Chapter Thirty-One

Keira

Embarrassed, I looked up to see Andrew smirking a few feet away from me. “Someone sounds a little cocky. For your sake, I hope you at least come close to backing up that comment. It would be so embarrassing to choke today, wouldn’t it? Especially with all these scouts here to watch you, although why they would do that is beyond me…”

Oooh, that boy makes me so mad sometimes. Honestly, what is the point of comments like that? If he’s trying to intimidate me today, I’m just not going to take it. Cam opened his mouth to reply, but I cut in, “Aww, someone’s a wee bit jealous that all the scouts aren’t here to watch him.”

He sneered, “Well, I can tell you that it won’t be you that they’ll be watching when I destroy you.”

“The mere fact that you felt the need to come over here and instigate shows that you’re the nervous one, and therefore you’re going to be the one to crash and burn, so why don’t you go cry to your mommy and leave me alone, or do I need to find someone to enforce the restraining order I have on you?” I asked, smiling sweetly just to get under his nerves.

Andrew, not willing to risk my going through with that last threat, flipped me the bird and stalked away. Watching him go, Jake burst into laughter and even Cam couldn’t help but chuckle. “You certainly put him in his place. I’m proud of you, babe,” Cam complimented.

Smiling, I realized that I had done just that. And I was not going to let anything he had said to me get to me, that was for sure. Adams did not intimidate me anymore, instead he was just plain pathetic. Honestly, trying to scare a girl? How low can you get? “I do believe I did just that,” I answered, and then added, “and if I’m not mistaken, Coach is going to burst that vessel in his forehead if we don’t get in for warm-ups in the next thirty seconds or so.”

“You’re probably right, let’s go,” Cam responded, taking my hand and guiding me down the bleachers. Quickly, I shoved my massive amounts of auburn curls into my swim cap and put on my goggles before hopping into the pool.

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Warm-ups flew by, and before I knew it, the meet started, and successfully for Westlane at that. Our two hundred medley relay team won, picking up a sizeable amount of points and barely missed the meet record. Next on the lineup came the two hundred freestyle, my first event of the day. In the second of three heats, I smiled at Cam who kissed the top of my head, received a high five from Jake, readjusted the straps of my ridiculously tight (even thought that’s the way it’s supposed to be) racing suit, and made my way down to the check in station.

The official checking in the athletes smiled at me as I approached and said, “There’s no need to ask who you are.”

Smiling back, I answered, “Yeah, I suppose there aren’t too many Keira’s in the meet today, are there?”

“I’m sure it’s safe to say, you’re the only one. Good luck kid,” he responded.

Thanking him, I wove my way in and out of all the swimmers mulling about waiting for their races, finding a quiet place to sit until they lined us up to take us behind our lanes. Cam, who was ranked first in the event and therefore in the last heat which had had a slightly later check in time than mine had, came over once he had been checked in and pulled me into his arms.

“Are you ready?” I asked, knowing this was a really important and sentimental meet for him.

“Yeah, I’m nervous, but in a good way. Besides, what have I got to hold back? It’s my last high school meet.”

”I’ll be cheering for you,” I added, smiling into his chest.

“I always swim faster when you’re cheering for me,” he admitted. “You gotta go though, they’re lining up your heat. Good luck! I’ll be cheering for you too.”

Kissing his cheek, I turned and found my spot in line. Adjusting my cap, I waited anxiously, forcing myself to take deep breaths and not get all worked up. Soon enough, we had been paraded past all the bleachers and deposited at the starting blocks. Calmly, I pulled off my warm-ups and folded them neatly, placing them on the floor next to the wall. Next I took off my flip flops and placed them next to my warm-ups. Breathing deeply, I walked over to my starting block and systematically pulled my hair back and put my cap and goggles on. As the first heat swam, I bounced up and down and stretched just like I always do to get loosened up and get my blood flowing.

As the first heat finished up, I glanced around. A few lanes away, Cam gave me a thumb’s up. Finding my brothers and friends in the stand, they were all smiling at me and on their feet, ready to cheer. Cam’s parents were sitting nearby, and they too were watching, ready to cheer once my heat started. Further down the pool deck, all the boys were huddled around Jake, who was clearly laying out some plan or scheme for them.

