10:42.
Iris glared at the clock hanging above her in the locker room. For the past five minutes, she'd been staring at the second hand complete rotations around the circle.
She didn't know why she was stalling, or at least why she was lying to herself that she was stalling. Adams usually didn't show up until 10:45, which meant twiddling her thumbs in the locker room did absolutely nothing. Actually, all it did was risk Iris being present when Adams did show up. Meaning Iris would be in the same room as Adams as she changed into her two-piece swim suit. A situation Iris did NOT want to be in.
Still, Iris always sat on the wooden bench with chipping blue paint until just before Adams showed up. Probably out of spite, though even Iris didn't know why at this point.
Letting out a deep, exasperated groan, Iris grabbed her towel and made her way towards the little corridor leading into the pool.
Why did I ever say yes to these swim lessons… She thought as she turned the corner.
Oh well. It was something she needed to do, and not just for Alpha-9 either. Not knowing how to swim was like not knowing how to ride a bike, except swimming could potentially be life or death. MTF aside, Iris need to do this for herself. Besides, it could be worse. Adams could've just dropped her in some elementary swim lesson group with a bunch of toddlers. Instead, she had agreed to stay up later at night and do this with no one-
Iris stopped dead as she stepped out into the main pool area. Standing right in front of the doorway and next to the pool was a man that seemed to be in his late thirties. He stood in nothing but green swim trunks, with his arms crossed in front of his chest.
"Hello, commander." Foxx said, turning to Iris and waving.
"What are you doing here?!" Iris demanded, stomping towards him.
"Andrea invited me." He replied, lowering his arms.
"Why?!"
"Because you're so far behind I can't even make a joke about it."
The two of them turned to Adams as she walked down the room.
"You said I was doing fine!" Iris said, making it clear she was not ok with Adams breaking the keep this thing between us agreement.
"No, I said we'll be fine if we picked up the pace a bit." Adams rebutted. "And that was like, two weeks ago."
"But why is he here?!" Iris pointed at Foxx, who just awkwardly looked between the two women.
"To help with teaching you." Adams began. "You were supposed to be on backstrokes by now. Believe it or not, these lessons have a deadline, and if we don't start getting you swimming soon, Clef is going to take over."
Iris felt a chill run down her spine from dread. For as much as she hated Adam's teaching, she was certain Clef would've been a hundred times worse. If she was lucky, he'd just stand on the side yelling at her. If she wasn't, he would actually get in with-
Shaking her head and forcing the vomit back down her throat, Iris opened her mouth to argue, but was cut off by Foxx.
"Don't worry commander." He said, a little too happily. "I was a lifeguard and a swim teacher's assistant back in high school. I have an idea that'll get you swimming in no time."
Iris looked at Foxx, then at Adams, then at Foxx, then at Adams.
This was actually happening.
"I'm going to go get changed." Adams said.
Iris's eyes followed Adams as she entered locker room passage and rounded the corner. With Adams out of sight, she again turned back to Foxx.
"So…" Foxx started, looking Iris up and down. "Where'd you get the wetsuit?"
"Not important." Iris brushed the question off quickly to ask her own question. "You said you had an idea that'll get me swimming. What is it?"
"I can't answer that." Foxx replied, puff his chest up ever so slightly.
Iris gave Foxx a confused look.
"What do you mean you can't answer that?"
"If I told, it wouldn't work."
Iris rolled her eyes.
"Don't play games with me Foxx. What are you planning?"
"I mean, I'd just do it now, but…" Foxx turned and looked at the locker room. "I think we should wait for-"
"Forget Adams." Iris said. "Just get in the pool and show me what you want to do."
Foxx eyed the locker room entrance one last time, then turned and began walking down the edge of the pool.
"Follow me." He said.
Curious to what Foxx had in mind, Iris trailed him as they made their way towards the end of the pool.
Right by the deep end.
"Tell me…" Foxx stopped and pointed at the water. "What do you see?"
