Swim the Fly Read Online Free

moves. Nobody volunteers. A few guys shifttheir weight from one leg to the other. A few clear their throats. Most just look away, not wanting Ms. Luntz to catch their eyes.
    A one-legged crow lands on the fence and squawks loudly.
    “Well?” Ms. Luntz says, machine-gunning her pen on her clipboard. “We don’t need you to win. We just need you to place. Most of the teams don’t bother entering a swimmer in the butterfly, so all it really amounts to is finishing. Otherwise we don’t get a single point from the event.”
    I see Sean shaking his head. “It’s a suicide mission,” he mutters.
    I stare down at the concrete. I need to cut my toenails. I curl my toes under my feet.
    Without thinking, I look over at Kelly. She turns and our eyes connect. She pulls the lollipop from her mouth and smiles. I smile back. Her eyes are so clear, so green. They’re the color of the water you see in those travel pictures. Where the man and woman are snorkeling and they’re holding hands, and it’s like they’re the only two people in the world.
    Kelly looks away, like she’s shy or something. Still smiling. Her neck flushes slightly.
    “Come on, people,” Ms. Luntz says. “Who is the hero here? Who is going to challenge themselves? Who is going to swim the fly?”
    And it’s like some force outside of me suddenly grabs my right arm and thrusts my hand high into the air, and the words tumble out of my mouth before I know what’s going on.
    “I’ll do it.”
    The entire team turns and looks at me. I feel my face get hot.
    “Matt Gratton?” Ms. Luntz coughs like she’s got a fleck of popcorn stuck in her throat. “Well. That’s . . . unexpected. But I guess . . . we don’t have any other option.” She sighs, clicks her pen, and scratches something on her clipboard. Presumably my name.
    I look over at Kelly, who nods and says, “Way to go,” before she walks off.
    Coop turns to me, blinking hard. “Holy crap, dude. Are you nuts?”

“YOU TOTALLY STEPPED IN IT,” Sean says. “There’s a reason most of the other teams don’t enter swimmers in the fly. Because nobody can do it.”
    “It’s his pants hamster.” Coop nods. “It short-circuited his brain.”
    We’re walking up to the mall. Sean wants to go to EB to check out the latest Ring of Light game. I can’t remember if it’s Ring of Light 3 or Ring of Light 4. I play video games but nothing on the scale of what Sean does. He came in fifth place in the Xbox Live Worldwide PsychoNinja Online Tournament. And fifth place in that is way different from fifth place in a swim meet where there are only five swimmers; there were thousands and thousands of people playing in the PsychoNinja tournament. Coop and I were pretty impressed. It’s too bad youcan’t use a thing like that to pick up girls. Though don’t think Sean didn’t try.
    “You don’t honestly think that swimming the fly is going to get you anywhere with Kelly, do you?” Coop says.
    “I don’t know.” I shrug. “I wasn’t really thinking about it.”
    “Yeah, right.” Coop laughs.
    “Man, oh, man,” Sean says. “You are up shit creek without a paddle, without a boat, without a kickboard, without water wings, without —”
    “You can shut up now,” I say.
    “Yeah, Sean,” Coop gibes. “Leave the poor guy alone. He already has it bad enough. You don’t have to remind him how horrible it’s going to be. How torturous four laps of butterfly are. Not to mention the fact that he can’t even do
one.
You don’t have to bring up the fact that he might drown. He already knows that. He knows how embarrassing it’s going to be. Don’t ya, Matt?”
    “Thanks, Coop,” I say. “You’re a real pal.”
    Coop and Sean double over with laughter.
    “You guys are feebs.”
    “Sorry, sorry.” Coop can barely catch his breath. “Seriously, though. You’re probably right. I’m sure Kelly finds the sight of a scrawny, pasty, white dude flopping around in the water like a spastic salmon