God, I hated the smell of chlorine. It literally felt like the chem. lab living in your nostrils, it was disgusting.

No matter, I'd still shown up to swim tryouts. I had been on the swim team ever since freshmen year, but I never made the competitive team. And for good reason too, and not the sort of reason you probably have predicted.

It's because you suck, Juvia!

Actually, no. Not to brag, but I'm easily the fastest swimmer here. Years and years of dreading the pool and raw determination to conquer my paralyzing fear of water had drilled pure swimming instincts into my brain. I could move faster and more fluidly than our so called 'champion swimmer' could in her dreams.

Evergreen.

Just thinking her name left an awful taste in my mouth, like after my dad cooked year old potatoes, claiming that the 'little green sprouts' made them taste better.

The dumbass dad of the year award goes to…

God, her big fat terrible attitude was probably the reason she was so goddamn slow. Too much damn weight.

Not that my terrible attitude was any less than hers. Mine was just justified.

Sure, Evergreen was fast, but not…really fast. I probably sound like a total condescending bitch right now, but god she just thought she was hot stuff and it kinda made me want to set her on fire. Then she really would be hot stuff.

I stretched my lean arms over my head, taking my time in observing the coach. Each tryouts, the varsity team members would be selected by time on each of the four main strokes. The top seven swimmers were taken, and I had a habit of 'slipping up' on try out days and not even making it to twelfth.

Oops.

A few years back, when I first started swimming, I met Evergreen. Although she's a dumb bitch, she's also a smart bitch. If you know what I mean.

She probably saw that I was most definitely better than her, and she sort of…talked to me about it, and long story short, I tend to sort of on purpose flunk tryouts every year. By talked I mean threatened, of course. But still.

Double oops.

Dipping my feet into the pool slowly, I made sure to send Evergreen a nasty glare while her back was turned. She was annoying, even from behind. Although she did have a great ass. I was jealous.

I slipped into the water silently, just as unnoticeable as I was in class. I really don't think anybody even knew I was on the swim team, besides bitchy Evergreen, anyways.

Even though my fear of water was still very evident, the pool just wasn't…real water.

Real water was churning, blackened depths that grabbed a hold of your legs and dragged you down to the depths, where it would watch you slowly suffocate to death, and laugh. Not this chlorine-infested drinking water.

Yeah, I felt very strongly on the whole anti-water debate that sort of took place in my brain. I knew water was sort of a weird phobia to have, especially for a swimmer, but I would just like to say that my weird phobia is properly justified with the worst justification of all - tragic backstory.

I slid into the pool, cutting through the water easily and listening to it gurgle past me, and the thin strands of my ponytail sticking to my exposed cheekbones.

I hated swim caps. Just thought I should throw that out there as well.

It was pretty evident that I was hella faster than Evergreen, she knew it, her friends knew it, and especially the coach knew it. You should've seen him every year, right after tryouts.

"God dammit Juvia, what the hell was that garbage! A bloody outrage, you were like a fucking ballerina out there, taking your goddamn time. No, don't laugh at me! I should be stringing up what's left of you across the bloody auditorium, if that's what you call a butterfly!"

He's literally like the Gordan Ramsey of high school swimming.

"Juvia! Get your ass out of the water!"

Just returning from my practice loop, I flew out of the water to see what the coach wanted. Probably prepping me for tryouts, with his 'don't bloody screw this up again Lockser'.

"Yeh?" I said unintelligently, clumps of water still residing in my ears.

"Don't bloody screw this up again Lockser-"

Yup. Like I said, same old spiel.

"-and if you think for a goddamn bloody shit assed second that you slacking off is going to stop me from-"

Blah, blah, blah. Kicking my ass from here to the Thymes, etc., etc.

"Coach!"

And now it's time for, gag me with a fucking laptop!

"Coach, I shaved a whole second of my front! And also-"

"Can't you see I'm fuckin' busy Ever! We'll talk after tryouts!" He barked, making Evergreen huff in frustration and send me a withering glare and good lord I'm pretty sure she actually turned me to stone.

"-Got that missy?" He asked me, a pointed look on his sharpish face. Kinda reminded me of a vulture, in a way, I guess…

"Uh…yes coach." I clarified, saluting him and walking back to my lane.

Unfortunately, someone was waiting for me there.

