Double D's second day had been a relenting one. He had finished his day as he would any other day. Homework was beginning to overwhelm him for once and he was starting to understand how it felt to be a normal student, one who was unable to really grasp complex equations and information. He felt ashamed that he was letting his psyche get to him so harshly. He had never had problems before when it came to retaining the information in his classes. He sometimes was able to teach the class himself when the teacher was running late. He thought of being a professor at one point despite the fact he had difficulties getting any respect from the other students, finding his substitution as free time to do as they pleased.
Double D was in the library gathering some books for his own personal reading list. He was in the non-fiction section looking up quantitative data collecting in sociology, finding the topic more invigorating now that Kevin said it was his minor. He wanted to get to know Kevin a little more and understand him better, taking an interest in his likes rather than simply focusing on his own. It was also a good opportunity to broaden his horizons in subject matter and learning something new. He loved Sociology, especially when it came to peer pressure, social norms, and cliques. He always wondered why bullies acted the way they did and why couldn't the nerds stand up for themselves? Was it a matter of lacking in physical strength or more from a psychological aspect, preventing them from taking a certain initiative in defending oneself? The ideal of survival was the fight or flea method but why was that also a social aspect as well?
Double D shook his head, clearing his long-winded head of the overwhelming mountain of thoughts. He looked around, noticing the time and realizing he was standing there thinking while staring at the cover of the book for almost seven minutes. He sometimes wished he could dissect his own brain and figure out why he was able to focus so heavily on his thoughts without being aware of them. His subconsciousness was a mystery to him and he knew that only Sigmund Freud could provide him with the analysis of the subconscious mind.
He went in a different isle of the library and found Sigmund Freud, grabbing the book and smiling at the cover. He loved to collect books, if not for the reading but the collection of knowledge and physical copies of books in his bookcase at home. He wasn't fond of the new technology allowing one to read from an electronic device for a decent price to avoid the clutter of the physical books. He agreed that it was a smart idea to have millions of books on a tablet to read for a reasonable price, it saved on paper, and it made it light for ones backpack or handbag. He wished they would make e-Textbooks more affordable for a tablet, then he could take all of his textbooks home without breaking his back or falling over. He hated carrying so many heavy books with him, but he knew that he needed them to study and do homework from. It was a conundrum and he hated it.
He went to an open computer and started to research online more about the subconscious mind until he saw Kevin come in. He looked confused, wondering why the ginger teen was in the library during seventh period. He had practice, didn't he? Double D gulped when he saw Kevin come up and sit next to him at a computer, yet avoided eye contact like he wanted to be discreet about his appearance. Double D smiled when he noticed Kevin looked embarrassed about being in the library. I guess jocks seen in a nerdy place was shunned upon in the popular world. He then went back to his research and reading, writing down his own personal notes on the topic before his computer beeped with a message.
The school had set up a messenger that linked the library computers together, to save on shushing the students from talking to one another and risk getting louder and louder as their conversations grew in length. He looked at the message, it from a computer's number, the one next to him.
Kevin had written to Double D, finding it easier than whispering.
"Yo, Double Dweeb. If you are wondering why I am here, practices are only on Mondays and Fridays. So I got the rest of the week to do as I please during seventh. I figured, I join you in No-Man's Land."
Double smiled and typed back. "Good to know. Are you going to be studying while you are here?" Double questioned, looking over rather bashfully, the silent messages somewhat uneasy for the talkative intellectual.
"Nah, I finished some of my homework already. What are you reading?"
"Sigmund Freud on the Human Subconscious. I figured I'd analyze the anatomical study of the human mind and conduct my own research of psychoanalytical theory. I want to learn more about why social and psychological norms developed one's personality and mannerisms as they are."
"Dude...you type just like you talk. Did you get to the part about pscyhosexual development yet?"
Double D looked stunned by Kevin's response, looking over at him before the redhead sent another message.
