Surely she would be arriving soon.
She had promised, after all – and she had warned of her impending tardiness. She was cutting it close, but there was still time. Barely, but it existed. Besides, he was otherwise completely ready, both physically and mentally; he was appropriately dressed, his cap was in place, and his goggles rested on his forehead. All that was left to do was wait for Marie's arrival, hand his dogtags off to her, and do what he did best – win. But first, she had to be physically present. She had promised.
The sudden appearance of a certain bespectacled senior in a green sweater was a welcome distraction. To the swimmer's mild and distracted amusement, said distraction actually noticed Eddward's presence early on and made an honest attempt to appear less conspicuous as he passed. Eddward smirked, waiting until he was walking past to address him.
"Running a bit late, are we, Pumpkin?"
His classmate kept walking, admirably resisting what must have been a tempting urge to turn his head or respond. Trying to pretend Eddward wasn't talking to him, apparently. But still, there was the curling of fists, the clenching of the jaw, the turn of his head and the angry furrowing of his brow. Eddward was a stickler for details, after all. And schadenfreude was nothing if not cathartic. It calmed his nerves, if only a little, which made his returning anxiety concerning Marie's attendance somewhat more bearable.
He had little choice but to trust her. If he could not trust Marie Kanker, then there was no one that he could.
So when his coach passed by for the third time with an impatient look in his direction, with no sign that Marie would be arriving – not even a single word from her – Eddward's heart sank.
He was confused; she always came. Eddward took comfort in routine, in consistency, and Marie's presence at his meets had always been a constant. He depended upon her attendance. Why wasn't she coming? Had something happened to her? She must have a good reason. But if that was the case, then why hadn't she alerted him?
With one last surveying look at the hallways around him, Eddward turned and hurried back into the locker room. Ideally, he would have liked to find Jimmy in the crowd and leave the tags with him, but he had left it too long in waiting for Marie. He would simply have to store them here, and hope for the best. As much as he hated to leave things up to any level of chance, he was left with little choice at this point.
He could leave them in the coach's office, but the drawers were locked and the man had not looked like he was in the mood to waste more time unlocking them. The desk surface was hardly a possibility; it was far too exposed, with little cover to be found next to the cup of pencils and the oft-present roll of duct tape, whatever that was for –
Duct tape.
He was grasping at straws at this point, but the clock was ticking and he was quickly running out of options. Darting into the office, he grabbed the roll of tape and hurried back to his locker. He could hear his fellow swimmers calling for him to hurry up as he opened it, carefully arranged the tags underneath his neat bag of folded clothes, and shut and locked it again. Then, with a grimace at the thought of having to clean the residue off later, he taped over the edges of the locker door.
Theft was a crime of opportunity and convenience, after all. Thieves tended to be lazy, and any difficulty would have to be discouraging.
…Right?
Oh, who was he kidding, this was a psychological reassurance at best.
With dread hanging heavily in his mind, Eddward replaced the roll of duct tape and sprinted out to join his teammates by the pool.
The bleachers around the pool were packed fully enough to make sardine cans look spacious, as usual. Advocates, friends, and family of the visiting swimmers were lost among the enthusiastic Peach Creek supporters, but in the echoing, enthusiastic clamor, all cheers sounded the same. The girl sitting in front of Kevin nearly punched him in the face when she threw her arms upward jubilantly, and would have done so if he hadn't flinched back just in time. As it happened, she still swiped the brim of his hat and knocked it askew. Apparently not noticing, she continued her exultations without even turning her head.
"You okay?" Nazz asked, glaring at the back of the girl's head. Even though she was sitting right next to him, her voice was nearly lost in the din.
"Fine," Kevin replied loudly. Readjusting his baseball cap, he watched as the teams of swimmers gathered around the pool. "Looks like they're about to start. Guess Marie's not coming, then?"
Nazz glanced ruefully at the empty seat she had been saving. "Guess not. I wonder why? Oh… right, she looked pretty sick, didn't she?" She bit her lip worriedly. "Hope she's okay."
"She never misses these things," Kevin remarked thoughtfully. "She is Eddward's best friend, after all. And isn't she like, the keeper of the sacred dog tags or something?"
"Yeah. Apparently Eddward doesn't like to risk getting them rusty, so he has Marie hang onto them. Dunno why he can't just stick them in his locker like a normal human being." Nazz grinned slightly, and looked meaningfully at the familiar black-capped figure climbing up to the edge of the diving board. "Guess he'll have to now, huh?"
Kevin made a noncommittal noise in response. The swimmers were lined up already, perched and ready on the diving boards. The cheering had died down as the spectators waited on bated breath.
At the signal, they simultaneously dove and – whoa.
Kevin had noticed, during what swim meets he had attended so far, that there wasn't much of a contest for first place. Swimmers competed for second and third place; that was where the suspense and uncertainty lay. First place was for Eddward Rockwell and Eddward Rockwell only. It was such a recurrent, unchanging fact that it was almost a surprise that they bothered announcing it anymore. One of the unspoken rules of any of these competitions involving Peach Creek High was, "You cannot beat Eddward Rockwell in a swim meet. He is simply the best there is." So it was never unusual for Eddward to start out ahead and only gain more and more distance until the event was over.
But this was just ridiculous.
Nazz nudged him and leaned in close when he cocked his head toward her. "He's gonna tire himself out," she muttered in his ear.
"I dunno, he looks like he's just… rushing or something," Kevin answered. "Like he's got somewhere to be and he wants to get this over with."
"Well, he's only human," Nazz insisted skeptically. "I mean you could hardly tell by talking to him, but it's true. If he's not careful, he'll run out of steam before he's done, and then where will his sterling reputation be?"
Kevin shrugged and went back to watching Eddward shoot through the water. It was like watching a gas-powered bull shark heading straight for a feeding frenzy, and he had to wonder what this was doing to the other teams' egos.
What's your hurry? He wondered absently.
Not every student on the campus of Peach Creek High that evening was attending the swim meet.
The locker room was wide open, for anyone who needed a restroom close by. The entrance was located in the hallway outside of the pool area, an oversight in the layout of the building, but nonetheless a blessing for the three boys that stood outside and made absolutely sure that they were alone.
"Quit worrying," one of them, ostensibly the ringleader, snapped in a low voice. "Everyone's busy watching the meet, so no one's gonna see."
"Got the key?" another asked.
"Duh. Come on, let's do this shit."
"This takes balls," the third muttered. He was far from wrong; pranking the swim team, the school's top athletic team, would not be without consequences if they were caught.
Of course, when one takes great pains to acquire the coach's key to the Master locks, dismissing such a golden opportunity is simply out of the question. Besides, if all went well, they would not be caught.
It took a bit longer than they had expected, since they had only one key amongst the three of them. Switching the swimmers' belongings took a while when one had to run the key back and forth and through all the rows of lockers. On top of that, all three kept a wary ear cocked in case their tricks were interrupted.
"Think we should just switch the locks?"
"Nah, there's no point if we're just gonna leave the key when we're done. It'll just make it too obvious. …Ah, what the hell, toss me the one you got. Here, catch!"
One of the locks missed its target and clattered loudly to the floor, followed by muttered cursing. In the meantime, the third member of the party took the key to the lockers closer to the office at the back of the room.
"Hey, guys! Check this out!" At his hushed but eager call, the other two came running. "What do you guys think?"
The locker before them, which had so captured their teammate's interest, had been locked and duct-taped shut. The three of them exchanged keen glances.
"Dude. Open that shit up."