Author's Note: This is the second chapter in a multi-part story called "The Swim Team." It is meant to be read in succession. If you have found this chapter first, I recommend visiting my author bio and start reading from chapter 1. Enjoy!
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A couple practices passed, and Mei successfully had the whole team doing our thing in the nude each and every time. It was now our established routine to show up at the pool and report directly to the women's locker room, where we all undressed together, becoming more than familiar with the sight of each other's smooth, naked bodies.
One day after practice, we'd all just finished getting dressed when Mei pulled out a stack of papers from her locker. She began to hand them out, and my heart sank. "Here," she announced, "I need everyone's help posting these around school."
I took one look at Monica, and we both looked like we were about to be hit by a truck. The flyers were invitations to the entire school body to come see our nude swim team practice for the upcoming competition. It started with the large, bold statement, "Come see us perfect the breaststroke!", a corny phrase not uncharacteristic of Mei's bizarre sense of humor.
"Oh... my... god," said Simone, slowly processing what she was looking at.
Jared and Nathan exchanged surprised looks, while Chris simply exclaimed, "Sweet!" Kiara, of course, seemed to already know what was going on.
Monica blurted out, "Mei! You can't expect us to do this! We can't post these!"
"Why not?" said Mei.
"Because... I'm not getting naked in front of the entire school!" she replied.
"What's the big deal? We've been practicing this way for weeks now. People barely care about our swimming competitions, this is an easy way to get a lot of people to come out and support us," explained Mei.
"But... we're not going to get naked in front of the entire school!" repeated Simone in solidarity.
"Besides, how would you even get permission from the school? So far we've flown under the radar precisely because no one cares about us," added Nathan.
"She already worked that out," said Kiara, proudly.
Mei said, "Yeah, they fought me on it at first, but apparently there was a lot of nude swimming here in the 50s or something, and they can't stop us unless they vote to update the school code of conduct or some shit. I think they're going to take a wait-and-see approach."
"But... not going to get naked in front of the entire school!" repeated Simone a third time.
"Whatever," said Mei, "Kiara and I already posted these all over the library and student center. We've got, like, a million people coming already. You can't let them down now."
Simone's jaw dropped. "What.. the... fuck..." she said, unable to accept what was going on. Everyone was silent.
Mei and Kiara got out of there as fast as they could, before there could be any further debate about it. I was afraid to ask what the guys did, but I know those flyers never left my bag, nor Monica's, nor Simone's. We spent the remainder of the week catching other students smiling and whispering behind our backs, and wishing we'd never gone along with this to begin with. We wanted the whole matter to go away, all over again.
It didn't.
***
The day of our first fully-attended, nude swim practice, I felt so weak in the knees that I didn't know how I'd even be able to swim. I picked Monica up in my car to drive us to the pool, and we spent the first half of the ride in silence. Then all we could do is talk nervously about what we were about to do.
"How many people do you think will actually come?" Monica asked.
"I mean... given the chance to see a bunch of naked people? I don't want to even think about how many might come."
"I feel like Kiara is enabling Mei. All she needed is one person to tell her this was a good idea for her to just go and do it without bringing it up with the rest of us first."
"Yeah. It's weird. Have you ever considered... if Kiara likes Mei?" I asked, trying to steer the conversation to something, anything, other than a discussion about how many people were about to see me completely nude.
"Like, like-like?"
"Yeah."
"I'm pretty sure Kiara's in the closet, yeah."
We pulled up to the school and saw Simone arriving on foot, with her hand pressed to her stomach. She looked sick. I'd never seen her so scared, but I knew the feeling. With the exception of Mei and Kiara, none of us were our chatty selves in the locker room. Monica, Simone, and I had slipped in the back so we wouldn't have to see anyone on our way in, but I could hear so many voices outside the locker room that I knew it was bad; that a lot of people had actually come to watch us.
"I can't stand it, I'm going to look," said Simone. She peeked out from the locker room door and then shut it immediately. "Oh... shit," she silently mouthed, giving us a worried look. I knew then what to expect. Soon enough, we all stood there in a circle, nude and trembling, feeling like we were about to offer ourselves to the wolves.
"Come on guys," groaned Mei, "Just think of how many more dates you'll get after this."
"You won't have any, cuz I'm going to fucking kill you after this," said Simone. There was nervous laughter.
The door opened a crack and Coach popped his head in. "Guys, let's go," he said curtly, then shut the door.
"Showtime!" said Kiara.
"Everyone line up," said Mei, "I'll lead us out and explain how the practice works, before we begin. Just follow my lead." We had been doing just that, and that's how we ended up in this mess. Nevertheless, we lined up, facing the door, and following the leader. I took a deep breath, then saw Jared step forward in front of me. I followed behind, but was starting to see stars.