Then it was time. The heat ahead of me had finished, and the announcer had gotten everyone’s attention. Starting with lane one, he read off the name and school of each swimmer, including Adams in lane four. When he reached me in lane seven, there was a sudden outburst from the section where the rest of the team was sitting, and all anyone could hear, even over the announcer’s voice was ‘Hey Keira, you’re HOTT!’ Blushing, I stepped up onto the block.

“Take your marks,” the official announced. ‘BEEP!’

As soon as I hit the water, I started kicking as hard as possible. Taking my break out stroke as quickly as I could, I set myself up at a quick pace, but not one so fast that I couldn’t build off of it. Once I flipped after the first fifty, I pushed myself to pick up the pace a little more. By the end of the first one hundred, I had pulled ahead of the boys on either side of me. As I flipped at the halfway point, from the corner of my eye I could see that Andrew was still a solid half body length ahead of me. Accelerating off of the wall, I pushed myself into the fastest pace I could manage.

Over the next three lengths, I slowly gained on Andrew, inch by inch. Going into the last turn, I took a breath to my right just as he took a breath to his left. When our eyes met, each of us could immediately feel that neither was going to let the other win this thing without a fight. Streamlining off of the wall until my legs went numb, I broke out at full speed and sprinted my way into the wall. Unable to hold my breath any longer, I took a quick breath at the flags and saw that Andrew and I were almost dead even. Stretching my stroke out as far as I could, I threw my timing off and was forced to take an extra half stroke going into the wall. Slamming my hand onto the timing pad, I immediately whipped my head around to look at the scoreboard. Reading lane four, one forty-seven eighty, lane seven one forty-eight eleven, I groaned, but had to admit that it was my own fault that I had had to take that extra half stroke. It was good time for me though, so there was no reason for me to be disappointed in it.

Clearly no one else was disappointed in me either, the whole team was chanting ‘Keira, Keira, Keira’ as they had gotten into the habit of after my races and Cam was grinning at me as the announcer read off the names and lanes of the swimmers in his heat. I blew him a good luck kiss as I pulled my warm-ups on.

“Take your marks,” the official called once more. ‘BEEP!’

Jogging, I made my way in and out of the throng of coaches and managers seated at the coach’s table along the edge of the pool. Coach did his little head rub thing, Jake gave me a quick high five, and then all three of us turned our full attention back to the pool. Cam was about dead even with the boys on either side of him, and the three of them had already pulled a little ahead of the rest of the heat as they went in for the turn at the fifty yard mark.

Jumping up and down and yelling at the top of my lungs, I urged Cam on. And I was not the only one, not by a long shot. Nearly everyone in the building was standing and cheering for one of the boys it seemed. It was impossible to distinguish one cheer from another as they all blended into a cacophony of excitement. Restraining myself from following him up and down the pool deck, I had to settle with giving Cam the hand signals for pick it up and kick harder each time he swam past where we were positioned on the deck.

As the three boys flipped at the wall going into the last fifty, it was evident that all three of them were under the meet record pace. Watching as they streamlined off the wall, the boy in lane three fell behind slightly, and as they sprinted toward their last turn, it appeared as though the boy in lane five was starting to inch his way away from Cam. Screaming at the top of my lungs for Cam to sprint, the entire crowd watched as the two leaders pulled into their last turn. The boy in lane five popped out of his streamline a little past the flags and started barreling his way toward the wall. Anxious, I waited and waited for Cam to come out of his streamline. It wasn’t until nearly the halfway mark that he did so, and to my delight, he had pulled a half body length ahead of the boy in lane five. Urging him on to the finish, I grinned as he slammed his hand onto the wall first, having won the even and set a meet record to boot.

I watched as Cam turned to the scoreboard and realized what had happened, seeing the grin spread across his face and his eyes light up. Once he overcame the shock a little bit, he looked around until he found me standing with Coach and Jake. Grinning and giving him a thumb’s up, both of us were feeding off the adrenaline rush. I was dating a new state record holder!

No longer overwhelmed, Coach turned to me and began on the feedback on my race. “It was solid Keirs, but there was no excuse for you getting out of rhythm at the end. You know better, and you probably would have had him if you hadn’t made that mistake. Other than that it looked good. A pretty nice swim for you to start the day off with. Go get some cool down laps in, and then I want you to relax until you have to swim again. Maybe a couple hundred yards warm-up a half hour or so before you get back into the pool, but don’t go wasting your energy. Oh, and don’t get yourself all worked up, ok? You’re doing great and I think we’ve hit your taper just right.”

