I woke up on the couch, my hands over my eyes. My alarm wasn't sounding.

I reached over and grabbed my phone. I have to be down at the station in ten minutes to catch my bus. I have to get moving.

Soon enough, I was rushing down the sidewalk to get to the station, barely squeezing between the doors before they could shut on me.

I slumped into the closest seat and placed my hands on my knees. That's not the best start to my morning.

Once I was walking across campus toward my writing class, I finally felt my heart rate slowing down. It was like any other day at Tristan University when I looked around.

I passed by the same kids on the same routes with the same coffee and the same tired glances and the same meaningless, spoken words. Early morning classes are a doozy, but I somehow manage to get through all of mine that I have since I have no night classes because I'm a swimmer.

I sat down at my usual seat, a bit later than normal since I walked slower. Class came to a start, and the first thing the teacher told us was what we would be doing. Typical.

"Today, you will be writing an apology letter to a friend you have done something to. Apologize for ruining their book or spilling coffee on their iPhone or confess about real happened between you and this other friend. Make it special. You'll give it to me. It'll be for my eyes only. You're secrets are safe with me. If you want to copy it to send to them, go right on ahead." He sat down behind his desk to keep grading writing papers like always.

It's a lot of grades and papers and a few kids as it seems to me, he says. That's his explanation of his work.

I started on the letter to Tally, putting myself in mine and Libby's shoes. I was definitely copying mine to put in her room for her to read without me there, but I still could make a few revisions for her copy. I mean, he wouldn't know.

Once I had finished, I turned the paper into the teacher. "Where is your brainstorm, Ryla?" He asked.

"In my head like it should be. I didn't have one since I'd been planning that out." He motioned for me to lean down toward him.

"This better be impressive. It has great importance with where the winning letter goes and you get extra points. It means a lot." I nodded and read over the note in my hands.

It's the wrong one.

I gave the teacher the more heartfelt one.

I left the classroom quickly to try not to second guess my choice. I paused and thought about going back, but I thought of something else.

So what? That letter was better anyways. Just fix the one you have to give to her. I nodded to myself before walking toward my next class.

~

Once I finished with my two morning classes, I headed to the apartment and planted the letter before going out to a diner near by and started researching for a paper for my research class.

The diner was usually quiet but always had a steady trickle of customers. It wasn't known by many people at all since it didn't have a big sign, and you have to go down an alley and then down some stairs to get to it.

It's a beautiful and friendly place. I mean, usually you don't find good things in the back alleys of New York, so this is the only one that I go down.

After an hour or so, someone sat across from me with a tea and a cinnamon roll.

I looked up to see Tally sitting across from me, the letter sitting open in front of her.

"I'm sorry." She muttered. "It was really rude of me to flip out on you like that." I bit my lip and leaned back, crossing my arms.

"You want me to introduce him to you, don't you?" Her head shot up, her eyes widening as her cheeks darkened.

"That's not what I'm saying." She gasped.

"Sounds like it. Anyways, I've got to go. Try meeting him yourself if you can." I smirked and packed up my things before leaving, waving at the barista who made all of the coffee art and became a good friend of mine through our research class.

As I started up the steps, I looked back, and Tally was sitting exactly where she had been when I stood up. I scoffed, turned around, and kept on my way back to the hotel.

I stepped up to the lobby desk and peered over to see Lucas laying on the floor. He was sleeping. There goes his narcolepsy.

I hopped over the counter and set my things on the desk before pulling him into the back room and onto the couch. I pressed the button to ring his father in.

"Lucas fell asleep again. You need to get something to help him more with that. Book him a doctor's appointment." I stood up and spoke as his father came in.

"Okay, you're right Ryla. I'll get his mom to call the doctor. I'll go work, and can you get him into our room?" I nodded and went to shake Lucas awake as his father went to the desk.

"Lucas. Let's get you to your apartment." His eyes blinked open, and he looked over at me.

He grumbled and went to stand up, shaky on his feet with a haze over his eyes. "I hate this condition."

I led him out to go down the first hallway to his family's room. We passed Tally who gaped at us and then shook her head.

"Who was that?" He mumbled as I opened his apartment with his key.

"Talitha Polk, but she goes by Tally by everyone. She lives in my apartment with Libby and me." He mumbled something incoherent under his breath as I laid him down in his bed. "What was that?"

"She your other best friend?"

"Yeah, but she's really mad at me." He gave me a questioning look as his lips pursed.

"She likes you a lot, and I didn't tell her that we've been friends for a long time." He nodded and laid down all the way, burrowing into his blankets.

"Thanks for your help." He motioned me closer, so I leaned down. He pressed his lips to the corner of my mouth and grinned with his eyes partially closed. "Tell her that I don't like her and that I like someone else."

I watched, still in shock, as Lucas rolled over, putting his back to me, and fell asleep.

There was no way I was telling Tally that.

I left his room, leaving the key on his nightstand. I hurried upstairs to get my stuff for swim practice and was stopped on my way out by Libby.

"She said she got a letter from us, but she's back there crying. What's going on?"

"I wrote a sincere letter, and then, she saw me walking Lucas to his room. He was half asleep due to his narcolepsy, and she's now mad."

As Libby started ranting, I zoned out.

"Does he even like her?"

I shook my head.

"Does he like anyone?"

I nodded my head, and her face dipped.

"Who is it?"

I took a deep breath. "Me."

Libby choked on her water.

"What? I mean, it makes sense since you guys are great friends, but poor Tally."

"Yeah, I know. This is bad because I do not like him like that. There also is the fact that she doesn't even know him really. It's just skin deep, I'm sorry to say."

