Date: Fri, 16 May 2014 15:17:49 -0700 (PDT) From: Sean R <seanr_13@yahoo.ca> Subject: Riding The Waves - 4 Author's Note: I hope you're enjoying the story, I appreciate any feedback. Please write me to seanr_13@yahoo.ca Don't forget to donate to Nifty to keep our wonderful community going. ----- Riding the Waves By: Sean Roberts -- Chapter 4 -- Their first meet was on Friday against one of the toughest schools—Trinity. The girls' team always won against them (though just barely) and the boys' team always lost against them. This time between Dylan, Tyler and Trevor (though mainly Dylan), they won for the first time. The school was cheering. Though Tyler and Dylan got most of the praise, in the locker room that day, nobody gave Dylan a hard time. After the win, Dylan knew that everyone who had refused to give him a chance because of Tyler's feud would start to warm up to him—at least enough to keep him from being completely miserable. A couple of the guys in the locker room even congratulated him on swimming well, which prompted Tyler and Trevor to give each other quizzical looks. Still, it was a tough win, and Dylan knew he would have to keep practicing to make sure it happened again. He decided the next day to go into school to practice instead of doing it at home. It was especially important that he do well, especially given the potential for Tyler to be removed from the team. He entered the pool to see everybody from both the boys and girls teams, dressed in their swimsuits, setting up a makeshift bar with bottles stolen from their parents' liquor cabinets. Nobody was actually inside the pool. Some of them were making out with each other; they were all laughing. Dylan looked around for Tyler. Though not for any particular reason, knowing that Tyler would be part of this crowd, Dylan just wanted to see him. Nobody noticed Dylan was there, standing in the doorway of the locker room, until Tyler saw him. "Lewis," Tyler called sternly across the room. "What the hell are you doing here?" Everybody stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him. Tyler approached him quickly. "I came to swim." "Oh. Well, look, we just have a bit of a post meet tradition." "Uh huh. Well, I'll just go." "Where? To tell the coach and get us all in shit?" Trevor said, walking up to him. "No," Dylan said. Trevor Lancaster was close to six feet tall, and Dylan hated always looking up to him to talk. "I won't tell, don't worry." "Of course you won't, because you're going to join us," Lancaster said. "Lewis, why don't you stay and have a drink," Tyler said, almost pleadingly. "I'd really rather not," Dylan said, retreating towards the change room doors. "Then if you came here to swim, go swim!" Trevor said. "Show us what you got!" Trevor put a hand on Dylan's back and led him firmly towards the pool. Dylan took a few steps but dodged sideways to get out of Lancaster's grip. "Come on, be a sport. Let's race, see who's the better man, huh?" Everyone was looking at them. He saw Lisa, itching to get involved and make this stop, but she held herself back after the last time she tried to help him. Dylan, remembering the incident with the mud, shrugged. He knew he could easily outswim Trevor. "Let's do it Lancaster." Dylan and Trevor stood beside each other at the edge of the pool. Someone else counted down. When he got to one, Trevor began to wobble. "Oh shit," he said. Trevor fell sideways, grabbing Dylan for support. But instead of holding on to Dylan as he fell, he ended up pushing Dylan forwards, into the pool. He started laughing as Dylan tried to keep balance, but this stopped him from gaining enough distance to dive into the pool. As he fell, his feet slipped and the top of his left foot caught as he fell in. There was a crack, and then suddenly his foot was free. There was a sharp pain and he could not move his leg. He fell through the water until his head hit the bottom of the pool. He felt himself being pulled out. He was lain onto the cold tiles, staring into Lisa's face. "Are you okay?" she was asking him as he coughed out the water. He saw Tyler's concerned face appear as beside Lisa's. He cried out as Lisa lightly squeezed his ankle. "So I guess that hurts," she said. "Like hell," Dylan said. "Lancaster, you are in so much trouble!" Lisa said. "What the hell are we going to do?" Tyler asked her quietly, as if they were not talking right above Dylan's head. "Ambulance," she said. "And explain this how? We won't have time