"Quiet down, you maniacs," Coach yelled. When the swimmers were marginally quieter he continued. "I notice some of you not getting faster on the longer sets. You doing okay on the sprints, but you getting winded on the hundreds. What's wrong? You fat or something?"

Some of the swimmers chuckled at the coach's words, uttered in his heavy accent.

"This not funny!" he bellowed. "Swim meets not all sprints! You not all swimming fifties at sections, you know!" He glared from his place, and everyone did their best not to laugh, or even smile. "Everyone out and behind the blocks, in order from fastest to slowest, now!"

Everyone groaned as they hoisted themselves out and arranged themselves behind the blocks, knowing what was coming. Francie took her place at the front of her lane, kicking her legs and shaking her arms as she breathed deeply, adjusting her goggles.

"You leave on the up, circle swim, 100s as fast as you can. When you finish, you get out and go over to Braniac over there--" he motioned over to where Chester sat on the bleachers "--and give him you time."

Francie left on the up, enjoying the feeling of slicing through the water, giving herself a nice, long streamline. She finished her four laps and hopped out, first in line to give Chester her time.

"Good time, Tiger," Chester praised as he entered it next to her name.

"Thanks," Francie responded, chest still heaving for air. By the time she was finished, a line was forming behind her as the others lined up to give Chester their times.

Francie walked back around the pool to her lane, but Coach shook his head when she prepared to dive back in, so she sat on the block instead.

After everyone had returned, Coach spoke again. "Now do it again, but take off at least a second, preferably two. Leaving on the up!"

Everyone groaned again, asking why he couldn't have told them that's what they were going to do from the beginning?

"If I tell you from the beginning, then you all sandbag on the first hundred and go slow on purpose," he responded with a grin. "I know how you little brains work. Now get going!"

So everyone lined up again, and Francie mentally prepared herself to try to swim even faster, to streamline even longer off each turn and possibly shave some time off what she thought was her best, her fastest 100.

She gave Coach the closest thing she could to a glare as she got up on the block, and he glared back, with a little smile. Coach loved her, she knew that. Under his very gruff exterior was a very gentle teddy bear. He'd known her since she was a little girl, and Francie was one of his very favorite swimmers, she knew that as well.

She dove off and really pushed, dolphin kicking into her streamline, really working her hips and tucking her chin into her neck, then pulling as much water as she could with each arm motion. Free style wasn't her stroke, but that didn't mean she couldn't do better. She barreled into each turn, working them as hard as she could, concentrating on every aspect of her technique. She was gratified to see that she came into the wall two full seconds earlier than on her earlier 100, completely winded and barely able to pull herself out of the water.

Coach gave her a look of approval as she staggered over to Chester, and that meant more to her than any words of approval.

"Well done, Francie, wow," Chester said when she got to the table. He reached out and rubbed her arm.

"Thanks," she answered, giving him a smile. "I'm dying right now, though. Seeing spots and everything."

"I think the correct phrase is 'you left it all in the pool,'" Chester responded. "You're really good, it's so fun to watch you, you know?" His gaze lingered on hers, pale eyes glowing as he smiled back, making her feel warm.

"Come on, guys, you're holding up the line," someone called. "You can make goo-goo eyes at each other later." There was good natured laughter.

Francie rolled her eyes at Chester and headed back to the pool.

"So?" Coach called to Chester after he'd input everyone's second times. "How did they do?"

Chester gave Coach a thumbs up. "Everyone took time off," he called.

"Wonderful!" Coach gave back a thumbs up. "Again!"

More groans from the team.

"Calm down, you maniacs," Coach responded. "You don't have to take time off anymore, just try to maintain you second time."

This continued for the rest of practice, with the team doing sprint 100s, getting out and giving Chester their times, then returning to the pool to do it again. They were exhausted by the end of practice, and some of them tried to swim over to the side to use the ladder to get out of the water instead of just getting out in their lanes.

"Hey!" Coach called the first time someone attempted this. "We don't do that, do we? Only beginners use the ladder! Go back and get out like a real swimmer, I don't care how long it takes!"

More groaning.

Francie smiled as she hoisted herself out of her lane on arms that felt like spaghetti noodles. She waved to Chester that she'd see him out front after she showered so they could walk to her house together. He was coming over for dinner. But after she got dressed, she had a text from him.

Can you come out to the pool, please? I have a bit of a problem.

Oh no.

When she walked back out through the locker room to the pool, she saw him, all packed up, but still sitting in his wheel chair, looking perplexed and angry.

"What's wrong?" Francie asked as she walked over to him. "My mom's expecting us pretty soon. I mean, I think she's just ordering Chinese, so it's no big deal, but still--"

Chester licked his lips and looked up at her. "They're gone," he said simply.

"What are gone?"

