Chapter 200 Swimming Festival - Part 5 [Chloe]

No way.

Second place?

This was quite problematic for me. My total points was 62, and I was now down 4 points on Asahi Yuuna. The only races left were the relays, which are all scaled to 1. This meant that we would have to beat Asahi's house by a total of 5 positions throughout the two races. This was going to be quite the challenge, as I was very unsure of my house's capabilities when it came to racing skill. Disappointed, I got out of the pool, my arms were practically dead at this point, I could see that all the other competitors in this race were also extremely tired.

The relays would come after the designated lunch break. I had already eaten most of my food so I decided to just sit around until the relays. I squished the things in my bag in order to make a comfortable seat for myself. I didn't even know which house Asahi was in. I decided to have a look at where she was going. She seemed to be walking over to the blue house, it seemed she resided there after speaking to some of her friends.

This was not good. The blue house was at the top of the rankings before. I would have practically no chance. I scrambled to come up with any plan which could possibly allow me to beat her. "You look like you're stressed." A somewhat deep soothing voice came from above me. "It's nothing big." Teru was hanging around me again. I wasn't sure exactly why, but I did like his presence. It felt warming just being near him, as expected of the Main Character.

"You've done well, I didn't realise you were so good at swimming." He was complimenting me, it seemed to be contrived. "Thanks, but I've actually been aiming for first, so I'm still not quite there yet." I decided to just tell him my goal, it might've seemed egotistical, but I didn't have the energy to meta-analyse everything I said at the moment. "Really? That's really cool. I hope you do well." Ah, thanks, Teru. It was very nice to hear.

The two of us just sat with each other, chatting about some random other things. I was still somewhat unsure of the exact reason he was talking to me. He seemed to have a group of friends he could've talked to instead of me. Maybe he was feeling pity at how I was alone? It wouldn't surprise me if he was the type of person to do that, but for some reason, it felt different. I was drawing a blank. I'm just a side character, after all. Maybe this was a sign, a clue that something was about to happen.

I wanted to think hard about it, but I was incredibly tired after all the races. I could barely think straight, let alone analyse this. "Hey, you really look like you're struggling. What's wrong?" It's something that's really insignificant in you're life. "Don't worry about it, I'm just a little tired." I tried to reassure him. "Are you hungry?" He asked. To be completely fair, I was beginning to get a little hungry. A little bit of time had passed since the last race, but still, I didn't exactly want to hassle him. But without even waiting for my response, he passed a cookie over to me. "I got it from the bake sale earlier. I've got lots more, have it."

"Thanks." I took the cookie and began eating it. As I took bites out of it, crumbs fell onto my skirt. The cookie was quite crumbly, breaking apart as I ate it. I quickly swiped the crumbs off my skirt and finished eating it. There was still a little bit of time before the relays. "You want to watch the races again?" I asked this time, it was going to be quite boring just sitting here for the entire day. "Sure, the teachers' race is on next, isn't it?" He replied. I didn't know that the teachers' race was on or even that it existed. It seemed to excite a lot of the students.

The two of us made our way closer to the pool, getting a pretty good view of the entire area. Everyone was cheering like it was the grand final of the world cup. For me however, it seemed nothing special. I had no special interest in the teachers' race, no more than any other normal student race. "All these people are like sheep, aren't they." I could just barely hear the sound of Teru talking to me. "Yeah, they join in shouting aimlessly."

It seemed Teru was on the same page as me. He didn't look especially excited about this race either. More and more students were beginning to gather, and our space was slowly getting invaded; we were squished between several people. "This really isn't worth it, is it?" Teru said, his voice being drowned out by the sound of a caveman gathering. "You want to go back to the tents and sit down?" I offered. After looking around, he accepted my proposal, and the two of us made our way back to the tents. I sat on my bag once again.

"Ah, this is better," I said. The overwhelming background noise was not at all gone, but at least we had enough space to breathe and could hear each other without screaming. Teru sat in front of me, and I didn't even notice that my leg was touching his. For some reason, I quickly pulled my leg back.

Was I always like this? It seemed he didn't notice.

"So, how are you doing in terms of races?" I asked him. He leaned back, relaxing his body before speaking, "I'm not as athletic as you. I think I'm on around fifty points or so." Honestly, that was quite a good score. It was as expected for the main character. It didn't seem like he did any practice or training for this.

The crowd eventually dispersed after the teachers finished their race.

The two relays were now coming up.

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