fandomhighdorms | The Pool, Saturday afternoon

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The Pool, Saturday afternoon

Dinah opened the door to the pool and held it for Jaime, smiling. "And here we are. Pretty easy to find." She hit the lights, and grinned as the pool lit up, dropping her towel and cover-up onto a nearby chair, then kicked off her flip-flops. "High dive, low dive, lanes. Pretty much a standard pool. All rumors of sharks have yet to be anything more than stories.

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"Well, I promise you I can take care of myself," Jaime laughed.

"So... are we going to do this?"

"Of course!" Karla said, taking her position at the edge of the pool. "On your mark, get set..." she hunched down, ready to dive.

Jaime followed suit, though his form was very obviously not as practiced as Karla's. He also made the mistake of glancing over at her as he waited for the 'go' instead of watching the water.

Karla couldn't help it. She glanced over and winked before yelling, "GO!"

She dove, gliding through the water with speed. She was fairly certain that she was a better swimmer than Jaime, but his strength and height gave him an advantage.

The wink prompted a laugh which delayed Jaime for a heartbeat, but then he was slicing through the water too. She definitely had the better technique, but Jaime, ironically, had what might be called a swimmer's build. Long limbs and lean muscle. And he knew how to use it.

Which was the only reason he wasn't simply totally outclassed. He was definitely less efficient, and he'd get tired way sooner than Karla, but he only had to make it two lengths...

You know, in Kaeleer, Karla had never felt short. Sure, all the males had been taller than her, but she was about the same height as Jaenelle and Morghann, and taller than Kalush. Here, everyone was taller than her, with the exception of a few very tiny Jedi.

She slapped the wall, spun around, and used the wall to propel her through the water a bit. She was winning, but Jaime wasn't as far behind as she might have expected. What he lacked in skill and technique, he more than made up for in strength and height.

Jaime wasn't expecially tall, but he was tall enough to have a noticeable advantage over Karla. His own flip when he hit the wall was much less practiced, and he lost another yard getting turned around.

But then he could easily see he was behind and he started to push himself hard. His legs churning and his arms slicing forward as fast as he could get them to go. It was hard, he hadn't been kidding about being tired from his races with Dinah earlier, but he could push through that.

After all that talk it'd be especially embarrassing to lose to Karla.

Karla was cutting through the water like a fish. She hadn't been kidding when she said she'd been swimming for as long as she'd been walking. But she could still hear Jaime coming up behind her.

Dammit! She should have suggested five laps or something. Still, the wall was sooo close...!

With the wall so close Jaime's world narrowed down. He wasn't even aware of where Karla was, or anything other than the distance between him and the wall. He poured on the speed, dumping every remaining ounce of energy into reaching that wall. He didn't even come up for air.

His hand smacked into the wall and his head snapped up in an explosive inhalation. "Yes!" he yelled.

Then it occurred to him to look over and see where Karla was.

Karla was leaning against the wall, grinning. Whether she'd gotten there before he had, as he had, or even afterwards, well, she wasn't going to say anything.

"Kiss kiss."

Jaime eyed her for a second. Then smirked. "Nice try."

No. He had no idea who'd gotten there first.

"Don't know what you're talking about," Karla said with a grin. "Though I suppose I shall take it as a compliment to my swimming ability."

"Yeah," Jaime had to admit. "You're probably better at it than I am."

"In all fairness, I grew up with a loch not to far from my home," Karla admitted. "And taking me swimming was an easy way to keep me out of everyone's hair."

Jaime had a little sister. He knew exactly what he was supposed to say at this point. "And somehow I bet that was something that needed to be done on a regular basis."

"I'd try to pretend like I had no idea what you're talking about," Karla said with a grin. "But even I have my limits."

"No matter how good a liar you are, no one's that good," Jaime agreed with a laugh. Then he lifted a hand out of the water and shook it in her direction, flinging little water droplets at her.

"Hey!" Karla protested, also because that was the expected response. "Is that a declaration of open hostilities?" she asked, flinging water droplets at him with both hands.

The Scarab flared at the suggestion of 'hostilities', but Jaime pushed it back down. "I have not yet begun to fight," he declared, using both of his own hands to flick water back.

"Which leaves you open for a SNEAK ATTACK!" Karla declared, throwing a handful of water at him.

Karla was not helping Jaime at all.

Jaime just barely suppressed a wince at what the Scarab thought of that. He managed to keep grinning as he splashed back. "You don't want to get into a water fight with me," he smirked, "I'm bigger than you, after all."

Karla caught the edge of that one. She gave him an apologetic smile and resolved to use less martial language next time.

"That's right--rub it in," she laughed. "You might just be surprised, though!"

Jaime flashed her a grin he hoped was reassuring. "The Scarab works pretty hard to prevent surprises," he grinned. "And, hey, if I don't lord what few advantages I have over you, what will I do?"

That got Karla laughing harder. "I suppose that's true," she conceded. "I've got to let you have something. Though if you ever hold something over your head to try to make me jump for it..." she didn't specify anything, just gave him a dark look.

And tried not to grin.

"That would be very childish of me," Jaime pointed out.

Like that would stop him.

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