As he finished up, a pair of arms snaked their way around my waist. Twisting around to face him, I exclaimed, “Hey state champ! You swam so well, congratulations!”

Picking me up in his arms and spinning me around, he replied, “Only because you were cheering for me. And don’t take the attention away from yourself, you were fantastic too!”

I kissed him as he set me down and Jake cried, “Alright, either cut the lovey dovey crap or go get a room!”

Coach whacked Jake on the back of the head as he debriefed Cam, “Very nice swim. I want to see all your turns like that last one from now on though, you hear me? There’s no reason to put the rest of us in suspense for that long. I’ll admit though, state record holder does have a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Good job kid, you deserve it.”

Cam grinned and thanked him. Taking my hand, he led me back to our team area for a quick pit stop before we hit the warm-down pool. Neither of us could stop grinning, and as I pulled my cap back on I admitted, “I’m so proud of you!”

“Hey, you almost got Andrew, that’s nothing to just shrug off young lady,” he answered.

“Yeah, almost. I’m just angry I took that stupid extra stroke, I know better than that.”

“Hey, you’ll get him in the next one, the one that really matters.”

“You bet I will. For now though,” I added, pressing my goggles onto my face, “I bet you can’t catch me!” Giggling, I dove into the pool, swimming away from him. It took him a minute to realize what I’d done, but as soon as he figured it out, he dove into the pool after me.

12321

The next hour flew by as I cheered on my team mates and watched Cam, Greg, and Devon all take their turns on the podium. The score was updated after every event and Westlane was currently a close second to Valley Academy, a powerhouse from southern California. No one was worried just yet though, we still had our best relays left and several of our most loaded events.

And of course one of those loaded events was the 500, and for once I had my nerves pretty much under control. Not to say that I wasn’t nervous, but it was a nervous that I could handle, not one that was going to make me sick. I had swum a short warm-up as Coach had instructed me to, and at the moment I was getting all stretched out. I was currently seated fifth in the event, but I knew if I swam my race the way I needed to, I could easily move up the podium. And trust me, I was not about to settle for fourth either.

Taking a few deep breaths, I stood up from my stretching spot, and made my way over to the bleachers where my warm-ups were waiting for my. As I pulled on my warm-ups, the boys noticed that I was getting ready to head up to the bull-pen and check in, so I was the recipient of my many good lucks, hugs, and you can do its. Smiling, I thanked them all, double checked that Cam would be counting for me and knew which lane I was in, placed my iPod ear buds in my ears, and jammed out on my way to check in.

The same official as before was checking people in, so I just waved at him and he smiled back as he crossed my name off. I found a quiet corner and kept to myself, I was not in the mood to deal with Adams. I closed myself and realized that this was it, the big race, the one that would determine how I would look back on this season, and the one that everyone else would use to judge me from here on out. Surprisingly, I did not feel like puking at that realization, but instead felt excitement. I am ready for this, and I am going to show them all who Keira Lochte really is and what I’m really all about.

After a few moments, we were organized according to heats and lanes and then paraded past the stand and up to the blocks. Because Andrew and I had tied at Districts we were seated on opposite sides of the pool from one another, but I was not sure whether I was happy about this or not. On the one hand, I hated him, and could not stand to be in close proximity to him, but on the other, no one made me angrier and there was no one that I pushed myself harder to beat. Deciding to ignore the conundrum, I stretched out my shoulders once more and jumped up and down a little to keep my blood pumping.

The first and second heats passed by and no one posted any times that were particularly worry-worthy, and then it was my turn. I pulled off my warm-ups as they announced names and lanes for the heat, and glanced down to the end of my lane to make sure that Cam was there. Of course he was, but I just had to double-check.

Next thing I knew, the official blew the whistle signaling us to step up onto the blocks, and I did so as I adjusted me cap and goggles one last time. The official then ordered us to us take our marks, and I smilingly did so. With one more whistle blast, the race had started and I had hurtled myself into the water.

