My legs felt like jelly as I stood in the locker room shower in Okayama Daianji High School. I was in my swimsuit, getting acclimated to the water before my race started in a few minutes. My coach had just told me that there were no third year students in my division that made it to the meet and that I had my best shot of winning the competition right now. I couldn't move, I was rooted in place by my legs that seemed to stick to the shower floor. I tried holding my breath, counting like I was used to, but as soon as I started I remembered that my race was minutes away and that I needed to be moving out to the pool.
I heard one of my classmates enter the locker room, calling for me. Wearily I moved away from the cascading water, the sensor that detected me being there turning it off the moment I stepped away. "I'm coming, I just wasn't ready yet." I gave her a weak smile before following her back out to the pool.
There wasn't a large crowd by any means, most students took the train to the meet so the only ones with family in the stands were the ones from Daianji High. I had already performed a couple races this morning, doing well in two of the three, but this was the deciding one. A student from Daianji and I were the only two with good enough times in the races so far to have a chance to win it.
Taking my spot on the block I looked down the line of girls I was competing against. None of them looked as nervous as I felt, already in place and waiting for the countdown. I took my position, trying to tune everything out except for the announcer and eventual starting gun. Controlling my breathing to even paces, I closed my eyes and focused on just what I needed for the race. I was swimming the hundred meter, just once down the pool, touch the wall with both hands before flipping in the water, and back to the start. I could hear the announcer talking, the crowd quieting for the race to start, the creaking of the blocks as each of us tightened for our jump.
"Racers, on your mark. Three… Two…" There was a slight pause before the crack of the starting gun echoed through the school grounds. I was already in the water before the echo ended, holding my breath and swimming as hard as I could. I focused on my strokes, counting each one as I drew closer to the wall, holding my breath for the flip when I could claim some air without breaking my stride. My eyes opened a hair with my last two strokes, not trusting my timing for the wall as I approached it. My hands felt the smooth surface of the wall, pushing against it as my body somersaulted, my head above water for half a second to gasp for air before it plunged back under and my feet kicked off of the wall. I could already feel the ache in my muscles as I pushed myself faster on the return, forcing the best performance I could out of myself. In the last few seconds I couldn't hold my breath any longer, the starting wall within sight as I calculated when I could surface for air. I couldn't make it, breaking the surface with my head while I was still ten feet from the wall, I could feel myself slow down as I sucked in air. A moment later, my hands touched the wall and I could hear the cheering of the audience again.
I floated in the water for a few seconds, not looking up at the time clocks on the wall, just getting my breath back under control before climbing out of the pool. Once I was ready, I lifted myself up, grabbing a towel that was offered to me from my classmate. I couldn't hear what she was saying, only that she was excited and pointing at the clock. Turning to face it, I could see the times posted. 1:07… That was the best time I ever had, and a second and a half faster than Kiya Esumi, the Daianji girl that I was fighting for first place against. My coach and the other members of the swim team were rushing over to me, gathering around me with their offers of congratulations and hugs.
-
The train station was only a few blocks south of the school but we passed it to go into Okayama's shopping district. Echiko had been glued to Shunji's hip all morning, he was almost late to his own track meet because she had such a hard time letting him go. Shunji actually knew a good spot for lunch so he was leading while Echiko and I hung back a little. With how warm it was, we had both opted for skirts to wear into the city, though while mine was modest and went to my knees, her's was so short I could nearly see what kind of underwear she had on. Not that I really needed to know anyways, she couldn't help but show me the black thong she had picked out for the day. "Shunji told me to dress sexy, so why wouldn't I?"
I bit my lip, not sure if now was the right time or not with Shunji so close. I slowed my pace to allow a few more feet between us and him, and Echiko followed my lead. "I heard something in the locker room at school yesterday. It sounds like there is a party in the city, and that Shunji knows about it. It was two girls on the team with him that knew about it."
Of course when I mentioned the party, Echiko's eyes lit up. "Excellent, no wonder he wanted me to dress up a bit. I'm surprised though, he didn't say anything about the party." I was hoping she'd show a little more seriousness about it, was I the only one that felt like it was odd for him not to say anything yet? "Though you don't want to go to a party dressed like that, do you?" She gestured to my outfit with the general look she gave to unwanted Christmas sweaters.
"I don't want to go to a party at all. I just wanted to have lunch with you and maybe do some shopping before going home." With the money that mom had given me, I could easily cover lunch and have enough for a new manga or a shirt.
"Come on, I'm sure it will be fun. Especially if Shunji hasn't said anything yet, it's probably going to be amazing. He told me we'll be catching a late train home anyways, so it's not like he is planning on ditching us."
"I don't know…" I gave my usual vague response but didn't say more as we headed into a cafe for lunch. Shunji had done well in his competition too and was in a great mood, but for some reason he wasn't being as clingy with Echiko since we left the school. As we ordered our food and sat down, he even pulled up a chair closer to my side of the table than Echiko's. She didn't seem to notice though, she had her phone out and was taking a picture of her crêpes before eating them.
