Open Waters

Chapter Eight

Track

Sunday afternoon found Hana once again lounging around at Haru's place. Haru was obviously there, as was Makoto and Nagisa.

As expected, Haru had come down with a cold. Hana wanted to shake him once she found out he'd fallen ill, or at least stalk up to him and say sharply, I told you so.

She didn't do any such thing, though.

They'd been talking for a while when Haru sneezed, his eyes scrunching up as he did so.

"That was loud," Nagisa commented.

"Haru, are you okay?" Hana asked. She leaned over the table so she was closer to him, concerned.

Haru rubbed the bridge of his nose. "My late grandma used to say that you sneeze when someone else is talking about you."

Um... I think you're sneezing because you're sick. Like we all told you you would be. Hana decided not to push it, though. She knew she most definitely didn't enjoy being sick, and doubted Haru was having much fun either. She'd just wait and he had recovered.

Nagisa gasped. "Then Rin-chan must be talking about you!"

"No, I'm pretty sure he's just sick," Makoto said. He shot a pointed look Haru's way. "It's because you were swimming in the pool in April."

Haru frowned. "I'm not a baby that gets sick from swimmi-" His sentence was cut off as he sneezed loudly, contradicting his statement. Hana pressed her lips tightly together to suppress a chuckle.

"It's too early for swimming in outdoor pools," Makoto said. He grabbed a pack of tissues and reached over to present them to Haru, who took one instantly. "We'll just have to work out until it's warmer."

Hana crinkled her nose. They sure are dedicated. I don't think I've ever been this dedicated to a sport before. Then again, I've never really found a sport that I actually like. It's obvious these three all have a passion for swimming.

"Oh, I heard from Gou-chan that Rin-chan joined the Samezuka swim team," Nagisa intervened suddenly, smiling.

Hana wasn't particularly fazed by this piece of information. Then again, she hadn't known Rin or particularly liked him. She glanced over at Haru and Makoto, and saw Haru had turned thoughtful, while Makoto had a knowing glint to his eye. She tilted her head to the side. What was that look all about, she wondered?

"Is something wrong, Mako-chan?" Nagisa asked, obviously noticing something unusual with Makoto's reaction as well.

"No, it's nothing," Makoto said. "But this means we might run into him in a tournament."

"Yep, we should enter tournaments!" Nagisa exclaimed. "Then we can do relays again."

Again. Subconsciously, Hana's hand reached out and grabbed the photo hear her, the one of the relay team. She studied it with a soft smile. Everyone looked so happy... exempting Haru, of course, who wasn't even looking at the camera, instead pointedly gazing to the side. The arm of a younger Rin was around his shoulders.

Once again, Hana couldn't think of just how much Rin had changed from what she saw in the photo to now. It almost didn't make sense how someone could change that much.

"I only swim freestyle," Haru said.

Hana's eyes flicked up as she was drawn back into the conversation, and she chuckled lightly at Nagisa's crestfallen face. "Does that mean you can't swim relays? Don't say that!" He sighed. "Come on..."

"Besides," Haru pointed out, "we can't swim a relay with three people."

Nagisa froze at these words, like they had shocked him. The blonde boy then leapt to his feet, quite the distressed expression in his face.

"Which means... we have to find one more member?!"

Oh great. Hana buried her face in her hands.

Just when I thought the swim club was ready to go...

*          *          *

"Hana! Hey, Hana, look what I found!"

Hana whirled around to find Gou slip through the last cluster of students in her way and run up, a bright grin on her face. Hana closed the distance between them. "Did you find anything?" Hana asked eagerly, the both of them coming of a standstill.

"You bet I did." Gou held up a poster, just about shoving it in Hana's face out of excitement. "Look at this place!"

Last night, Hana had phoned Gou up, telling her about the boy's eagerness to swim, but they couldn't due to the currently colder weather. They'd then discussed the likelihood and usefulness of finding an indoor pool at a gym facility or something similar, since they had deduced that most schools without a pool would train at such facilities so their performance never dropped off. Since Hana had been the original one to propose the idea, Gou said she would do some research and look into any indoor pools nearby.

And it looked like she'd found a good one.

"Wow," Hana commented, inspecting the poster in closer detail. "Good job, Kou! I'm sure the boys would love to swim here, especially Haru."

"Haruka-senpai would love swimming anywhere where there's water." Gou indicated to one of the points on the poster. "The price is a bit steep, but we could always use our club budget to cover that expense."

"If they agree to it." Hana chewed on her bottom lip. "Well, we should propose the idea to the boys first, and make sure they're okay with it. Then we can consult Ama-chan and see what she has to say on the matter.'"

