THE ONE SAVE

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Swimming pool in ten
Monroe didn't have to look up from his work, he knew Coach wouldn't punish him even if he got to practice late. Not that he particularly enjoyed favouritism, but if Coach was offering, why not take advantage of the situation.

Monroe watched as his teammates got up from their seats and went out of the class chatting animatedly. He would've joined them, but he needed to finish his job and most importantly they were his teammates and not his friends.

Monroe Miles was the star athlete of Archview high school, ordinarily in a sane world he would have been the most popular student in school. But Archview was not the sane world, because in it existed the person of Thomas Anderson.

Like Monroe, Thomas or Tom as he was usually called was one of the schools leading athlete. Unlike Monroe, Tom was good-looking, the most popular student in school and every girls dream. Tom only had one problem, and that problem was Monroe.

Tom was a talented student but try as he might, he always came second in any competition Monroe was participating in. It didn't matter what the sport was about, as long as Monroe was in it, then it was a sure bet that Tom would come second.

Unfortunately for Monroe he didn't have Tom's good looks and there was only a number of second position Tom could deal with before transferring his resentment and anger towards Monroe.
Tom was in one word a bully, but you'd be mistaken If you were thinking of those kids who played pranks and beat up other weaker students.

Tom used his popularity card to make sure that Monroe had no friends. Any student who made friends with Monroe was immediately tagged an outcast and everyone steered clear of them. In time people just automatically avoided Monroe like a plague, after all Tom could do no wrong.

"Hey Firstie, you coming?, oh I forgot, you're coach's fav" Monroe looked up to see Tom and the guys at the entrance to the class. They were all laughing and sniggering at him.
Even though he knew it was no use replying Tom and his gang, Monroe couldn't help himself.

"Yeah I'm coming. If it's so easy to be a firstie, why don't you do it"

There was a collective gasp of shock as the whole class watched on, everyone knew Monroe never replied. But Tom it seemed was only content with taunting Monroe and nothing more as they all walked out of the class towards the swimming pool.
Monroe sighed as he closed his book, there was going to be a payback for that reply.

For the next few days Monroe was on the lookout for Tom and his gang but they didn't attack him directly, instead his things kept going missing. He would put an assignment in his bag but when it was time to submit, it would be nowhere to be found.
It went on for a while, but as usual with no reply from Monroe after a few days, it soon stopped once again.

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Monroe was putting in some extra swimming practice, the National championship was coming up in a few weeks and Coach was out to kill them all. In Coach's words, it was either they won or died trying.

Even after the whole team had left, Monroe stayed back hoping he could put in some extra practice. Tom stayed back as well, it seemed he knew what was at stake.

Without his goons around, Tom stayed in his own lane which was actually a source of relief to Monroe as he needed to focus on his training without worrying about other things.
The training though soon turned into an unofficial swimming competition as they both tried to outswim each other, but as usual it seemed the second place was a permanently reserved space for Tom.

Tom must've been infuriated because as they were getting ready for another round, all of a sudden Tom lunged at Monroe who by a stroke of luck was able to sidestep away using Tom's momentum against him.

Tom slipped and hit his head on the floor before rolling into the pool. It took a few seconds of inactivity inside the pool for Monroe to realize that Tom was unconscious or even worse dead.

There was only one way to find out. Just as he prepared to jump into the pool, Monroe realized the cause of all his problems was lying at the bottom of the pool and If he walked away his problems would vanish.
After all Tom had attacked him and besides, he didn't even touch the guy.

Monroe knew the right thing was to jump in and try to save Tom whether dead or not, but his anger at Tom at that moment was so huge that it was almost an effort standing there.
He was still contemplating this when Tom's hand moved in the water, there was no excuse now, the guy was obviously still alive.

It took a few minutes but Monroe eventually got Tom out of the water and was able to resuscitate him before calling for an ambulance. Tom on the other hand was ashamed of his actions and couldn't believe he'd been saved even after trying to attack Monroe. The ambulance arrived and Monroe left them to their job as they wheeled Tom out of the swimming area.

Monroe didn't know how word got around, but just as he walked into school the next day, everyone seemed to have heard about the incident.
As he walked to class, there seemed to be an unusually large crowd gathered in front of the door, but standing in front of that crowd was Tom.

They both stared awkwardly at each other before Tom walked up to Monroe. Monroe sighed, he wasn't even sure if he'd done the right thing saving his enemy.

"I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused you. Thanks for saving me Monroe, you're a real hero" The words came out of Tom's mouth but Monroe wasn't so sure he'd heard right.

Someone in the crowd clapped and within seconds the crowd was shouting the word Hero as others joined in the clapping. It was the biggest positive reaction Monroe had ever gotten from the whole school, it was more than overwhelming.

As he walked into class to a heroes welcome, Monroe knew that his high school problems ended with that one save.