Author's Note:
What follows is a work of fiction. It does contain a minor and man/man sex - if this is not your taste, or if it's illegal to read such material in your area of the world safely browse away.
The characters exists in a fictional world where many of the concerns that are part of our normal daily life do not exist. Keep this in mind while reading this and always mind your own safety and health.
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6
Eric looked around the dressing room at his competitors for a spot on the swim team. Most had changed into their swimming gear and sat down on the bench, trying hard not to look at the others. All boys were a bit nervous – each one was eager to get a spot on the team and knew the competition would be tough and chances slim.
Eric didn't fancy his own chances. Almost all of the guys showed physical proof of swimming as the primary means of exercise. He tried to stay calm and keep his breathing deep and slow. He was a good swimmer and he would try the very best he could. If that was not good enough to make it on the team, that was fine. He would simply try again next year and keep on exercising in the meantime.
He had briefly questioned his motives for joining the swim team. Was it because of Justin or because he wanted to swim? He quickly came to the realisation that it was because of neither. He sure as hell wanted to swim and being on the same team as Justin was a bonus, but it was about something else.
Up to this point in his life Eric has never lived anywhere longer than a year and half at best. He never got the chance to really join in on the life that the other kids lived. Sometimes language was a barrier but not always. But if you wanted to join a team and you knew you'd be gone before the end of the season it was hard. Most teams didn't want nomads on their teams. It upsets the team balance and what if you turned out to be the key performer? You'd know that your team takes a hit when you leave.
But now, in this new town, he could join a team. His parents had `settled down' and in the longer conversations they had – all three of them – it had been obvious that they wanted Eric to have a regular time in college. Joining the swim team, simply because he loved swimming and was good at it, was an important way for Eric to make the permanence of this place feel real.
The door to the swimming pool opened and Chris, the team captain walked in. He was still wet and his black hair hung down in strands across his face. He looked very comfortable and Eric admired his physique for a few seconds. The white team speedo obscured in such a way that it emphasized all the more and it was a hot sight.
Eric snapped out of it and focussed on the boy, not the body.
"Good afternoon all," Chris said, looking around slowly at each and every one of the applicants. "I'm Chris Hemmings and if you make it on the team today, I'll be your team captain for this year."
Some of the applicants mumbled a `hi' in return but most just kept their silence.
"Last year we had a good season, but we lost four members halfway during the season – three moved away and one had an injury, he is back on the team now and doing well. But as you can see, we didn't end the season in the same way we started it. This year, we intend to make up for that," Chris had a pleasant way of talking to the group.
He was passionate but not overly so and his last statement didn't hold any of the threatening tones that most of those claims took on.
"That means, quite simply," Chris continued as he walked around the dressing room in just the small speedo "we'll be selecting the best to join our team, the ones that we believe will help us win and set a few new records."
He looked at Eric for a few seconds before moving his gaze further. Eric felt a flutter in his stomach that was all nerves. He couldn't help but interpret that gaze as meaning `and you're certainly not good enough'. He tried telling himself that was nonsense, Chris hadn't been there when he swam for coach Riley so he did not have any idea about his skill. Even when Eric observed that Chris took the time to look at each and every one of them, he still couldn't bring his nerves to calm down
"Now there are three spots on the team and there are eleven of you," Chris continued. "It doesn't take a straight A in math to know that eight of you will be disappointed today. I'm sorry for that but it cannot be helped. Know though that Riley is a tough coach but about as upfront as they come. If you're here he is convinced you have some serious ability.
"So, even if you don't make it today, don't think you're a bad swimmer. It just means that today three others are better."
Chris was silent for a minute and the boys looked at him. Eric found himself strangely uplifted by the little speech and was slightly less nervous.
"For try outs, in a minute we'll go out there in two teams. There are six lanes in the pool so the first team will be six and the second team will be five man strong," Chris explained.
"For the first bit it's simply speed and form. You'll race and try to make the fastest time while maintaining the best possible form in your strokes. It will probably be butterfly, back, breast and freestyle, but maybe coach will mix things up. Now, it's important to be fast and ending last is not good for your chances to make it to the team, but that's not all. We want to see your technique as well.
