The Swim Club Creature: Early Reader 7-8 Age Category

The Swim Class Creature

Katie, Jess and Cassie are back again as the 5S Protection Team take on an elusive, angry and rather peckish sea creature in the school’s swimming pool.

6094 Words

Chapters

Chapter 1: What Lurks in the Deep End
Chapter 2: It’s got me!

Chapter 3: Mr Green’s fright

Chapter 4: What we’re Dealing with

Chapter 5: Tinned Tuna Test

Chapter 6: It’s only Crabbing

Chapter 7: A horrid hiss

Chapter 8: Down the drain!

Chapter 9: Out to sea

Synopsis

Katie considers herself pretty lucky to have a school with a swimming pool to use. That is, until Peter Pike tells the class something in the deep end was trying to drag him underwater.

The girl’s suspicions are confirmed when swim coach Mr Green finds an entangled mess of hair, froth and yucky bits in the pool. There is no other explanation but that the school pool is inhabited by a hideous sea monster and a hungry and angry one at that.

As much as they try it alludes their capture, instead munching on the tinned tuna they left and filling the pool air with eye-stinging smelliness as a defence mechanism.

Yet the 5S Protection Team is made of stronger stuff and they risk it all with a plan to drain the pool by soaking up all the pool water. As loo rolls, towels and loaves of bread plop into the water they realise their plan has some holes to it and perhaps all is lost after all.

Just before Mr Green catches them red-handed, they glimpse the slippery snake-like tail of the sea monster escaping through the drain at the bottom of the pool floor.

Success at last and the day saved they’re the heroes of Class 5S but their parents, Mrs Mole and the rest of the school staff have other ideas.

The grown-ups might not believe them, but 5S knows the truth. So, if you’re lucky enough to have a school swimming pool – beware of what may be lurking at the deep end!

Chapter 1: What Lurks in the Deep End

Our school is pretty lucky to have a pool. My neighbour Rudy says that most schools don’t and that you’ve got to learn to swim backstroke in your own time which sounds pretty rubbish to me. Our school pool is MASSIVE too. It even has a diving board. Nobody is really allowed to use it though. That’s because at the diving end it’s so deep that not even our swim coach Mr Green’s feet touch the floor.

One time, Mr Green was doing a safety demonstration of how important it was NOT to go into the deep-water side of the pool that he dived down to the bottom to show us just how long it would take him to touch the floor. We all counted, and Cassie got scared because she said she couldn’t even see his bright yellow swim trunks with duckies on them when he was right at the bottom. 

When Mr Green FINALLY came spluttering to the surface again, he looked like one of those Humpback whales you see jumping out of the water on TV. He flopped right over to his side huffing and puffing and his big belly wobbling. He said that even the deep end of the pool was TOO DEEP for him, so we must be very careful.

The only problem with having an extra deep swim pool is that monsters from the deep water are never too far away. That’s something that me, Jess and Cassie, as part of the 5S Protection Team, found out the hard way.

Chapter 2: It’s got me!

Friday Morning is swim club. It’s called a ‘club’ rather than class because you don’t HAVE to do it but if you don’t then you’ve got to sit in quiet time with Mrs Shrimpton the dinner lady who’s nice but smells like a thousand farts. So pretty much everyone in 5S does swim club, even Peter Pike who looks like he has a panic attack every time he gets in the water.

It all started when we lined up along the side of the pool like Mr Green told us to whilst he went to get the swim club register. As my mum said after my last Birthday party ‘you should NEVER turn you back for ONE MOMENT on 5S’, and she was right.

We all heard a massive SPLASH as Paul Simmonds pushed Peter Pike into the swimming pool. Not just into the pool, into the DEEP side of the pool. Everyone started to panic, and Shalika even cried. Peter waved his arms about and gurgled ‘HELP, HELP!’. Mr Green spun around and dived into the pool like a dart. I’d never seen him move that fast, except when Mrs Shrimpton offers seconds for pudding in the lunch hall.

Peter was starting to bob down in the water and Jess said that Mr Green wasn’t going to make it. I grabbed the plastic lifeguard ring by the side of the pool and threw it in but luckily up from the water burst Mr Green even more like a humpback whale than we’d ever seen, but this time hold Peter Pike in his arms. Peter was coughing and spluttering, but he was OK. Mr Green looked like he’d seen a ghost.

