Page 72 of In Too Deep

I’m fatigued already, but I hit the wall and sluggishly turn around. My face is aching, my lungs are burning. It scares me. But I need to push through this final fifty for my team. I’m almost there, just a little more.

Just a little more.

I dive and hit the wall.

Relief floods me as I come up, taking a much-needed breath, and it’s then that I understand nothing’s gone wrong—no dramas, no interference, nothing happened—and as I glance down my lane, I see Katie has already jumped in to do her portion of the race.

Glancing up, I find out that I’ve hit the wall in third. That means Katie has to pick up my poor performance. I just hope I haven’t stuffed this up by being stubborn and wanting to swim.

Laura nods. “Good job.”

“Thanks,” I reply through staggered breaths.

Katie strokes up into first place, and Laura, Hayley, and I cheer for Katie as she speeds up to half a body length in front.

Katie is killing it!

Hayley, Laura and I jump up and down in excitement as Katie freestyles into a full body length in front of Anna. She hits the wall, turns back, continues her powerful stroke and leads all the way to the wall. As she slams against the tiles, we all scream in celebration.

We scan the scoreboard.

Shit!

There’s a DQ sign coming up.

We all stop celebrating immediately.

Who could it be?

England came in second, followed by China in third.

Katie jumps out of the pool and studies the board.

My heart is frantically racing as we all stand there, holding our breaths. The board flashes, and the DQ lights up next to England. I scream along with Katie, and jump up and down in euphoria.

We won the gold.

England is, therefore disqualified.

Katie races to me, and we jump around in a circle as the microphone turns on, so we stop so we can hear the announcement.

“Swimmer three for England left the blocks before swimmer two hit the wall—England are therefore disqualified.”

Marta groans, throwing her cap on the floor. She storms off. I can’t help but laugh along with Katie.

“Maybe Karma does exist?” Katie suggests.

I give Katie a hug and she hugs me back.

“Again, I am sorry for everything that happened at the trials. I was just jealous of you and Coby. But I can picture you two together, just from the way he eyes you. He never looked at me like that. Be good to him. He is an amazing man, and you deserve to be happy.”

“Thank you. I like him… like a lot, and I wanna give this a go with him.”

“Does he know that?”

I smile. “I’m not sure, but I’m going to tell him.”

I link my arm with hers, and we head off toward the marshalling area, where Coby waits impatiently for me to return. I let go of Katie, and she smiles at me.

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