With the situation now somehow sorted, Clara and Alice were still stuck with the headteacher sorting out their punishment as the rest of the three stepped out.
In the empty hallway, Lucas grabbed onto Silvia's arm.
"You ok?"
Silvia nodded.
James smacked Lucas's hand off Silvia's, "She is not ok." A pissed off face was decorated on James's face, irritating Lucas.
"Kid, did I ask you?"
The tension grew as Lucas was having a faceoff with James.
"Silvia, you said you would come today, so let's go." Lucas tried to grab onto Silvia's hand again to take her with him, back to the pool.
But James grabbed onto Silvia and pulled her back. While James was still young, he stood tall at the height of 180cm, hiding her 160cm sister behind him.
"Dude, back off, don't you see the position you put her in already?" James was being overly protective of his sister.
I know she's not alright, but she keeps saying she is. Seriously, she has grown up now; she needs to learn to speak up.
Lucas knew that he was right, but for some reason, he did not want to let go of Silvia, who was the same girl he had been pushing off for days.
"I'm sorry," as if he had suddenly grown a conscience, he stood there scratching his head with awkwardness, "I will make sure this doesn't happen again and sort out the problem."
Lucas turned around to walk away.
"I will come tomorrow!" Silvia said as her brother smacked his head and dragged her home.
---
[Next day back in Uni]
It's lunchtime, and Silvia made her way into the cafeteria as always alone, distracted by her own thoughts. But today there was something different.
Lucas was waiting for her. Everyone still thought she had been chasing him, especially with the commotion of being called into the headteacher's office the day before.
Lucas sat at the table where Silvia had been sitting. Placing his tray of food down, he looked at Silvia, who seemed to just eat without a care, not noticing that he had sat down.
He kept looking at her, hoping that she would notice him; the others watched in silence, waiting for Lucas's wrath to be unleashed.
While he was an exceptionally decorated athlete, he was also known for his grumpy moods. He did not like people disturbing his routine. With multiple girls who tried to pursue him in the last few weeks, who all got the silence treatment or burst of anger from Lucas, they were expecting nothing new.
"Silvia," Lucas said her name.
She looked up, responding to her call and blinked a couple of times.
"Oh, Lucas, hello. What are you doing here?"
It was the first time someone sat at the same table as her to eat. She did not expect Lucas to be the one sitting next to her.
"What do you mean, what am I doing here? Were you not the one chasing to have dinner with me the last month?" Lucas smirked, stabbing into his chicken. "Well, you finally get to live the dream."
Watching Silvia eat, he sees her picking out the meatballs from her spaghetti.
"Picky eaters are we?" Lucas picks up the meatballs with his fork and eats them up, "Don't mind it, I do."
The whole lunchtime, Lucas made it abundantly clear, and he and Silvia were on good terms.
As they walked towards the bin area to throw leftovers and give back the food trays, a group of people walked by and intentionally bumped into Silvia.
These were girls who did not like her at all.
As she was about to fall, Lucas grabbed her with one arm wrapped around her waist. His hand lightly hugged her stomach, and she fell right into Lucas's arms.
"Careful." He whispered into her ear, making her face Lucas, looking up.
"Thank you," Silvia replied, still lying back onto his hard chest.
Lucas stared at her dull expression and her lips, slightly parted, and from this view, he could see the way her lips opened with a little gap as they arched up.
Lucas gulped and helped Silvia get her footing.
The group was not happy, but with Lucas there, there was nothing they could do but fake an apology and walk away.
"This sort of shit happens often?" Lucas asked, grabbing Silvia's tray and clearing it up for her.
Silvia shrugs, "I don't know. I don't really focus much on other stuff..."
Lucas sighs and holds out his hand. "Give me your phone."
Silvia obediently gave it to him.
Lucas entered his number onto it and then handed it back. "Make sure to be awake so that next time it happens, you take a picture of them and send it to me and tell me what happened. I will take care of it."
Silvia blinked, staring at Lucas.
Why is he trying to help me? It's not that bad that I need protection, but it does feel nice.
---
[After School at the pool]
As it was the quieter season and still the early weeks of the new school year, there was no one else who had booked to use the swimming pool.
Lucas got changed and drenched himself in the shower. Walking up to the pool, he did a few stretches. His bottle was in hand, and he sat down on the edge, phone in a protective case hanging on the hook on the wall.
After prepping himself enough, he took one final stretch as he positioned himself to dive into the water.
He dipped in and, with precise movements, he swam freestyle, making a few laps nonstop.
He heard the door open.
Silvia stepped in wearing a sports jersey on top of her swimsuit.
He had not appreciated it properly before, but even with the jacket, he could see that she had a great figure. It was perfectly sculpted for swimming. Her legs were slender and toned, and her swimsuit hugged her body perfectly. The way the ends pushed down on her cheeks was very hard to ignore.
As she bent down to put the bag onto the bench and get her things out, Lucas received a full view of everything.
Fuck, maybe I should have thought about it more.
Lucas had seen plenty of girls like this in the field he was in. But this was the first time he felt this way, because Silvia was not just 'any girl'.
Sitting down, Silvia noticed Lucas looking at her. She waved at him. Lucas grunted as he turned away and continued to make his laps.
His heart beat faster. As he reached the other side of the wall, he checked his heartbeat. It was racing even faster than it should be for basic laps.
He took a few breaths, thankful he was on the other side of the pool so Silvia could not see his embarrassing self.
Silvia drew him, everything she could. Multiple sketches over and over. She could not help but be mesmerised by his skills, the effortless movement of not a single step that was useless. Everything Lucas did was done with a calculated decision.
He looked like a cunning predator as he made his strokes, rushing in for the kill. The speed was astonishing.
He is amazing. I regret not ever seeing him when I used to compete. I would have loved to see him compete when he was young and compare him to how he is now.
Whenever Lucas would rest as he came out to practice his diving, Silvia started to shift her focus onto his body. The muscles that seemed to be sculpted to perfection. As he bent over and arched his back, showing the definition on his back, she started to swiftly sketch more.
Silvia's hands moved nonstop.
She tracked every line with her eyes, attempting to relay it in her artwork. It was not enough. She felt something was missing.
Prodding in her thoughts as she kept on sketching more and more, she looked at her collection so far. Flipping back and forth, comparing, trying to find out what was missing.
Lucas became curious when he stopped to look towards Silvia, who seemed more engrossed in her sketchbook than he was.
I thought she came here to watch me, not look at a crappy book.
Coming out of the water, he made his way towards Silvia, but as always, she did not notice until he got close.
He leaned in behind her, still wet, as he looked at her sketches. A water drop dripped onto one of the pages of the book on the edge. Silvia turned around with furrowed eyebrows.
It's wet now...
"What seems to be the problem?" Lucas asked.
"I don't know, something does not feel right..." Silvia said, flipping through the second half of the sketches.
Lucas looked at them, and every one of them depicted his movements. Seeing himself like this in the eyes of someone else was new to him. As he kept looking, he realised that she had also drawn a lot of images of his body.
Well, damn, I did not realise she wanted to make sketches like this.
Lucas looked at Silvia, who seemed to still be looking at their sketchbook. A mischievous grin, and he pushed away her sketchbook.
"Should I help you with that?" He grabbed her hand and placed it on his stomach. He dragged her hand as her fingers ran through each ridge of his muscles. "You are missing a few lines and details."
Her fingers felt warm and ticklish. He just wanted to see Silvia show some sort of emotion on her face.