Everyone in 5S was in shock as we stood around Peter Pike and Mr Green as they caught their breath at the side of the pool. Mr Green said he’d had quite enough for one day and now nobody was going in the pool, so we all went back into the changing rooms. Cassie said Peter was lucky that he didn’t have to get CPR and mouth-to-mouth from Mr Green and it made all the girls scream. I’d never seen anyone have to have CPR before, but my mum said they push down on your chest really hard and blow air into your mouth so much your cheeks look like a hamster’s. I was glad Peter Pike didn’t need that too or else we’d never be allowed to swim again.

At lunch break, me, Cassie and Jess decided to sit with Peter Pike and his friends to give him ‘moral support’ which is what my mum asks for when dad doesn’t listen when she’s had a ‘difficult day at work’. Half the class also decided to sit with him too and everyone was squished onto the lunch table benches like sardines in a can.

Peter Pike is a goodie-two-shoes, so we were surprised that he hadn’t told on Paul Simmonds for pushing him in. Paul was being extra nice to him because of it too. He’d given him his dessert and everything. Instead Peter looked really worried about something.

Bradley Crown and Becca Moore came over and started teasing him about not being able to swim and that’s when everything changed for class 5S.

Peter Pike looked up from his steamed fish and potatoes and said that actually he DID know how to swim but that something in the water was pulling him down into the deep. Cassie gasped, and Jess had to hold her up because she looked like she was going to faint. Even Becca and Bradley went quiet. ‘If there’s something at the bottom of that pool’ Jess whispered to me ‘then the 5S Protection Team have got to find out.’

Chapter 3: Mr Green’s fright

On Tuesdays after school, parents who want their kids to be extra good swimmers send them to Little Flippers. Little Flippers is supposed to only be for anyone who can swim 5 lengths of the pool without stopping but really, it’s for anyone whose parents will pay the money.

Annoying weasel Michael Fischer can’t even swim ONE length and he’s still allowed to go and boasts to EVERYONE in class that his mum says he’s part of the ‘elite’ which means you think you’re the best which he definitely does so I guess his mum is right.

Me and Jess go to Little Flippers too and we actually CAN swim 5 length but it’s really hard work. Our mums don’t say we’re part of the ‘elite’ though. Jess’s mum says she’s only paying the extra money because she wants to tire her out, so she’ll stop dancing around the living room every evening and go to bed instead. My mum’s too nice to tell the truth but my sister Jill who has Drama club on a Tuesday said that mum just wants us out the house, so she can have a cup of tea in peace.

On Tuesday though everyone was ‘on edge’ about getting in the pool, which is what my dad uses to describe the feeling he gets when he’s bought a Sports TV Day Pass but decides he’ll let mum find out on their bank statement rather than tell her.

We all lined up again but this time along the shallow end and Mr Green in his yellow duckie swim trunks walked up and down the row talking about swimming pool safety. I whispered to Jess that its lucky Cassie doesn’t come to Little Flippers or she’d have already fallen into the pool fainting! Cassie is a really good swimmer, but her mum would NEVER allow her to go to Little Flippers. She doesn’t even like her doing the swim class on Friday’s. She said that two pool dips a week would irritate her eczema but Cassie doesn’t even HAVE eczema anymore, that was back in year 2.

Then Mr Green told everyone to go to the middle of the pool where its deep but not too deep and to jump in. Instead of dive bombing like we usually do nobody really moved. At the middle of the pool Michael Fischer and I sat down on the edge and dangled our legs in the water but most of the class, and even Jess, wouldn’t even do that and half the time she’s braver than me. I only figured that as Michael’s closer to the deep end he’ll be dragged in first so at least I’ll be able to jump out quick. Plus, Mr Green had started shouting at everyone and I was worried I’d get a detention if I didn’t do SOMETHING!

‘Am I not speaking English?’ Mr Green shouted from the other end of the pool and started to do his quick walk up to us because nobody, not even Mr Green is allowed to run by the pool side. ‘What’s the matter with you all?’ he puffed when he’d finally reached us.

Everyone just shrugged, and Mr Green said that the water is nothing to be afraid of and that what happened to Peter Pike wasn’t an ‘everyday occurrence’ and he was here to make sure everyone was safe. Nobody wanted to explain to him that it wasn’t to do with Peter Pike or the water but to do with what was pulling on Peter Pike’s leg in the water that we were worried about.

‘Right, that’s it’ said Mr Green and dive bombed himself straight into the deep end! Everyone was stunned as, number 1. Mr Green was risking his life and he didn’t even know it and, number 2. Mr Green says dive bombing is strictly FORBIDDEN and nobody should ever go against their own rules.

After a few moments he bobbed up to the surface and started to backstroke in wide circles around the diving board. His big belly stuck out of the water like an iceberg and soon everyone was too busy giggling about that than worrying about the possible sea monster.

