Winter felt an elbow jabbing her arm but didn’t move her head from her knee. “Mmm?”

“I’ve been thinking. Is this an elaborate prank or something?”

“We’re way past April already. Who’d play a prank like this in May?”

“But don’t you think everything is kind of ridiculous? Manager Tiffany is like a wild character from an anime or something. She comes out of nowhere in the middle of this semester and starts a swim club with members like us?”

“Do you really think it’s a prank?” Winter asked Giselle, hope rising from a remote corner of her heart.

“Maybe? Maybe Manager Tiffany and Teacher Taeyeon will come here and be like ‘Surprise! We gotcha!’ or something.”

“Oh, oh, I hope so.”

“Hi guys.”

The new voice had Winter looking up. It was Karina, their new teammate as of this morning. Or maybe not, if this was all a prank. But if this was real and they were all stuck in this swim team, maybe it wasn’t so bad to be stuck in the team with Karina. Maybe they could become friends?

The same elbow jabbed her arm again. “What, what?” she growled.

“Stop staring at her. And close your mouth before a fly makes it their home.”

“Oh.” Winter turned to Giselle, her cheeks warm. “Was I staring?”

“Yes. In caps.”

Winter scrambled up onto her feet and bowed in apology. “I’m sorry for staring.”

Karina smiled and waved her hand. “Did you see something you like?”

“Y-You look really special.”

What did I just say? Winter couldn’t believe what she was saying as soon as she said it but fortunately, Karina’s smile grew wider.

“You look so baby.”

“No,” Winter protested, a reflex.

“I’m Karina, by the way.”

“I know.” Winter smiled even as a wave of shyness hit her straight on. “I’m Winter.”

Karina’s smile stretched into a grin. “I know too. You’re in the third grade Maths class.”

“Y-Yes, I am.”

“We’re all in Kwangya’s swim team now, so let’s get along.”

Winter nodded in agreement. “I’d like that. Right, Giselle?”

Giselle was red in the face, looking as though she was about to burst into laughter. “Right, Winter. Right.”

⟶

Sooyoung’s eyes grew big and round. “What? I’m the swim club teacher?”

Taeyeon nodded. “Yes, you are.”

“No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

“Says who?”

“Says Manager Tiffany.”

“Manager, schmanager. I’m Choi Sooyoung. Nobody manages me.”

“You have to come with me to the sports building.”

“You’re very mistaken if you think I’ll do as you say.”

“If you don’t come with me, Tiffany might stop smiling.”

“What might happen if she stops smiling?”

“I don’t know. Are you willing to find out?”

Sooyoung’s mouth went from a ‘u’ to an ‘n’. “You know what? I don’t think I want to find out. Let’s go.”

“We need to get Yuri too.”

“Yuri?” Sooyoung laughed. “Easy.”

⟶

Karina stared wide-eyed at the heap of things Manager Tiffany had just wheeled in on a big trolley. Buckets, brooms, brushes, sponges and more. She had held on to a half-wish that this was all a dream but everything was as real as Winter’s hands squeezing the life out of her arm.

“Hi girls!” Manager Tiffany’s smile was bright like the sun as always. “How lovely to see all of you here. So punctual, so good.” A frown appeared. “Where’s Ningning?”

“Ningning?” they chorused.

“She’s on the swim team too. We just recruited her moments ago. She couldn’t have forgotten about it this quickly.”

“Maybe she got held up by a teacher on the way here?” Karina offered a possibility.

“Hmm, maybe. But unlikely.” Manager Tiffany swept her hair out of her eyes and flipped the rest of it over her shoulder. “Not to worry, I’ll look for her. In the meantime, make use of these to clean up your future home in Kwangya High.”

Karina picked up a scrub and bucket. “We’re doing this then. Let’s go.”

⟶

“What? Swim team? Why? Why me?”

Taeyeon exchanged looks with Sooyoung. “Because Tiffany said so.”

“Tiffany? Why is she asking me to be the swim team teacher? She didn’t mention me before.”

Taeyeon tried to keep her expression as natural as possible. “She thought you would be a great addition to the team since you’re the sports teacher. Who else would be better than you at sports, especially swimming?”

“Well, I am the best sports teacher around. And I'm pretty good at swimming.”

“Exactly. When it comes to swimming, it has to be you,” Sooyoung chimed in.

“You know what? You’re right. Tiffany is right. It has to be me. Swimming is my thing. Are we meeting at the sports building? Let’s go.”

⟶

“Where should we start?” Winter asked Karina after they had each taken a pail and scrub.

“Why don’t we start from the lockers and work our way into the showers.”

“Okay, Karina. We’ll start from the lockers.”

Giselle’s elbow was jabbing her arm again so she turned to her friend with questions in her eyes.

Giselle leaned close to her ear and whispered, “When did you turn into such a puppy?”

Winter raised her brows. What in the world was Giselle talking about? She was most certainly not a puppy.

“Shut up. I’m not a puppy,” she refuted and jiggled her bucket at Giselle. “And you’re a turtle.”

Giselle chuckled and laughed. “So are you.”

