Cool Water and Silence -{Open}-

[Nicholas Faulkner]

[[Semptember 23rd, 3 pm]]

It was nice to just get away sometimes. And swimming was a way for Nicholas Faulkner to get away. Making his way down to the pool, he was simply dressed in his swim trunks and a plain white tee-shirt. A towel was thrown over his shoulder for when he was finished. It was too cold to be swimming outside, but the school didn't have an outdoor pool, anyway. It didn't matter to Nick, as long as he got in that water. And as he entered, the chlorine hit his nostrils with a familiar sort of force. He smiled to himself at this.

Glancing around, he noticed that noone else was there. This was good, he could swim in peace. No annoying little girls to complain about what the water did to their hair, and no other guys there that would be tempted to challenge him. He just wanted a nice, relaxing swim. That wasn't too much to ask for. Removing his shirt, and tossing it along with his towel in one of the chairs near the wall, he made his way over to the diving board.

Anticipation crept up on him at the thought of the first contact with the water. Stepping up onto the low diving board, a look of complete concentration was displayed on his features. He stood there for a second, preparing for the move he was going to attempt. Quite suddenly, he ran to the end of the diving board, jumped, flipped in middair, and came down headfirst in a perfect dive.

As his body hit the water, a tingling feeling spread through it with cold. He could also feel a sense of pride at his perfectly executed dive. It felt good evey time he nailed something like that. He came up for air, with a satisfied smile on his face. If someone else had been in the room, he would have sneakily tried to catch their reaction, but he was alone. He did a few laps around the pool before the urge to attempt an even better dive came over him.

Climbing out of the water, Nick headed over to the other diving board that was roughly ten feet off of the water. That one was his favorite. It was easier to do more elaborate dives. He climbed the ladder, deciding which dive would be the best to do. Settling on the perfect one, he got into concentration stance. He ran towards the edge, jumped, and did a back flip before plunging into the water. It hadn't been too elaborate, but it was still a hard one. He felt satisfied with it, though he could have been a bit straighter on the landing. Oh well, that was what practice was for.

[Arianna Porter]

Today was a rare day for Arianna Porter. To get the pale girl out in the world without being very clothed or wearing some kind of fashionable hat was like trying to get a cat into a bathtub. Oddly enough, that was almost what was happening. Ari had decided to go for a swim and in the University indoor pool at that. She considered it a cess pool of steaming bacteria.

So what brought the little princess to this Ivy League cess pool? Sofia had run off somewhere and there was no way she was asking Ian for a ride to Hartford. Inviting him to see her in swimsuit was practically giving him an invitation to undress her. So here she was at the campus public pool.

She was in rare form this day as she felt there would be no one to impress at three in the afternoon. Her swimsuit was a simple one piece racerback in a baby pink. Normally she would be sure to keep up with the latest fashion as long as she was sure it would not come untied when she swam. In all honesty, this was her favorite suit and the only one she had kept since she stopped growing.

Slipping off her white flip flops and sarong, she turned towards the pool. That's when she noticed another person. A male, to be specific, who was standing on the higher diving board. Either he hadn't seen her or didn't care. She watched him run to the edge of the board and do a very good blackflip before entering the water. Throwing her long hair up in a very messy bun, Ari was a little in awe.

She had never been a diver, even when she was little and taking swimming lessons. She had a great fear of cracking her head open on the board by not jumping far enough. She walked to the edge of the pool that was divided into lanes and slid into the lane nearest the wall. She had a problem with being in lanes beside open water.

[Nicholas Faulkner]

Nick emerged from under water with a grateful breath. He had stayed under a few seconds longer than normal, just to swim around a bit. When he did come up, he was unaware that someone else had entered the water until he turned to do a few more laps. He was almost shocked to see someone else, and a girl at that. It might have just been him, but she seemed to be a little intimidated by the water. It seemed that way by the way she eased herself into the side of the pool. He held back a smirk at this thought.

It was strange to think that anyone would be afraid of water. Nick had never had that problem. He'd always loved to swim. It was just something that relaxed him. He hadn't been attempted dives, though, until he joined the high school team. He could remember the anxiety and thrill that he felt as he attempted his first high dive. The water had seemed so far away, and he'd felt as if he had been falling forever before he finally crashed into the surface. Needless to say, but his first dive hadn't actually been the best. But with a lot of practice, he'd gotten the hang of it and was actually starting to get quite good.

The young man waded around a bit, feeling awkward with the silence between himself and this girl. She looked familiar, and he wasn't sure if she was in his grade or not. But, he'd never actually talked to her, so he didn't feel bad about not knowing this piece of information. She looked like the kind of person he generally stayed away from. Rich and preppy, and oh so full of themselves. Then again, he knew that judging someone of their appearance was shallow. But with the people at this school, it was an easy assumption to make.

He hesitated before swimming a little bit closer to her, figuring he may as well say something to break the ice. "So, come here often?" as soon as it came out, Nick knew it sounded like a cheesy pick-up line, but he had no intention of trying to flirt with her. He was fairly certain he wouldn't even get along with her. Well, it all depended on what she said in return.