The first fifty passed well, and then another and another. I felt like I was still smiling, and couldn’t believe how good I felt in the water. For some reason, even at the halfway point, my arms weren’t sore, my legs didn’t ache, my stomach didn’t hurt, and I still felt like I was effortlessly gliding through the water. Cam was shaking the lap counter at me, but in this instance I knew it was not because I had fallen off pace but because I was ahead of pace and that I should keep going like this for as long as possible.

With only eight laps left to go, I glanced around. I was well past the boy in lane one and I had also passed lane three for sure. Lane five appeared to be about even with me, and my goggles were too blurry for me to see any farther than that. Kicking it up a notch, I pushed myself to swim a little bit faster, make my turns a little but crisper, and get rid of any breaths that I didn’t really need.

As each lap passed, I started to inch farther and farther ahead of the lane five boy, and I even managed to pick up some ground on the boy in lane four, but he remained too far ahead of me to reasonably catch. With two laps left, I exploded off the wall, determined to give everything that I had left. By this point I was clearly ahead of the boy in lane five, but I still couldn’t see anyone on the other side of him, so I really had no idea what place I was in. As I rushed toward that last flip turn, Cam was shaking the now solid orange lap counter at me, reminding me that I had only one lap left to go. Unfortunately, he was also waving it in the far left corner of my lane, signaling that someone to my left was too close for comfort.

I threw myself into that wall, and, as Cam had done earlier that day, made the absolute most of my streamline. Popping up just prior to the middle of the pool, I refused to take a breath, and instead was at maximum speed within first two strokes. The last twelve yards of the race were the most focused and determined twelve yards of my entire life, and they were not for naught.

Learning from my mistakes in the two hundred, I did not glance around, nor did I throw off my stroke rhythm. Instead, I kept my head down, and threw my hand into the wall, turning on my side as I had been taught, in order to extend my arm as far as possible. As my whole body crashed into the wall due to a little thing called inertia, I glanced toward Cam, who was smiling, then Jake and Coach who were fist pounding each other and nearly yelling, then my family and Cam’s parents who were all on their feet and most with their hands in the air, then to the rest of my team who were chanting and jumping and down, and then toward the scoreboard.

At first, I didn’t understand what it said. Then I couldn’t believe that it was possibly right. Then I shook my head, could scoreboards be this wrong? No, I told myself, the scoreboard could not be that wrong. Letting a smile spread across my face, I accepted that I must be reading it right and that it must be right.

The scoreboard said, 1st Colin Jacobs, 4:38.06, 2nd Keira Lochte 4:43.79, 3rd Andrew Adams 4:44.96…

Slowly, I pulled myself out of the pool and sat on the edge with my feet dangling in my lane still. It was strange to think that I had gotten second, that I had beaten Adams, that I had set a new personal best. I knew I had worked hard for this, and that I had earned this, but the fact that it had actually happened seemed surreal to me. I smiled and said good job to the boys on either side of me as they finished, and while it was evident that neither was exactly happy to be beat by a girl, they were both good sports about it. When everyone was done, I stood up and put my warm-ups back on, making sure that I had my iPod, and shuffled my way over to Coach.

I couldn’t help but smile as the middle-aged man grinned from ear to ear and grabbed me in a huge bear hug. “I knew you could do it, God dammit, I knew you could do it!”

He set me down, and went over my splits and any comments he had to make while he did his little head rub thing. Once he was done, Jake started in on me, wrapping me up in huge bear hug also. The coaches on either side of Westlane’s spot at the coach’s table shook my hand and congratulated me.

And then, fighting his way through the crowd of athletes and coaches and managers along the side of the pool, came Cam. He was grinning at me from ear to ear, and as soon as I was in arm’s reach, he whisked me up into the air, kissed me on the forehead, and then perched me on his shoulders.

Parading me back to the team area, I was greeted with the familiar ‘Keira, Keira!’ chant. Unable to hold on to me for long, Cam was forced to let me be passed from teammate to teammate. Everyone was smiling and laughing and saying how proud they were. Even though it had not fully sunk in yet, I couldn’t help but smile and laugh right along with them.

Eventually I was able to go get my warm down laps in, and then I pulled my warm-ups back on as I was ushered back to the bull-pen for my medal ceremony. The same official checked my name off his list for the third time that day, and greeted me with, “Way to go kid.”

