Boo was very excited, she had been picked to swim for her school and the gala was to be held this afternoon.
As she looked at her clock, it was 5:15 in the morning, no doubt Mommy would be sleeping. Boo was a little bit worried about her daddy, he had dumped his last girlfriend recently and he actually seemed less grumpy than usual. This was not necessarily a good sign. Daddy had also changed his car again, the bright red italian thing had gone and a much more normal and far duller car had taken its place on the driveway.
Boo turned over in her bed and stared straight into the huge green eyes of her dragon.
Boo jumped a little, then smiled, then panicked slightly, she had not got any snacks handy.
‘I brought you a snack’, her dragon smiled his slightly scary smile and passed her a rather crumpled packet of Roast Chicken crisps.
‘Erm, thank you Dragon’, she looked at the state of the packet – it looked like it had been on a rather large adventure all of its own. She put it on he bedside table.
‘Dragon, tonight I’m swimming for my school at the gala, I’m really excited and scared’. Boo was almost jumping up and down on her bed.
‘Well, you need some rest’, the dragon frowned, ‘and maybe some practise too’. He smiled again. ‘Mind you, I have seen you swim and you are very fast, so you should be fine’. He moved his wings in a free-style way imitating her swimming style and knocked several things off her bedside table.
‘Oops’
‘Dragon, the one thing I hate is when I am swimming backstroke, I cannot judge when I am near to the end of the pool, I am afraid that I will either bash my hand or turn way too early and not be able to touch the wall.’
‘Hmm’, said dragon, ‘what you need is a marker, so that when you reach the end you know you are there.’
‘Or a signal, maybe ?’ Boo was thinking out loud.
‘Yes, thats it, I’ll perch up in the rafters and when you are on the last but-one stroke, I’ll wave at you.’
‘Oh yes, great idea’.
Within minutes Boo was sleeping again, dreaming of her adventures with her dragon.
‘Wake up Boo’, its the gala today ! ‘
Over breakfast Mommy again explained that as it was super busy at work, she would not be able to go to the gala, and that her Boyfriend had to visit the hospital again following a minor accident involving an errant car driver, a bicycle and some crushed sandwiches. Apparently Daddy had called and said that he would be there and hopefully he would record her races and post them on the internet.
Just before they left for school, Mommy’s boyfriend handed her a new pair of goggles ‘to make sure you can see when you zoom past everyone’. Boo smiled, but then fretted that perhaps he thought that she was a slow starter.
Boo skipped off to school with Mommy, all the way they played their usual game of kick-stone and chattered about the day. Boo explained that she was a little worried, ‘I’m not sure I like the idea of racing, I love to swim, but I am not sure I like the idea of competing.’
‘Do not worry Sweetie, just do your best, you are always a winner to us’.
A few hours later she was on the school bus heading to the swimming pool, unfortunately her arch enemy, Emma was also on the team and James, her beau was swimming for the boys. Before leaving the coach had announced that Boo, Emma, Jenny and Celia would be swimming the medley relay. Boo had the butterfly leg. While this made sense because she was the only girl able to actually swim a length of butterfly, she hated it and it meant that she would have to hand over to Emma, who if they won would get all the glory.
All too soon the gala was underway, the races progressed through a series of races that decided the finalists. Emma won her freestyle race rather easily, then Celia came a strong second in her race, putting her in the finals too. Suddenly it was time for Boo to take to the water. She looked first at the spectators and thankfully saw Daddy waving to her, then up to the rafters, where her dragon was perched rather precariously waiting to give her a signal.
Boo adjusted her goggles, adjusted her hat and waited for the signal. She got a terrible start, rather than flip backwards and gracefully carve through the water, she flopped hard onto the surface, spluttered, inhaled a mouthful of water and bashed her hand on her own head. ‘Great’, she thought, ‘not only was he right, but Daddy will be posting that on the internet, Emma will surely comment about how useless I am’.
Boo spat out the water, gritted her teeth and kicked hard, and did the only thing she could do, she swam as fast as she could. At the ten meter mark she was dead last, but by the time she had covered a little more than half a length she was in third place. She could not see her dragon yet, so she felt safe to really power her way. As they approached the end of the first length and hence half distance she was in second place and about four meters behind the leader. She looked up and Dragon waved to indicate that she should turn.
Despite a fast, graceful and perfectly timed turn, she was still in second place as the last half of the race began, but this time the distance was down to just two meters, with ten meters to go, the distance was down to mere centimetres. Boo was beginning to tire, but she wanted to win this one, with five meters to go there was no difference between them, three more strokes and she hit the wall.
The judges declared a dead heat. Boo was through to the final.
Emma looked at her with pure loathing, despite Emma winning her race easily, she had expected Boo to not get close, she knew the girls from the other school and she knew that the backstroke swimmer was very fast.
Boo looked up to the spectators, Daddy was giving the thumbs up and appeared to be trying to show her the recording of the race. Boo rolled her eyes a little. Dragon was still sitting in the rafters and he too looked happy.