"Ahem. Juvia, do you remember what we talked about?" Evergreen asked, tapping her foot on the slippery floor.

"Actually, we're not technically supposed to talk about fight club." I said, a warning in my mind that she totally wouldn't get my hilarious reference.

Aaand I was right. But her stupid face was enough to show that she didn't really get much of anything.

"Whatever. Just know that if you even touch the varsity squad, I will make it so you and your little friends will never be able to show your faces at school again."

Wow, I'm so scared, Regina-fucking-George. What are you going to do, put my name in the burn book?

"Gotcha." I said, pointing my fingers at her in recognition. Unfortunately her blackmail material was a couple thousand leagues above writing my name in a burn book.

"Freak." She muttered before turning around to her boyfriend, and surprise surprise her entire little fucking posse.

Great. Just what I needed, to show off my non-existent sort of existent swimming skills to Gray, who was, by the way, still in his hockey clothes.

No boy can make sweatpants look good.

Except him.

He looked at me. I looked away from him.

Wow, that is one nice banner. What a great banner. I am really enjoying looking at this nice, multi-colored banner, in fact, I might just-

I felt a small tap on the back of my shoulder, and I whirled around, successfully whipping pool water all over Gray's dark blue shirt from my ponytail.

"Euh…sorry." I apologized, grabbing my ponytail in shame. You betrayed me!

"S'ok. Hey, don't freeze up out there. I kind of want to see someone actually beat Evergreen." He said with a grin. And at that moment, I wanted to. I really wanted to.

But I couldn't.

"Eh…I'll try." I said, although I think even he could tell by my tone of voice that that was the opposite of the truth.

He frowned, and looked like he had something else to say, but the loudspeakers came on, telling us and bystanders that trials were about to start.

First up; front crawl. Easily my best stroke, could win in a heartbeat.

But…I wasn't going to.

The shot went off and I literally just swam through leisurely, like I was getting from pontoon to pontoon. I could hear coach tearing out his ears in frustration (because he had no hair) and slamming his clipboard against the wall, probably frightening all onlookers greatly.

"God, dammit! Lockser, your ass, is mine when this is over!" He screeched, drawing far too much attention than I would've hoped. But I do suppose last place was a bit dramatic, even for me.

His comment probably sounded like the pervert Olympics to anybody else, but to me, it simply meant fuck you, you useless whore.

Next: backstroke. Easy. But, not so for me.

I picked it up a little bit, snagging 8th place out of ten girls, but still, you could fry an egg on my coach's head, if you were in the mood for some sunny-side up.

Breaststroke: my worst stroke. You can probably guess why.

But Evergreen was just plain awful at breaststroke, those boulders of hers pretty much dragged her to the bottom of the pool.

I got seventh, much to my horror. Again, seven spots on the varsity team, I didn't want any chance of being considered for a position.

So for the butterfly, the final stroke for trials, I got dead last. Just ensuring me and my friend's social safety folks. Among other things.

When I hopped out of the pool, coach was about ready to tear my boobs off and glue them to his Hummer because we have not made it to a state tournament in the last four years and somehow he believes that I'm the key to his winning drought, or whatever.

"Lockser! That was complete bullshit! Do I look like a dumb fucking wanker to you?! I bloody hope not, because losing on goddamn purpose is not what I call 'not screwing this up'. If you think for one moment, that I-"

Beep. Tuned out. My eyes subtly traipsed over Gray's form, bustled around Evergreen who had secured her top swimmer's spot.

He seemed completely unfazed by her winning, in fact, it looked like he was looking for-

"Are you even bloody listening?! I said, I'm not taking no for an answer. This is your last year here, and I fucking need-"

Boop. Sorry coach, don't care.

Gray, on the other hand…

"Putting you on varsity whether you like it or not."

WHAT?!

I looked up at him, completely and utterly horrified.

"What? No, you can't do that! I didn't make it!" I protested, but he had already started walking away.

"Don't bloody care, practice is next Tuesday. Be there if you want to continue breathing for the near future."

Ah, thinly veiled threats, my favorite things from teachers.

Asshole.

Completely pissed off, and frankly, screwed so hard not even a mega ton drill bit could get me unstuck, I stormed off towards the locker room with murderous intention.

"What the hell was that?"

I turned around to face an angry looking Gray, and I matched his facial expression.

"What do you mean?" I sniffed, like the events corresponding were completely natural.

