Sam and Elsa enjoy a dip in the pool together

Going up against someone you have no knowledge about and on such short notice could be intimidating. It could cause you to stress and overthink things, psyching you out before the match even begins. Samantha tried to shake off the pre-match jitters by focusing on the swim. After all, this was why she was at the pool to begin with.

She stepped by the lifeguard who was pushing the seat benches aside to put together her wrestling ring and headed out to the pool. The smell of the chlorine pierced her nostrils and the small tiles on the floor felt like smooth bumpy textures on the bottom of her feet. This brought back memories of her semi-competitive days going to practice.

As she entered the wide space, she marveled at how large the place actually was. She could only guess that this was an Olympic sized pool to help the real athletes train for officially sanctioned competitions. The pool area was empty at this point and it felt like she had the whole place to herself. It started to feel like she was trespassing, but she reminded herself that she had her gym pass and the OK from the lifeguard on duty. Technically there was still some time before the place actually closed too. Elsa wasn’t around to do any lifeguarding at the moment though, but Samantha wouldn’t be the one in trouble for that fact.

Still, Sam didn’t want the pool worker to get in trouble for her sake. She hesitated at the edge of the pool. She wasn’t particularly a stickler for rules, but didn’t like the idea of someone else getting punished over something she did. Of course, if she waited for Elsa to come out, she’d be done with the wrestling setup and they would have to go right to the match. Sam would miss her opportunity to swim entirely.

“What’s the mettah? Can’t swim?” Elsa asked, stepping out into the pool area casually, with her hands on her hips.

“Huh? Are you done with the wrestling set up already?” Sam asked back, dismayed that she took too long consternating.

“It wasn’t a big deal, I just threw something together,” Elsa shrugged, rubbing the back of her neck. “I mean, I think it will work, I hed an idea for this sort of set up for a while now…”

“So, I guess we should go do that now?” Sam asked, already making to return to the change room.

“Hold on, you said you wanted to do some swimming, yeah?” Elsa replied, gesturing to the water. “Go and get your togs wet!”

“You don’t mind waiting?” Sam asked hopefully.

“Nah, go on then,” Elsa smiled.

With childlike glee, Sam plunged into the water with a cannonball dive. It was a shock of cold as soon as she penetrated the water, but her body temperature soon acclimated and she started moving around.

“Nice form,” Elsa noted, watching like a doting parent.

Sam had only been doggy paddling to get a feel for the water and her balance in it, so knew the Aussie was giving her a playful jab. This only made her self conscious about swimming in front of the lifeguard and wanted to prove she was no novice. She took a breath and dove in, kicking her legs hard to push her forward. She took to freestyle swimming, like the way she used to back in high school. Half a minute later she was at the lane divider that split the pool in half. She flipped over, spinning herself around to kick off the border and return to the edge of the pool.

She raced back, kicking out a froth of water and plunging her arms in and out rhythmically. Soon, she was touching the edge, catching her breath. She panted and looked up at Elsa who was watching the whole time.

“Not bad…” Elsa commended with mild praise.

“Did you want to show me how it’s done?” Sam teased.

“Well,” Elsa said, slowly looking around the pool, “I guess it’s only fair we both go for a swim. Wouldn’t want to have any complaints about unfair advantages in our match!”

The brunette dove in like a torpedo and stayed underwater for a good ten seconds before rising up to stroke. She sped to the divider in a fraction of the time Sam had taken. Less than a minute later, she was back on the edge of the pool with the raven haired amateur, hardly out of breath at all. Sam could feel the intimidation building, having to go against a well tuned athlete like this. She had the stamina to make a long match easily lean towards her favor.

“Are you done already?” Elsa asked, noticing that Sam hadn’t moved since she dove in.

“Uh… no, just scoping out my competition,” Sam replied nervously. She didn’t want to admit that she was in over her head and tip off her upcoming opponent.

Elsa grinned. “So, you’re competitive, huh?” she mused. “Care to wager on a race?”

Sam’s first instinct was to vehemently shake her head and shoot down the idea. There was no way she was beating this woman in a swimming race. She thought about it though. If she took a loss in this race, but conserved her energy while Elsa used up hers, she would have an advantage in their wrestling match.

The gym member narrowed her eyes and gave Elsa a sidelong glance. “What kind of wager?” she asked.

“How about the winnah gets to pick a stipulation for our wrestling metch?” she suggested. “Like… if I win… we wrestle naked!”

Sam perked her eyebrow.

“Well, this is my only swimsuit and I need it for work,” the brunette explained. “I don’t want it ripped up when we try to strip each other for points!”

Samantha nodded at the logic.

“So, what would your stipulation be?”

Sam gave the question some thought. There was no chance she was winning, so it wouldn’t matter, but she didn’t want to make it obvious she was tanking the swim off. In fact, she was sure Elsa knew her win was inevitable. “Now wait a sec, I didn’t agree to a race yet,” she protested. “There’s no way I could beat you, you’re obviously a better swimmer!”

Elsa smirked. “Alright… for the race, I’ll do backstroke and you can do freestyle!”

Swimming freestyle involves laying face down in the pool and propelling yourself with one arm after another like paddling a canoe while the backstroke is a similar technique only laying on your back. The alternate position allows the swimmer to keep their face out of the water, but limits the efficiency of their strokes, making it a slower style.