How her roommates asked her about Taylor:

“It’s actually kind of funny now that I think about it. Like, some of my roommates and some of the freshmen on the team … I was just waiting for them to ask because we all do kind of background looks into each other because we’re going to be living with these girls and so, finally, like two weeks into it, one of them got the courage to just bring her up and everything and it was just one of those things that was just kind of like an understood thing, you know, and, you know, I don’t mind talking about her, she’s my best friend, but it was kind of different for me.”

On being recognized:

“When I do go out, I do have people that I have never actually met before who will come up to me, and it’s flattering, I guess, but it’s definitely not something I’m used to by now. It has its perks.”

On the seedier side of fame:

“Me and my friend the other day, we Googled my name, everybody does that, I’ll admit to it, and I see all these MySpace pages and I was like ‘Wait a second,’ and I look and it and it’s not me at all, it’s not even how I talk or how I spell my name. That is kind of weird, but, you know, I can only hope that nobody is out there to damage me or anything. But yeah, I do have an official MySpace and an official Facebook and, I mean, if you’re really my friend, there’s no problems with that.”

On being asked about Taylor:

“When they’ll bring her up, I talk about her like she’s my friend, because that’s what she is to me. Once you have the opportunity to meet her, you understand that she’s just as normal as it gets. But it’s never been awkward when people ask me about it, I don’t have to, like, think twice before I say anything, it’s just, they’ll ask me a question and I’ll be straight-forward because, I mean, she’s probably already talked about it before.”

On Taylor’s visit:

“She’s only come out here once, and that was in the spring, toward the end of school, and it went very well, to my surprise. I went out to see her at a show in St. Louis and then we rode her bus back here. And, actually, I didn’t think she was going to stick with the plan and actually stay, but she did. She stayed on Mass., and she stayed for about three days and we got her into one of my classes and that did cause a bit of a disturbance.”

More on the visit:

“It went very well. She loves it here. I mean, it was raining the whole time she was here. I was kind of nervous, I was like, I really wanted her to see it when it’s just absolutely gorgeous be-cause I knew she’d love it, but she loves it and I know that she’ll be back next year, for sure.”

On showing Taylor what college is like:

“College is the one thing that she hasn’t been able to experience that everybody her age pretty much has, and to some that’s a really big deal. She always knew that she wasn’t going to go to college. Some people are meant for it, and some people aren’t and I feel like I’m one of those that’s meant for it, but we can respect each other because she does things that I’ll never be able to do. So, it’s just like her taking me on tour with her, I’ll take her to college with me. So, I’m not surprised that she mentioned it really, because I know deep down she always wonders, you know, ‘What if I did do this instead of this?'”

On what her parents think of the friendship:

“My parents are really strict, a Southern family, and not even Taylor Swift can persuade (them), you know, because they’ve known her before she was ‘The Taylor Swift.’ They could care less. But she does have a way with my parents where if I ask, they’ll say no, but if she asks, they’ll say yes. They respect our relationship so much. So yes, we still have those situations where I’ll need her to ask my parents and the same thing with her parents, I can persuade them to do things that she can’t. I don’t think that’s going to change for a while.”

On swimming rather than touring with Taylor:

“This has happened the past two years in a row, and I know she’s just furious with me, but I’m sure she’ll tweet about it later, but, you know, we always make these big plans for the summer … and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to travel with you … we can go on vacation together!’ And then I end up having to train. You know, for a meet that I didn’t know I qualified for or we just didn’t have planned. She’s so supportive, it doesn’t bother her, I guess, but you know, I can’t go up and travel and stuff, but there will be plenty of time for that, and when I do have breaks, I do spend them as much with her as much as possible. It all works out.”

On Taylor getting in the pool with her:

“Swam with me? Oh no, absolutely not. She …. no, I can’t even imagine … No, I can’t imagine her in a swimming pool. I’ve actually never seen her in a swimming pool, now that I think about it. We live on a lake, so we’ve gotten in there before, but … I’ve never seen her swim, I don’t think I ever will.”

On how they maintain their friendship:

“We talk a lot. Every time we do talk, it’s like we never really stopped talking. We just pick up right where we left off, I mean, she’ll call me and won’t even give me a chance to say ‘hello’ before she’s starting just a story and I’ll do the same thing with her. We don’t even say ‘hi’ to each other, we just go right into it. And that’s something that has never changed with us and I really … it really, really helps you cherish your friendship when, you know, you’re kind of distant but you still really want to maintain that close friendship. We certainly know how to go about doing it.”

On Taylor seeing her swim:

“She came about a year ago. That was the last time she came to see me swim, and that will probably be the last time because when she walked in, the entire meet pretty much stopped. People were missing their events to try and get her autograph and she felt so bad. I don’t take it personally at all because I know her heart’s in the right place, she wants to see how I’m doing … she’s obviously done something right to have an entire room of swimmers wanting to miss their events and get her autograph. But she supports me via phone. That’s good for now.”