to cleanup before they get here. Let's just drive him." "Please call an ambulance," Dylan said softly. "It'll be faster if we drive him," Tyler said. "It's just the one leg, right?" Tyler asked Dylan. Dylan nodded. "Good. Alice, hand me that bottle there." Tyler pointed directly at the whiskey. He helped Dylan sit up and Dylan took a shot, which immediately helped the pain settle down. "There we go," Tyler said. "Now, I'm going to help you up, just lean against me." Dylan nodded. He took another swig before giving back the bottle. They walked slowly together into the locker room. Tyler sat Dylan down on one of the benches and handed him a towel and a shirt. Lisa and Alice took a separate car after helping Dylan into the backseat of Tyler's. Dylan's parents arrived, his father demanding to know what happened. Dylan looked over at Tyler's scared face. He wished he did not look like an idiot every time he was around either of them. "I'm okay dad, it's just my ankle. We had gone in to school to practice, and I slipped as I was diving. It was completely stupid." Tyler said something about leaving Dylan alone with his parents. -- Lisa came over unexpectedly, catching Dylan in his pyjamas. He made a mental note to never wear PJs again. The crutches felt awkward, and he hobbled out towards the pool with her. "What's the verdict Dylan?" "I've got to use these crutches, and I can't swim of course. The doctor said I should be fine in a couple of weeks." "That's not too bad. You're pretty accident prone, aren't you?" she said. "Funny enough, that only started after I moved here." She laughed. "It was nice of you to come see me. And thanks for yesterday. If you hadn't been there, who knows what they would have done to me." "You can make it up to me by buying lunch tomorrow," she said, nudging him. "No cancelling this time! Anyway, whatever's going on between you and Tyler and Alice is between you guys. No reason we can't hang out, right?" "None that I can think of. Anyway, they don't bother me that much. I just have to get through this year—alive." "You'll be fine. I'm glad your leg isn't too bad. I have to go, I'm actually out running some errands for my parents." "Sure. I'll see you for lunch tomorrow then." There was a tingling as her fingers brushed his arm when she stood up to leave. The crutches were even more difficult on the stairs, and as soon as he climbed them, the doorbell rang again. Dylan cursed, went back downstairs, and opened the door to Tyler Harris. "What do you want Harris," Dylan said. "Well look at you," Tyler said with a big smile on his face. "Those crutches really suit you!" Dylan shut the door, but Tyler put a hand out to stop it. "I need to talk to you about something." Dylan allowed Tyler inside. He took him out to the pool. "Do you remember that thing Coach Baker asked you to do? Well, you may need to start doing it. Look, before you say anything, I can't tell anybody about my grades. I'm not exactly thrilled that you know, but here we are. And so I figured maybe I could use your help." Dylan sighed and put his head in his hands. "I guess I don't really have a choice, do I?" "Sure you do. We could both get kicked off the team, and I won't get into college." "That might not be such a bad thing, Harris. I seem to get injured a lot when you're around. If you're stuck here, in a different state, while I'm at Harvard, I might have a fighting chance of getting through it." "Very funny Lewis," he said. "What's giving you the most trouble?" "Math." -- Two weeks passed, and lunch with Lisa was happening more frequently. They had a math test that morning, and Dylan was anxious to find out from Tyler how it had gone. It was lunch time, and an unfortunate seating position. Dylan and Tyler had a direct view of each other across the quad. Lisa was sitting across from Dylan, and Tyler could not seem to take his eyes off them. When he thought Lisa was not looking, Dylan mouthed `what' to him, which made Tyler look away awkwardly. Dylan decided to spend his free period after lunch in the library. The study desks were laid out in between mazes of books. This arrangement helped to minimise the travel of noise, but made it hard to know if someone was around. Tyler and Trevor picked a spot close enough to him that he could hear every whisper. "What the fuck is wrong with you? You broke his fucking leg! Are you some kind of idiot? I mean what if he tells someone? You were just supposed to twist it a little, something