"I mean you sucked. It was blatantly obvious you were trying to lose." He deadpanned.

"I told you already, I don't like competition." I flatlined, squeezing excess water out of my ponytail in preparation to enter the locker room. What was his deal? It wasn't like he had a stake in this anyway. Whether or not I sucked ass on purpose was none of his business.

"Bullshit." He called. Damn him. Damn his sexy attractive intuitiveness.

I scowled and took a step forward, getting directly into his face.

"Why do you care, Gray? What do you want from me?" I questioned. I'm sure I looked like a total idiot, trying to intimidate a man who was not only a solid 6 inches taller than me, but also looked like he could carry me with one arm. Yum.

Juvia, you're getting distracted again, dumbass. Focus on the task at hand.

He folded his arms, retaliating to my forwardness. "I want the truth."

"I want the truth. Tough shit batman, that's for me to know." I said, imitating his voice horribly and turning around and storming back to the locker room. I heard him say my name, but I kept walking. I couldn't deal with him right now.

He made me so angry. First of all, it wasn't fair for someone to be that attractive. Heh heh, fuck you buddy. Second of all, I literally met him three days ago and already he's stuck his damn nose so far into my business he might just have to get it surgically removed, and third of all…

"Yeah. I can't believe coach put her on varsity, she sucks. She literally got last, is he trying to make this team a joke?"

Well, looks like I was wrong to be under the assumption that everybody knew that I was better than Evergreen.

"I know! He's just pissed we didn't make it to state last year, and he's taking it out on us! It's bullshit."

I so desperately wanted to prove those two shallow puddles wrong, I wanted to win, to make it to state…but it wasn't worth it. Three months left, just three months of high school, I don't need it to be any more hellish than it already is.

I just didn't quite know how I was going to handle this yet…

"You!"

Well, as if today couldn't get any shittier…

"You! What did I tell you!? You bitch! I'll make you pay for this!"

"I didn't do it! It was coach, if you have a problem, take it up with him!" Shit. The words flew out before I could swallow them up.

"Shut up! You're gonna regret this, so much. I'll screw up your social life so bad-"

"What social life?" God damn it Juvia just stop fucking talking for the love of god, please just stop talking!

"You just dissed yourself, and I hope you're prepared to suffer." She snapped. God, she is so fake. I don't even understand how this is happening.

But I had to stop fucking around. This was serious.

"Just chill Evergreen. Coach put me on because he knows I pretended to lose." I mumbled, trying to keep my voice down so only Evergreen could hear me. "I'll just lose the next couple varsity races and he'll demote me. I'll fix this, ok? Just don't do anything stupid."

Evergreen looked skeptical, but she wanted to keep me under her finger, so she listened. "Fine. This is your last chance. Do not fuck it up."

Her words lingered in the air, I knew the gravity of what she meant. Her blackmail material on me was pretty heavy. As much as I used humor to cope, I couldn't let this go. I'd just have to prove to the swim team that I truly was the loser everyone already thought I was.

Honestly, these three months couldn't stretch on any longer.

I put on my after swimming clothes, or as my mom calls them, my 'special' clothes. Hey, if you were sopping wet and didn't feel like trying, you'd look like you'd given up on fashion too.

It consisted of light gray sweatpants with the words Holy Angels written up my right leg. The name of my college, in case you're wondering. I won't accept going to any other colleges, and I'm hoping to go to the nursing school on their campus. The partner piece to my outfit was an old red T-shirt with the word lifeguard on it.

Yup. I dressed like the lazy idiot I was.

I grabbed my drawstring swim bag and headed outside, texting my dad to come pick me up. He thought I sucked at swimming. Although he'd never said it, I knew he thought so.

If only he knew.

So my basic after swimming schedule was waiting an hour and a half for my dad to come because the 'game was on' or he was 'robbed by some teenagers'. I loved my dad, but he sure was a flake.

So typically I would pass the time by sitting on the curb and watching netflix off my laptop, but I didn't bring my lifeblood today so I got to sit on the curb and do my absolute favorite thing- doing absolutely nothing!

I trudged over to the curb, my ponytail still dripping on the sidewalk, and sometimes trailing down the back of my neck and leaving a wet mark on the back of my shirt.

