Your name is Feferi Peixes and you are thirty years old. You have been teaching swimming lessons at an indoor pool for ten years and you don't plan on stopping anytime soon. However, today is the first day with an entirely new set of kids, and that's always the hardest day. Your new bunch has five kids, with an age range between four and seven, which is a large class for you, but you have no doubt that you'll manage.
"Could I have Dave, Terezi, Karkat, Aradia, and John for their swimming lesson now, please?" You call, standing by the entrance to the pool. The kids line up in front of you and you open the door for them as they all troop in. "Alright, guppies! Who's ready to learn how to swim?" You ask, stepping onto the small set of stairs that leads into the pool.
The children sit down on the top step, and you smile brightly. "Let's go around so that I can get everyone's name, alright?" You say, pointing at the tallest boy, a blonde with sunglasses. "You go first!"
"I'm Dave and I am not your fish," he frowns, sullenly. You get the distinct feeling that he's going to be a problem later on, but you carry on. The kid next to him is a short boy with messy black hair who looks distinctly uncomfortable. You notice that while the other children have their feet dangling in the water, he doesn't even have his body anywhere near it. You nod to the kid, and his eyes widen.
"Karkat. Karkat Vantas," He offers grumpily. He stares at the water for a while more, before scooting back.
"Would you like to get in?" you ask him, trying to coax him into the pool.
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"No no no no no no no no no no," He pauses for breath and keeps on yelling. "Nonononononononononononononononononononono!" The repeated word becomes a refrain and he's just listening to himself now, but you can't force a kid to get in the pool. In the meantime, you decide to ignore him temporarily and move on.
You nod at the next one, a girl that looks to be about three. Her eyes are blank and she doesn't respond to your nod, so you assume that she must be the one they warned you about. She's blind, or so you were told, but she got into the pool alright. Dave nudges her and she looks up at you.
"I can't see." You squeeze your eyes shut, not understanding.
"You're blind, right?" You ask gently, trying to figure out why this is such a new thing to her.
"Yeah, but I can usually tell colors. I can't here!" the girl's voice starts to rise into hysteria, obviously terrified. "I can't tell! I can't sense anything! What color is it?" She begins to wail and your heart breaks a little bit.
"Shhh, Terezi, you'll get used to it. Shhhh." You say quietly, pulling her into a hug.
You nod at the last two who mutter that their names are 'Aradia' and 'John'. Karkat stops screaming when John speaks, and actually crawls closer to the boy and therefore the water. John turns towards him and smiles, patting the space next to him, where Karkat promptly plops down. The child in your arms stops crying and you can finally start your lessons.