to get him off the team for a bit. Not break his fucking leg. You are an idiot Lancaster." "Well it worked, didn't it?" Trevor said. "He's bound to be miserable enough at this point that his dad will go find something somewhere else. I'm surprised he didn't run away after the surfboard incident." "Well, he didn't. And if anybody finds out--" "You were going to talk to him. Is he going to tell?" "No. I mean, I don't think so. If he were going to, I think he'd have done it by now." "Just make sure, okay?" "Yeah, I'll make sure. But Trevor, it's over, alright? I think we have to leave him alone at this point." "Right, got it. Come on, let's get out of here." Dylan started trembling as he replayed the conversation in his head. -- Dylan decided to do it before last period, when everybody would be at their lockers. Dylan had never felt this much anger towards anybody. Tyler was standing at his locker talking to Alice. Dylan, with his crutches, walked straight over to them. Alice stopped talking. "Harris," Dylan said. Tyler turned around. Dylan took a small step back, gaging the space he would need. "What's up Lewis?" Tyler asked. Dylan took his left hand, lifted up the crutch and swung it as hard as he could across Tyler's face. Tyler's head hit the open locker door, and then he fell over. There was more blood than Dylan had planned for. "What the fuck is wrong with you, you fucking psycho?" Alice screamed out. "Alice. Get the fucking coach," Dylan heard Tyler say painfully. Dylan turned around and hobbled down the hallway towards the principal's office. Dylan sat alone while Principal Vance went with Alice to see Tyler in the nurse's office. Nobody said anything to him while all of their parents were phoned. Alice finished recounting what she saw and Tyler's father finished threatening to sue the pants off Dylan's father when the coach ran in with a bruised and bandaged Tyler. "He isn't lying; it was an accident!" Tyler said quickly. It hurt him to talk, and he was out of breath. He looked at Dylan. "Fuck me," Dylan said under his breath, staring at Tyler. "Tyler, I already told them—" "That it was an accident," Tyler interrupted. "A funny story too. Lewis here was returning something to me, and he dropped it by accident. I bent down to pick it up, because obviously he can't." Tyler gestured vaguely towards Dylan's crutches and forced out a painful laugh. Nobody was buying it. "So he stepped back to give me room and accidentally whacked me with those stupid crutches of his." "Excuse me, Mr. Harris," said Principal Vance, "but we already heard what actually happened here from both Ms. Hastings and Mr. Lewis." "Look," Tyler said. "I know what Alice thinks she saw, but it all happened very quickly. It was just an accident." He looked daggers at Alice who was about to open her mouth. "They're friends," Coach Baker said, clearly not believing that himself. "I mean, Lewis and Harris here. Why would they do this to each other on purpose?" "That's just what we were trying to find out when you came rushing in here," Principal Vance said. "Oh, right," Coach Baker replied. "Well there you go," Tyler said. "No harm no foul. The nurse said they're just superficial injur—umm, little bruises. I'm perfectly fine." Nobody was buying that either. Still, Tyler being with them instead of the hospital seemed like a good sign. The boys getting called immediately into Coach Baker's office did not. "If there is even one more, even pretend fucking fight on my team, you're both off! Even if it doesn't involve you!" They were more shocked at the curse than at this new, unjust rule. "I don't know what's going on here, but this behaviour is completely unacceptable. And then you, Harris, asking me to cover for him after he did, well, this to you!" "At least he can still swim," Dylan said. The coach pointed a finger straight at Dylan. "You're lucky that you taught him how to read, otherwise you would be expelled from this school and being sued!" "I'm pretty sure I knew how to read before Lewis came along," Tyler said. "And you!" Coach said, pointing at Tyler. "Making me run to your math teacher to give me a test! I've never seen anything like that in my life!" "How did you do?" Dylan asked Tyler casually. "C plus." "And you think a C Plus is a good grade?" Coach Baker shouted. "You're still on probation!" "Yeah, but I didn't fail." "Alright," Dylan said, holding up a hand. The boys high fived each other. They were promptly kicked out of the office.