After lunch Echiko had a list of stores she wanted to visit. Shunji and I seemed to follow her from one to the next, Echiko never staying in a store too long or buying much of anything. After an hour or so of this, she finally brought us to a store with blacked out windows, nearly bouncing with excitement. "This is the place I've been looking forward to most. And Shizu, if you truly don't want to buy anything here, we can go to a manga store next." She led the way inside, the perfume scent at the door almost causing me to choke as my eyes began to water. It was definitely a clothing store but as my vision began to clear I realized that almost everything on the mannequins was underwear, lingerie, or swimsuits. They had some other garments as well but it was mainly short skirts and small tops that were meant for something less than public display. It was then that I realized why the store had blacked out their windows, to avoid gawking guys outside watching girls buy their undergarments. Echiko wandered off in search of something, Shunji stuck somewhere between chasing after her and trying not to leave me behind. I told him to just keep up with her and that I'd find them later.
I browsed through the swimsuits for a bit but my bikini was still working for me at the moment and I had the school swimsuit for practices and meets. With no immediate end in sight, I wandered towards the skirts and such, thinking that there might be something in there that wasn't horrible. As I searched amongst some crop tops Echiko finally bumped into me. With poor timing, I was holding a rather tiny piece of blue fabric that was labeled a shirt, and Echiko got that mischievous look in her eye. "That top would be amazing on you. It's stretchy, so it forms to your body really well. It would probably look great with this." She held up a black miniskirt, which visually did go with the gradient blue of the fabric I was holding, but neither seemed like things that would be good on me. "Please, just try it on?"
I sighed, grabbing the miniskirt from her and looking around for a changing room. The walls around the room had several so I made my way to the closest one. Inside, I began to pull off my shirt and skirt, folding them up and setting them on the little seat in the room. I tried the miniskirt first, it was a little loose, but nothing a belt wouldn't fix. It clashed with the white panties I had on underneath, clearly visible with how high up the skirt revealed. The shirt looked nicer than I expected it to. It started to stretch when I went to put it on, the change of blue from a dark cyan to a bright robin egg was much more noticeable once stretched out. I could see my bra underneath it, the fabric slightly see through once it was on, but otherwise it was a pretty cute top. A bit of my midriff showed which I wasn't used to, but I could at least show Echiko and take it off. I cracked the door open, peeking out to see if she was still close by. Getting her attention she came over and started gushing about how good it looked.
"Oh it looks wonderful on you, please get it. We can even get you something to wear underneath that matches it a bit better." Despite her best persuasion I kept shaking my head.
"You got to see it on me, that's good enough." I closed the door again to her pouting a bit, quickly taking off the shirt and skirt. I was fumbling with the shirt for a while, figuring out how best to get it folded back up in the way I had pulled it off the rack, when the door opened to my changing room. I froze, realizing too late that I hadn't locked it after showing the outfit to Echiko. I spun around, shocked to see Shunji walking in. His head was twisted back over his shoulder, looking out at the store as if making sure he wasn't seen, and pulling the door closed behind him. "Shunji! What the fuck are you doing in here?" I was trying not to yell or make my voice heard in the store, but I wasn't happy with the situation.
Shunji spun around, a look of confusion on his face. His eyes looked me up and down for a second before he could find his voice. "Uh, I'm sorry Shizu, I thought Echiko was in here. I saw her standing by this door when it was open, I was going to… well… see what she was changing into." He blushed slightly, a dumb look on his face. Despite walking in on me half naked, he certainly didn't seem to be in a hurry to leave.
"Get out of here!" I suppressed another yell, covering myself with my hands as I saw his eyes looking me over again. It certainly didn't help that I could see his pants tighten slightly, something inside causing a slight bulge against the fabric of his crotch.
He finally turned to leave, but crouched down a little as he opened the door again and snuck out. I pulled the door shut before he had a chance to turn back around and close it, quickly locking the latch. I was breathing heavily and felt very hot. Looking down at my still half naked body, I could see that my panties were wet, my body excited for some reason despite getting walked in on.
Once I finally had my clothes back on, I awkwardly left the changing room and made my way back to the racks with the clothes. I could feel the uncomfortableness of the wet panties, looking around for a bathroom. Echiko came back up to me holding a pair of blue panties and a matching blue lace bra. She knew I had a weakness for lacy and frilly things. Seeing that the price tag had a big half-off sticker on it, and probably needing a new set anyways, I grabbed them from her and headed for a counter.
-
Twenty minutes later I was leaving a public restroom just past the clothing store. I had determined it would just be easier to wear some new underwear than continue on with my wet ones, so I had changed in the stall and thrown my old clothes in my school bag. Shunji and Echiko were waiting for me next to a street light, having just flicked on as the sun had reached the upper buildings and started casting shadows around the street. Echiko was in the middle of telling Shunji what she had bought "just for him" as she put it. It seemed like he never told her about barging in on me, but I wasn't going to be the one to bring it up.
Echiko turned to me as I walked up, "So, Shunji was just telling me that a friend of his in the city was throwing a little party. What do you think Shizu, shall we tag along?" I wasn't really interested and I'm sure my face gave it away because Echiko started to make this little whining sound. "Come on, it's the night before your birthday, your parents aren't going to care if you come home after dinner. We're not staying the night or anything."
Shunji was just watching me, not saying anything, but I could tell he wanted me to go too. "Is it going to get pretty crazy? You know, alcohol and such? How many people are even going to be there?"
Echiko just waved off my questions, "Does it really matter? A party is a party." She urged Shunji along and he started leading us back towards the train station, though a block or two before he had turned down a side road leading to an apartment building. I hesitated for a long time, standing at the street corner. The train station was in sight and I could easily just catch the next train home, but the longer I waited the further away Echiko and Shunji were getting. I swore under my breath, the stress of the day pushing me past my normal demeanor, and sprinted after the two of them.