Page 48 of In Too Deep

“My God, I’m so glad you’ve seen the light,” Caro murmurs in my ear as she swirls me from side to side.

“Me too. Kissing him is so… so perfect.”

She giggles and pulls back from me. “I’m proud of you.” She gives me a quick smile, then turns me, slapping my arse and pushing me forward toward my room. “But we have got to go to bed. You have a race tomorrow!”

Chuckling to myself, I fake a salute. “Yes, Mum.”

“Well, one of us has to be an adult in this relationship.”

I scoff. “And that certainly isn’t you.”

She laughs. “Hashtag truth.”

I turn back to face her. “Did you just say hashtag?”

“Yeah?”

“Yep, you’re so not the adult.”

“Go to bed and have wet dreams about Coby,” she teases.

***

After having breakfast in the cafeteria with Caro and her trying to settle my nerves, I’m now in the marshalling area with all the other girls, including the English swimmer from the unit next door and her roommate slash slave Anna. I am going to try to speak with her again. You never know, the first time may have been nerves or something.The benefit of the doubt and all!

Walking up to her, I stand tall.

She scowls. “Oh, it’s the convict.”

Guess not!

Tilting my head, I try to shrug it off and plaster on a fake smile. “Actually, the name’s Lacy. It’s nice to meet you…” I pause.

She raises her eyebrow and chortles. “Oh, you actually don’t know who I am. Wow! Youdohave a small mind. I’m Marta Botwright, and you’ll be the convict swimming in my wake.”

A surprised laugh escapes me. “Right, well, nice to see that frosty weather over in England has frozen your soul.”

I turn, hearing Marta scoff as I walk away. “Did you hear that wretched girl, Anna? She can’t talk tomelike that?”

“I think I just did,” I call.

Katie walks up to me as I sigh, awaiting another round of abuse.

“That Marta’s a real uptight bitch, hey?” Katie offers out of nowhere.

“Yeah, she’s certainly got something shoved up her tight arse.”

“Well, us Aussies have to knock her out of the running, okay? We may not see eye to eye, but let’s play this out as two enemies coming together to face a bigger foe.”

I chuckle slightly. “Are you a fan of Sci-Fi or something?”

“Lacy, I’m serious! We have to knock her out.”

“Agreed. Let’s out swim the snobby bitch.”

She smiles, and a marshal walks in, telling us to line up.

Marta’s in lane five, I’m in four, and Katie’s in six.

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