After sitting through the tedious talk about the tournament schedule and essential announcements at the induction, Chef had bundled his little star athletes onto the bus and within fifteen minutes, the boys had arrived at the pool Denver's High School used for practice. While their coach was currently absent due to encountering a rather bewitching lady at the front desk, Kenny had taken the lead for the training session and was writing down the required notes on the clipboard Chef often carried with him during club meetings.

Stan managed to slap his hands against the ceramic tiling of the pool edge, signalling the end of his latest sprint across the pool and quickly tore off his goggles to look up at Clyde.

"What's my time?"

The brunette grinned as he clicked the stopwatch "You're up by 3.25 seconds, Marsh."

Stan whooped excitedly and punched the water as Kenny nodded in approval, noting Stan's new time down next to his name on Chef's clipboard of team records. Feeling pumped about his improvement, Stan hauled his weight out of the water so that he could peer over Kenny's shoulder to catch a glimpse of their current agility standings. As expected, Kenny was still the fastest swimmer due to being one of their slimmer athletes and Stan had managed to beat both his old time and Kevin's by only a few seconds to spare. Clyde was currently in fourth place having bettered his current time by 5.28 seconds and by the looks of things; Tweek was still dead last having added an extra 3.05 to his record.

"Okay. Kevin, Tweek - you guys are running the same practice so we're gonna treat this as a race." Kenny announced, lazily flipping through several sheets on his clipboard "The last to finish will be declared a total Melvin and will be ripped on for the remainder of practice."

"Guh! T-that's too much pressure…!" Tweek yelped as he clutched at his chest, despite realizing his misbuttoned shirt was momentarily absent "I don't wanna be called a Melvin…!"

"Then you better be ready to kick Stoley's ass, Tweek!" Cartman jeered from the spectator benches seconds before stuffing his face with a fistful of tortilla chips.

"But what if I dive down too far, crack my head on the bottom and drown?" Tweek squealed.

"Dammit, Tweek just get into the starting position!"

The blonde gave another petrified yip as he did as he was told. After a few tense seconds passed, Kenny blew the whistle hanging around his neck sharply, causing both Kevin and Tweek to spring forward from the edge of the pool into a front-facing dive.

"Oh, Jesus!"

Stan felt himself wince as Kevin managed to propel himself effortlessly –and painlessly– into the water while Tweek somewhat belly-flopped in after him. He could hear Kenny slapping himself in the forehead with the clipboard over the sound of Cartman's obnoxious laughter while Clyde merely shook his head as Tweek resurfaced with a panicked cry. Kevin had already circled back, clearly concerned about Tweek's mishap but the closer Kevin tried to get to the blonde, the further Tweek seemed to push himself against the side of the pool.

"Wah! Y-you're thrashing the water too much, man…!" Tweek screeched, shielding his eyes from the splashing water with his palms facing outward as his teammate approached.

"Tweek, how the hell do you manage to participate against other schools if Kevin's swimming is enough to set you off?" Kenny asked slicking his damp, unruly locks back.

"I'm fine! I-I just freaked out when I heard the whistle…!" Tweek answered, looking around anxiously "You never said anything about whistleblowing! I thought we were under attack…!"

Stan had to admit, he did feel bad for Tweek. The kid was a decent swimmer when he wanted to be but recently he seemed to be extremely distracted and even more irritable than before. The former quarterback had started to think that maybe the realization of being in the state finals had hit Tweek a little later than it had the other athletes and the delayed shock only managed to intensify the bout of nerves he was experiencing. In fact, Stan was willing to bet $10 that the reality of their situation probably only hit the fidgety blonde this morning when the bus pulled up outside their school to take them to Denver.

The doors leading from the locker-room swung open as Chef returned from his previous errands and he approached the boys standing idly by the pool with a smile on his face.

"How's it going, children?"

Kenny looked glumly at the clipboard "Bad."

Chef seemed to be taken aback by the response "Why bad?"

"Tweek's got sand stuck in his vagina." Cartman jested from the side-lines.

The blonde twitched and started trembling uncontrollably, causing the water around him to ripple considerably "N-no, I don't…!"

"We think the pressure is starting to get to him, Chef." Kenny commented handing their coach the clipboard he had been holding "His times are getting worse instead of better."

The cafeteria worker studied the information Kenny had written down with thoughtful hazel eyes as he ran a pensive hand over his thickly bearded chin. Seemingly pinpointing the issue that none of the boys could recognize, Chef shook his head and looked down at the quivering teen with a lenient expression.

