Chapter Seven
Physical Education
A/N: I dearly and desperately apologize for taking so long on this next chapter…I've been sick lately, and I had a major writing block, but I got better and I thank Regrem Erutearc for lending me some cool ideas! I will hopefully be more current now, with this fic writing and my ongoing story at school w/ my friends, things have been busy, which is something I'm used to. There is a small list of spoilers at the bottom: If you don't wanna see them, then don't read them!
Disclaimer: See any previous chapters
PHEEEET! The coach's whistle blew shrill and loud, and everybody groaned and covered their ears. It was 3rd period Phys. Ed, and everyone was already wanting to go home. It was that time of day when all you wanted to do was eat lunch. 1st lunch was next hour though, so there wasn't much waiting.
It was swimming unit, being May and all (well, they're in AZ, so in May it starts getting hot), so the water was fine. Everyone was going to take the swimming test to see which group they'd be put in: Beginning, Intermediate, High, or Advanced. Only a few really athletic people ever got Advanced; most everybody was happy with Intermediate.
"Yo! Browning and new kid! Get in line!" hollered the boys' coach, Coach Siper (rhymes with viper). "Sure, whatever you say, Coach!" Thorn replied congenially as he grabbed his red haired friend's hand and pulled him to one side of the pool. The girls were doing their laps on the left half of the pool, near the deep end, and the boys were nearer the shallow end. It was quite a small pool. Thorn whistled at a few girls as he passed them, winking at them and grinning. They blushed and grinned back.
"Boy, swimming is my favorite unit," said Thorn gleefully as Tahu was just saying grumpily, "Darn it, I HATE the water." Thorn looked at him in surprise. "You can't swim?" he asked incredulously. "Of course I can swim! I used to lava surf often, remember? And lava is much more dangerous than water!" "than why do you hate the water?" Thorn insisted. "Because…because I was the Toa of Fire, and water doesn't exactly get along with fire if you get my point." Thorn nodded slowly. "Oh yeah, now I get why you always dump water on campfires to put them out before you leave!"
"Yes," said Toby irritably. "I will make a fool of myself!"
"Nah, you won't. You're a cool kid, everyone likes you. I mean, hey, some people just get beginning cause it's easier than the others. You could pretend to do that!"
"And look weak? Heck no! I'll try to do good," raged Tahu. But as he looked down at the warm, aqua water, he became nervous. "Don't look up…now…now! Look directly in front of you across the pool!" Thorn was saying excitedly from their spot in the back of the line.
Tahu looked up and saw, in the middle of a group of girls, the same friendly girl, Geri, from that morning in front of the school. Her bleach blonde hair looked so good with her lime green striped one-piece bathing suit. Even better looking, or so Tahu thought, was the bright-brown haired girl behind Geri. The girl was tall and thin, but not a stick. She had a neon blue bubble-printed swimsuit on, and it really complimented her figure. "She's pretty, isn't she?" Tahu heard himself murmur. "Yeah, but Geri's mine, so hands off!" Thorn joked. "No…the girl behind her," Tahu said. Thorn looked. "Oh, that's what's her name…Geri's foreign exchange student, Molly, I think her name is. From California, I think. She was with Geri this morning." "I remember," said Tahu slowly.
"Dude, are you like, in love now?"
"So what if I am?" snapped Tahu.
Thorn put up his hands in a sign of surrender. "No biggie. She is a pretty one, sure. You just never seemed like the sort of romantic-type person before."
He was right. As a Toa, Tahu had never felt this strange emotion called love. It was yet another puzzle of the human world he had to solve. But this puzzle seemed very…sweet and inviting, somehow, and he rather liked the sound of this love thing…
"Toby! It's almost your turn!"
