Silence.

The sounds that would've otherwise been deafening are dulled to a muted buzz that rings in the back of the mind, like a faint echo. It was taunting, like a carrot on a stick, dangling in front of the eyes like a siren's song.  

All he could hear was the blood rushing through his ears as he wove down his lane, his arms slicing through the water in sharp, precise motions. His eyes narrowed as he neared the end. This was it. He was almost there. The final push. He gritted his teeth and started to speed up. His legs paddled behind him just fast enough for him to reach out and touch the end of the lane.

His head bursted out from under the water and whipped off his goggles and swim cap to read the score board while wiping water off his face.

"Jackson Wang comes in first at 9.12 seconds, breaking his former record of 9.14 and qualifying for nationals."

The spectators erupted in cheers as he punched his fist into the air as he whipped his goggles at the water.  His team jumped into the water with him, knocking the lane dividers with their force. They all screamed his name before one of them dived under the water and boosted Jackson onto their shoulders before lifting him up.

"Jackson! Jackson! Jackson!"

He loved hearing them call his name. They were able to take such a common and plain name and make it sound like it actually was worth something. Like it was a name that was worth being chanted.

He felt immortalized.

-----

John Locke, born 1632, coined the term Tabula Rasa or the blank slate. The concept was founded on the idea that the human mind was born a blank slate and the more that one experiences in life, the more is written on the slate.

Mira threw her pen against her notebook and rested the heels of her palms against her eyes, groaning at the way they burned. She just needed to make it through the next 12 hours and she'd finally be done for the semester.

She straightened her back and rested her hands on her neck before rolling it back slowly, working out the knots that formed from hours of hunching over then desk when her phone chimed with a notification. Rubbing her eyes, she grabbed her phone slid the notification open before her Facebook page opened up.

'Im Jae invited you to an event.'

CELEBRATION PARTY FOR WANG'S NATIONAL QUALIFIERS TONIGHT AT 10!

Mira scrolled the invite list and stared at the hundreds of people that the invite was sent to, this wasn't just a small house party, this was a full blown bash. She rarely kept up with the university's athletic teams. There were too many of them to keep track of. Every now and then her and one of her friends would watch a game or two but never anything else and never swimming.

She set her phone down before turning back to her notes, she stared at the page for a few minutes before reaching for her phone again. She had locked herself in her friend's apartment, who had finished her finals early and had left to visit her family, for the last week because it was closest to the campus library and she was sure that her brain was about to explode.

She could use a break and what better way to cut loose than with a bunch of kids looking for the same sort of escape from the textbooks as she was?

" it." She mumbled to herself before slamming her textbook shut and walking to her friend's closet. She glanced at the small bottle of pills next to the bedside table before facing the closet.

She was going to end up pulling an all-nighter anyway, she might as well make the most of the time when everyone else was awake.  

-----

The music was blasting, the crowd was dancing, and the liquor was flowing as everyone dressed in the school's colours celebrated Jackson's win. He was on top of the damn world, making rounds and getting high fives from everyone who knew his name.

He was Jackson Wang.

There wasn't anyone who didn't know his name.

"Hi, Jackson. Congratulations on the win." A group of girls called, giggling as he passed.

He shot them a wink and a killer smile, "Looking good ladies."

He wandered around the house that he shared with a few of his teammates before finding them gathered in the main room chatting.

"There he is!" Jaebum called out when he saw him approached.

Jackson's held his fist up and everyone broke out into cheers. Jaebum threw his arm around Jackson and pointed at him, "This man is a ing legend. Breaking other people's records weren't enough so he started breaking his own."

"So what now?" One of his teammates asked. "You're done finals and you made the qualifiers, you're off season until school starts in 3 weeks. Planning on visiting your mom?"

Jackson shrugged, "I'm actually planning on hanging around campus, get in some extra practice, you know the drill. I'll probably visit her near the end of the vacation."

"Holy ing ."

The guys standing around Jackson and Jaebum all turned to follow Jaebum's line of vision to the door. "I can't believe it. She's actually here."

"What's wrong man?" Jackson mumbled while taking a sip of his beer.

"Is that Kang Mira?" He blurted out while pointing at a sultry looking girl dressed in black standing in the foyer.

One of the freshmen swimmers looked at Jaebum in confusion, "Who's Kang Mira?"

"Who's Kang Mira?" Jaebum balked in shock, "Only this university's Golden Child. The type of student that every school wants to be a member of their alumni."

The freshman knit his brows as he watched her pick up a shot glass and slam the contents down with a group of other students before letting out a cheer and high fiving them all, "She doesn't really seem like a Golden Child type."

Jackson had heard her name in passing but had never seen her before. She had a really y vibe even though she probably had the most skin covered up in the entire house. Long dark hair, lidded eyes, lush lips and a smile that looked like a daring smirk. She looked like someone who spent nights on a bender, not doing her readings.

He watched, intrigued, as someone poured a bit of salt on the juncture of her hand between her thumb and her index finger. She then picked up a glass, that he could only imagine was of Tequila, and downed it in one go before the salt off her hand. His brow raised when her tongue ran over her lips as the other students cheered around her like she was a celebrity.

Yeah, she didn't seem like the type at all.

"Professors love her, TAs want to bang her and she gets the highest grades in all of her classes. She might not dress or act like the Golden Child, but everyone knows that she is. It's like the unwritten rule of the Arts and Science department that just spread to the whole school. "

"I heard that she showed up to an exam hung over and still got the highest mark."

"I heard that during rush week, a recruit was dared to steal her bra and when she found him in her  room she punted him in the so hard he had to go to the emergency room."

"Oh, so she's a badass."

"She doesn't around." Another one of the swimmers chipped in, "She doesn't do the whole girl next door, bubbly, bright, cheerful kiss routine, in fact, on the first week people thought she was a slacker until they saw her grades. Teacher's like her because she skips the bull. I swear her whole brain works in a weird way."

"So like, are guys part of her fan club or are they just always this hard for her?" Jackson uttered sarcastically.

Jaebum laughed boisterousl