"Then it's simple underwater. Try to swim as far underwater as you can. Simple huh?"
Chris acknowledged the grunts of agreement and continued.
"Last it's what I personally call coach Riley's endurance special. It's basically a repeated medley that you will do for as many times as you can.
"The trick to his part is very simple: keep going. You'll start a medley, one lane for each stroke. So butterfly, back, breast and freestyle, butterfly, back, breast and freestyle until you are absolutely exhausted or take too long to finish a set. Try to make at least five complete sets," Chris added with a mocking smile.
"You're joking," a black haired boy on the other side of the dressing room said.
"That's what we thought when the coach introduced it, but nope, he is serious. He loves it."
Eric's earlier abated nervousness had returned in full strength. This was not going to be fun or nice, it was going to be hard and he was going to fail utterly. No swim team for him.
"Any questions?" Chris asked.
"Yeah," somebody else said. "When will we know if we made it."
"Today," Chris replied. "You'll hear before you leave the pool area."
"Cool," came back and Chris turned a full circle.
"No more questions?"
Nobody spoke.
"Okay, let's do this then. As said, just do the best you can and you can be proud of yourself. Hop in the shower and then, let's go."
He walked towards the door and went through. Quickly the eleven boys scuttled to their feet and filed into the shower area. A quick rinse to get their bodies wet and then they moved towards the pool area.
They already knew it was fairly large and also that there were a lot of seats for spectators. What they didn't know was that it was filled up.
After last year's great but unfortunate season the swim team had a huge following in the student body. Add to that the obvious pleasure many girls (and guys) got from watching well-built boys in little clothing competing and it all resulted in a filled up tribune. As the applicants entered there was a lot of cheering and shouting and whistling.
Eric focussed on the water in the pool. It wasn't completely still, but it was already calming down as all swimmers had left the water. Eric felt the calmness of the water pour into him and his fluttering stomach came to a rest. He looked around at the audience that was cheering at them. He couldn't see his father amongst the audience but he didn't have enough time to search.
He saw the seven members of the swim team standing on one side of the pool and he couldn't help but notice how hot they looked. But even though all swimmers were exquisite to watch, Justin was by far the most beautiful. His long slender legs, the toned upper body, the now wet blond hair that hung down his face, the glowing smile of pearly whites. Eric quickly averted his eyes but got the quick encouraging smile and wink Justin flashed him. He was grateful for that but he refocused.
As Eric was eighth in line when coming outside, he would have to wait for his turn. He would take the opportunity to check out his competition. Coach Riley walked over to the contestants.
"Good afternoon guys," he said. "Glad you could make it. Chris told you what was expected right?"
They nodded.
"Well, in that case, line up and get ready for your butterflies. I want a hundred meters of butterfly, fast."
Eric looked at the tightly clad bums of the six swimmers that took up position near the pool side. It was a pleasant sight but his mind didn't wander anymore. He focussed and he started to notice the small details about his fellow swimmers that gave him hints about their ability. By the side the swim team started moving slowly along the poolside so they could keep the swimmers in sight. Coach Riley walked to the halfway point on the other side and was joined by Chris, who had a whistle on a cord around his neck.
He lifted the whistle to his mouth and the audience quieted down as the first soft whistle sound rang around the pool.
"On your marks!" Chris shouted.
The ear-splitting sound of the whistle resounded through the pool area and a split second later six swimmers hit the water. The cheering returned and Eric watched as the six swimmers crossed the pool at high speed, Eric wasn't an expert but even he could see that two of them didn't have a very good technique and were crossing the pool on sheer muscle strength.
They reached the other side with minimal differences in time and most of them made a smooth turn. But, a hundred meters is quite a distance for the butterfly stroke and the swimmers moved apart.
As they headed back Eric caught side of Justin as he moved along the pool with the swimmers and for a few seconds he couldn't help be mesmerized. As the boy moved his beauty was augmented by his grace and as Eric watched him side step along the pool he lost himself in the stare.