"What? I enjoy psychology and sociology. I read that book last year. It talks about the Oedipus complex, where as a child matures in emotion and idea, they unconsciously progress to desire for their parents of the opposite sex and considerable desires towards incest. There is another book at the public library that talks more about it in specific detail towards neurosis, paedophillia, and homosexuality." Kevin smiled before he added another message afterwards. "Right, bro?" He teased adding a winking smily face afterwards obviously to the fact of their own current relationship at home.
Double D blushed by the thought of the topic despite the fact it intrigued him. He was even embarrassed that Kevin was hinting at the fact of their most recent, somewhat incestrous acts on one another in the house. They were brothers now, if not biologically but legally they were. They were now considered siblings, a family, and yet they still had feelings for one another. Double D was curious of the Oedipus complex referring to step-siblings as well and the social perspective of it as well.
He started to raise his fingers to the keyboard before they started to shake, not knowing what to talk about now. He had nothing more to say on the topic and wanted to move on from it but he didn't want to seem rude to his neighbor talking with him on the subject. He was then brought out of his saddened, confused daze by a hand touching his own while in his lap. He blushed before he looked up at Kevin who looked eagerly worried about Double D, probably thinking that Edd was having, yet another drawback in his condition while talking about the matter.
Kevin then whispered in his ear, ending their electronic conversation. "It's alright, we don't have to continue talking about it." He said, looking around to see if anyone was watching before he kissed Double D's cheek, forcing Double D to blush and move back in his chair, looking around frantically as if he expected someone to see them. When he realized no one was watching them he glared angrily at Kevin for doing that before he playfully slapped his arm, making Kevin laugh before he went back to his computer.
They made it home after the last bell had rung and they both immediately got dressed into their swimwear to practice the moves they never got to do the day before. Kevin had already gotten dressed and was in the pool doing laps himself, impatiently warming up as he waited for Double D.
The ginger teen looked up, hearing the sound of a bottle hit the glass table out on the wooden deck and noticed Double D hesitantly coming out and looking bashful, a towel wrapped around his shoulders. Kevin smiled and laughed before he teasingly leaned against the side of the pool and motioned for Double D to join him.
"Come on, dork, you'll burn that delicate skin of yours." He smiled, loving to watch the little teen squirm uneasily before him. It brought old memories of them together as kids.
Double D gulped before he came to the pool and sat down, his feet in the water, him reluctant to take off the towel. He was embarrassed by his feminine figure, not to mention the hickey still on his neck.
"Come on dork, nothing I haven't seen before." He said pulling the towel off of the dork, crumbling it up and tossing it to the deck, it landing perfectly in the chair.
Double D gasped, blushing and holding onto his legs, embarrassed to be outside half naked. This, however, wasn't as worse as when his ugly, speedo that Eddy had forced him to wear ripped and he was stuck in the inflatable pool practically all night. He never wanted to feel that way again.
Kevin smiled when Double D hopped slowly in the pool, blushing at freezing cold water touching his barely warm skin. He looked frantic that he forgot to put on sunscreen but Kevin smiled and told him to wait there while the more athletic teen hopped out and grabbed it, helping Double D by the stairs put some on his body and himself as well considering he had forgotten to put any on himself.
Once they were finished and got situated, Kevin showed Double D a few moves in the pool, a few proper ways to swim in a competition and told him to watch carefully when he turned under the water to switch directions. He stopped after a while and smiled before his expression changed dramatically, unable to believe Double D was actually taking notes.
Kevin grabbed the little table and tossed it to the table, it landing in the same place as the towel.
"No. This isn't about remembering something from words and rereading them. This is about muscle memory." Kevin stated, looking annoyed at how dense Double D could be.
"Muscle Memory?" Double D questioned not understanding what that meant in terms Kevin was describing.
"Look, sports is about experience, practice, memorizing moves. It is not about being perfect or precise or gaining a grade. Sports is about training your body's performance with improvements and practicing to be better than you were the day before. You train your body to study, not your mind.