As I approached the group of boys that were also receiving awards for the five hundred, I was slightly uneasy. Everyone else might be happy and proud, but they were not the ones who had just been beaten by a girl. To my surprise however, Colin Jacobs called, “Hey Keira, great race!” from the center of the group.

I smiled and fully joined the group, saying “Thanks! You too! Actually, good job everyone.”

Matt Ryan, the next to speak and the boy who had been in lane three next to me, said, “Yeah, it was a good race.”

“How tall are you? You’re a lot smaller than I imagined you would be,” asked Nate Thompson. The other boys murmured their agreements, making it clear that they had imagined me to be some huge, ugly girl with a lot of muscle.

I laughed and a replied, “Clearly I am not as intimidating as you guys were all expecting. I’m only five four. Sorry to disappoint.”

“It’s okay, we’ll forgive you. I think its better that you’re not some huge man-woman anyway.”

Laughing again, I reminded them, “Just don’t let Cam hear you though I was man-woman, he’s a little protective at times.”

“Well, I don’t blame him. He’s a lucky man, and he knows it,” Colin replied.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked as the official lined us up in the correct order and began to parade us out the door.

“It means he certainly knows that you’re not a man-woman,” Colin answered.

Rolling my eyes, I sighed and responded, “Well I should hope so.”

An uproar of clapping and cheers as we entered the pool deck ruled out any further competition. The noise continued as we mounted the awards podium, and increased steadily as each of us received our ribbon or medal. Once Colin had received his gold medal, they announced that he had set a new state record, and that both he and I had achieved All-American status. Unfortunately, so did Adams, but I was willing to just overlook that bit of information.

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The rest of the day flew by, and Westlane was able to grab the state title once more due to winning the final event of the day, the 400 yard freestyle relay that I had anchored. Once we had warmed down, our relay team was paraded out as I had been during the five hundred awards ceremony, and then all of the Westlane state team members were called to the podium to receive the trophy and banner that went along with being named state champion.

The whole team was smiling and laughing and generally exuberant as we climbed down from the podium and grabbed our things from the bleachers. I parted from the team as they headed for the locker room and I for the lobby in search of the girls bathroom I had used earlier. Unfortunately for me, as soon as I stepped off the pool deck and into the lobby, I was swarmed.

Before I could process it, I was completely and utterly surrounded by coaches, parents, reporters, and scouts. Everyone was asking questions and taking pictures. I struggled for a few moments, trying to break my way out of this crowd, but remained unsuccessful. Sure I had expected that a few people would want to talk to me, but this was completely ridiculous!

Resigning myself to having to deal with all of these people before I would be allowed to go anywhere, I started answering questions. This must have gone on for at least ten or fifteen minutes until finally my new found friend and hero, Colin, emerged from the pool deck, and saw that I was completely helpless.

“Ladies, Gentlemen, come on now, let poor girl at least go and change before you hound her to death. Look at her, she’s dripping and wet and freezing!” he exclaimed.

When Colin stood there with his arms crossed, refusing to back down, the crowd began to dissipate. Grabbing my bag from its place on the floor, I smiled at him, and said, “Thanks!”

“Anything for a future teammate,” he replied.

My head whipped up at that statement. Huh? I knew he had a year of high school left like me, but he went to a completely different school, right? “What?” I managed to ask.

“I’m probably transferring next year. My parents are really impressed with Brown, and Westlane’s a great school… Anyways, it’s not for sure yet, so keep it on the down low, alright?”

I nodded, processing the information, unsure of how to feel about this. Shivering, I realized that I still hadn’t gotten changed yet, and that I was going to keep everyone waiting if I didn’t hurry up. I smiled at him and replied, “Sure no problem. I’m just going to go change now so I don’t freeze to death, so you around.”

“See ya,” he answered before strolling off to meet up with his family who had been waiting patiently for him.

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An hour later, we finally pulled out of the Stanford parking lot and were on our way home. Exhausted, I was curled up against Cam’s chest with a small smile on my face.

Everything was finally beginning to sink in for me.

“You did it, didn’t you? So did I, didn’t I?” I asked quietly.

Chuckling lightly, he answered, “Yep, we both did it babe.”

I smiled a little more, and then snuggled closer into his chest and fell asleep.