He snapped out of it and then he noticed something that was in some ways, an even more pleasant sight than Justin. On the fourth row, halfway along the pool, his father and mother sat. They were watching the swimmers and when his father turned to say something to his mother he saw his son looking. He waved and smiled a broad smile. Eric waved back, glad they were here, glad he had seen them. It was the most soothing and powerful image he could have seen and when he looked back at the pool, his mind was in the water. It wouldn't leave the water until after the try outs.
The whistle sounded and Eric jumped forward. He stretched his body and he felt his hands penetrate the water surface, swiftly followed by his head, shoulders, chest, stomach, bum, legs and feet. He shot forward in the water and starting making his strokes. Up, circle, down in the water. He botched the first few strokes and he concentrated. He got his rhythm and when he came up for a good gulp of air, he saw nobody ahead of him.
He did his best to make a good time and keep his swim strokes technically sound, only concentrating on the swimming. The sounds of the cheering audience, the penetrating gaze of coach Riley and Chris – he didn't notice it. All that mattered was swimming and gliding through the water.
He loved water, he loved swimming and he was happy as a fish. He reached the other side, made a swift turn and headed back. His arms were getting tired and he focussed on his breathing and technique.
He kept focussing on making his strokes and did not worry about his speed. He would do the best he could and that would be it. Worrying about more would only make him botch up or do something stupid. The water slid past his body and he slightly increased his speed. He had reserves of strength left and started to use them.
On the bench, in the audience, his parents were watching in rapture. Their son was swimming with a sheer elegance and apparent effortlessness that was wonderful to watch but even more made their hearts swell up in pride.
"He's really good at it," Tom said to Janice, wonder sounding through in his voice.
"Of course he is," she said, "What did you think?"
"No, no, that's not what I meant," Tom added, not taking his eyes of the nimble shape of his son making his way in second place. "I mean I know he is good at it, but it's just, seeing him makes me realize just how good he is."
Janice smiled and squeezed the hand of her husband and then jumped up to shout and cheer when her son touched the side.
When Eric climbed out of the pool, water flowing down his body, the muscles in his back moving as he pushed himself out, the ass cheeks flexing underneath the thin fabric of the blue speedo, Justin looked with pleasure. He had done really well there and that was good, the differences between the swimmer were relatively small and apart from a bad start Eric had simply focussed and beaten all .
Justin looked behind him and found his Master sitting on the bench, Michael sitting next to him. He got a nod of approval and turned back to look at the potential candidates. He caught part of the conversation of two girls behind him and smiled.
"Really," one of the girls said. "It's just not fair. That guy is just way too handsome, wouldn't mind having a nice weekend with him. I'm willing to bet a tenner he is as queer as they come."
Eric was still catching his breath when coach Riley came to them.
"Well done all, that was quite good," he told the boys. "I've seen some good swimming and some good times.
"Next up is the underwater swim, it's easy. The first one jumps in and swims as far as he can underwater. Once he comes up, the next one jumps in the lane next to him and so on. Waiting too long to jump in is not something I enjoy, I want to see smooth serial starts from one to eleven. Keep me happy."
The boys nodded and they started moving towards the pool side. Seconds later the first one jumped in, which Eric thought was both a bit nasty and a good tactic. The second team was still recuperating and the first team had a longer period of rest. By forcing a swift start he made the chances for the last five smaller to perform well.
Eric forced his breathing to relax and he walked slowly to the lane he intended to use. The first couple of swims had not been that hard, it was fast, but he was able to swim more and longer and harder so he was not exhausted. I'm just warmed up,' he told himself. Perfect state to do some underwater peddling."
"Alright, you saw how it is done, now do the same, only better," the coach said with a half-smile.
`Better?' Eric thought, casting a glance at the six who were sitting on the floor trying to catch their breath. They had started out alright, swimming over, turning back and finishing a first medley. All of them completed three sets, but when they came back for the fourth time, the first one had to stop during the butterfly, two stopped during backstroke and two more stopped during freestyle. Only one had managed to finish a fifth run but stopped when he reached the final side on that one. Two of the swim team members pulled him out.
He got a huge applause from the spectators.
"Okeydokey, get in position," the coach said when none of the boys responded and started to walk away.
"Coach," Eric called after him and ran the four steps to the coach.