Gou nodded and placed the poster back in her bag. "Right! I'll tell Nagisa to meet at lunch, you can handle Makoto and Haruka-senpai, and we can discuss it then."

"It's a plan." Hana grinned, and was startled once she checked the time. "Shoot, only one minute until class starts!" She hitched her bag more securely over her shoulder, turned and ran for the school building. "See you at lunch, Kou!"

Hana arrived at class just as the lesson commenced, puffing and smiling lazily at Makoto and Haru. She quickly stepped over to her desk and slumped back in her chair, grabbing her pen and prepared to sit through a few hours of boredom.

Hana drummed her pen agaisnt the desk, constantly checking the time, which of course only made time go slower. She sighed as she struggled through difficult maths questions, which had never been her strong point.

Finally, lunch came. Hana exhaled in relief and turned to Makoto and Haru. "Meet at the clubroom," she said quickly, and dashed out of the classroom in search of Gou.

Gou was already there. Hana skipped over to her side, smiling. "Right. I told Makoto and Haru, they should be here."

Gou nodded. "Nagisa knows too."

Soon, Makoto and Nagisa entered the clubroom, without Haru. Hana sighed inwardly. Of course Haru would be the difficult one.

"So what's this all about?" Nagisa asked, curious.

Gou grinned and held out the poster she'd shown Hana earlier. "This. What do you think of it?"

"Wow!" Nagisa exclaimed, taking in the poster with a large grin on his face. He looked so excited that Hana was sure his excitement was about to jump out if him at any given moment. His large amount of excitement didn't look like it should be able to fit in such a small body. "We can swim here in the offseason? Awesome!"

"Right?" Gou exclaimed, beaming. She flicked a thumb over at Hana as she spoke. "We're thinking that schools like us without indoor pools probably use facilities like these."

Nagisa grinned. "Way to go, Gou-chan, our super manager!"

"You're supposed to call me Kou!" Gou snapped back, exasperated. "And don't forget to credit Hana - oh, Haruka-senpai."

Haru had just walked on to the scene, standing between Makoto and Nagisa. Hana wasn't sure when he had arrived, honestly. She'd looked away one moment and he was there, the next time she looked, he was.

Haru stepped forward and took the poster from Gou without saying a word. He studied it, and as usual Hana wasn't sure what he was thinking as he expression was the same as always. He had to be interested, though. It did involve a pool.

He looked back up at. "How do we pay for it?"

"It is expensive, so we were thinking of using our club budget," Hana informed him.

"Ah, I see," Nagisa murmured.

Makoto inspected the poster, finding the price himself. "This gym is pretty expensive to join. If our club budget will really cover that..." He looked over at Haru, whose eyes were still glued to the poster and laughed. "Thats probably what you're thinking."

Haru looked away. "Shut up."

"This means we can swim year round!" Nagisa cheered.

"But before that can happen, we'll have to consult Ama-chan," Hana pointed out. "She is our advisor, after all, and takes care of that sort of thing."

"Well, let's hope this can happen," Makoto said. "We should go and ask her now."

The six of them left the clubroom and headed for the staffroom. They soon found Ama-chan and proposed their idea to her, hoping that she'd agree to what they were suggested.

However, her next works sent their spirits plummeting. "That's not happening."

Hana blinked. What? She felt her heart drop a little out of disappointment.

"What?" Nagisa moaned, his body slumping forward and arms dangling by his sides. "Why?"

"The school isn't going to give that much money to a brand-new club with no accomplishments," Ama-chan explained. She folded her arms. "There is an aphorism from the Bible: He who does not work, neither shall he eat."

Now Hana was just confused. She scrunched her eyebrows together, trying to figure out what Ama-chan was saying. I do not understand what she is trying to say.

"I don't think you're using that correctly," Makoto said blankly.

"You can't eat a pool," Nagisa agreed.

Gou was about the only one who wasn't distracted by Miss Amakata's words. "So, we'll get the money if we deliver accomplishments?"

"I suppose," Ama-chan said after a thought. "That's the best way to secure lots of money for your club."

"So what if we can place in a summer tournament?" Makoto asked.

"Your request might be approved at the second term budget review meeting. But you'll need at least four swimmers to bolster your case."

Great. It all comes back to finding a fourth swimmer. We may have formed a club with Gou and myself,but of course we still need a freaking fourth swimmer to make this work! But how?

"So it's meaningless unless we can find another member," Makoto sighed.

A unified sigh came from all the swim club members as they considered the problem before them. It seemed that no one else in the school was interested in swimming.