Boo smiled, ‘Team Boo and Dragon’, she liked the sound of that.
Because there were only four teams for the medley relay, there were no heats, so there was no chance to practise prior to the main race. Emma was being super bossy, ‘As long as we are not too far behind, I will be able to win it for us’, she said staring at Boo.
The races passed quickly and soon enough it was time for the finals. In the freestyle final, Emma, as predicted won, but only just, it seems that there was a lot more competition now the finals were here. Celia came second in her race with Jenny third. There was no butterfly race as there were insufficient entries for the girls. James, Boo was happy to hear, came dead last in his race. While this was bad for the school, it was good for Boo because she really did not like James.
Boo was called for the Backstroke final, despite being tall for her age, she was easily the smallest swimmer, she wondered what they must feed for school dinners in the other schools. despite her reservations though, she jumped into the water adjusted her hat and her goggles and got ready. This time she hoped to make a much better start.
Boo concentrated and went over and over what she had to do in her mind. She had a plan, it was simple, good start, swim fast enough to keep everyone in sight and then really swim as fast as possible on the second length.
Boo got a great start, perhaps the best start she had ever managed, as she emerged from kick-off, she glanced left and right and could only see one person alongside her, it was her nemesis from the first round. Boo gritted her teeth, kicked at a pace that she knew she could keep up and pulled herself through the water remembering to breathe and staring at the ceiling waiting for the sign from her dragon.
As she approached the end of he length, she risked a quick glance left and right again, nothing, nobody, nada. Boo was leading. She looked up and as she did so, her dragon gave her the signal. She flipped and spun and kicked and suddenly she was heading back the way she came, the perfect turn. She once more looked left and right and still no competition, either that or she was dead last. Boo carried on, kicking, pulling, breathing, repeat, repeat, repeat. Suddenly she hit the wall and the crowd were applauding. Boo had won !
The coach helped her out of the water and handed her a big fluffy towel, ‘Well done Boo, we are just three points behind now, with just the medley relay to go’.
Boo did not really like the idea of yet another race so soon, but the warm towel helped and and mars bar that she pulled from her backpack helped to refuel her.
Jenny was swimming the backstroke leg and although not as fast as Boo, she was hopeless at Butterfly, so this made a lot of sense. Also as it was only one length, she did not have to worry about the turns. Breaststroke was down to Celia, who although not the fastest in the finals, was certainly a good enough swimmer. Then it was to be Boo and the butterfly, before Emma swam the final leg freestyle.
Jenny was in the water already, with Celia and Emma at the other end waiting to swim their legs.
Jenny made a great start, her launch was good and she travelled a long way underwater before beginning the familiar windmilling. By the end of the length she had dropped to third, but only by a second or so. Celia dived in the moment that Jenny hit the wall, he dive was not the best, ‘controlled falling’ would have been a better description. However, Jenny was a pretty strong swimmer and by the time she reached the other side, she had held onto the third place.
Boo hit the water badly, she was not quite as bad as Jenny, but her dive was not her strong point. Despite hating butterfly, though, she was able to combine the mermaid kick with the bear attack arms and she muscled her way through the water, one-two, breath, one-two, breath, one-two, breath. Boo reached the end of the length and Emma dived over her. Emma’s dive was beautiful, she had been boasting at school that her mommy had paid for diving lessons. Emma carved through the water looking left and right, breathing every third stroke.
Moments later she reached the end and was declared the winner.
Emma hopped out of the pool and began her victory dance, they had won the race, they had won the gala, they were the champions. She was expecting her team mates to hug her, but they were all surrounding Boo.
‘We won Mommy’, Boo was back at home sitting with Mommy, ‘we won because, well, lets just watch the video ?’
As they watched the first video, mommy was impressed with her turn, ‘how did you judge that turn so well Sweetie ?’
‘Oh it was a lucky guess’
Mommy smiled, she was so proud of Boo.
The second video showed just how good a start she had got, once they got into the stroke, she was already a couple of meters ahead.
Finally they reached the medley relay.
The video showed the first two legs were very even, then Boo’s slightly poor dive. Mommy smiled, Boo was the only swimmer that actually managed the full length of butterfly, all of the other swimmers were terrible, Boo carved through the water like the man from Atlantis, all the the rest nearly drowned, or cheated or simply gave up. By the time Boo handed over to Emma there was no race, Emma could have spent twenty minutes swimming the length and they would have still won.
Boo skimmed the comments.
‘Emma’s chicken impersonation was hilarious’
‘Boo shows the world how to swim the butterfly’
‘Boo wins the gala for us’
Later than evening, Boo was thanking her dragon, ‘You helped us to win, you need to be on the team’.
‘No, you were fantastic, your school would not have won without you.’
Boo tickled her dragon’s chin, ‘Thank you Dragon, you were wonderful’.
‘Do you have any snacks ? I’m feeling a bit peckish’……