Tahu jumped, and sure enough, he was on the edge of the concrete, and the water was in front of him. "Just try to stay in your lane, and do the best you can. Remember, there are girls watching us, and 7th grade buys, so just don't drown!" "Of course I won't drown!" Tahu said indignantly. "I'll just do really bad…"
"Hey! Go! It's your turn! Do freestyle!" Thorn shouted at him as the other lines of boys jumped into their lanes and splashed into the water. Toby looked nervously at the water, then jumped in and took off after the others. He quickly reviewed how to do a freestyle. On Mata Nui they never had names for these sort of things, and swimming had always been Gali's area of expertise. Snapping back to the present, he realized that he was last. He pumped his arms and kicked his legs, trying not to swallow too much of the water. It wasn't even warm; it was cold as if it had been sitting on Mount Ihu for a while, Tahu thought angrily.
"Go, go go! Come on, you can do it! Almost there!"
Tahu looked up while trying not to stop swimming. He saw the girls, mostly Geri and her friend Molly, cheering for them on the opposite side of the pool. Filled with determination, Toby finished his freestyle and then did another 2 more before stopping. Thorn climbed exhaustedly out of the pool and sat next to Tahu. "You did good, dude, for a guy who hates the water." "They were cheering for us," murmured Tahu. "The girls? I heard 'em. We can watch them do their swim tests after we get our scores," replied Thorn. "Sure."
Thorn and Tahu had both gotten Intermediate, which was the average for most kids. A few others got High, some beginning, and 2 got Advanced. "Lan would probably get Advanced; he's got so much energy, and that's what you need in that group," Thorn muttered.
They watched the girls do their swim tests. Rather, they watched the girls. Two-pieces were against dress code, so the guys couldn't see what they wanted to see, but guys shouldn't be thinking naughty thoughts anyway…Thorn kept gushing about how great Geri looked when she did her backstroke, which was a really hard maneuver. He seemed to talk differently about her then to her face, like he had that morning. Tahu watched Molly. She seemed to really like the water, and did all her moves perfectly, and looked disappointed when they all had to get out of the pool. "I'm gonna go ask Geri what she got," said Thorn abruptly, and sauntered over to the other side of the pool. Tahu followed, for no reason in particular. Some girls nervously avoided Thorn when he approached the girls' group, but others greeted him with a daring smile. Thorn and Toby walked over to Geri and Molly where they were discussing their scores with their coach.
"Congratulations, Geri," the girls' coach, Coach Purcel was telling her, "you got High. Good work on your backstroke."
"Exactly what I was going to say," said Thorn cheerily. Geri saw him and smiled, but nothing else. "Hi Thorn," she said. "What'd you get?"
Thorn sighed dramatically. "Alas, I and Toby here hath only landed in Intermediate, unlike the wonderful Geri, who hath landed thyself in High," he intoned in crude old English.
Geri smiled. "Well, Intermediate isn't so bad. It's what most people get. I was just sick of getting in that group like last semester and the year before. Nice job, Toby," she said to Tahu. He blushed without meaning to and continued staring at Molly, who was getting her score. She looked happy and then walked over to Geri. "I got a perfect score, and I got in Advanced!" she said in a soft but excited voice. "Good job! See, I told you swimming would be fun for you," Geri congratulated her. Saying good-bye to Thorn, they went back to Geri's little clique and stood there chattering while some girls still finished their swim tests.
When the last girl got out, she stood up and shook the water out of her hair expertly, then combed throught it with her fingers. She then looked at her hand. Shrieking suddenly, she cried out, "My bracelet! My charm bracelet from my older sister in Germany! It's in the pool!" Some girls went over to her anxiously, grabbing her wrist and looking into the water. Geri and Molly walked over to them, and Geri looked in the water closely. "I don't see it, Lara. I think it's lost for good."
It was unlike Geri to be so negative.
The guys had started walking back to their locker rooms to shower, but Thorn and Toby stayed to wait for Geri and Molly. "If Gali were here, she could get that bracelet back in a second," Tahu muttered.
Coach purcel had sufficiently tried to comfort Lara, but the girl still sobbed. "It was my birthday gift from my sister in Germany! I loved that bracelet!" she wailed.
