My
head began to hurt and by the time I had to stand up in front of
everyone for my interview session, I pushed all of these depressing
thoughts to the side.
The best part of the day came at dusk.
Even though our swim time technically counted as physical fitness,
Pegotty announced that this was the reef trip Kain had signed us up
for already. I was surprised to see that only about half of the
syrenka’s were going, but when we got to the end of the dock with
the awaiting boat, I understood why.
“ Where are we supposed to
fit?” I asked Mr. Miller who was behind the wheel. The small boat
was loaded with coolers and dive equipment. Only Brinsley and Vance
were on board and the rest of us were standing there like idiots.
Mr. Miller laughed.
“ You’re not. You guys are
swimming and we’ll meet you out there.” The mischievous grin on all
of their faces let me know that they must play this trick every
year on the newbies.
“ What?” Carissa gasped.
“It’s like five miles to the reef. I thought that we were done with
all training today.”
“ Training is never over,”
Mr. Miller replied seriously.
“ It’ll be fun guys,” Lily
chimed in with her annoyingly peppy voice.
“ It will be exhausting,”
Daniel added with a sigh.
Vance was still laughing when he waved
his hands at us. “Oh stop being such babies. The water’s nice and
the swim will be worth it. Trust me.” He patted one of the coolers.
“Refreshments are on us when you arrive.” It was probably just
water and fruit.
“ What’s with the dive
gear?” I asked.
Mr. Miller looked around the boat at
the scattered tanks and vests as though he was just noticing them
for the first time. “We have to pretend we need these, otherwise
some human might get a little too suspicious.” Alright, that made
sense.
I looked up towards Kain who was
staring off at the distant horizon. Pushing into him a little bit
to get his attention, I nodded my head towards the dock by our boat
house. He got the signal and started to jog in that
direction.
“ Where are you two going?”
Daniel asked with a squeak.
“ Swimming,” I yelled back
behind me. My shoes were off and I was trying to untie my dress
while chasing after Kain. I could hear the footsteps behind us
followed by laughing and teasing as the others also attempted to
disrobe. In no time at all, we were in the water.
Just like the night before, my
transition was relatively quick and smooth. I heard the boat
overhead and we all began to swim after it. The five of us stayed
in a little group, oblivious to the few stragglers who refused to
take part in our childish games. Kain and I took the lead with
Carissa close to my side and Lily and Daniel bringing up the rear.
The water was shallow at first which made it rather difficult to
stay completely submerged. We wanted to avoid the boating channel
for obvious reasons, but we still needed to skirt the edges to find
deeper water. After about half a mile the shelf dropped off and the
water got bluer. Several sea turtles dodged out of the way, not
quite knowing what to make of the five of us. Daniel grabbed onto
the shell of one of the larger turtles and tried to let it carry
him for a while. The turtle wasn’t thrilled with Daniel’s game, so
it repeatedly slammed his hands with its flippers until he let
go.
We were coming to the surface to
breathe as a group so that we could all watch out for boats. After
one of our breaks, we noticed that we were no longer alone in our
activity. Kain grabbed my arm and directed my attention out to our
left. The rest of the group swam by us since we’d stopped so
suddenly, but they hurried back when they saw what Kain was
pointing to. About fifty feet away, swimming around our perimeter,
was a pod of bottlenose dolphins. Kain’s face was beaming and
although I gave him a hard time about this before, he was right
when he said that our dolphins were not the same as these. Our
dolphins, or porpoise as Kain had corrected
head began to hurt and by the time I had to stand up in front of
everyone for my interview session, I pushed all of these depressing
thoughts to the side.
The best part of the day came at dusk.
Even though our swim time technically counted as physical fitness,
Pegotty announced that this was the reef trip Kain had signed us up
for already. I was surprised to see that only about half of the
syrenka’s were going, but when we got to the end of the dock with
the awaiting boat, I understood why.
“ Where are we supposed to
fit?” I asked Mr. Miller who was behind the wheel. The small boat
was loaded with coolers and dive equipment. Only Brinsley and Vance
were on board and the rest of us were standing there like idiots.
Mr. Miller laughed.
“ You’re not. You guys are
swimming and we’ll meet you out there.” The mischievous grin on all
of their faces let me know that they must play this trick every
year on the newbies.
“ What?” Carissa gasped.
“It’s like five miles to the reef. I thought that we were done with
all training today.”
“ Training is never over,”
Mr. Miller replied seriously.
“ It’ll be fun guys,” Lily
chimed in with her annoyingly peppy voice.
“ It will be exhausting,”
Daniel added with a sigh.
Vance was still laughing when he waved
his hands at us. “Oh stop being such babies. The water’s nice and
the swim will be worth it. Trust me.” He patted one of the coolers.
“Refreshments are on us when you arrive.” It was probably just
water and fruit.
“ What’s with the dive
gear?” I asked.
Mr. Miller looked around the boat at
the scattered tanks and vests as though he was just noticing them
for the first time. “We have to pretend we need these, otherwise
some human might get a little too suspicious.” Alright, that made
sense.
I looked up towards Kain who was
staring off at the distant horizon. Pushing into him a little bit
to get his attention, I nodded my head towards the dock by our boat
house. He got the signal and started to jog in that
direction.
“ Where are you two going?”
Daniel asked with a squeak.
“ Swimming,” I yelled back
behind me. My shoes were off and I was trying to untie my dress
while chasing after Kain. I could hear the footsteps behind us
followed by laughing and teasing as the others also attempted to
disrobe. In no time at all, we were in the water.
Just like the night before, my
transition was relatively quick and smooth. I heard the boat
overhead and we all began to swim after it. The five of us stayed
in a little group, oblivious to the few stragglers who refused to
take part in our childish games. Kain and I took the lead with
Carissa close to my side and Lily and Daniel bringing up the rear.
The water was shallow at first which made it rather difficult to
stay completely submerged. We wanted to avoid the boating channel
for obvious reasons, but we still needed to skirt the edges to find
deeper water. After about half a mile the shelf dropped off and the
water got bluer. Several sea turtles dodged out of the way, not
quite knowing what to make of the five of us. Daniel grabbed onto
the shell of one of the larger turtles and tried to let it carry
him for a while. The turtle wasn’t thrilled with Daniel’s game, so
it repeatedly slammed his hands with its flippers until he let
go.
We were coming to the surface to
breathe as a group so that we could all watch out for boats. After
one of our breaks, we noticed that we were no longer alone in our
activity. Kain grabbed my arm and directed my attention out to our
left. The rest of the group swam by us since we’d stopped so
suddenly, but they hurried back when they saw what Kain was
pointing to. About fifty feet away, swimming around our perimeter,
was a pod of bottlenose dolphins. Kain’s face was beaming and
although I gave him a hard time about this before, he was right
when he said that our dolphins were not the same as these. Our
dolphins, or porpoise as Kain had corrected
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