Sean groans when he finally pulls away. “I really don’t want to go right now, but I have to. Seriously, Coach will drown me if I’m late.”

“Go out there and kick ass.” I slap him on the butt to get him moving, and with his dimples out in full force, Sean runs off to the pool. I text Kavya that I’m on my way to sit with her. But when I get to the bleachers, Dominic sits directly in front of her. When he meets my eyes, his glare is a million times worse than it was in the parking lot. He’s a shark, out for blood.

I make my way up the stands, carefully tiptoeing around the people blocking my way to Kavya. But I miss my footing as I try to avoid one of their bags of popcorn. When I gracelessly plop next to Kavya, my platform sneaker slips and smacks into Dominic’s back. His phone flies from his hand, landing with a thud on the cement at his feet.

“Watch it!” Dominic yells. “I’ve already used up my insurance on this thing.”

“It was an accident,” I say.

“Sure.” His voice is soaked with sarcasm.

Kavya looks pointedly at my shoe, still on Dominic’s back, and I quickly move it.

“Thanks for saving my spot,” I say. “How’d your heats go?”

Kavya frowns. “I’m going to say this season is not for me. Let’s just focus on Sean.” She motions toward the pool just as Sean and Miguel take their places on their diving blocks, right next to each other.

“Come on, Miguel!” Dominic screams, and the jealousy monster inside me yells back, “Whoooo, Sean!”

The competitive fire is raging high. There may be six swimmers total, and technically there’s the whole district they’re competing against in qualifiers, but the biggest face-off is between Miguel and Sean. I want Sean to win and I want to shove it in Dominic’s face. It’s so un-mer, but I can’t help it.

The countdown starts, three high-pitched beeps. Then, HOOOOOOONK!

The swimmers dive, Sean and Miguel swimming neck and neck. Both do a breaststroke to the end of the lane and dive under to flip around at exactly the same time. But Sean comes up first. This is his thing. The second he goes under, he gets his power. He comes back up and tears down the lane.

It’s such a turn-on. Who knew that I’d find the one human who seems to need water as much as I do.