Swimming away troubles. on Magical Arts Room and Sports

Brianna Japos

November 26, 2013 6:50 PM

Swimming away troubles. by Brianna Japos

Brianna stood at the edge of the pool; her hands were running through her long hair while she attempted to pull it up into a ponytail. She had once contemplated putting a swimming cap on during her therapy sessions, but then thought it was really pointless. Instead, she just pulled it into a high pony and then braided it. It kept her hair from sticking to her face or being much of a bother. Normally, she would have already done this before she came down to the pool, but Brianna was having an off day and wasn’t moving at the pace she normally did. She was distracted and off center. Midterm would be there soon and Brianna felt behind with everything.

She was behind on her Potions work. Without Josh around to explain everything to her and help her through the process, she was taking double the time to get through the homework and even longer to get the potions correct during the lessons. If she didn’t get it together soon for the final project, she was going to have to go to Professor Fawcett for help. Brianna really didn’t want to have to do that. Mostly, she didn’t want to look like a weak fool in front of Professor Fawcett, but also, because she didn’t want to admit defeat over herself. She knew that she could do it; she just had to figure out the way.

Her mind was racing with thoughts of important things in her life. She had sent off applications for early admittance to several well-known schools that were known for having well rounded Criminal Justice programs and would help her get accepted into a prestigious Law program when the time came. She might have been reaching with the idea that she would make the list for being accepted for early admittance but her grades were top marks despite her disability and even if she didn’t get into early admission, she would just try again with everyone else come January. Now, she just had to wait for the results. The waiting was the scariest part about it.

School had started a couple of months ago, it was already heading into December and she would soon be home with her parents. They would be finishing their packing and move to the Midwest to live with her Aunt. It would be a stressful holiday, but it would mean that she was free from the condominium building forever. It was hard for her to believe that she was almost at midterm of her final year at Sonora. There was nothing to show for it except for the mounds of homework, projects, and essays that she has done. She hardly saw much of Linus due to his commitments (not that she would ever be upset over his schedule), but she did miss his company and sometimes wondered what would happen when it would come to an end. Brianna was a practical girl, never one who stayed in fantasy land for too long. She had never gone into asking him to date her with the idea of marriage or anything like that. She enjoyed being with him, he made her happy, she was infatuated by him, and she could claim that he was her first honest love, but they were both head strong and had too many big plans to really make it after graduation. She was sure that Linus felt the same way. Or maybe she meant less to him than he did to her. Sometimes it was hard to tell.

On top of that, it had been months since she had heard anything from Joshua. She hadn’t had a word from him since he graduated and with the letters from his family members advising that he had died, she would have hoped he would have sent her news by now that he was, in fact, alive and settling into his new life. But there wasn’t a word from him and doubts of him being alive or well had planted seeds into her mind. Worry was often her downfall for many things. The anxieties that rippled through her when she thought about things caused her to only worry more of putting too much stress onto her body. It was a terrible cycle and she really needed to find a way of coping better.

Finishing with her hair, Brianna stretched out for a moment to make sure she wouldn’t crap up her muscles and then jumped into the water. It was a shock to the system with the temperature, but it also felt good. Her back was sore as it often was when she didn’t use her heating pad during her long days. One would have thought swimming and other such activities would only worsen her back, but it usually helped loosen it up as long as she didn’t overdue herself. She had become accustomed to doing her therapy on her own. In the beginning, it was awkward and lonely, but now she felt the solitude comfortable. She always had to keep watch on the time though, or else she’d stay in there all night and wear herself into an episode.

Brianna was halfway through her therapy when a noise caught her attention while she was swimming. She paused during her stroke and glanced around. Sometimes she heard things, that paranoia side of her peeking through of someone watching her when she was most vulnerable. Brianna spotted movement close to where the door was, “Is someone there?” She called out, unable to see anything other than a form.

6 Brianna Japos Swimming away troubles. 203 Brianna Japos 1 5

Atlas Primred

December 01, 2013 3:02 AM

Im sorry you have so many. by Atlas Primred

Atlas was feeling down, he missed home. Even though the leaves didn’t really change in Santa Cruz, he missed the feeling of fall, and now with it almost December he felt even worse. He had already missed so many months of swim season. Although Atlas made it a habit of coming to the MARS room to swim every couple of days to keep in shape, it wasn’t the same without his swim team, without his friends. He missed being home where he had friends that understood him, and didn’t need him to explain himself a million times to every person who asked. Although he only got into a conversation about it with a few people, he hated talking about his name, or how he was adopted. He hated remembering the faint image of that woman’s face. Although he didn’t really know if it was a really his birth mother or not, he had just assumed because she was Japanese like him.

Atlas walked through the halls with his drawstring bag filled with the necessities for any swimmer, his tinted yellow goggles, a towel, a bottle of water, and some food he had taken out of Cascade Hall to hold him over until he managed to get a real meal. After swimming his appetite got even bigger, if that was even possible. At the moment however, his hunger was suppressed by anger. Even thinking about that woman for a fraction of a second made his blood boil, causing him to quicken his pace. He wanted to get to the pool as fast as he could, before something happens that would make him loose his temper. When he first joined the Primred family he was prone to outbursts of anger, fights at school, or would sit defiantly in silence when asked questions. However his true mom figured out early on that he liked sports and that they may be a good way to get his frustration out. She was so kind and gentle, and always had a way of reading him.

Atlas smiled thinking about his mom, his pace slowed and he calmed down a little bit. Although he was still eager to get into the water and as his mom said “let the troubles wash away”. He began to open the door when he heard someone splashing in the pool. He stopped the door while it was only halfway open, but not before the door making a loud *CREAK*. “Shoot!” He said under his breath. “What’s wrong with the doors in this place?!?” He thought to himself, referring to the door in the Library that had given him the same problem.

Atlas heard the splashing stop. He hoped he could just get away without her noticing. He didn’t like swimming with other people. He felt awkward doing all his strokes and dives if someone was watching. So far he had managed to avoid everyone, using the lake or the sea parts of the room, but today he just really wanted to use the pool. Carefully he released the handle, putting one foot behind him in an attempt to back away without her seeing him.

“Is someone there?” a girl called.

“Drat,” he thought to himself. He stepped forward shyly from behind the door. Looking at the girl he noticed that she was much older than he was. In addition, her hairstyle indicated she wasn’t doing any serious swimming. “Um..” he started, while rubbing his had through his auburn hair, “sorry, I saw you using the pool and didn’t want to bug you. I can leave until you finish.” He knew it was polite to keep eye contact, but he had to look away halfway through his sentence in embarrassment. He could feel his cheeks getting red and didn’t want her to think that he really was an idiot first year. “Should have just backed away when I had the chance,” he thought to himself.

0 Atlas Primred Im sorry you have so many. 276 Atlas Primred 0 5