Molly, or as you might have known Gali, stood patiently next to Geri. She knew something had to be done about the situation, though it was not usually in her position to take charge of such things. But since her brothers were not here, she had to do something.
"I'll-I'll find your bracelet, Lara. I'll try, at least," she offered.
Lara's eyes widened. "You will? You'll try?"
"Sure."
Lara smiled warmly. "Good luck. I think I lost it somewhere over there," and she pointed at some spot.
Geri came over and whispered something in Gali's ear. "Just don't make yourself too-conspicuous. You told me you used to be the Toa of Water, and I don't want any floods coming out of the pool or something."
"I don't plan on it. I think I lost all my powers when I became a human," said Gali sadly.
"Still-be careful." Geri finished and stood back. Some of the girls got bored and left for their showers. Gali took a deep breath and did a headfirst dive into the pool.
The water felt so cool and refreshing after this dry weather. She had so enjoyed doing the swim test but didn't want to get out of the pool. She swam around freely before remembering her intent. She went to the sopt Lara had mentioned and looked around. The bracelet wasn't there. Suddenly, the rays of sun caught something glimmering near the deep end. Gali followed it, and saw a small jeweled strand of beads at the bottom of the deep end. She skillfully pushed her arms forward and down to fetch the bracelet.
At the surface, everyone was worried. "She's been down there an awful long time," said Thorn anxiously. "How ong can humans stay underwater?" Tahu asked. Thorn stared off into space, then looked grim. "Not this long. About1 minute, I think, or your lungs explode."
Tahu gulped. Explode? If only Gali where there!
"Someone get her out! She could drown!" yelled Coach Purcel. A teacher's aide nodded and jumped in.
Gali had approached the bracelet and grabbed it, but didn't want to go back up just yet. The deep end. She had seen much deeper waters back on Mata Nui. Sighing, she started swimming up when strong hands grabbed her and pulled her up.
They reached the surface of the water. The girl who had grabbed Gali was breathing hard, but Gali was fine, not panting at all. The girl for some reason wouldn't let go of Gali until they got to the shallow end steps.
"Are you crazy? You were under for a full 5 minutes! Maybe more, I think!" the girl was saying. "You could have drowned!"
"I feel fine," Gali said, but just then Lara and Geri ran over. "What were you thinking?"Geri exclaimed. "Did you get my bracelet?" Lara asked hopefully.
Gali dangled the bracelet above her head between her fingers. She handed it to Lara. "It wasn't a problem, really. It was only in the deep end."
Lara squealed happily, hugged her, then ran off to show it to her friends. The rest of the girls then left to take their showers. The girl who'd grabbed Gali had left along with the coach, casting strange glances at Gali.
Geri and Gali wandered back to their lockers.
"What happened under there?"
"Nothing really!"
"You were under there for over 5 minutes!"
"So?"
"The average human can only stay underwater for about 1 minute!"
Gali had not considered this. "Oh. I didn't think of that. But, Geri, it was like I was back on Mata Nui, I was breathing in the water, like a fish does. I used to be able to stay under for maybe an hour or more."
Geri coughed. "Well, just don't do it again. Or someone will get suspicious." They walked back to their lockers in discussion.
Someone had gotten suspicious. "Impossible! She was under for 5 minutes!" Thorn spluttered. Tahu was deep in thought. If what Thorn had said was correct, no normal human could stay underwater for more than 1 or 2 minutes. Then what had just happened clashed horribly with the laws of physics! Who could Molly really be, to be able to stay underwater for 5 minutes and perhaps more? Tahu considered this as they went to go take their showers before lunch.
A/N: Yes, it's a long chapter…but did you like it? Then review! I'm so happy you guys all like it, I was worried when I started writing this no one would like it.
Spoilers: They're not really spoilers, just hints, and this is the planned order!
Chapter 8: Kopaka! (school ice-skating trip)
Chapter9: Onua! (wrestling match)
Chapter 10: Lewa! (I don't know yet)
Chaper 11: Perhaps Tahu, he doesn't really have his own chap yet!
