Alana's POV

Did I? I had never really liked a guy in that way before. Before this, swimming was my whole life. We moved around to much for me to have even real friends. I pondered this the whole walk to the pool. When I finally got to there I pulled out my key card that Mr. Sweet had given me during orientation so I could practice whenever I wanted. He seemed excited to have an almost-olympic athlete at his school. I opened the door. No one was around. Good. I stretched myself out, stared at the glistening water, pulled off my shorts, put on my swim cap and goggles and jumped in. I bobbed up to the surface and played around a little bit, doing stupid things like underwater flips and corkscrews. Finally I surfaced, and put my hand on the water.

"Hello pool, my name is Alana," I fake introduced myself, "we are going to be spending lots of time together." I laughed at myself and got swimming. I didn't go to hard, just 100 meter sets, switching stroke each time. It was probably bad of me, but I let my mind wander while I was swimming. It wandered to my dad, I wondered how he was doing, my classes tomorrow, and Jerome. I still wasn't sure if I liked him. Probably not, just crazy teenage hormones. Anyway, we barely even had a conversation. I didn't know how long I swam for, all I knew that was when I stopped, my body was sore and I had sharp shooting pains up my left shoulder. I climbed out of the pool grabbed my towel, and looked at the clock. 8:00?! I SWAM FOR FOUR HOURS?! So much for a light workout. I yanked off my cap, quickly dried myself off, did my cool down stretches. I stopped by the locker room and grabbed a big bag of ice for my shoulder, which was screaming at me now, and headed off to the house.

I opened the door to Anubis House and looked around. Everyone was still in the common room. Trudy came running from the kitchen looking worried sick.

"Alana where were you! I've been so worried!" she questioned as she ushered me into the common room. Her eyes widened when she was the ice on my shoulder.

"Swimming," I answered simply.

"For four hours?" asked Mick.

"Well, how else am I gonna prepare for Olympic trials?" I asked, exasperated. I regretted the words as soon as they came out of my mouth. Good job Alana. So much for you can being whoever you want now.

That caught everyones attention. Everyone had shocked expressions, including Trudy. Jerome raised his eyebrows.

"Olympic. Trials." Mick said, shocked.

I ran a hand through my wet hair. "I shouldn't have told you that. I should not have told you that," I muttered.

Trudy shook her head as if she were snapping herself back to reality.

"What happened to your shoulder?" she asked.

"I just tweaked it," I said. She gently pulled the ice bag off and tried to move it to see how bad it was. I let out a sharp cry of pain.

She raised her eyebrows and said, "I think that's a little more then a tweak dear. You should probably go see the nurse or the physical therapist."

"No. I'm fine," I mumbled, putting the ice back on my shoulder, "I'll just go shower and put a compression bandage on it." I left the common room and ran up to my room before I did something stupid like cry.

Nina's POV:

Alana ran up to her room and pinched my forehead with my fingers.

"I had no idea," I said quietly.

"Wait Nina, didn't you talk to her over the summer?" asked Mick.

"Yeah, and she said she was a swimmer, but she didn't say she was THAT good," I countered.

"That's a pretty key detail to miss," exclaimed Alfie.

"She didn't seem to want to talk about swimming that much so I didn't push her," I said.

Everyone was quiet for a while, still taking it in that our new housemate might compete in the Olympics. Fabian bit his lip.

"She looked so upset when we found out," whispered Mara.

"Then why'd she tell us?" asked Amber.

"I don't think she meant to, it seemed like it kind of just slipped out," I replied.

"Should I go talk to her?" I asked Fabian.

"I'd just leave her alone for a while," he replied, "she looked like she needed to be by herself.

"'Kay." I put my head on his shoulder and hoped my new roommate was okay.

Jerome's POV:

I had been having a horrid day. I had spent most of it trying to avoid my little sister Poppy, who'd been blackmailing me, and Mick was constantly rubbing it in my face that he was with Mara when he knew I liked her. On top of all that, we had just watched the new girl accidentally tell us she was an almost-Olympic athlete and leave the room nearly in tears. I stayed down there for a little while, then went upstair to my room. Alfie and I got moved to the new wing, so I turned left into that hallway. When I passed Nina and Alana's room I heard a small shriek from inside. I walked back to their door and knocked. I didn't know why I did it, but I got this odd feeling when I saw Alana, when I saw her intense green eyes, her soft black hair... I quickly brushed these feelings aside. I liked Mara. But that didn't mean I couldn't be concerned did it?

"You okay?" I asked.

"Fine," she called.

She let out a few more cries of pain.

"No you're not," I said, "can I come in?"

"Okay," she replied.

I opened the door and she was standing in front of the mirror in a grey tank top trying to put a compression bandage on her shoulder, and failing miserably, probably because she could only use one hand.

She looked at me over her shoulder.

"Pathetic aren't I?"

I snorted. "You need some help?"

"You know how?" she asked.

"Yep. I've hurt myself enough times."

"Thanks," she said, gratefully handing me the bandage.

She carefully moved the strap off her shoulder so I could wrap it. It was a bit awkward, but she didn't seem to mind. She must've had this done lots of times. She then raised her arm and put her hand on the back of her head, giving a slight whimper as she had to move her shoulder. I lightly ran my fingers over the injured area, testing how much pressure it could take. I pressed a little harder and she gave out another strangled cry.

"Sorry," I said, "just testing."

She nodded and I proceeded to wrap the area. When I finished she lowered her arm and I moved the strap back onto her shoulder.

"Thanks," she smiled at me.

God, those eyes. "Anytime," I replied.

I left her room. I closed her door and tried to brush away the feelings I had just felt stir up inside me when I touched her skin.

No, you like Mara, I thought.

But did I?