"Yeah?"
"This is about endurance right, I mean, the goal is not to reach the other side of the pool as fast as you can?"
The coach looked at him with slightly squinted eyes, they travelled up and down his entire body and Eric felt very exposed suddenly.
"Did Chris tell you to swim as fast as you can in this one?" the coach asked in return.
"No coach, he didn't," Eric said.
"Chris is a very careful boy and very accurate when it comes to things like that, if you're certain he didn't say that, I guess he had his reasons," Riley smiled at Eric as he said that. "Good luck kid."
Eric stood there, not really sure what to do. The coach hadn't really answered him, but he was quite sure Chris had not said they should be as fast as possible, just not too slow. But what if he was wrong?
If he went for speed, he would lose out on endurance. If he went for endurance, he would lose out on speed. Eric walked to the first free lane and was happy to see it was a the second one on the left. He bent forward, flexed his muscles and waited for the whistle.
He was about to die, he was sure about that. His entire body was in flames and his muscles ached. He had lost count of his sets, he could only focus on the stroke he was making. Forward, ever forward.
He had to do good, he had to make his parents proud. He had to make Justin proud. He had to get on the team. He needed to belong.
He touched the side, turned and somehow managed to start another set. He dove in and came up, fifty meters of butterfly stroke ahead of him.
Erik didn't notice that the entire pool area was silent and was watching his performance with abated breath. He didn't realize he was the only one left in the swimming pool and though he was surely the slowest of the eleven, he was the only one in his group to finish five sets. In fact, he just started his eighth set and everybody just stared. He had picked the right tactic. Slow and steady won this race.
"He is fucking amazing," Chris said to the coach.
Riley nodded. "He finished that last set on sheer willpower but his body is about to give up. Justin, Rob – make sure you are there to get him. I don't want him to panic."
Coach Riley was a tough coach and in the coming months the swim team would learn just how tough. But he was also a great coach that got to know his swimmers and their abilities very well. When he saw the new kid finish his seventh medley he also saw that he was not going to finish this next lane.
Justin and Rob jumped in and with little effort came up behind Eric.
Erik came two thirds. His arms and legs just gave up and he slowed to a stop. His muscles didn't react at all.
Immediately Justin dove under him, came up and as Rob turned him around, Justin grabbed a hold of him. Held tightly by Justin and with Rob swimming next to him they got him to the side of the pool. When he was sitting on the side the audience truly gave a thunderous applause. Eric hardly noticed it as he was regaining some kind of control over his body. A warm blanket was draped over his shoulders.
Eric looked at Justin still in the pool below him.
"Thanks," he said.
"You earned it," Justin said.
"I would have been able to get out though," Eric countered.
"We know, but coach Riley decided you had done enough," Rob simply stated.
Coach Riley was walking over, Chris in tow and it wasn't until this moment that Eric realized that he was the last one. The other swimmers had stopped before him.
"How many did I do?" he asked, feeling both tired and vulnerable.
"Seven," Chris said, his face beaming with joy.
The coach nodded.
"You did good kid, very good. Now huddle over there with the others and allow us to pick our three," coach waved Eric away.
Tired but proud he got up and walked over to where the other ten were. They were standing closely together and even though they congratulated Eric on his great effort, he noticed that not all of the congratulations were heartfelt. Some obviously disliked him for the way this would affect their chances to join the team.
One of the bigger guys, Eric didn't know his name, couldn't resist. "Your speed sucked though."
"It wasn't about speed," one of the other guys said. "At least, I don't think it was. Didn't realize that in time myself."
"It was. We're swimming for speed," the big one retorted.
Eric shrugged, he wasn't so sure, but he wasn't going to argue the point. They would know soon enough.
He looked at his parent's faces among the spectators. They were glowing and his mother gave him two thumbs up. He smiled at them.
"Ignore him," a cute kid with black hair said.
It was only fleetingly but Eric was sure he felt a hand caress his ass and a small twitch in his groin responded.
"Thanks," he smiled at the black haired boy.
"You're welcome," the boy replied smiling back.
