The Luna Choosing Game

Chapter 0553

The next morning, after dressing in my one piece swimsuit, I stood in front of the vanity in the bedroom, trying to decide how best to wear my hair, as to eliminate the most friction and increase my speed in the water.

Swimmers, I knew, wore swim caps to cover their hair, but lacking that, I wasn't sure what to do other than tie it up in a ponytail and hope for the best.

Elva, already dressed for the day, watched me. She wore a look of determination, as if she was the one about to go out and race. I appreciated the solidarity.

More so, when she gave me a thumbs up and said, "You got this, Mommy!*

I laughed as I turned to her and scooped her up into my arms. "How can I not, when I know you will be cheering for me?" I said. "We both need to give it our best."

"I'll cheer for you," Elva said, "So do well, okay?"

"Okay," I said and kissed her cheek. She wrapped her tiny noodle arms around my neck. I held her closer.

I would be careful, I'd already promised Nicholas. But now was the time to make the same vow, silently to Elva. My little girl needed me to come back to her, so I would do whatever I needed to, to both win the competition and make it safely back to shore.

Motivated, I decided to go to the window to check on how choppy the waves were today. That would determine how difficult my swim was certain to be. The waves weren't too bad, thank goodness.

But then my gaze lowered to Bridget practicing on the beach. She must have finished stretching early, because she was already sprinting a short distance.

God help me, she was fast. She culminated her sprint with a few cartwheels and a backflip, which she landed perfectly. Her confidence hadn't been an act, then. Bridget was actually a good athlete. Content belong to NôvelDráma. Org.

"Wow," Elva said, and I could help but agree. She really was impressive, even I had to admit it. Though watching her made a deep kind of pit open up in my stomach. I knew the competition was sure to be strenuous, but... couldn't do a backflip.

No. Stay strong, I reminded myself. Backflips were not part of the competition. I just had to run and swim faster than Bridget. I could do this.

I gripped hard onto that dwindling confidence and carried it with me as Elva and I went downstairs. We met Veronica out on the beach near the deck. She had already begun stretching. I immediately began to follow suit. Elva did as well, copying us.

I looked around but there was no sign of the princes yet. Thoughts of Nicholas and I kissing out on the water flashed in front of my mind, but I pushed those memories down. Now was neither the time nor place to be thinking such things.

As we stretched, I realized Veronica was very limber. I hadn't thought of her as competition before, mainly because we were friends, but I now belatedly realized that I had more than just Bridget to watch out for in this race.

Veronica must have seen me sizing her up because she gave me a flat look and said, "I have no interest in winning this race."

I blinked, surprised. "What? Then why compete at all?"

Veronica glanced around. Her suspicious eyes landed on Bridget, still bouncing around farther up the beach. "I don't trust anyone. You'll need someone out there to watch your back."

She was competing just to help protect... me? My heart warmed with affection. Veronica was such a good, loyal friend.

I was embarrassed. I wished I could be in a position to not need her to sacrifice her part in the competition to help me, but the truth of it was, I did need her help. I was in over my head here.NôvelDrama.Org owns this.