“Come on, girls. We need to get started or we’ll never be done.”

Winter turned to Karina and pulled Giselle with her. “Okay, start!”

Moments later, they were hard at work, sweeping out the dust in the lockers and wiping them down with sponges and cleaning cloths. Winter opened another locker to clean and was about to sweep it with the brush when she spotted a creepy crawly creature slithering across from left to right. She screamed, dropped the brush and jumped into the nearest pair of arms.

“Winter! What happened?”

Winter stared into the cat-like eyes of Karina and her cheeks warmed again. “T-There’s a scary bug inside.”

Another ear-piercing scream sliced through the air. “Where is it? Where is it?”

“Calm down, Winter. I’ll get rid of the bug for you.”

Winter felt a wave of relief sweeping through her body. “Really? Thanks, Karina!”

“Yes, really. But first, you have to let me put you down.”

“Ah, I’m sorry.” Winter put her legs back on the floor and dropped her arms from Karina’s shoulders.

“Stand back.” Karina stepped forward with a cloth and reached into the locker. Without any fuss or fear, she pulled her arm out and walked out with the cloth.

Winter could only stare when Karina returned with a grin.

“Bug, gone. You can continue without fear now.”

“You’re amazing,” said Winter.

Karina chuckled and patted Winter’s head. “You’re cute when you’re scared. Come to me if you see another bug. I’ll catch all of them for you.”

There were stars in Winter’s eyes after that. How could anyone be so amazing?

⟶

Taeyeon was walking out of the academic building with Sooyoung and Yuri when she spotted Tiffany in the distance.

“Tiffany, I got Sooyoung and Yuri as you said,” she called out, waving her arm to get Tiffany’s attention.

Tiffany jogged up to them. “Have you seen Ningning?”

Taeyeon shook her head. “No, I haven’t seen Ningning anywhere. Isn’t she at the sports building?”

“She’s not.”

“That’s strange. Where could she be?”

⟶

“Aww, you have such beautiful eyelashes,” Ningning cooed. “Sweetie, did you get lost?”

Round eyes stared back at her, unblinking.

“How did you get into our school? Are you hungry?”

No answer. Of course.

Ningning looked around her. There didn’t seem to be anyone looking for this beauty. “Do you want to be my friend?” she asked.

There was no answer, but a little piece of brown landed on her palm.

“Is this your answer? Are you saying yes with your poop?”

The round eyes continued to stare at her.

“I’ll take it as a yes. But what happened to your tail? Where did it go?”

Ningning looked around for a little squirming tail but couldn’t find one. Little poop guy here didn’t look upset either. He probably lost his tail some time ago.

“Since we’re friends now, you’re coming with me. We have to go to the sports building.”

⟶

“Hi, I’m Ningning. Are you on the swim team?”

Winter glanced up from the cloth she was wringing dry and smiled at the new girl in their midst. “Yes, we’re the swim team. Are you joining us?”

Ningning nodded. “Teacher Taeyeon said I’m on the swim team now.”

Karina waved. “Hi, I’m Karina.”

“I’m Giselle.”

“And I’m Winter,” Winter said with a smile until she noticed something wriggling on Ningning’s shoulder. With a gasp and finger pointing at the creature, Winter asked, “What’s on your shoulder?”

“Oh, him?” Ningning grinned and let the creature cling to her fingers. Holding her hand out, she said, “This is my new friend, Poopie.”

Winter shrieked and hid behind Karina. “Don’t let it come near me.”

She shrieked again when Poopie leapt off Ningning’s hand and onto Karina.

“Omagad omagad omagad,” Karina panicked and shook her uniform out, trying to shake it off.

Giselle shrieked, so Winter shrieked too. They then scrambled away as Ningning darted to Karina and picked Poopie up.

“Don’t be scared, Poopie. They’re scared too.”

“What is happening here?”

Winter peeped out from Karina’s back. It was Manager Tiffany. Behind her stood Teacher Taeyeon, Teacher Yuri and Teacher Sooyoung.

“Ningning brought Poopie here so Winter and Giselle got scared,” Karina explained.

“Ningning, where were you? We were looking all over the school for you,” sad Teacher Taeyeon.

“I was on my way here but I saw little Poopie on the wall, all alone. Something must have frightened him since he lost his tail, so I’m adopting him.”

“What is Poopie? Is he a lizard?” asked Karina.

Ningning nodded. “He’s a gecko lizard but I don’t think which type yet. I’ll have to find out so I can take good care of him.”

“I’ll help,” said Karina.

Winter stopped hiding and stepped forward to take a closer look. “Poopie has legs. Poopie’s not a squirmy after all. I’m only afraid of squirmies. Is Poopie hungry?”

Ningning shrugged. “Even if he is, I don’t know what to feed him yet.”

“We can do some research and find out,” said Giselle.

“Yeah, let’s do that,” Winter agreed with a grin.

“Before you do any of that, clean up the mess first,” Manager Tiffany instructed. “There’s water, dirty shoe prints and dirt all over the floor. Clean it up and you’re done for the day.”

“Yes, Manager Tiffany!” the girls chorused.

⟶