"My crutches."

Francie just stared at him. "That's impossible. Where would they go?"

Chester made a face at her. "They wouldn't go anywhere, Francie. That's what I'm saying. Someone took them."

"What?" Francie looked around, bending over to look under the bleachers. "No one would do that, though. Who would do that?"

"You'd be surprised," Chester said grimly. "Believe me, Francie, I've looked everywhere. They're not here. Sometime during all the lining up and taking down everyone's times and all that, someone on the team took them and hid them."

OMG.

"I used to just leave them against the wall over there when I got in the wheelchair, but I didn't want them to be in anyone's way when they came out of the locker room, so I started laying them across my lap and bringing them with me. Then I'd just set them right there, on the bleachers, while I did my thing. And now they're not there," Chester concluded.

Francie quickly walked up and down the bleachers to make sure someone hadn't just moved them, but they were nowhere to be found.

"Could you please tell your mother we're going to be late?" Chester asked. "At least that won't be on my mind."

Francie nodded and sent her mother a text telling her not to wait for them before taking a quick walk around the pool area.

No crutches.

"I can't believe anyone would do anything so petty, so stupid, so--so--"

"Mean?" Chester supplied.

"Yes," Francie responded. "I mean, why? What's the point?"

"I'm sure it's something to do with you and me," Chester said, taking a deep breath.

Francie pulled out her phone and started to scroll.

"What are you doing?" Chester asked.

"I'm calling Dr. Alvarez," she answered.

"No, please don't do that, this is embarrassing enough. The fewer people who know about it, the better."

"Embarrassing? How is it embarrassing? You haven't done anything wrong!" Francie was incensed.

"Of course it's embarrassing!" Chester threw back at her. "Can you imagine how it feels that someone can take away your ability to move, Francie? I mean, if I'm not careful, I might wet my pants, now, do you understand that? I'm not super great with the wheelchair, so yeah, I might not make it to the bathroom in time, do you know how that feels?"

Francie flinched at the tone of his voice.

"Oh god, Francie, I'm sorry I yelled at you," Chester said, his voice softening. "I'm sorry, but I thought I'd left this kind of shit behind in junior high, you know? And it starts happening again." He sighed.

"No, please don't apologize." Francie looked around. "It's going to start getting dark in here soon. I'd better go and find the lights to this place, at least, you know?"

Chester nodded. "They might have hidden them in the locker room and just taken them home, though. Then it wouldn't matter. We could search all night and not find them." He sounded exhausted. "I have extras at home, but then I'd have to tell my mom, and I really don't want to."

Francie looked at his face. "Come on, Chester, we're not there yet."

She saw a panel on the far wall, on the other side of the diving pool. "I think those are the lights." She began walking over. "Let's get this place lit up, and really look before we start thinking about telling your mom, okay?" she called over her shoulder.

As she was walking past the diving pool, she saw that the cover to the pool was bunched up on one end, which was strange, because no one had touched it in weeks, as far as she knew. On a hunch, she pulled it back and looked under it.

"Chester! I think I found your crutches!" she called.

He quickly rolled over in the wheelchair. By the time he got there, she'd pulled the cover aside even more, and could definitely see his crutches on the bottom of the diving pool. They were lying a few feet apart.

"What an absolutely shitty thing to do," Francie fumed. "I'm so mad I could just kill someone."

"Welcome to my world," Chester said wryly. He reached out to pat Francie's waist, but because he was sitting in the wheelchair his aim was a little off, and he ended up patting her curvy bottom instead.

"Whoops, I'm so sorry," he said, removing his hand immediately.

"It's okay, I'm not," Francie responded, bumping his shoulder with her hip as she smiled.

Chester smiled back.

"So, I guess we have to find a custodian to get them, huh?" he said dourly.

"What? No," Francie said, patting his shoulder reassuringly. "That can't be more than twelve feet deep. I can dive that deep from the deck, no problem, just let me go get my suit on real quick, mm kay?"

"Really?"

"Really truly. Back in a sec."

Francie was as good as her word as was back within seconds in her still damp suit, cap and goggles on. She dove off the side, straight to the bottom, and retrieved both crutches, kicking back to the top holding both against her body.

"See? No problem," she told him with a bright smile.

"My hero," Chester said from the side of the pool.

"Are they ruined from being in the water?" Francie asked as she handed them up.

"They shouldn't be," he answered. "I mean, I use them in the rain and stuff."

"I'll go get changed while you dry them off with my towel," Francie suggested.

Chester nodded.

And later, while they were walking to Francie's house, Francie said, "You know, we do have to tell Coach. I mean, whoever did it has to be punished, right?"

And Chester, who really just wanted to forget it, found it touching that Francie cared so much, thought for a few moments, and finally nodded, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek after.