clothes and judging from the nice tone to his deltoids, Gou could tell that he was a part of the track team. "Are you a transfer student or something?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah," she said with a cough, trying to lower her voice some. "Could you possibly point me in the direction of the office?"

He nodded slightly, standing up straight. "Sure… Although you may want to change out of those clothes before class. They're pretty dirty."

Gou looked down in surprise, realizing that the brand-new pristine white uniform was now covered head to toe in dirt. She groaned slightly to herself and drug herself up to her feet. "Yeah… About that…" she said quietly.

"Do you not have any other clothes?" the one called Yamaguchi asked. He was a little more standoffish than his friend, with bleached blonde hair that hung into his eyes some and a single black hoop earring in one ear. He avoided her eyes, like he was a little regretful for what he did. "I could probably break into the storage room of the swim team's locker room and grab you one of the spare tracksuits. Y'know… As an apology or something."

"Isn't that considered stealing?" Gou asked a little carefully. If she wanted to join the team, she had to be sure that she didn't start off on a bad foot by stealing their stuff before she even met them.

"Nah, there's like a million. And the captain of the team is a good friend of mine. He wouldn't mind."

"You know the captain?" Gou asked a little too excitedly. "Can I get a chance to talk to him? Meet him?"

"Woah," Yamaguchi said, taking a cautious step back. "Are you some sort of fanboy of his?"

"NO. No," Gou said quickly, coughing slightly. "Actually, I just really want to join the swim team. That's why I transferred here in the first place."

"Ah, another one of those," the track boy said to himself. Yamaguchi elbowed him in the ribs.

"Well, I'm a part of the swim team, so I could give you the ropes, if you want," Yamaguchi said.

"You would do that?" Gou asked happily.

"Sure. I remember what it was like when I first tried out last year. What are you good at?" he asked.

"The butterfly and freestyle," Gou answered. "I held the record at my last school." For the girl's team.

"Great," he said. "We could really use somebody on butterfly for some of our relay teams. What's your name, kid? I'm Ryuu Yamaguchi, and this is Takeshi Sato. We're second years."

"K- Gou Matsuoka," Gou replied, kicking herself slightly for almost saying the wrong name. She had spent so many years trying to suppress the use of her real name because it sounded too manly for her that it was almost habit for her to correct it. She considered using her brother's name at first, but Rin, at least, looked intimidating enough that anybody who questioned his strange name wouldn't give him shit about it. Gou, on the other hand, looked like a Rin, so it only made sense that she would use her real name in the end. It was just going to be really hard not cringing every time she heard it.

"Gou, huh?" Ryuu asked. "That's a pretty sweet name. C'mon. I'll take you to the pool so we can get you a tracksuit to wear."

"Thank you," Gou said, falling in step beside the other two boys. "I really appreciate all the help."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," they said.

By the time they got to the famous Samezuka indoor pool, Gou was huffing slightly from having to drag her big bags around. She was starting to regret packing so much even though she hardly needed any of it. But walking up the great windows of the pool, all of the heavy weight on her shoulders just melted away. She slowed to a stop to just admire the pool's sparkling waters and how big it was. For her, who only saw pools like this on competition trips, it was one hell of a sight to see.

"Hey, Gou! Quit admiring the pool and get over here!" Ryuu shouted. "We gotta get to class soon!"

"Yeah, okay!" she called back, breaking into a short jog to meet them at the door that Ryuu was cracking open. The lock on the door popped open with a small click from the work of his ID card and he grinned as it swung open some.

"C'mon, we've gotta do this quick," he said, ducking into the long hallway that led to the locker room. Gou followed with her mouth slightly agape and a spring in her step. Seeing the water so close now was getting her excited to feel the rush of swimming again and she wanted nothing more than to just skip the whole first day of class to swim laps if she could. But she had appearances to uphold, so she turned her eyes away to follow the blonde swimmer into the locker room. He opened a closet that had a bunch of unused tracksuits folded up in boxes and searched around for one that he thought would fit Gou. In the meantime, Gou put her bags down on the benches and rolled her shoulders some.

"Here you go," Ryuu said handing her a stack of the sleek black tracksuit with the iconic Samezuka stripe pattern on the side. She stared at it for a long moment, touching the stripes. How many years had she admired these tracksuits and the powerhouse swim school that wore them? "That should fit, I think," Ryuu continued, breaking her attention. "Change quickly, though, so we can get out of here."

She nodded and took a brief look around realizing very quickly that she was standing in the boy's locker room, dressed as a boy and there was absolutely nowhere for her to hide and change. Swallowing thickly, she began backing up slightly, noticing that there was luckily a set of lockers in the middle of the room that sort of provided some sort of divider between her and the two boys standing near her. This was going to be tough. She was going to have to change fast. "I'll just… be over here," she said quickly, barely catching their confused looks before she ducked behind the lockers.