‘Come on you lot!’ he said stopping his backstroke and splashing us all. A girl from the year below with long blonde pigtails jumped in and everyone else was just about to when all of a sudden Mr Green cried ‘ARRRRGHHHHHH’ and the poor girl who’d just jumped in started squealing and flew up out onto the side again.  

Mr Green nearly shot upwards out of the water and everyone ran over to the deep end to see what was going on. ‘Somethings on my foot!’ he wailed trying to look down into the water. We tried too but the water was so deep we couldn’t see anything but a dark blue mystery. ‘It’s the monster’ I whispered to Jess and she nodded back.

Mr Green pulled his leg up above the water and in between his toe we could just about make out a strange clump of hair and other bits. It was the GROSSEST thing I’d ever seen, and it was tangled in between his podgy toes. Mr Green looked disgusted but tried to act calm like all teachers do when they don’t want you to see how totally SCARED they are.

He pulled it off and swam in back to the pool side, dumping it at our feet before pulling himself out of the water. It was hair or maybe fur, lots of it and in between was a used plaster and lots of white foam. Jess looked at me and I knew she was thinking what I was. It didn’t make any sense, but it certainly didn’t look human.

Chapter 4: What we’re Dealing with

After Mr Green had calmed down and cleaned up the furry foamy used-plaster ball, he demanded that we all swim in the shallow end for the last half hour of the lesson. It was the longest half hour OF OUR LIVES and Jess and I couldn’t wait to get out into the changing rooms, something we usually hate as getting out of wet swimming costumes feels like a snake trying to shed its skin – EEW!

Jess and I were chatting about how unfair it was that our mums wouldn’t let us have bikinis yet when suddenly we heard a loud shriek from the cubicle two doors down. We both popped our heads out and ran over to Shalika who was shivering in her swim towel. 

‘There’s… There’s… It’s a monster in there.’ She chattered, and I instantly froze. Jess could tell I’d used up all my bravery when I’d dangled my feet in the water with Micheal Fischer earlier so slowly she peered around the changing cubicle door. ‘It’s ok Katie, it’s not what you think’ she said and we both walked in to look at the strange grey-green lump that was oozing on the floor near the drain. ‘It looks like a half-eaten toad’ I said. Something was hungry.  

Later that evening I messaged Cassie on the 5S Protection Team chat and explained what we’d seen. When she read it, she face-timed me straight away and I could see she was FREAKING OUT. Her face had gone pale like it usually does, and her eyes were extra wide. ‘What are we going to do?’ she asked. I said that Jess said we should investigate which meant do some research into what type of sea monster we were dealing with. Then we’d know what we were up against. Jess said that’s what they all do in the films her brother watches. I said it could be ANYTHING in the swimming pool and even something we’d never seen before. 

Cassie said that maybe it could be a nice sea monster like the Loch Ness Monster that she went to find up in Scotland a few years back. Her dad bought binoculars and sat on the hotel balcony every day but didn’t see anything. Her mum said the Loch Ness Monster was probably just a friendly old monster minding its own business and didn’t want to be disturbed. She said that her mum had bought her a Loch Ness Monster keyring and that he looked very friendly in that picture. I reminded her that the Loch Ness Monster keyring on her backpack was just a cartoon not the real thing and that this monster had tried to drown Peter Pike.

Later that evening when it was past all our bedtimes, I pulled my bed covers over my head to keep my mum from seeing the light from my phone and messaged the girls what I’d found out. I typed that the sea monster in our school pool could be a giant octopus and that Peter had got stuck on one of its sticky sucker feet.

Next Cassie had looked into sea snakes and said that they can be very aggressive and are venomous which means if it had bitten Peter he’d have definitely been in trouble.  Jess had researched a Megalodon which she typed was a pre-historic giant shark. Its name even means ‘big tooth’ and that although it is supposed to have died out millions of years ago there was stuff online about people seeing it and her brother even had a film about it. I said that those people who said they saw it could be making ‘fake news’ just to get famous but Cassie typed that apparently 95% of the sea is unexplored and so its not impossible.

Finally, we decided against all three possible monsters. Jess said the Megalodon could grow to the length of a bus, so we’d definitely have spotted it in our school pool. The sea snake and the giant octopus didn’t explain the ball of hair and foam Mr Green had tangled up in. ‘Can sea creatures have fur?’ asked Cassie. ‘I’m not sure’ I replied, ‘but I think we’re dealing with something totally new here’.

‘The only way to know what it is, is to catch it’ typed Jess.