High School: Zero to Hero Ch. 07

I climbed out of the pool after congratulating the guys on either side of me on a good swim. I got out holding my finger.

"If that was your seed time for districts," I heard Summer say, "you'd have spot in the top heat." I looked up at the timing board and saw I had beaten my personal best by two seconds. She then saw me holding my hand. "Your finger again?" She asked. I just nodded. "Let's go get some tape." I had a few more events to swim, but there was time. I had to take the tape off when I competed, but in the meantime the added support would help my finger not get any worse. Well, until I rammed it into the wall again.

Going into the last relay event the girls had shored up their victory. As long as both relay teams from our school finished the race clean and without a disqualification they would win their championship. The same could not be said for us guys. We needed a first place and at the very least a fourth place for our teams. We quickly rearranged the eight guys to the best combination we could come up with on the spot. It was now down to one final 400 Free Relay race.

The light flashed and the first leg was off. Less than a minute later the second guys were in the water swimming their leg. Less than a minute later the third guys took off. Ben and I were anchoring our respective relay teams. I let him anchor the A team which gave him the better position in the pool. I took the B-Team that was on the outside one lane away from the edge. It meant a lot more chop to swim through, but I was more focused on Ben getting the best chance he had.

The center three teams left their respective blocks at the same time. 'Damn.' I thought to myself. 'That is too close for comfort.' I didn't have time to think much more because within a blink of an I it was my time to go. The last 50 seconds of the championship race and it was a three way tie with me neck in neck for fourth.

On my second to last turn I had closed the gap. I could see Ben out of the corner of my eye as I swam. He was dragging and loosing ground. I looked at him and he looked at me. 'I'm not going to loose to you,' I imagined him thinking. 'I'm not going to let you win,' I imagined myself saying back to him. I turned it up a notch and got a half stroke lead on him going into the last turn. After the turn we were neck in neck again. I turned it up another notch and dug down to the deepest reserves of energy I had. I could feel every muscle fiber in my body screaming with agony. My lungs felt crushed and my heart was pounding like a 20-pound sledge in my chest.

'Not on my watch,' I said as I exploded into the wall. I felt that familiar jolt of pain from my finger. It didn't mater though. The race was over. The championship meet was over. The season, save for districts, was over.

I climbed out of the pool and flopped onto the deck like a fish. I couldn't see the scoreboard to see our time but I didn't need to. I could see my three relay teammates jumping up and down.

"Holy shit!" Ben said as he came over.

"What?" I asked not knowing what was going on.

"Look at the scoreboard bro!" He said helping me up.

"Holy shit." I said as I read the times. Both relay teams from our school tied for first place. We beat out the next best relay team by one tenth of a second and beat out the fourth place relay team by .15 seconds. The closest margin of victory in championship history.

As the eight of us guys cheered together we were soon mobbed by the rest of the girls and guys teams. We turned into one huddled mass jumping and hollering on the deck. They announced our tandem victories and, as captains, Summer and I got to receive the trophies on behalf of our team.

"This trophy does not belong to any one guy," I said holding it above my head on the bus before we pulled out of the parking lot. "This trophy does not even belong to just the guys," I said as a hush fell over the buss. "These trophies represent all the hard work, dedication, and sacrifice everyone here made all season long," I paused as a few hoots and hollers rang out, "I told you we could do it. I told you that we could take the championship this year." I then passed the trophy to the people at the front of the bus and Summer did the same with the girls trophy. We then walked to the back of the bus giving and receiving high-fives from all of our teammates.

As soon as we were seated coach stood up. His eyes were misty and he had obviously been crying. "You have been the best team I have every had the privilege of coaching," he said choking back the tears, "but it's not over for some of you." He then got a very stern look on his face. "Doubles all next week. If you're on the district team I want to see you at 5am Monday morning." A collective groan escaped every one of us on the district team, but it didn't dampen our spirits.

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To say there was a celebration party once we were back to town was an understatement. My mom and stepdad hosted a party for the entire team and their parents. When all was said and done I was completely spent. Jenn and Sarah offered to give me a tandem blowjob as a present and about halfway through I fell asleep. I made up for it the next morning and fucked each of them at Jenn's house while we hung out and relaxed.

Monday morning I was at the pool for 5am sharp. Coach had us do an easy practice and just before leaving he tossed Summer and I each a polo shirt. "For the picture," he said. It was a white polo shirt with our school logo and our names just like Coach's polo shirt. It also had our graduation year after our name along with the title 'Captain' under our name. On the sleeve it said the year and our conference championship title. I could easily see this shirt getting a lot of shoulder time between now and districts.

When we walked into the lobby there was a throng of students eager to see the trophies. Summer and I smiled and held them up over our heads. We received congratulatory comments from everyone in the school. Even the jocks who were always saying how lame swimming was couldn't argue with a two foot tall trophy.

"So, the therapy worked," I heard Miss Hockersmith say as she walked by.

"It did," I said, "but districts is in two weeks, I may need another session before then." I then gave her a subtle wink. She blushed and then hustled off to catch up with Doc Akers. I just laughed.

It was hard to focus on my classwork. Between everyone patting me on the back, and wishing me well, I had that damned trophy staring at me all day. At lunch time I posed for about a hundred pictures with various people. One of which really surprised me.

"My turn," Rachel said as she walked over. I was surprised. After loosing the homecoming title to Heather, and her falling out with her quarterback boyfriend she had fallen into relative obscurity. She was still popular, in a way, but not nearly as much as she was last year.

"Sure," I said not really caring one way or the other.

"Homecoming king. Champion captain. Most popular kid in school," she said between camera flashes. "Who would have thought little freckle faced Stevie would grow up to be such a stud." She then turned and walked away without saying another word.

I rolled my eyes at her use of my former nickname. I am not sure if she expected to talk after the photo-op but I quickly turned and made my way towards my next class. That afternoon I took some time to myself to meditate on everything that happened with winning the championship and wondering what the next few weeks would bring heading into districts.

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This is chapter seven of 10 not including the epilog. I am very sorry it is taking so long to get these last few chapters uploaded but they keep getting rejected. I am just submitting them as basic text now just to get them up ASAP.