Array
(
[text] =>

----------------

Dedication: Fandom_obsessed for the cute cover! The water looks so nice! Thank you!

Recap:

"I guess," I replied. "I'm not expelled."

"Thank God."

"I have to work with the She-Devil to organise a carnival fundraiser," I grimaced, shuddering at the thought.

"Mia?" he questioned.

"The one and only."

He let out a snort. "Oh that's a good punishment. Go Principal Mathers."

I glowered at him and he laughed again.

This is going to be hell.

I neeeed more music to listen to! What are your favourites songs or songs that you're into right now? [Please insert here]

-----------------

"Count to ten."

"Not helping."

"Breathe in and out."

"I'm going to kill her."

"Calming thoughts... Just relax..." Harvey urges, his hands gripping my shoulders tightly, in an attempt to keep me still.

"I am going to wrap my hands around her neck and strangle her," I hiss, my eyes narrowing into slits.

"No you're not," Harvey says gently. "You're going to take a deep breath, turn that frown upside down and continue to help organise."

"I hate you sometimes."

"No you don't," he grins.

I let out a deep exhale, rubbing my hands over my face.

This carnival is a nightmare. The fact that I have to work with the Devil-spawn, Mia, made it that much worse.

"More to the left. More to the left. More to the left," she continued to repeat, her whiny, nasally voice making my skin crawl.

I sent daggers in her direction and Harvey chuckles.

"Just relax," he says, rubbing my back.

She must have forgotten the part where we're meant to do this "together". She has completely taken charge and looks ridiculous doing it. She arrived wearing a skimpy, strapless top that left little to the imagination, a cap that said "Daddy's Girl" and a whistle. Literally, a whistle.

"Those lights aren't hung up how I like it," she sneers as she walks by me. "Rearrange them. Now."

I lung after her and Harvey wraps his fingers around my arm and pulls me back.

"Let's take a break?" he suggests.

"Let's," I agree, gritting my teeth.

"Go sit down, I'll get us some food."

"Food sounds good," I mumble, walking over to one of the tables.

I sit heavily with a sigh and rub my face again. I started out energetic and an attempted positive attitude. My resolve faded pretty damn quickly.

"Looks like you're having just as much fun as me," a voice comments.

I drag my eyes up from the table. Hayden stands beside the table, sweat glistening across his forehead as he sets down a large box.

"I'm going to rip her hair out."

A ghost of a smile dances on his lips and I blink at him. Wait, am I having a civilised conversation with Hayden Cameron? Someone pinch me because surely, this isn't real.

"She does take her leadership responsibilities a little too seriously."

"You don't say?"

Hayden glances up and the tiny, flicker of a smile that he had, dropped. He bent down, picked up the box he had previously been carrying and strode away, without another word. I quirk an eyebrow at him, just as Harvey collapses beside me.

"The cafeteria sucks, but the vending machine provided the goods," he declares, chucking a packet of salt and vinegar chips at me.

"Oh, my favourite," I smirk, ripping open the packet with a little more force than I really should have, pushing Hayden's odd behaviour to the back of my mind.

I was my fifth chip in when I saw him. His golden locks literally shine underneath the harsh sun rays. He is wearing a fitted Ralph Lauren polo shirt, cream shorts and from what I could tell is wearing matching shoes to his shirt. He looks very good.

Coach: (The top right photo lmao).

My mind instantly reeled back to his lips on mine, his hands on my body and his voice whispering in my ear.

My stomach clenched as I also thought back to when he refused to look at me and stormed from the change rooms. I had sent him a message, via the trusty system of our email, to see how he was doing, but he hadn't replied. He called in sick to our last swim practise, so we all just did a gym session. Clearly, he was avoiding me.

Dropping my eyes to my chip packet, I sigh. I hope we can move past this. If he realised what was going on here, was a mistake, then fine, but I don't want it to affect my swimming. It meant too much to me.