"Aw now, Tweek remember what we already discussed last practice. You have to become one with the water, not let it get the better of you." Chef reminded him before gesturing to the other boys "You see children; swimming is like making sweet, sweet love. Sometimes you'll come across a partner that is wild, impulsive and uncontrollable – but you shouldn't shy away from that kinda attitude in the bedroom, no sir. You gotta learn how to flow seamlessly with your partner. You gotta study how they react to your movements and experiment with your approaches until you figure out that sweet, sensual rhythm that binds the two of you into one single entity."

The boys all seemed to quietly exchange glances with one another, rather dumbfounded by the sultry analogy before Clyde decided to pipe up "Chef, as poetic as that speech was, I don't see how making sweet love and getting Tweek to swim faster are related topics."

"Weren't you children listening? What I mean is that Tweek just needs to relax and learn to manoeuvre with the water instead of against it!" Chef demarcated.

"Ohh…" the boys all chorused, still swapping rather confused looks with each other.

"Now everyone get your asses in the pool. We need to get you children working on agility drills if we want to help improve Tweek's speed!" Chef declared, moving to sit next to Cartman who tried to hide his chips out of sight the moment the elder male approached.

Kenny whooped loudly and whipped off his tracksuit jersey along with the whistle before cannonballing into the water, followed shortly by Clyde who front-flipped in after the energetic blonde. With Kevin and Tweek already bobbing about in the water, Stan watched his teammates as they began running the agility practice that Chef had introduced to them during his first few weeks as their new coach. Despite their obvious dicking about, both Clyde and Kenny were showing improvement as they had already swum several yards ahead of Tweek and Kevin who steadily began to pick up their paces. Stan decided then to dive in and elegantly swam to catch up with his lagging teammates just as Kenny and Clyde managed to kick off from the wall at the opposite end of the arena.

After a few successful laps between each member, the training session quickly devolved into playful horsing around as Clyde jumped up onto Kevin's back and submerged them both under the water's surface. Through the sound of splashing and hilarity, the sound of Cartman groaning from the side-lines caught Stan's immediate attention.

"Oh no, what is that asshole doing here?"

Stan whipped himself around and caught a glimpse of the person that disgruntled the chubby teen. Much to Stan's surprise, the redhead from the hotel foyer walked in wearing a long pair of black compression pants with green accents and his opened tracksuit jersey over his bare, but fairly well-toned, torso. The boy's emerald eyes immediately settled on the five of them in the pool and for a split second, shock appeared to cover his expression as though he hadn't been expecting anyone else to be present. The rest of his teammates and their coach filed in behind him and the woman seemed to be as equally surprised by the team's existence.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realise that another team would be using the facility so early." The woman stated in a thick New-Jersey accent as she walked over to Chef in order to converse with him at an appropriate distance "This is usually our time slot for practice."

Chef held up his hands reassuringly as she approached "Oh, we were just about to finish with a quick relay run-through before we retire for the rest of the day, ma'am."

Seemingly deciding to let their coaches negotiate between their practice hours; South Park's team turned their collective attention back to Denver's team who appeared to be watching them just as carefully. Stan was also pretty sure he caught a brief glimpse of the taller athlete flipping them off but he wasn't certain enough to say if he had seen anything.

"W-well gee fellas, this is beginning to feel a little awkward now." The blonde from Denver mumbled, wringing his hands together as he glanced nervously between Stan and Kenny.

Apparently sensing an opportunity to open a conversation between the two teams, Kenny sidled over to the edge of the pool to gaze up at Denver's athletes with a crooked grin "Don't be shy boys, there's still plenty of water for us all to share. And who knows? Maybe we could eventually practice a few special drills together, eh Blondie?"

"O-oh uh, no thank you sir, I'm supposed to be practicing with my buddies here." The kid responded, looking down at Kenny with a slight pink tinge to his face.

"Butters, just ignore him. We'll start warming up while Mrs. Broflovski sees them out."

Apparently, the tallest Denver member did have a voice as he brusquely ushered Butters and the male Stan assumed was called 'Token' to the other end of the pool to begin their warm-up stretches. Miraculously though, the redhead had stayed rooted to the spot while his teammates congregated at the other end of the arena and Stan swore the Denver student looked like he was actually considering the idea of a joint practice.

However, that possible contemplation was quickly doused the second Kenny decided to open his mouth.

"So, what about you then?" The mischievous blonde grinned at the redhead as he gestured to the water "I can't speak for our Stanley here, but I promise we don't bite – much."

