The silence was so strong that you could have heard a pin drop had it not been for the splashing of the water around her. For an entire moment, everyone stood, watching with wide eyes as Anna looked down at herself – soaked and in the pool.

Nagisa eventually threw his hands to his mouth, trying his best to stifle a giggle, while Rei raised his hands to his head. "Nagisa!" he cried. "What if she'd drowned?!"

"I'm fine," she called to him. "Really." Anna was doing her best to hide her anger, but it wasn't the effort that was making her successfull. It's that she wasn't sure how to convery the simmering rage she felt using her limited language skills. It was then she heard a new voice, one that came from the water.

"You're in my lane."

Anna blinked, turning a little to get a look at whoever it was that had been doing laps. He waded in the water, keeping himself upright whilst staring at her. Not like the others, oh no. He was staring her down. "Uh..." Anna could hardly believe this guy. She hadn't even meant to fall in, it just happened, and... she shook her head. There was no point arguing. She'd already been embarassed enough. As she moved aside on the edge so that he could have his precious lane back, Rei extended her a hand.

"I'm so sorry!" he began, waiting for her to take his hand. "That was... I... Nagisa... he didn't mean..." as he helped her climb over the edge of the pool, he found himself stuttering. At least Anna wasn't the only one who was embarassed – although she was struggling to figure out why he was turning so red. It wasn't like he'd-

When she stood up, it suddenly became alarmingly clear why. Her clothes were saturated, and she was... well... Anna quickly crossed her arms to cover her chest, too horrified to even gasp. It was when she began to consider cutting her losses and just legging it back across the track field that she felt a towel drape around her shoulders. "Ohkay!" The redhead girl announced, laughing nervously. "Let's just get a towel on you and..." she glanced at the boys, unimpressed. "Does anyone have a change of clothes?"

"Here," said the olive haired boy, unzipping his jacket to reveal... ohgodiseveryoneatthisschoolripped? Anna barely noticed him offer it to her. "You can borrow this." He smiled warmly as she carefully reached out accept it.

"Thank you... uh?"

"Makoto."

Before she could say anything else, the red headed towel-giver spoke again, leaning down and inspecting her backside, much to Anna's horror. "Hmmm... I have some gym shorts you could borrow, but I don't think they'd fit those glutes of yours..."

"Kou!" Rei exclaimed, seeming more and more stressed by the second. "You can't just say that to a girl!"

"Yes I can!" She argued. "Girls are allowed to say these things to each other!"

Anna nervously laughed, trying to just end the entire situation. "Look, it's fine, the worst part was my shirt. I can survive wearing-"

"Rei!" Gou ordered. "Go ask the track club if anyone has any spare shorts."

Eyes wide, Anna shook her head from side to side. "No, no, look, really it's fine, my skirt's already started drying and-" before she could continue, Gou had grabbed the towel and started scruffing her hair with it in an attempt to dry it. "Wow, you guys are really... really... really..." Anna wanted to say 'overbearing,' but she couldn't remember the word for it, so she gave up. Not only was she soggy and being towelled off by people who she'd only just met, but now the track club was going to know about it.

–

"Nagisa says you might be joining the swim club," Gou said from outside the changing cubicle where Anna was doing a terrible job at being glamorous. Although, really, it was probably impossible to be anything but horribly awkward when changing out of your drenched school uniform and into a stranger's clothes and some shorts that still smelled like that horrible plastic they wrap them in. "I hope the accident didn't put you off!"

"It didn't..." Anna lied. It totally had. In fact, all she was thinking about was finding an excuse to leave early and get away from there as quickly as she possibly could – but she didn't exactly want to hurt anyone's feelings, either. "But I'm still not sure if I'll join. I mean, it's been a long time since I've done any swimming."

Gou laughed. "That's ok! Rei couldn't swim at all when he joined, and now look at him and his deltoids!" Anna raised an eyebrow. She wasn't sure if Gou was some kind of anatomy expert or just had no reservations about that kind of stuff. Sure, Anna had looked, but she never... well she wouldn't say it out loud. "Say... you're from Australia, right?"

Pulling the cord in the waistband of the shorts as tight as she could (foreigners were a little bigger, sure, but surely they didn't think she needed shorts this big?) and tying it into a knot, Anna couldn't help but wonder how frumpy she must have looked right now. "I sure am."

"My brother studied abroad there. What's it like?"

Opening the door, Anna shrugged. "Hot. Dry. Full of... um..." Racists. Why could she never remember what the word for that was?

Gou suddenly burst into giggles. "You're so cute!" Anna raised an eyebrow as she continued, leading her out of the change rooms and towards the pool. "Your accent and the way you trail off sometimes. I bet you must have lots of guys who have crushes on you. So exotic and mysterious, with such strong glutes!"

"Erm. Thank... you?" There really hadn't been a need for that sentence to go any further than the part where it talked about her accent, but she hadn't really needed to fall into the pool, either. The more and more she thought about it, the more and more she was excited to go home. As they reached the pool, she started to think about excuses to leave. I'm cold. I have an assignment. I just remembered some...thing. Anything that meant she could get away from...

Their jackets were all off.

She watched as they dove into the water, the late afternoon sun illuminating each dip and hill as it plunged in to the water. So many muscles. Such flexing... Anna's mouth was probably open, but she couldn't really do anything about it. They all began to swim in an impromptu race, but it was Rei that caught her eye. That was the mastermind that sat next to her during that math class? That specimen with perfect, toned, chiselled arms and shoulders that glistened in the water?

"...So, interested in joining yet?" Gou asked, her eyes in the exact same place that Anna's was.

"Where do I sign up?"