It was a cute kid indeed, he had a wiry body with a definite v-shape in his upper torso and lines that framed his abdomen from his hip bones. He had dark brown eyes and in the bulge in his speedo the outline of his cock was clearly visible.
The audience quieted down and Eric looked at coach Riley who stood in front of the spectators.
"Well, as I said earlier we need three new team members and we intend to have the best season ever this year!"
The audience roared their approval.
"What we've seen so far is quite impressive and I must say, I'm pleased as we're spoiled for choice," the coach continued. "But three we can have and three it is, so..."
Chris moved away from the team, towards the eleven recruits and let his gaze wander over all of them. When he was close he fixed his eyes on the black haired cutie standing next to Eric and extended his hand.
The boy looked stunned for a second and then an ear splitting smile appeared on his face.
"Congratulations, you're on the team," Chris said and shook his hand. "Let's go."
"John Hines, number 8!" coach Riley shouted.
With a happy look over his shoulder he followed Chris towards the team accompanied by an applause from the audience. Eric took a moment to look at the faces of the school kids and adults sitting there and he saw quite a few faces with barely disguised lust looking at the wiry kid.
"John, well done. You have excellent form and great speed so you were an easy choice. You're not the fastest yet but with some training you're likely to be one of our fastest swimmers," the coach paraphrased the motivation for picking him.
He shook the kids hand and turned back to the audience once more.
"Alright, number two."
Another one of the swimmers in the swim team came forward and his goal was obvious. He walked straight to the guy in the back with the shoulder long, brown hair.
"You've made it Peter, well done mate!" he exclaimed as they shook hands.
"Awesome!" the guy replied.
Obviously they were friends and they were happy to make it on the team.
"Peter Meadows, our new number nine!"
He too got an exuberant applause and cheering choir as he joined his now-team mates. Nine were left and all of them were nervous.
Eric was convinced he hadn't made the team. Three of the guys had been a lot faster and one of them had a nearly perfect form. He had done better than Peter, or so he had thought.
"Now, before I put the rest out of their misery," coach Riley said loud, the audience briefly laughed, "just a few serious words.
"It's easy to say that you are all good, even though you might not be picked for the team. It's easy to say that it's important that you tried and you should be proud of yourself. But let's be honest, you didn't come out here in your swimsuit just to try – you want on the team. So, it's going to sting if you're not on there, and I understand that.
"But once that sting is gone, don't stop swimming. You're all good swimmers and even though you cannot swim for the school this year, you sure as hell can swim for yourself," it was nice of the coach to say that.
Eric felt the sting already and he knew it would take a few weeks to fade but the advice was honest and sound.
"So," he continued looking at the audience on the benches. "You're a great bunch of screamers and noise makers, but when, in a minute, the eight who didn't make it leave the pool area, I want you to outdo yourself. They sure as hell deserve it. " He took the time to survey the seats from left to right, making eye contact here and there to impart his message on the crowd. Eric was impressed by the coach.
"Alrighty, number ten, go get him Justin," he said.
Justin walked towards the group and Eric felt even worse. Of course it was Justin, but damn he wanted Justin to come for him. Looking behind the boy he saw nearly the entire audience mesmerized by the beauty of the boy. The small speedos that left the top of his buttocks unclothed and was kept in place by hanging on the base of his dick (or so it seemed to Eric) only enhanced the view. And people watched.
Because he was watching the audience and not Justin, he didn't notice it until Justin was right in front of him.
"Earth to Eric," he joked.
With a shock Eric was pulled back from his mindful wanderings.
"I'm on the team?" he was surprised.
"Yup, you definitely are," Justin said and shook his hand.
Electric shocks travelled through Eric's arm into his body and caused every part of him to tingle.
"Go, join them," Justin said and Eric did.
While he walked the few meters to the swim team, his swim team the audience gave him their congratulations and he felt like he was going to cry. He didn't but it would have felt good. His father and mother were clapping their hands raw and his father shouted something Eric couldn't hear, but he knew it was: "I'm proud of you".
Behind him Justin took the time to shake the hands of the other eight applicants, thank them for their effort and wishing them good luck.
When they left the pool area the audience heeded the command of coach Riley and gave them a loud goodbye.