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.”I stared at him, baffled by how he could be so confident in me.I also couldn’t quite figure out why he cared.It wasn’t like my performance mattered to his life in any way.“You got this,” he told me and slipped his arm around my bare shoulders and that sent fireworks off in my brain, let me tell you.“Okay,” I said, gnawing on my thumbnail.“Okay, I can do this.”As weird as it was that Kanoa was there to buck me up, that wasn’t even the strange thing that happened.The really bizarre thing was that when I got up on my springboard, all of the stress and all of the anxiety just went away.I was in a familiar place, since the meet was held at my school.I was doing something I had done dozens of times already.My mind went into hyper focus and I blocked out the crowds and Coach Lancaster and my own team.I was, as they say, in the zone.I didn’t jump before the gun, as so many of my nightmares had predicted I would.My suit did not disintegrate like tissue paper.And Ms.Warner didn’t yank me out of the pool to go to a final I hadn’t studied for.I shot into the water like I’d been fired out of a cannon.My limbs fell into the rhythm they had grown so used to.Though I’d only been working out for a little over a month, my muscles had hardened enough that I was able to knife through the water like I was a dolphin or something.Kanoa had taught me that I wasn’t competing against the other swimmers—that I was competing against myself.That was an important lesson, because there was no way I could keep track of the other guys in the water.I would lose precious time trying to figure out if they were ahead or behind me.But there was one guy in the lane next to me that I was neck and neck with and so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to at least try to leave him in my wake.He was fast, though, and every time I took the lead, I only held it for a second or so before he took it back.I was not going to let Kanoa down, though.I was going to give this everything I had, even if that wasn’t enough.This wasn’t like the beach.Here, I had no reason to hold back.Here, I was going to make Kanoa proud.My muscles burned as I pushed myself to my very limits and beyond.My useless, clumsy feet chopped into the water in a relentless staccato rhythm.The smell of the chlorinated water filled my nostrils, and its familiarity invigorated me.When I touched the edge of the pool for the last time, I quickly ripped my goggles off so I could see how I’d done.Please don’t make me have sucked too bad, I begged the Flying Spaghetti monster.I stared in disbelief, not quite comprehending what I was seeing on the board.It just didn’t make any sense to me.I was sure it had to be a mistake.But the roaring of the crowd behind me only confirmed the impossible.I came in first.No, seriously, I came in first.I climbed out of the pool and instantly I was surrounded by my teammates, who patted me on the back and called me “the man” and crowed and generally acted like I was a hero.And that was all great and everything.It really was.But it was when I looked up at the stands and I saw Liam grinning at me and giving me a thumbs-up of approval that I really felt like screaming in triumph.The team overall did pretty good.Jimmy, Chad and Bailey all took first place too.So the team’s mood was really good.I mean, it wasn’t like we were suddenly school royalty or anything.We were still the Frosh-Soph swim team, so it wasn’t like people showered us with presents wherever we went, but we got a few fist bumps and high-fives in the halls.With things going so well, the dread I used to experience every time I awoke for school disappeared.It was a new and very comfortable feeling and I basked in it.I was tripping a lot less and I’d gotten much better at catching myself, so I was much less of a localized disaster waiting to happen.Being on friendly terms with my teammates meant I could give them those silent nods we guys like to exchange that mean stuff I can’t explain without being cited for violating the guy code.Those little nods made other people see me as something other than the weird kid, and that made school much easier to deal with.Training with Kanoa continued, which surprised me.I figured he would tell me he needed to focus on his own training or something.I wouldn’t have held it against him.He’d done so much for me and it wasn’t like I could cling to him forever.But he didn’t ditch me and I sure wasn’t going to ask to be sent away.I mean, seeing him in a Speedo several times a week was kind of like live-action porn.Okay, no, I’ll be honest.As hot as that was, the best part was just hanging out with him.The only thing that soured it was the way his girlfriend kept showing up and intruding on my Kanoa time.I’m an only child.I don’t really do well with sharing.Couldn’t she restrict her drama to when she had him the other twenty-three hours a day?When I saw them together, they always seemed to be arguing.And that annoyed me.Kanoa was about the most laid-back, chill dude I have ever met.So I couldn’t imagine what she did that got him so upset, but I was sure he didn’t deserve it.Finally, I got annoyed enough that I said something.We’d been hanging out for weeks now, so I thought maybe it would be okay.Someone sure had to tell him he could do better.“So, your girlfriend seemed upset,” I said as we stretched before our run.The girl in question had just left after another argument.“Huh?” he asked.“Sorry, I didn’t overhear.I just saw you two arguing.”Kanoa frowned.“Justin
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