fandomhigh | Underwater Basket Weaving and Other Aquatic Arts!; Monday, Fourth Period [05/17].

Since the weather appeared to be cooperating, the class would be meeting once again at the beach, and when they did, they would find their instructor as eager and excited as ever, warming up with some squats and arm stretches and encouraging exclamations. And once everyone was there and ready to go, he did one final stretch up high over his head, rolled his neck a little, and laughed before opening his arms to the class in greeting.

"Hello!" he said. "And welcome back! Are you all ready for another thrilling day of learning aquatic arts? I know I am! And since this particular aquatic art will require a lot of physical activity, let's all take a moment to stretch and warm up so that our bodies are limber and ready to go! Because today, we are tackling that most important Aquatic Art, the one for which mostly all other Aquatic Arts stem from, and that, of course, is swimming!

"Now," he continued, after waving a hand to encourage them all to keep stretching while he talked, something that he, himself, was also going to do, "there's a good chance that we all possess a very diverse range of swimming skills! Some of you, such as myself, may have been swimming since you were practically a tadpole, freshly hatched into a world of water and wonder! Some of you may have learned a little later, but due to your exposure to watery depths, may have a wide range of experience and skills. Some of you may not know how to swim barely at all! And that is fine, because we're going to go over many different techniques, we shall help each other, those who already know the basics will receive an excellent refresher, and by the end of the class, hopefully we'll all be confident enough in our swimming abilities to puruse a...bit of a challenge!"

His grin was particularly excited and shiny over that.

And he gave them a little more time to stretch and get warmed up before calling out, "Alright, my intrepid aquatic artistes! Everybody in the water! Let's get swimming!"

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"And now," Sidon announced, blowing a whistle (although, interestingly enough, not the whistle he wore at his chest among all of his fancy royal accoutrements) to get everyone's attention and waving them over as if he would be hard to spot without doing so, "it's time to put the skills you've been learning, practicing, and sharpening to the test! As you can see, I've set up a few bouys out in the water; they mark the course of our race! If you still feel a little uncertain in your swimming and would like to sit out the race, you are more than welcome to do so! All I ask is that you take note of the techniques being employeed by our races as you watch and, even more importantly, encourage them and cheer them on! Those of you who are more confident in your abilities, get ready to race! Swim up to the first bouy, marked One!, and then to the next marked Two!, and so on and so forth until you end up back here and claim your victory!

"Any questions before we begin? Racers! Get ready, on your mark..."

[[ and because who doesn't love a good RNG, the results of the race (dependant on who is actually participating, of course!) are: Nina, Octavia, Clare, Astrid, Duke, which is hilarious because I'm pretty sure those last two are easily the strongest swimmers in the class and we can definitely blame either sympathy or god-knows-what's-in-the-water on that XD ]]

Clare was beginning to think the buoys were moving further away as she swum towards them, which would be just dead of of bounds. She focused on not drowning rather than any sort of racing strategy, which ended her up...right in the middle.

That seemed fine.

Duke was in no kind of rush to win any competition here. He was an excellent swimmer and he knew it, so he had nothing to prove. He hung back, watching the others swim ahead, figuring he could kind of playing spare lifeguard in case something went wrong.

Octavia wasn't necessarily the most competitive person. But she was prone to both being stubborn as well as pushing herself to see how far she could go.

Essentially, she was racing herself, with a wholly unnecessary grim sense of determination.

Nina was the most competitive person in the class, she was pretty sure, and between that and her own need and desire to get through this as quickly as possible so that she, as Etoile, could go back to doxing jerks...

Well, Nina was kind of surprised she’d gotten first, having figured Duke would best everyone other than Sidon.

Underwater Basket Weaving and Other Aquatic Arts!; Monday, Fourth Period [05/17].

Race! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Re: Race! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Re: Race! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Re: Race! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.

Re: Race! - Underwater Basket Weaving!, 05/17.