Iris glanced at it, then look back up at Foxx.
"I don't see anything." She said, confused.
Foxx shook his head and pointed again. "Look again."
Stepping closer, Iris again looked down at the water below. It waved and softly clapped against the edge of the pool, and the chlorine stung at Iris's nostrils.
Still not 100% sure what she was supposed to be seeing, she cautiously leaned forward a bit, careful not to fall in.
"I still don't see-"
SPLASH
Iris was cut off as Foxx literally shoved her into the pool. She thrashed in the water, kicking and flailing her arms. The sound of heavy splashing echoed around the room as Iris tried to keep her head above water.
"Foxx! You fu-!" Iris's voice was drowned out1 as she sunk down.
"What are you doing?!" Adams, now in her swimsuit, said as she ran out beside the older agent.
"I told you I had a plan." Foxx responded, pointing towards the red 10 foot marker painted on the side of the pool.
Iris's head reemerged for a split second. "Get me out of-!" was all she managed to get out before dropping back down.
"Foxx…" Adams said in a tone similar to a mom trying to explain something very basic to her child. "You can't just throw Iris in the deep end like that."
"Why not?" Foxx asked. "It's how I learned."
Iris gasped. "Don't just stand-!"
Both of them glanced at Iris as she temporarily surfaced… before looking back at each other to calmy continue their discussion.
"You were just, tossed into the deep end?" Adams asked, not entirely buying it.
"Yeah." Foxx replied, before placing a hand on his chin in thought. "Then again… it was my uncle who threw me in, and he was an asshole who hated me."
Iris gasped. "I'll have you court martialed! I'll-!"
Adams sighed. "Look Foxx. I asked you to come because you said you had experience with teaching people how to swim. You didn't just throw kids in the deep end in high school, did you?"
"Actually we did. Well… I did… but only if they just would not learn. And it worked!"
"Really?"
"Yeah! On that one kid at least. I only did it once because I was fired right after I threw him in, but he learned more about swimming in those twenty seconds than he did that entire summer."
Iris gasped. "Are you listening! Get in here and-!"
"Look Adams, swimming is something everyone can do. It's in our biology. Even if you think you don't know how to, you will once put in a situation where it's life or death."
"Foxx… people drown all the time. What are you talking about?"
"Because they get tired, not because they don't know how to swim."
"I don't think that's accurate."
Iris gasped. "I'm going to dro-!"
Adams shook her head. "Either way, all throwing Iris in the deep end is going to do is make her more afraid of the water. Besides, we're not just trying to teach her how to survive, we're trying to teach her certain swimming techniques. This…" She pointed to the anomaly flailing in the water. "…isn't teaching her jack."
Foxx looked down at Iris, then back up at Adams.
"I still think this is an effective way of learning."
Iris gasped. "Please help me!"
The rage in Iris's voice had disappeared. In its place was the fear and desperation of… well… someone drowning. This caused the two non-anomalies to both look down at the water.
After a few minutes, Foxx let out a sigh and approached the edge of the pool.
"Fine. I'll get her out."
Stepping forward, Foxx jumped into the pool and began stroking over to Iris, still thrashing in place.
"I'm here." Foxx said, grabbing the collar of Iris's wetsuit. "Hold onto me."
He didn't need to say it twice. Immediately Iris wrapped her arms around Foxx's shoulders and clung to his back like a baby animal. Gasping and coughing, Iris took in quick yet deep breaths. Together, the two of them made their way to the edge of the pool.
Iris crawled out first and stood bent over with her hands on her knees. Her arms and legs were trembling, and a few tears mixed with the chlorine water on her face.
"Can… we… be… done…?" She wheezed between breaths. "Please?"
Iris never said please to anyone, let alone Adams. She looked over at Foxx as he made his own way out of the water.
Iris wasn't going to get any swimming done worked up like this.
"Yeah." Adams said. "We can be done."
