Step to This by Nikki Carter

Author:Nikki Carter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2011-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

14

I’ve been dreading this day since the school year started, and it’s finally here. I know what you’re thinking. What day, right? Well, sit tight ’cause I’m about to fill you in on my pain.

Halfway into the quarter our phys ed class changes from indoor field hockey, volleyball, and three-on-three basketball to swimming. We trade the funky smell of the girls gym locker for chlorine, and we’ll swim laps and learn to dive from the diving board.

Seems like no big deal, right? Umm ... wrong.

It’s not the actual swimming that gets to me, because I’m a great swimmer. I already know all the strokes Ms. Dixon is going to teach, so it’s going to be an easy A. And it’s not my hair, because my synthetic ponytail clips on and off with the quickness.

So what is the problem?

Imagine all ninety pounds of me in a swimsuit. An all black one-piece swimsuit provided by the school. I’m talking about my super skinny legs and my absence of booty and boobs all in one vision. Yeah, take that mental picture and feel my pain.

To make it even worse, our swimming class is coed. That is so unnecessary. I mean, what are they thinking? I may try to make a case to the principal based on rising teen pregnancy rates.

But until that happens, I have to do the walk of shame to the ice-cold swimming pool. You would think they’d at least have a heated pool, but that would be another no.

I’m sitting on the locker room bench, in full foolish swim attire, waiting to be humiliated beyond reason. Hope is in my class too, and she along with Jewel and Kelani are looking at their reflections in the mirror.

Hope pulls her hair into a high ponytail and asks, “Do you think we’ll have to go under the water today? I don’t want to get my hair wet.”

“I’m not getting my hair wet for the entire semester, why you playing!” Kelani replies.

I can’t resist asking a question. “So you would just fail the class, because you don’t want to mess up your hair?”

All three of them look at me like I’ve just asked the dumbest question in the world. I shrug and stuff my backpack into the open locker in front of me.

“Anyway,” Jewel says, dismissing my question, “I wish they would let us wear our own swimsuits. I’ve got a cute two-piece, with boy-short bottoms, that puts my booty on swole.”

Wow on top of wow. Maybe I should be happy they’re making us wear these grandma swimming suits. I’d look even worse with a two-piece. Because, yeah, my booty would be the opposite of swole.

The warning bell rings, so everyone heads for the pool. Surprisingly, I’m not the only girl stressing over her body. A few girls with figures I’d kill for are trying to cover up because they think they look fat. The only ones not pressed at all are Hope, Kelani, and Jewel.

The aroma of chlorine fills my nostrils as we walk into the pool area.

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