"One more... and I can swim all I want!" Haru's voice was so low, Hana was surprised she could have heard him.

"Huh?" Hana turned around. "Haru... what do you mean?"

Haru didn't respond, only turning around and walking out of the classroom.

"Haru?" Makoto called after him

Nagisa leaned back, a wide smile on his face. "Haru-chan sounds motivated now."

They followed Haru out of the room, and found him hovering over two boys. Hana cringed. He's only going to frighten people off instead of convincing them if he keeps doing that.

And, unsurprisingly, the two boys quickly scampered off.

Makoto sighed. "That's the best Haru can do."

Nagisa, however, wasn't going to be discouraged so easily. "Don't let it get to you, Haru-chan!" he yelled.

Hana placed a hand on his shoulder. "Um, if you want more members, I think that you might want to take Haru out of the recruiting business," she said.

"But where are we going to find this fourth swimmer?" Makoto asked.

Hana wrung her hands together as she thought. She honestly didn't know.

However, the ever-optimistic Nagisa stood tall. "I'll find someone," he said. "We'll manange to find our fourth swimmer."

Well, good luck with that, Hana thought. I'm sorry to say this, but I really doubt anyone has changed their minds since you last asked them.

Hana returned to class and found she couldn't entirely focus. She tapped her finger agaisnt the desk again, the words of her teacher going in one ear and out the other. Her mind was occupied with thoughts of how they could possibly get another swimmer on their team.

When the day finally ended, Hana expected that she'd grab her bags and walk home with Haru and Makoto.

What she didn't expect was, when they were nearing the gate, that Nagisa and Gou would sprint on over to them.

"Haru-chan! Mako-chan! Hana-chan! Come with us!" Nagisa grabbed Haru's forearm and started to drag him away.

Hana raised an eyebrow and looked over at Gou, confused. "Uh, care to explain what's going on here?"

Gou just shook her head. "I'm not too sure, either," she admitted.

Hana sighed and glanced back at Haru and Nagisa, to see that they'd been walking further and further away. "We'd better follow them, or we'll lose sight of them."

Thankfuly, they managed to catch up to the two quickly. The place Nagisa was dragging them off to wasn't even far away. Hana started as they neared it.

The track field? What are we doing here?

"This way!" Nagisa cried.

Makoto looked around, bewildered as they passed through the gate. "What is it?"

Nagisa grinned, glancing back at them. "I found the perfect person!"

"The track team?" Gou said blankly.

Makoto sighed, disappointed. "He can't join us, then."

Nagisa payed no attention to their comments, instead pointing in the direction of the pole vaulters. "Look. Over there. It's fate!"

Hana glanced over in the direction Nagisa was indicating to, and found herself looking at a boy at the pole vault with a shock of blue hair and glasses.

Hana tilted her head to the side. What was it about this guy that made Nagisa so sure he was perfect for the swim team? He looked perfectly comfortable by the pole vault.

Apparently, she wasn't the only one skeptical of Nagisa's point. "Was he on the swim team in middle school?" Haru asked.

"Does he hold a record?" Gou inquired.

Nagisa turned around to face them. "It's his name!"

Wait, what?

"His name?" Hana repeated, eyebrows raised. What does his name have to do with any of this?

Nagisa's grin, if possible, grew even brighter. "Yep! It's Ryugazaki Rei-chan! He's the same as us: a boy with a girly name!"

And because he has a girly name, that automatically makes him a spectacular swimmer? Hana sighed. If he wanted to swim, I'm sure that he would've signed up already. But he looks pretty happy to be at track, if you ask me.

"That's your reason?" Makoto exclaimed, incredulous.

Gou glanced sideways a little. "But I have to agree," she started quietly, then rounded on Rei with wide eyes. "Look at those deltoids!"

"That's your reason?" Makoto squawked. "You really think those reasons are enough?"

Gou turned on him. "My reason is good!"

"Hey, it looks like he's about to jump," Haru commented.

Hana turned her attention away from the two arguing and watched as Ryugazaki Rei stood on the running strip, pole vault in hand. He paused for a moment before he started to run, gathering up speed as he ran.

Wow. That was impressive. Hana nodded with approval. He might not be the sort of person we're looking for, but you have to admit, his jump is amazing

"His form was beautiful!" Makoto said. "He's probably a great diver."

"Absolutely!" Gou squeaked, looking almost unable to control herself. "And his biceps are also beautiful!"

"Is that all you care about?" Makoto exclaimed, while Hana only laughed.

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sorry so sorry, really rushed edit, i'll get back and fix any errors as soon as I get back home!