Stan held back the urge to hold his friend's head underwater at that unnecessary comment. It did, however get a physical response from the male standing at the edge of the pool as his eyes seemed to drift from Kenny right to Stan, his cheeks flushed slightly from what Stan could only guess was disconcertment. The dark-haired athlete fought the impulse to let himself sink under the surface of the water and never re-emerge because he was pretty sure that the redhead was busy painting an inaccurate visual image of what he was like as a person in his head.

And that was all thanks to Kenny and his ability to take things incredibly out of context.

The redhead –cutely– scrunched his nose a little before looking back at Kenny and answering in a very light New-Jersey accent that nearly set Stan's veins alight "No thanks, I'll pass."

With that, the redhead spared one final glance to Stan before padding over to the other end of the pool, just as Token and Butters jumped in for a warm-up lap. Once the Denver team were well out of earshot, Stan turned to his friend, blushing fiercely and swiftly punched Kenny in the upper arm, causing the blonde to splutter in surprised distress.

Before Stan could further his chagrined assault on the blonde, Chef approached the edge of the pool the five boys had all drifted towards with Cartman in tow "Alright children, both Mrs. Broflovski and I have agreed that the Denver team has first dibs on the pool due to them being the home team. Their practice will conclude at 12:15 every morning up until the first events of the tournament are announced so we'll begin our own training at 12:30. That way the other teams can get their fair share of the facilities after us. I think this has been enough practice for one day. Go grab your gear, children; Eric and I will meet you outside. "

Later that night, Stan and Kenny had decided to retire to their shared room early after Chef treated them to a trip to Illegal Pete's Mexican restaurant in celebration of their first official day as State finalists. While Kenny showered, Stan had unpacked his gym bag and located his phone, deciding to go through his unread texts and missed calls as he waited. Ten minutes later, Stan didn't even notice Kenny returning until the blonde practically threw himself onto the other twin-sized bed to his right and let out an exaggerated moan of delight as he sunk into the comforter.

"Damn, this bed feels so good."

Stan couldn't help but chuckle at his roommate and peered over at the blonde with a smirk plastered on his face "Please. Try to contain your orgasms, McCormick."

Kenny let out a laugh as he rolled onto his stomach to regard the other male with knowing eyes "Speak for yourself, Stan. I saw how you were looking at that redhead this morning. Got a thing for the tall boy in green, eh?"

"Kenny, Goddammit." Stan grumbled pinching the bridge of his nose "It's not like that."

"Sure, Dude. …Not gonna lie though." Kenny started rolling onto his back to leisurely rest his hands behind his head "I wouldn't mind trying to wriggle my way into the kid with the Mohawk's aqua shorts."

"Dude, sick!" Stan laughed, throwing one of his pillows at his friend, successfully catching him in the side of the face "We're here to win, Kenny not 'score' with the other teams…!"

"Hey, all's fair in love and war, man." Kenny grinned wickedly from behind the pillow "Besides, could you feel the hostility radiating from that taller guy? I seriously thought he was gonna jump in and physically throw our asses out of the pool. I just tried to defuse the situation with some light-hearted humour."

"I dunno, dude…" Stan replied, setting his phone down on the bedside cabinet "I personally felt like he was sizing us up, competition-wise. He seemed to look at Tweek a lot so maybe the guy's figured out that he's our weakest swimmer."

"I wouldn't go so far as to say he'sour weakest." Kenny said in the absent member's defense "He just tends to let his nerves get the better of him, that's all. Tweek could outswim all four of us if he really wanted to. He's just holding himself back."

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Ken." Stan replied, looking solemnly at his comforter.

"…So do you know his name yet?"

Stan looked across at the blonde as he lazily picked at the loose threads of his shirt "Who?"

"Y'know, the redhead with the nice ass?"

"Kenny, I wasn't staring at his ass."

The blonde chortled and merely waggled his eyebrows "I would never accuse you of such a thing, Mr. Morals."

"Shut up. And to answer your question, no I don't know his name yet." Stan replied before regarding the other with a grin "But I plan to find out tomorrow before practice."

Kenny smirked and flipped back onto his stomach, clutching Stan's pillow to his chest as he supported his head with his free hand "Damn, Marsh. Get his phone number for me too while you're at it."

Stan decided to play along and leered back at him "In your dreams, dude."

The two began to laugh heartily only to be cut off by the sound of Stan's mobile phone ringing. Looking down at the caller information, he could plainly see the name 'mom' displayed on the screen and the mirth he was previously experiencing withered and died in his throat. Stan sighed heavily, hauling himself up from the bed and making a grab for the phone.

"Hang on dude, I gotta take this."