A bad start

"Why." Maria asked nonchalantly, being rivals in the same team was nothing new to her, she knew this thing very well.  

"Taking interest in other's business, are we." Michael said teasing her and she just rolled her eyes at his statement, "Never mind." she focused on the pool in front again. 

"It's always been Noah to get the chances in these competitions, he has already won two gold and one bronze medals for the Youth Olympics. It's natural that they don't get along well. After Noah's victory, they never held celebrations, even their coach tries to keep them apart, he knows gathering them in one place for a thing like celebration can only bring trouble." he chuckled slightly. 

"Then what about your team, you guys don’t play in the nationals as a team altogether, but you are still way too close." she asked getting curious.  

"For us, it's based on our own skills, if you are good then you will be chosen for the nationals, different players from different teams are chosen and a new team for the nationals is made and it is possible that all the team members could be chosen from one single team." he explained, "so, we are naturally close to each other, instead we rely on each other a lot." 

"Hmmmmmmm" she hummed understanding the situation.  

"So how many medals you have got hmm, they all call you the ace of the team." she again asked as she has heard him being called as the ace in the lunch table multiple times.  

"Let's focus on Noah for today." he said averting his concentration towards the pool as if he did not want to answer the question.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." Suddenly a rush of voice was heard as soon as participants came out and went to their positions.  

Maria blocked her ears with her hands. "Damn it, why are these people being so loud." she exclaimed with annoyance. But as soon as she said that Michael's whole team stood up and started to shout as well. "NOAH, NOAH, NOAH." she just dumbfoundedly looked at them. They were sure a bunch of crackheads, cheerful yet lovely. 

She ignored the cheers or tried her best to ignore them and focused at front and the announcer started introducing every participant along with their previous highest records.

Noah had a record of 4:59:17, while there was another contestant Jacob Hernandez with nearly the same record.

Michael was shocked. "Crap, Crap, Crap, Crap." he kept uttering the exact word anxiously.

"What happened?" Maria asked frowning her eyebrows.

"I have heard about this person, he is a fresher but very skilled at swimming and you know what, his father used to be a former Olympic gold medalist." Michael was pulling his hair while she pursed her lips to suppress her laughter as he was looking really very funny. 

"So, what if he has the same record and his father is a former gold medalist, isn't it the present that matters the most and the present can be taken by any one of these contestants." she shrugged her shoulders as if she was not interested at all but in reality, she was. Never in her life she cannot be interested in swimming.  

"How can you say that when you are here to cheer for Noah." he said squinting his eyes at her.  

Maria gave him a look which said 'you were the one who dragged me here' and he closed the shutter of his mouth and concentrated on the race. 

Now all the contestants were positioned on their respective small elevated starting blocks. "On your marks... off."  A whistle was heard.  

All the participants jumped into the water and started the butterfly race, moving their hands symmetrically with the admirable dolphin kicks. Maria smiled, rejoicing the moment. It has been quite a while she saw someone swimming and it felt somewhat good to her. 

Noah had a bad start and was in the last due to the weak dive, because of this new competitor in the field he was nervous, Jacob was surely a champ and that too a family champ, his family had many of the swimming champions that it is safe to say that swimming was in their blood and genes. Noah had heard about all of these and although he did not show any nervousness to anyone but his performance was affected due to the upbuilt of nervousness at the moment.  

People were still cheering for their favorites and fellows, he heard his name being called loudly and started to surpass other players one by one and now he was 2nd in the line.  

The announcer was stating all the small details perfectly, and Maria was too concentrated on the race.  

"NOAH YOU CAN DO THIS, COME ON." Michael suddenly said in a loud voice, making Maria startled and she reflexively hit him on the nose.  

"Ouchhhhh..." he groaned, making her widen her eyes.   

"Mars I know you hate me but you did not have to hit my nose that bad." he said still groaning.  

"I... I am sorry." Maria quickly apologized for her mistake, if she had put more force, she might have a broken his nose and that thought just gave shivers down her spine.  

"Oh, ho ho ho, my great warrior, you are apologizing. No great master it was my mistake, how can a great man like you make any mistake. I am the one who should be sorry." now Michael was trying to be sarcastic with her.  

Maria punched him lightly in the stomach. "Be thankful that I did not put much force or you would surely have a broken nose, bleeding from both nostrils." she said thinking about the possibility again.

He clutched his stomach and groaned again. "I might have done some very bad things in my past life that I have to endure this torture." he let a fake cry out.

"Shut up and Concentrate or else I will make sure you don't only have a broken nose but also broken ribs as well." she glared at him and he just closed his mouth to save his dear life.