The words the more athletically experienced teen was saying was breezing by Double D's head. He wasn't sure what to make of this idea of memory through physicality. He then tried to think about it in his own terminology, to relate it into something he has experienced already.
"Like calligraphy or handwriting?" He asked kind of curious if that was a good symbolism."
"I guess. Like you practice your handwriting for years and try improving with it till you are satisfied with it right?"
"Yeah. I spent my whole life since I could learn to write to make it eligible to the precision to how I wanted it to look. Is that the same with swimming? I practice the pre-demonstrated moves repetitively until my body can naturally replicate it without thought, improving the body's performance until it is satisfactorily acceptable?"
"Exactly! Okay. So you practice till your body is able to naturally perform the moves without thought. Which may be hard for you...You over-think things."
Double D looked feisty about the comment, knowing well it was true but not too fond with Kevin's blunt words about it. He sighed and gave in, accepting defeat to the truth."I do...which may be the reason why I was never good at sports. I always tried to calculate the trajectory of an object to its destination with the variables at hand."
"Yeah, don't do that. This is more individually based to where you are focusing on your own performance and speed and doing well on your own in comparison to everyone else next to you. You are trying to get ahead of your competitors in the quickest amount of time to win." Kevin explained.
"Okay. So the focused elements are speed, performance, and form performed with practice." Double D said reaching for something to write with then he raised his hands up and sighed in disbelief, forgetting he didn't have it and that needing it had always been a necessity for him so it was hard to get over. He then chuckled and mumbled. "Muscle memory..."
Kevin smiled before he went to one side of the pool. "Okay, you know how to do a stroke right?"
"Yes, but I am not sure of my form." He stated, walking over to where Kevin was before the ginger started to demonstrate again the movement of the arms and the head. Double D watched, nodded uneasily, unsure of whether or not he really understood how the action was suppose to be performed correctly without doing itself.
Kevin swam back and noticed the uneasiness of Double D's expression and then turned him around and hugged him from behind, grabbing his wrists and helping with with the arm movements slowly, leading him to bend his arm as he came up striking his arm out before windmilling it back around, arm bent before continuing the motion.
"Like this, dork." Kevin said, mesmerized by Double D's scent mixed with the chlorine of the pool. He smelled like blueberries which made Kevin wonder if the smaller teen ate nothing but the fruit and started to turn into one. He enjoyed the scent but more so then the feel of Double D's back pressed up against his bare chest, the warmth mixed with the cool droplets of water that pressed against him felt nice, enough to make Kevin wish that this moment could last forever, never letting go of Double D.
Double D blushed, unable to focus on his arm movements but he understood how his arms should move, but Kevin seemed to be mesmerized in the moment, unable to break free of the love-daze hold the pose had on him. He gulped, unable to figure out how he could free Kevin, until he finally looked up him, Kevin dropping Double D's hands to his side, staring at the gap-toothed face kid in front of him, holding on to him as if never wanting him to go.
Kevin was then weakened by that smile, that gap-tooth smile that made him go weak in the knees. He couldn't help himself, unable to focus on the task hand, his lips having a mind of their own as they pressed into smaller teen's mouth. He kissed him deep and passionately, letting his tongue slide into Double D's, tasting him fully, unable to break free of the grip the dork had on him. It was in that moment he realized, he didn't care if anyone saw them out in the open, in a pool, in nothing but their bathing suits french kissing like love-sick puppies. He wanted Double D, more now than ever.
Double D was stunned by the kiss, unable to break free from Kevin's overwhelming grasp. Double D was worried that they may be seen, especially by Eddy who was right next door. He wanted Kevin to break free from the kiss so they could at least breathe, until he finally gave in. He turned around, freeing his hands from Kevin's and wrapping them around Kevin's neck, pulling Kevin deeper in the kiss and for some reason, instinctively jumping up into Kevin's arms, his legs wrapped around his hips. It was a summer love in the fall, one they would never forget.