I'm waiting outside the pool. I've been here for almost 20 minutes, but I'm early. I wanted to give myself some time, as my driving still isn't...the best. I'm about to pull out my phone and look at the time when a car pulls into the lot. A middle-aged man, a woman who looks about my age, and a younger girl step out and close their doors. They begin walking towards me.
The girl is ahead of the group and reaches me first. "Hi, have you seen a woman go in there?" She says, nodding toward the building. "We have an interview with her."
"Uh, no." I say. "But I think I'm the one you're looking for.
"No, no, ma'am. Sorry. We're interviewing her as a coach for a water polo team." By now, the other two people have joined our group. I glance over at the woman, and holy shizzlesticks. She. Is. Beautiful.
"Um...yeah. That's me."
"But- but- you're-"
"Yeah." I know. I'm in a wheelchair. Everyone seems to think that I'm not aware of this, as they point it out all the time.
"Are you sure you can do this?"
"I'm sure."
"Okay, then. Let's head inside." She begins walking toward the building, slowly so that I can keep up. "I'm Annalise, by the way."
"An." I reply.
"Nice to meet, you, An."
"Yeah. You too." At this point the other two people are trailing behind us, and I think I hear the man say something that sounds like 'this is ridiculous,' but I can't be sure.
We go through various hallways until we wind up in a big office. I've never been here before.
"You said your name was..." The woman trails off.
"An. An Tiar."
"Hi, An. I'm Endia, one of the assistant coaches, and this is Ryan, our head coach."
"Hi." How am I going to remember all of these names?
"And Annalise is who you talked to on the phone. She's my sister, and she plays on the team. She's 15." I nod. That makes sense. "So, An. What experience do you have with water polo?"
I could name everything. I should name everything. "Well, I started playing when I was 8, and continued through high school. I went here, actually, to Princeton, on a water polo scholarship. I'm currently doing college here, but I do it at home, for obvious reasons. I played here for about a year, and I had a good chance of being on the Olympic team one day, before this happened."
Endia nods. "And what did...happen?" She asks. But she's not judging, like everyone else. Just curious.
"Car accident. Drunk driver." I say.
"I see. And...why do you want to coach water polo?" I glance over at...Ryan? I think? Let's just call him...Tower. That's what he seems to do. He still hasn't said a word. He's just staring at me. Creepy.
"Um, I really miss the sport, and I figured that even though I can't play anymore, I can teach other people to play using my experience." Tower makes a noise that sounds like a snort or a laugh, but it's so quiet that I can't tell.
"That's wonderful," says Endia, giving Tower a pointed look. "How old are you?"
"19. Almost 20."
Endia smiles. "Great. Well, we're looking for another assistant coach, mostly to watch over the boys team. We're training to go to Junior Olympics this year in California, so we need to train the teams separately. I handle the girls team, and Ryan kind of...oversees everything."
"Okay. Cool. Great." I really need to figure out how to talk around pretty girls. This is a problem.
"So..." Endia reaches into the desk and grabs out a few sheets of paper. "This is our practice schedule. Let us know about the times, if they work for you, and if not we'll figure something out." Is she kidding? I eat. I sleep. I do school. That's it. Pretty much any time works for me. "Also," she continues, "all of our practices are here, but as I'm sure you know, games will be up and down the east coast for the most part." I nod. I remember taking six hour car trips to various pools to play almost every weekend.
"Okay. Well, we'll see you tomorrow!" Endia says.
"Wait- I got the job?" I say.
"No-" Tower actually starts to say something-shocker- but is cut off by Endia.
"Yes." She says, glaring at Tower. "You absolutely did." I grin widely.
"Thank you. I'll see you tomorrow. Yeah." My brain, apparently, is still flustered by Endia's incredible beauty.
Endia nods and heads out of the office. Tower trails behind her, looking extremely angry. Oops.
Only Annalise is left in the room with me. We begin walking back to the parking lot.
"I'm sorry about your car accident." She blurts.
"Oh, um. Thank you." I reply.
"I mean, I don't know what I would do if I couldn't play water polo anymore. And you could've gone to the Olympics and everything...I'm sorry. It just sucks."
"Yeah, I know. I wish I could still play. I actually haven't even been in a pool since the accident, and that was...nearly a year ago." I don't know why I'm telling her this, but I haven't talked to anyone other than Kile in a while.
"Wow. A year without a pool, that's...wow."
"Yeah." I say. I look up and notice that Annalise is as pretty as her sister, but in a much more youthful way. Endia looks more like a Victoria's Secret model, while Annalise looks like a model for a nice clothing store. She looks very innocent.
But I would never date her. No, no. I may be gay, but I'm not a pedophile. Or whatever it's called when you date someone who's 5 years younger than you.
God, my brain needs to shut up.
