Hi people! Wow, I'm sorry I didn't update sooner, BUT, I have excuses! Yay! If you want to read them, continue, but if you don't, then get out of here. :p. So, for the excuses... My sister's birthday was on Tuesday, so I couldn't write, I've been working on my joint account with my friend (It's Peeta0BreadAndHumus if you didn't know and she does practically everything, so thank her), and I wrote the chapter, but then I didn't like it, and THEN I wrote it again, and it was really short, and here it finally is. ALSO, because you are so kind and patient, I have blessed you with the first chapter I wrote, too. I call it Chapter Four and one half. Hope you like it!
DISCLAIMER: If I owned PJO, my name would be Rick. It's not. So, I don't own PJO.
Chapter 4 1/2
Tryouts were on Thursday. Today was Wednesday. I couldn't wait, but at least I had time to get some more training in that HUGE pool. I hadn't swam in it yet, but it looked perfect for a champion swim captain.
"Max! Come eat breakfast!" My mom called from the kitchen. "Do you want an omelet or scrambled eggs?"
"Scrambled eggs!" I replied, "Don't forget the bacon!" I took a quick shower and changed into my outfit of choice: whatever I grabbed out of my closet. I walked down the hall and sat down at the table. "What are you wearing?!" My mom asked, alarmed. I didn't see what was wrong with my outfit, except that my shirt had a picture of a dolphin with cutesy eyes. Why are cutesy eyes even a thing? They should be banned in all states except New York, because everything should be allowed in New York. I mean, New York is the ultimate state, with the city, and Lady Liberty, and me. I could just go on and on about how great this place is. So, my mom made me change into a Goode High Seals T-Shirt, because apparently she had bought me a bunch of Goode High stuff before I even knew I was going there. Shortly after I ate my breakfast, I left to take the subway to school.
"Hey! Max!" I heard Alex call, "You ready for your first tutoring session today?" I was confused at first. I didn't need tutoring! I was already perfect at being smart. Then I realized what she was saying.
"The first meeting is today?!" I exclaimed, jogging over to meet Alex. "Yeah, didn't you hear?" She asked, "Mrs. Girenko explained it all on Monday!" Huh. I guess I hadn't been listening. Alex didn't need to know that, though. "I forgot, can you refresh my memory?" I asked her instead. She rolled her eyes and began explaining.
"So, basically, we have these times called 'sessions.' They happen twice a week on Wednesdays and Fridays. You meet with the person you're tutoring, and you teach them stuff they don't get. If they need more time, you can schedule another session. They are always at two to three. Oh, and if you are doing any sports or other activities, it doesn't interfere with those."
That was good. It was only for an hour, and my mom said I didn't need to be home until five today. I could go swimming afterwards. We walked into the school, Alex talking about who was nice here and who you should avoid, and me trying to pretend to listen.
The rest of the day passed uneventfully. Percy wasn't here, and classes were easy and boring. Time for tutoring. Yay. Note my sarcasm. I found the library, and inside were most of the kids I had seen on Monday and some new kids. I guessed they were the ones we were going to tutor. I sat down at one of the tables and looked for Alex. She wasn't here yet. Mrs. Girenko made us sit with our partners at separate tables from each partnership. I found Clint and sat across the table from him.
"So, what do you need help on?" I asked. He shrugged.
"Math, I guess." I told him to show me his most recent piece of math homework. It wasn't too bad, just a few answers wrong here and there. This would be easy, and it was.
I dove into the pool and started swimming laps for a while. The cool, clear liquid felt refreshing on my skin, but water was not a force to play with. It was something to use to your advantage, and to push yourself. Instead of making you strong in the water, it makes you weaker. After swimming for an hour or two, I got out and headed home.
"Max!" My mom called when I got to the apartment, "Dinner's ready!" That night we had spaghetti. And cookies. Not to brag, but my mom made the best cookies. Chewy and full of melted chocolate chips, they were like heaven in your mouth. We ate lots and lots of cookies, and then I went to bed.
There was chapter four and one half! Yay! Don't go now, people, because I have more! The actual chapter five! Yay!
Chapter Five
Ah, the pool. Ready to be mine. Tryouts were just after this last class, Science. We were testing different pools of water to see if they have poisonous substances. I was with this girl, Ashley, and Percy. Surprisingly, Percy wasn't bad at this type of stuff. He knew just how much of the weird chemical tester thing you put in to test the ammonia. I guessed it was because he had fish or something when he was a kid.
After Science, I went down to the giant pool. The coach was already there, checking off names on his sheet. I went over to him and signed up, right after I changed.
The warmups were tough, but they must've not looked very hard, because Percy was doing them really, really fast. At least Percy was here, because then I had someone to cheer me on when I became captain.
"Okay, kids, that's enough," The coach said. He had introduced himself as Coach Natare. "Get in the pool!" He yelled, "We're going to do some swim exercises!" Oh, I would ace these.
First up, freestyle one hundred meters. I swam fast, and finished… second? That can't be right. Who finished first? Oh. Percy. Well, freestyle is my worst stroke. The next one would be better. The next one wasn't better. It was worse, if that's possible. And the exercises after that were almost worse. I mean, how good could Goode be? Very good, it turns out. Maybe this was the reason why we didn't win against them. Sure, Percy and some of the other guys were doing well right now, but after the first couple of laps they would be out of steam. Not to mention the endurance tests. Yeah, I knew what was coming, because I had done a lot of swim tests over my years.
