Author’s Note: This is my first post here, so please forgive me if I mess up the tags and categories. Hope you enjoy it.
“Come on!” Scarlett urged, hauling open the door. “You don’t want to be late.”
“I’m coming,” Natalie replied, following into the centre. They paid their money and descended to the changing rooms. There were three doors at the foot of the stairs – the ladies’ to the left, the gents’ to the right, and straight ahead was what appeared to be a janitor’s cupboard. A little triangular sign on the door had a picture of a mop and bucket on it.
“This is our secret entrance,” said Scarlett with a sly smile. She produced a small key and turned the lock, letting the pair in. Despite the secrecy and Scarlett’s excitement, there did not appear to be much special about this changing room. It looked rather like any other changing room, if perhaps a bit more roomy. Come to think of it, the extra room may have been because there were…
“No stalls?” Natalie spluttered, wide eyes taking in the spartan room.
A girl, already changed into a swimsuit as dark as her jet black hair, stepped forward. “No need,” she said. “We have nothing to hide from each other.”
Natalie kept her eyes away, turning to Scarlett with a look of silent pleading. “I didn’t realise…” she murmured.
“If you’re real shy the showers are around the corner,” said Scarlett, pointing. “You can change in there, but be quick, Anne likes to have us in the pool sharp.”
So Natalie traipsed past the four team members, heading to the showers. She changed quickly, not wanting to hold them up any further, and was no sooner prying on the straps of her suit than they arrived around the corner and began to soak themselves. Natalie washed too before they all entered the pool, and after her butterflies flew away she began to rather enjoy trying to keep up with their drills. She was not a poor swimmer by any means, but not as conditioned as these athletic women. One girl, Liv it seemed her name was, struggled a little more than the others, and Natalie was pleased to see she could just about keep up. After the session they were back in the showers, and Natalie was curious to see the team gathered around the less speedy Liv.
“Well Liv, here we are again,” the girl in the black swimsuit said. She appeared to be the leader or the captain; all the other girls were in red. Except Natalie, who had not thought that the team would use uniforms in a simple practice. She hoped her own black suit, dripping and clinging to her in the chilly air, would not draw attention.
“But…” Liv whined. She made a pouty face, which seemed a little dramatic to Natalie. Then Natalie was shocked to see Liv’s finger suddenly thrust in her direction. “She was slower than me!”
“She isn’t a member of the team, yet,” said Anne.
Yet? Natalie thought. I don’t recall aiming to sign up…
Anne folded her arms across her chest. “You got the slowest time, again. You know what to do by now.”
Liv sighed, resigned. “Oh all right,” she said. With reluctance she twisted one of the shower controls, then turned it on. Then she screamed.
“It’s freezing!” she moaned.
“It might wake you up then,” Anne said. Natalie thought she detected a little bit of a smirk there, but soon the chamber was filled with mist from the hot showers the rest of the team were beginning to enjoy. Poor Liv, though, shivered as she tried to quickly shampoo her hair.
“Now hear this!” called Anne, ringing a spoon against the pipework. A spoon? Natalie had no idea why that was there, but it did the job. “It is time for today’s lottery!” the captain went on.
The women of the team went quiet, wrapping their towels round themselves as they gathered in a hushed cluster. Natalie watched, bewildered, as the captain held aloft her own swimcap. Somehow it seemed to draw the attention of the entire room. She reached in, swirling her fingers round like a magician reaching for a rabbit, and pulled a scrap of paper from within. The girls watched with baited breath, Natalie too now, as Anne opened it…
“Scarlett!”
Natalie’s eyes shot to her friend. The other girls laughed, nudging and jostling her, smiling with what looked to be relief. Scarlett lowered her head, a coy smile to her lips. Natalie stepped forward to ask just what was going on when Anne whipped back a sheet, revealing a box against the wall. Natalie’s mind had dismissed it earlier as just some broken locker, covered while awaiting repair. But a locker it was not; it was a tall perspex box, capable of holding an entire person standing up. Inside there was a little three-legged stool on the floor. And above…
“Shall you accept your fate?” Anne asked, reaching out to stroke Scarlett’s blonde locks. “Or do you want to play dice with the gods?”
Scarlett smirked. “Dice. Always.”
The other girls cheered. “Very well,” said Anne, reaching into her locker. She produced one tiny die, white with black dots, and bent to roll it across the floor. Scarlett took the opportunity to swat her captain’s wet behind.
“Oh!” Anne squealed, then turned on her teammate. “I ought to just shove you in right now for that.”
“But you’d rather see what fate decides,” said Scarlett. Anne smiled, returning her gaze to the dice. All eyes looked to it now, Natalie’s included. It was… the number three.
“Three,” Anne said. “Well, you’re still getting it. But now you get to decide who joins you.”
Scarlett cast her gaze across the rest of her team. They tried to shrink together, as if they could escape her notice just by willing themselves a little less obvious in the world. But Scarlett passed over them all, her eyes falling on her friend.
“Natalie,” she said.
Natalie gulped. She didn’t know why; she was not at all sure what was happening here. There was a box, a tank even, and that great swirl of colour sloshing above it… but what did that prove? She knew what it looked like, but that couldn’t be it. That would be… crazy! This was a swimming club, not some hackneyed Saturday night show.
“The new girl,” Anne said, looking her over in admiration. “She did not bad today. Needs to work on her conditioning, but she’ll be a valuable asset with a little work.”
“I thought so,” said Scarlett. She stepped forward, taking Natalie’s hands. “Might as well give her a good welcome.”
“Wh-what are you doing?” Natalie asked. Lucky for her Scarlett held her hands, they were starting to shake. She glanced at the tank in the corner, a sense of impending dread reaching deep inside her quivering body. Suddenly she felt hot, and sticky, and so aware of the suit that glued itself to her skin and every drop that ran down her limbs.
Scarlett led her to the tank. Natalie followed, feeling she would simply fall over if she offered any resistance. “Introducing you,” Scarlett answered, though she did not indicate to what. She simply pushed Natalie onto the seat, the wood feeling cold and hard beneath her rump. Natalie stared out at all those grinning faces as Scarlett slipped behind her, wrapping her friend in her arms with a hug.
Anne closed the perspex door. “Welcome,” she said, then pulled the lever.
It had been happening for two seconds before Natalie’s mind could even describe it. Cold, thick wet goo streaked across her head, coating her hair and raining down on her bare shoulders. Her skin rippled with the sensation of slime slithering across it and her vision filled with clotted colour. Natalie screamed, and in her ear amdist the squelching she heard Scarlett simply laugh. And, as the flow slowed down, Natalie began to laugh too.
“I can’t believe you did this to me!” she giggled, lumps dripping into her lap.
“But aren’t you glad?” whispered Scarlett, pecking her friend on her slime-streaked cheek.
Natalie looked out as the splattered door opened. The other women were watching, smirking, laughing, but none judging. She felt absolutely embarrassed, knowing she looked a frightful mess and that a watershed had passed. Or perhaps a slimeshed, but whatever it was, it was now the case that she had been gunged, and never again could she look at any of these women without that fact passing through their minds. Natalie was a gungee, a girl who had felt fate’s grubby hand sit her on a stool and have gunk poured over her. She’d had no control, she had simply surrendered to the sludge that had been destined for her head. And though her cheeks blazed and her eyeline faltered… inside, she swelled. She loved it, and as her friend offered to help her to the showers, Natalie firmly squeezed her hand.