I flopped down onto the sidewalk, dipping my chin into my hands as I watched each girl hop into their cars while whispering most likely unpleasant things about me into their friend's ears.

Damn. Guess Evergreen's curse was starting early.

Soon enough, I was completely alone. Sitting on the curb, like a loser, my hair partially frozen and my ass numb.

"Heya."

You really should've seen this one coming.

Gray sat next to me slowly and looked at me with an indiscernible look on his face.

"Hi." I said softly, tracing the fabric on my shirt. There was still paint on it from a volunteer project Levy made me do two summers ago.

He sat quietly, not saying anything. The tension was thick. We had both yelled at each other like 15 minutes ago even though we both hardly knew each other. It was like we both knew how weird the situation was, but neither of us wanted to be the first to blink.

I snuck a peek at him. He was just staring pensively at the parking lot, waiting for me to make the first move. Dammit.

Fuck it. I'd blink first.

"I'm uh - sorry." I muttered.

He had the nerve to look surprised. "Sorry for what?"

I gave him an 'are you kidding me' look but he didn't budge.

"I yelled at you? Remember that?" I prodded. His facial expression remained neutral, which made me want to go absolutely feral. Show some goddamn emotion, for fuck's sake.

"You call that yelling?" He finally asked. Oh fuck. He was baiting me! Little cocky bastard. He thought he could rile me up. Which he could.

I made an unintelligible sound and threw my hands up in defeat. Fucking men, I'm telling you. Dumb as a bag of sand.

We sat in some more silence while I silently fumed. Did he think just because he was sexy he could barge into my life and act like he was entitled to my personal information? He had to be insane. Totally bonkers.

Is it weird that it makes him more attractive?

Fuck. I needed to shut the hell up for once in my goddamn life.

"So…this might seem like weird timing, but you know how I said that there was a hockey game on Friday?" Gray asked, scratching the back of his head, a nervous habit he had. (don't look at me like that, I know things, ok?).

"Yuh." I said tiredly, not really sure where he was going with this. I decided to ignore that he completely skimmed over my apology.

"Can you like…go? Like watch me play? I mean, it's only fair, I saw you compete, so…"

Okay. I'm gonna punch him in the face.

I looked at him like he was crazy. Which he was. Why would he want me to go to his game? I practically just bit his head off after my race. Also earlier during school. His only interactions with me had been negative and now he wanted me to play cheerleader?

"Uh, yeah…sure. I suppose I should see at least one before graduation…" I reasoned, wanting to see his reaction to my nonchalance.

"Oh, ok. Cool, I mean. I'm number thirteen. If you wanted to watch me." He stumbled through his sentences awkwardly. I wonder if he was like this with all girls. Oh god, I did not just think that.

"Gray? The hell are you doin'?"

A voice interrupted us. Thank god. I might've jumped in with a quick 'I'm obsessed with you, of course I'll see your game' if not for that timely interruption.

Gray turned around with quite possibly the most annoyed expression I've ever seen. And I've seen Erza during calculus.

"Who the hell asked you?" He shot back, before turning back around and leaning forward into his hands like me.

"Get yer ass up. We're goin' to the rink." The same guy from detention said, walking up to us and glaring down at Gray from above.

"What? Why? We don't have practice." Gray answered, his head shaking.

"Doesn't matter. You suck, ya gotta get better." The guy said stubbornly. Gray scowled.

"Shaddup Lyon. I don't care." Gray mumbled, leaning down and dipping his head between his knees.

"You should go." I whispered unconsciously. He looked up at me curiously, and almost accusatory, like he was expecting me to be on his side.

"Why?" He asked, like a small child busted for taking extra cookies.

"Because, I don't want to watch a hockey game with you stinking it up." I said simply, not able to contain my grin.

Apparently, it was contagious. "You think you're clever, don't you? You just wait and see, maybe I'm the star player." He said, jumping up from the sidewalk with gusto. Lyon rolled his eyes and punched Gray in the back.

"C'mon, if you spend all your time trying to get laid you shouldn't have picked hockey, the NBA's where that sort of shit happens." Lyon added, pulling Gray's arm towards the desolate parking lot.

"Hey, uh, I'll see you at school, you know…tomorrow." Gray called back, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

"Who was that chick?" I heard Lyon ask when he thought he was out of my hearing range.

"She's my friend." My face instantly lit on fire.

Dammit Gray, just…dammit.