"Kids, we are going to do some laps. Just breaststroke, for six hundred meters, and Percy, don't go your hardest, we don't want to scare the freshmen before they're on the team, would you." Coach Natare said and winked at Percy. I nearly scoffed. He didn't have to worry about Percy going his fastest, he needed to worry about ME!
I was in a lane with three other guys I didn't know, but they seemed to know each other. They kept pushing this one guy into the middle of the pool, and just being generally annoying to him. I supposed they were friends, because he pushed them back, and the boys just laughed. So, in order for me to get away from all of them, I went first. The breaststroke was easy, just a simple down and back six times. I knew I needed to conserve energy, so I started slow, and got faster as I went over my laps.
Finally, done. Yes, I had finished first, but Percy was right behind me. The boys who were in my lane didn't finish until most of the tryouter people did, so I didn't think they were going to make the team, so that was good. Even if they did make the team, I would kick them off as soon as I saw them goofing off.
"Next we're going to do some endurance tests. Percy, you're going to sit this out. I don't want to be stuck here for the rest of the day," Coach said, "Everyone else, get in the water and start swimming freestyle. You," he said, pointing at Percy, "Can go over there and swim laps." So Percy was a long distance swimmer. Too bad we didn't need those on the team, because all high school races are shorter distances.
"THREE, TWO, ONE, GO!" Coach Natare shouted, and everyone started swimming in their respective lanes. Unfortunately for them, I won that round, staying in the water for twenty minutes, while everyone else dropped out at around fifteen.
The next thing we did were races. There were three types we did. Speed, Strength, and Strokes. Coach called them the three S's. I called them hard. Not too hard, though. I maintained in the lead for the first race, a two hundred meter freestyle, which I did against this guy named Jerry and this other guy named Dobby. Jerry actually did really well, but Dobby was really short, and finished about thirty seconds after us. That may not seem like a lot, but most races are won by miniscule amounts of time.
The second race was a little harder. Strength. It was called that because you did breaststroke for seven minutes, and see how many laps you got done. That one was actually pretty fun, though I wouldn't admit it to anyone, because they all groaned when Coach Latare announced what we were doing. He split the group in half, because this race took a little bit longer, and he wouldn't be able to keep track with the whole group at once. He assigned partners by last name. I was with Jerry, whose surname was apparently Whitaker. I was the only one in the group whose last name started with V. I was in the first group. By the end of the seven minutes, I had gotten twelve laps done, which was pretty good. Not as good as Percy, though, who had gotten fifteen. This was probably because he was in the second group, and had gotten some time to get himself in a good mindset, and not because he was faster than me.
The last race was Strokes. We had to do all four main types of strokes: Three hundred meters of Freestyle, three hundred meters of Breaststroke, three hundred meters of Breaststroke, and two hundred meters of Butterfly. "You have to do these as fast as you can without drowning," Coach explained. I could barely hear the shouts of, "THREE, TWO, ONE, GO!" as I sped off into the water.
Eight minutes. Not bad. Who else was done? Percy and some guy I didn't recognize. The rest of the group finished shortly after, and Dobby brought up the end with a very slow time of sixteen minutes and forty nine seconds.
"Okay, kids," Coach said at the end of the tryouts, "The results will be posted on the bulletin board outside of the pool." He pointed in the general direction of the board, which I had seen when I walked in. "I should have them up by Monday, so you only have to wait through this weekend. Remember, even if you don't get in, we have a practice squad that meets every Monday and Wednesday if you want to join." He said. Why would anyone want to join the practice squad? If you don't get in, you should be laughed at and never try again. That didn't matter to me, though, because I knew I would get in. Just have to wait for Monday, now.
YES! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SUPPORT, PEOPLE! You guys are sooo amazing and kind and I haven't gotten a single negative review! (That's a lie, I got one at the very beginning, lol,) I promise I will update sooner next time, because I have pretty much nothing to do, otherwise! As of right now, I have 2,807 views! Of course, like my friend would say, it could be 2,807 people who read it and hated it, but I don't think so. You wouldn't do that to me, right?
Reviews:
Tbrucks: Glad you think so!
JoeBob: My lunch is 27 minutes. I laughed SO HARD when I read your review and I lurve how he is so vain.
Potatoqueensnow: Thank you so much again for making Alex! I really liked last chapter, too!
Faegrace: Those names are um... something else. Did you notice Natare means swim in Latin? So I literally named him Coach Swim for a swim team!
Percabethrock: Thanks so much! Here's the update you were looking for!
IamTheUltimateFangirl: Haha, yah, it's one of those! FYI, I love Impossible Mortals. The KittenLuv that was reviewing was me! So yay!
There are some things we need to discuss, people. One, there were some weird things happening in Chapter Three. I fixed them up, but you guys didn't tell me! The second thing is that you are all so awesome and I love you! That's all I have to say for now!
Bye people,
-KittenLuv/ThatGirlWithaCat