I hadn't had a chance to tell anyone what happened with Ashton. There was no one to tell, really. My mother would go into cardiac arrest (she's never home to tell and have no fear, she's so 'fantastic' she'd probably be able to repair herself) and Harvey was way too judgmental. I could already see his disapproving stare and prepared lecture on how falling for the Coach is dangerous, blah blah blah.

I love Harvey to death and he is my best friend. The best friend I've ever had, but he isn't a girl. He wouldn't understand my mixed feelings of desire, attraction and plain confusion. 

"I am trying to figure out what you're thinking, but I'm clueless," Harvey confesses and I look up at him. He is studying me carefully, a frown creasing his forehead.

"Oh, nothing," I say breezily. "Just trying to figure out what to get for dinner tonight."

"I'm free tonight, want to do something?"

"Sure," I agree. I hate eating alone - I would never pass up the chance of company. "I'm sick of ordering take away. Let's cook."

"Okay, cook what? I'm pretty good with a barbecue," he said before frowning. "Actually, I did catch the sausages on fire last time. Maybe I shouldn't be in charge."

I let out a snort as I could vividly imagine Harvey doing that.

Harvey (How cute is he!?):

"Let's do tacos."

"Sounds good."

I finish off my packet of chips and wander to the bin. I glance up, meeting the captivating eyes of Ashton. His face is unreadable as he stares at me. Turning my back on him, I walk back to Harvey.

I need to forget about him because my swimming always comes first.

***

"This coming Friday," I hear his voice boom as I hurry towards the locker room. Mr Preston had kept me back, to tell me that I was doing really well in English and that he wanted to give me extra activities to keep working on my skills. I couldn't think of anything worse, but I nodded and for some stupid reason, agreed to it. I then endured a lecture on how to take my essay writing to the 'next level' and he handed me an academic scholar reading that would help me achieve that. Soon into the lecture, I realised I was going to be late for our afternoon swim practise, which was held on Tuesday and Thursday of each week. "I have organised our next competition. Richmond High will be joining us this week."

I walk in and he pauses, flickering his eyes to me. Everyone is dressed and ready to go.

"You're late," he snaps, glaring at me.

"Sorry," I apologise. "Mr Preston-"

"I don't care about your excuse," he snarls, his upper lip curling and I blink at him in surprise. "Stop interrupting my talk. You can get dressed after, I'm not waiting for you any longer."

A few people glanced between us and I am truly speechless. I was ten minutes late. What was the big deal?

Shaking my head, I step in line with everyone and ignore the smirk that lit up Mia's face.

"As I was saying," he continues, "last year we went very well in the competitions. I plan to do this again. Everyone must attend every practise and never be late," he eyes me again and it takes all my self-control to keep my mouth shut. "You must all put in your own physical training outside our practises and maintain a healthy, well-balanced diet."

I should probably ease back off the chocolate and take-out food, then.

"With that being said, let's get started," he says, his tone lightening slightly, clapping his hands. "I want a twenty-lap warm-up, before we work on strokes. Go."

Everyone bustles forward and I turn, heading into the change rooms. I make a point of not entering the one where Ashton and I had made out in. My hands are shaking with anger as I slip into my swimsuit.

I stride out to the pool, where everyone is already doing laps.

"Ashton-" I start and he turns his back to me.

I step back, feeling like I had been slapped in the face.

"Prick," I mutter, loud enough for him to hear, before edging into the pool.

I push off the wall, acting as if it was the Coach's face.

***

"Excellent," the Coach announces as we all towel off, breathless from the exertion of our practise. "Great work today."

I make a face at his words. He had been harping on me the entire lesson, basically saying that I was useless. When in fact, if I were to rank us, I wouldn't be far from Hayden, who was clearly the best.

I have no idea why he is acting this way, but I'm fed up with it.