Libby paused, thinking to herself.

"Well, we can let her get herself together, and shake it out at dance while you go to swim, and I go to volleyball." She hooked her arm with mine, and we headed out to the Marta stop.

We rode and chatted about how we've been and just caught up and talked about nothings. When we got to the sports stop, we hopped off and split ways, me going straight and her going left.

"Meet here after." I shouted. I saw her nod before I jogged off to the pool.

I got inside and walked into the locker room and got changed. It was really hot in here, and my glasses fogged compared to outside's temperature. I slipped them off and stuck them in my locker before grabbing my lucky cap and going out to the pool deck ahead of all of the others.

Coach helped me put my cap on before I spoke to her in a hushed tone.

"Missy Franklin is here to watch me swim. Give her a clipboard with our practice schedule on it." Coach looked proud of me and nodded.

"She chose a good day to come." She smirked and walked away, leaving me hanging with whatever was to happen for practice.

"Regular warm up!" She called out, and I walked over to the pool, fixing the hair that had poked out of my cap. I put my goggles on before jumping in and starting on our 600 warm up.

Once we had gone through most of our practice, we had 45 minutes left when coach called us out of the water. All of us were wondering what this would be since we had already done regular and relay starts along with dives.

I had a gut feeling that this was involving me and what we had talked about earlier. I looked into the stands for the first time and met eyes with Missy Franklin, but her face showed nothing.

"Get out drill. Ryla, you're up on the block. You have to do an 800 IM. I know that you haven't beaten your time since you got it a year ago, but if you beat your time by five seconds, everyone does a 100 easy and gets out of practice early."

There were whispers all around, and I could sense Missy sitting forward. I took a deep breath and dunked my goggles in the water before shaking them wildly and slipping them on.

I shook out my body and climbed up onto the block.

"Take your marks." Coach bellowed, louder then she ever had before. I went through my mental checklist quickly.

Toes.

Hands.

Hips.

Frontside.

Backside.

Head.

The whistle blew, and I propelled myself forward, gliding into the water better than I ever had before. I felt adrenaline, determination, and self-motivation flowing through my body all at once, pumping me up for a new time, something I hadn't done in a year.

I started on the first half, focusing solely on butterfly. It wasn't my strongest stroke due to my past in medical issues, but I've really improved. I moved onto backstroke, then breaststroke, then freestyle. I sprinted at the right times and changed my pace, thinking of everything at once to do my best.

I shoved my hand into the wall, coming above water with a heaved breath. The girls all cheered as Coach checked my time.

"Hop in and do a one hundred girls." I pushed myself out of the water to get out, banging my knees as always, before standing in front of Coach.

"You were six seconds under." She smiled, and I covered my mouth, a smile spreading across my face.

"Really?"

"I don't think you understood me. You were six seconds under the five seconds I wanted you at."

"Wait, you're saying I swam it-"

"11.56 seconds faster than last time." Missy finished for me. "You are phenomenal. It makes me very glad we met yesterday. Finish off your practice, and I would love to talk to you after." She grinned at me and shooed me away, so she could talk to Coach.

I hopped back in the water and did the 100 behind the other girls and then followed them to the locker rooms to shower and get changed. The entire time, I was severely nervous. I was shaking slightly and felt like I had to pee, my main sign of being really nervous.

I walked out, brushing my hair with my swim bag on my back. I walked over to where Missy was standing alone.

"Once you finish this semester of college, I want to take you under my wing and start getting you ready for the Olympics in four years." She grinned, and I froze. I couldn't believe it. Was this really happening?

"You're serious?" I asked. She grinned and nodded.

"I'm not kidding at all. You have the talent and with a little bit more work, you could go far. I want to coach you, teach you everything that helped me go far. You could be an inspiration for so many people." Missy grinned, tucking some hair behind her ear, "of course you would do courses online, but you would be swimming and training so much more."

I paused and nodded happily. "I will do it."

"Can we talk over dinner? We really want to make sure it is something you want to do and sown thing you can do."

I nodded, and we walked outside. I shut off the lights, and we passed a few people heading into the aquatic center.

"Hold on. I need to text my friend." I pulled out my phone and composed a text to Libby and sent it.

Missy led me to her car where we set out in the middle of prime traffic hours to find a place to eat.

~

I came home that night, practically floating on air. I pranced in, and Libby looked up and smiled at me.

"How did it go?"

I tried to hold the excitement in a little, but I couldn't and spoke quickly.

"I'mtrainingfortheOlympicswithMissyFranklinforthenextfouryearstocompete!" I squealed and attacked her in a hug.

Libby laughed and hugged me back, understanding my gibberish.

"Have you gotten proposed to yet?" She asked when I settled down.

"No. How about Tally?"

"She did at dance. He surprised her as a 'guest dancer' and danced a piece for her and practically won the Disney, dance, and romantic sides of her heart over. The video is adorable."

"Well, now, I'm the only one left of the three of us." I grumbled.

"Hey, no fear, Shyanne still hasn't been proposed to yet."

"She's back from China?" I exclaimed, excited that our friend who was a foreign exchange student was back from her months out in China.

"Yeah. She's participating and starts back with classes tomorrow. She's so happy to see us. Keeps mentioning books we need to read although I'm pretty sure most of them are in Mandarin Chinese."

We burst into laughter.

"That sounds exactly like her. Well, time for me to finish up some research and then hit the hay. I have lots of papers to start working on tomorrow and lots of practice since all swim girls have Wednesday off."

"Don't forget Takeout and Movie night is tomorrow," she called out as I left her room.

"Wouldn't miss it!" I called back, a small smile on my face.