William Creswell Naval Academy – Part 4
"So, first lesson in advanced; are you nervous?" asked Nikki, through a mouth full of cereal.
Kate turned to her, swallowing her food before answering, "No, not really. Why? Should I be?"
She shrugged. "I don't know, maybe. You are after all in the same class as the biggest athletic nut in the entire school. Oh, and I asked Josh about being in advanced and he said that you should be prepared for a lot of hard work." She shrugged again. "But then again, he's a boy, and I think you're the only girl to have ever made the advanced group since Commander Jenny Smith about a decade ago. She was the one to set all the records for the girls, and they were deemed to stand the test of time until you went and completely smashed them." She smiled at Kate's shocked face, taking a sip of her juice.
"That's – thanks for that Nik, it's much appreciated," replied Kate, nodding sarcastically. "Anyway, I should, you know, go change for my first advanced class; 'cause like you said, I'm nervous and I'm going to go check out the boys, you know, admire their bodies and all."
"Oh, can I come?" asked Nikki eagerly, a smirk playing at her lips.
"Why? So you can perv on Josh?" Nikki pouted and Kate rolled her eyes, grabbing Nikki by the hand.
"No! Of course not!" cried Nikki, running to keep up with Kate. "No, I wanna come so I can see you whip the guys' asses and to perv on Josh."
Kate laughed, stopping in front of the change rooms. "Don't you have class?" she called.
"Not yet. I'm free until third period, which means I get to watch you kick ass," replied Nikki, leaning back against the brick wall.
Kate emerged, dressed in her blue shorts and white tee, the straps of her bathing suit visible through the white material. "Kick ass?" she repeated.
"Yeah," she replied with a nod. "You are after all the best damn girl when it comes to sport and fitness – that I know off anyway. And it will be hilarious if you kick the guys' asses in the games and tests. Ah, I can picture your victory now..." She laughed at the thought.
Kate shook her head, rolled her eyes and found herself joining in with her friend's laughter. "What's so funny?" asked a voice from behind them.
Kate and Nikki turned to see Mike stand there, his chest bare and his shorts unnaturally low. The girls raised their eyebrows, bringing their eyes up to look at his face. They giggled, and Kate answered for them. "Nothing's funny, although the sight of you and your very um...low, shorts is rather amusing." She snickered at his expression before grabbing Nikki by the arm and leading her out onto the oval where Commodore Williams was waiting patiently for his class to arrive.
"Good morning girls," he greeted, a broad smile on his face, a stopwatch in one hand and a water bottle in the other.
"Good morning Sir," they replied.
"I see that you've decided to watch Lieutenant," said Williams, nodding at Nikki.
"I have Sir," she replied, "I've come to watch Kate pull out stumps and win everything."
Williams raised his eyebrows, before turning away and speaking to Mike as he ran towards them – his shorts pulled up as much as they allowed him without creating an injury.
"Commander Flynn, are you ready to defend your titles? Lieutenant Caetano here thinks that Lieutenant McGregor may be able to beat you."
Mike looked from Williams to Nikki to Kate and back again, before breaking into a smirk and moving across from them to join his mates: Lieutenant Pete Tomaszewski, Lieutenant Chris Blake and Lieutenant Josh Holiday.
They talked amongst themselves and Nikki and Kate began to wonder if they thought that they were the it group – the best of the best. Kate shook her head at them before looking at the other students, all of them boys, gazing back at her, looking at her as if she had some big zit on her forehead. Subconsciously, she reached for her forehead checking for any bumps, making it look like she was wiping sweat off.
"Welcome class to the first lesson of the year for advance. I hope that you all enjoyed your holidays. But this is a lesson, so don't start bombarding me with comments and statements on how good your holiday was. Anyway, back on subject, we have a new student whom most of you would've met in general fitness class last week. Welcome to Lieutenant Kate McGregor."
The heads of every boy turned in Kate's direction, all looking as if they were sizing up her ability, strength and determination. They also seemed to guess if whether or not she would be able to knock Mike off his perch as the school's best athlete. They decided she was too tiny, too skinny and too damn blonde to be of any significance, and they brushed her off, their attention back on the Commodore.
"So, I know it's going to be a very warm day, but as per usual, we'll start with a good ten laps of the oval before doing our usual stretches and heading to the outdoor pool to do a few laps and races."
Everyone nodded – all except Nikki – before they headed off around the oval. Nikki looked up at Williams, a questioning look on her face. "Do you think Lieutenant McGregor will be able to beat Commander Mike this year?"
Williams watched as Kate moved from the back of the line of students to the front, coming shoulder to shoulder with Mike. It was only the first lap and they were already fighting it out. Nikki laughed as she over took Mike, his face retorting into something that was supposed to look like subtle frustration but turned out to look a little like constipation.
Nikki burst out laughing, quickly holding it in as Mike and Kate passed, the others trailing behind them. Williams looked down at her, his eyebrow raised. "What's so funny Lieutenant?" he asked.
Nikki shook her head, her face becoming a bright red before she continued to laugh. Shaking her head she answered, "Nothing Sir, nothing. It's just – nothing Sir."
"Ah huh." He turned away, watching as the other students passed them, most of their eyebrows raised. "Is it that hard to believe that a female can outrun a male?" he stated.
Nikki shrugged. "Males will always think that they're the best in sport, but when a female comes along who just happens to be better than them...they just won't except it and will carry on like children – you Sir, are an exception of course," she added with a smile.
"I'd like to think that Lieutenant," he replied.
---
They were now on their penultimate lap and Kate's breathing was starting to become heavy. She turned her head slightly to see Mike smiling back at her – not a gorgeous smile that would usually make her weak at the knees, but one that was more of a smirk, and he pulled ahead, the finish line in sight.
Kate narrowed her eyes, and she pushed forward, becoming level before finding some unknown energy and sprinting for the invisible line in front of Nikki and Commodore Williams. She burst across the line, coming to a slow jog a couple metres ahead before slowing completely and collapsing in a sweaty heap. Somewhere beside her, she felt the earth tremble slightly as Mike fell too.
"I won," she mumbled, smiling to herself.
He grunted, rolling over and looking at her face. He gave a small nod and flashed her a smile. "I acknowledge that, but you wait until we hit the pool – I'm gonna win." He gave her a wink, before sitting up and walking over to Commodore Williams for further instruction.
Kate raised her eyebrow, smiling slightly as she remembered the way he smiled and then winked at her. She shrugged it off however and walked over to stand beside Nikki.
Nikki smiled at her, jumping up and down before lunging forward to hug her as she approached.
"Whoa!" cried Kate. "What's got into you?"
"You beat the boys in the running, now we have to wait for the swimming and you'll dominate the main fitness trials," Nikki answered.
"Huh. Firstly that was only a warm up and secondly the actual 'race' isn't until a month or two. Don't forget that I still have to do the shuttle run."
"So? That doesn't count."
"Yeah, it does."
"Doesn't."
"Nikki, it does."
"Fine!" She placed her hands up, palms forward in defeat. "And as to the first thing you just said about this not being a race; in Mike's eyes it is, but when the real race comes along you'll beat them anyway, and you will beat them in the swimming practice and the real thing. You have a couple minutes to recover for the swimming practice, so stretch those muscles and hit the pool."