Quick, quick, quick! she thought to herself as she kicked off her shoes and tore off the bottoms of the dirty white uniform. She couldn't remember a time when she had ever done something so terrifying in her life. Except maybe that one time that the girls on her team dared her to skinny dip in the Iwatobi pool after midnight. But that was something else entirely. She was partway through changing her top when there was an exclamation of surprise from the other side of the locker room, and a door opening suddenly. Gou froze, standing there in just her sports bra, the tracksuit top clutched in her hands when a voice much deeper than either one of the two boys she came in with spoke.

"Hey. What are you two doing in here?" the new voice asked.

"Mikoshiba-senpai!" Ryuu exclaimed. "We—uh—we-"

"We came in here to grab something out of Yamaguchi's locker, right?" Takeshi supplied. There was a dull thud that sounded a little bit like somebody getting elbowed.

"Yeah! Sorry, Captain. I forgot one of my books here," Ryuu said with a strained laugh.

"Right… Well, grab your book and get out of here before you're late for class," Mikoshiba responded.

"Yeah, okay, sorry, Captain," Ryuu said quickly, turning to mess with a locker nearby. It opened with a loud creak and he closed it with a slam loud enough to scare Gou's already frantically beating heart out of her chest. She clutched the jacket of the tracksuit close to her, barely letting herself breathe. There were quick footsteps as they ran out of the locker room, leaving Gou there by herself. She gave a quiet breath, relaxing a little until a loud sigh from the other side of the room had her tensing up again.

"Whose stuff even is this," he asked quietly to himself. Gou heard rustling as he messed around with her bags, looking for a nametag. She had half a mind to just let him look until she realized that she had some sensitive stuff in there like tampons that she desperately needed to hide. Her heart tripled in speed in her worry for it and she quickly yanked the tracksuit top over her head without even bothering to unzip it. The zipper yanked at her hair, but she ignored it as she quickly stepped out to the other side.

"Wait-! That's… mine…"

Her words died on her tongue as her eyes fell upon the other occupant of the room. The captain of the Samezuka boy's swim team stood up slightly when he saw her, a look of slight confusion pulling at his brow. Gou couldn't form a coherent thought for a full five seconds. She had never seen a body better built for swimming than this boy standing in front of her. And it certainly didn't help that he was still wet from swimming in the pool and wearing nothing more than a speedo and a towel hung over his shoulders. She felt her face growing warm as she admired the perfect way his shoulder muscles moved as he crossed his arms and she swallowed thickly through her dry throat.

"Who are you?" he asked, his gold eyes slightly suspicious as he looked her over. "I don't recognize you from the incoming freshman."

"Me?" she repeated. "Um, I'm new. Transfer student."

"Right…" he said slowly. "Well, you shouldn't be in here. Or wearing that, actually. How did you get it?"

Gou's face turned red. "Um… I'm sorry! I tripped on my way into the school and, um, Yamaguchi-san offered to get me something to wear and we ended up here…"

"That sounds like something Yamaguchi would do," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, go ahead and wear it for now. I wouldn't really care if you took it with you normally, but we can only give those out to the people on the swim team, so I'm going to need it back. Just come back to return it tomorrow or something after you've washed it."

Gou was automatically nodding, like a good girl, when she was suddenly remembered that she was standing there, talking to the captain of the swim team that she desperately needed to be on. "I won't," she blurted suddenly. "Because I want to join the swim team too."

He looked at her curiously, a slight smirk lifting at his lips. "I like your spunk, kid, but we've already had preliminary try outs for incoming freshman."

"Please," Gou said. "I need to be on this team. Just give me a chance."

"Need to be, huh?" Mikoshiba responded, his lips pulling into a grin. "Fair enough. I'll give you a shot. Meet me here later tonight after classes and I'll give you your shot."

Gou's heart felt so light in that moment, an unrestrained smile splitting across her lips. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"Yeah, sure," the captain responded, averting his eyes slightly. "What's your name anyway, kid?"

"Gou Matsuoka," Gou responded instantly.

"Gou Matsuoka," Mikoshiba repeated slowly. "Well, Gou-kun. My name is Seijuurou Mikoshiba and if you make the team, I'll be your captain." There was a dangerously serious look in his eyes, but he gave her a pleasant smile. She got the feeling then that he wasn't going to give her a free pass just because she asked for one. She would really have to work hard to impress him and something about that had her excited. "I'm looking forward to see what you can do."
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A/N: Thank you for reading! Please consider leaving a review, if you'd so desire. All feedback I get helps me write the story better and give you the things you want to see the most. Thanks once again!