"Hayden, fantastic form. I know I can always rely on a consistent performance from you," he states and Hayden doesn't even look up or acknowledge he heard him. "Mia, that's some of the best swimming I've seen you do. Keep it up." She beams at his praise. "Mike, you could shave a few seconds off your freestyle time, but your swimming excellent." Mike smirks and fist-bumped Mia. I tuned out what he said to the subs. Until he turned his attention to me. "Grace." I freeze, dreading what he was doing to say. "Your strokes could use some work. They're not quite Elite level."

There was an intake of breath around us. That was just cold.

"Oh really?" I ask, my voice heavily laced with sarcasm, unable to hold back anymore. "You know what else could use some work? Your Coaching skills."

The change rooms become silent. Ashton stares back at me in surprise.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me," I growl, my hands balling into fists. "You have been a complete jerk this entire practise. You have not given me any encouragements. You have bullied me relentlessly and honestly, it's a fucking joke. How do you even consider yourself a Coach when you don't even mentor? You're nothing but a bully."

"That's it," he snarls, throwing his clipboard to the ground, which was a bit dramatic, if I'm being honest. "You're suspended from the comp."

"Good!" I shout back, ignoring the fact that everyone is staring at us, with their mouths flailing open and the sting of missing the first comp, which I had been waiting so long for.

"Get to the gym!" he shouts back. "Two hours."

"No."

"If you do not go into the gym," he warns, stepping towards me, his face twisting into a menacing smirk. "I will kick you off this time. Don't think I'm joking."

"You're pathetic," I laugh, turning my back to him.

I stride from the room, my body trembling with rage. I stomp into the gym, feeling angrier than I've possibly ever felt before.

How could I ever have liked that guy? He is a monster.

After doing some bench presses and discovering my arms were too weak from my swimming, I decided to go to the treadmill. I had been jogging for about twenty minutes when the door swung open.

Hayden enters, holding a chocolate sundae from the canteen. He obviously ignored the 'diet' comment.

Hayden: (Yummy, am I right? Oh and the sundae looks alright, too).

He leans on the door frame and watches me as I run. It is a few minutes before he walks over to me. He slows the belt down until I was at a comfortable walking pace.

I can feel the sweat dripping down my face and my hair sticking to my skin.

"He suspended you from your first comp."

"Yes," I breathe, my sides aching. My lungs burn as I continued to walk. I had pushed myself too far, but I couldn't stop. I didn't want to give that bastard the satisfaction of kicking me off the team. "Lucky it's only practise."

"Would have been good for you," he states.

"Doesn't matter now," I say through gritted teeth, trying not to collapse from exhaustion.

"He's an ass, everyone knows that. You're his pick of the month. He always has one."

"What do you mean?"

"He has someone he picks at. Hassles them about everything. Sure, he went a little overboard with you today, but don't beat yourself up too much. He's done it to all of us."

"He's an idiot," I mutter, shaking my head. "Acts like a child."

"He does, but he's a damn good swimmer. That's the main thing."

"Why are you even here? Don't you hate me?" I ask with a slight laugh.

"Whether I like you or not, doesn't matter. You're on my team and as the captain, it's my job to make sure you are all right."

I blink at him. Hayden Cameron said what now?

"I'm perfect," I growl.

"Don't overwork yourself. You've already done two practises today, you don't need to push yourself at the gym, too. You don't want to pull any muscles."

I nod. It was kind of... sweet that he is acting as if he cared.

"I'll try not to."

He nods, before turning his back to me.

"Thanks Hayden," I say quietly to him.

He pauses for a moment, before walking out of the room.

Who would have thought that today, Hayden showed more kindness and compassion than the Coach did?

Only proves that there are two sides to everyone.

And this side of Ashton, I did not like.

---------------------

What do you think Ashton's problem is? Do you think he was just being tough on her, to make her a better swimmer, or is it to do with what happened between them?

And what about Hayden? Anyone surprised by him?

CAST:

[text_hash] => 72fae6d3
)