Family Is Forever

18

With Charlotte

"Pick it up Helmsley you're dragging behind!" the volleyball coach yelled from the bleachers of the high school gym

Charlotte huffed as she ran around the gym trying to catch up with the rest of her team. She hated Saturday practices, especially when Coach B was in a mood. The volleyball team had started practicing for the school year over the summer and Charlotte was this close from quitting. The practices had been nothing but cardio and Charlotte's legs were killing her. Not to mention the fact that she was the youngest player on the team being the only rising sophomore at the summer workouts. All the other girls were giving her a hard time, making it their mission to make her look back in the coach's eye.

"Alright, alright..enough" the coach called causing all of the girls to finish their lap while Charlotte huffed and jogged over to the group, finishing last, "Since Helmsley over here wants to take her time and jog everybody's going to run the stairs until she can finish a mile in perfect time"

The rest of the girls groaned and gave Charlotte death glares causing her to duck her head trying to hide, "Nice going Charlotte, if you don't do this right I'll personally make sure you never see the court again"

"Helmsley.. you have 8 minutes....if you complete a mile in that amount of time then everyone can go home early. If not, then you'll have to do it again until you can" Coach B said before ordering the rest of the team to the door of the gym that led to three flights of stairs which connected to a hall above the gym and down another set of stairs which led back into a different door in the gym.

Once the coach blew the whistle all the girls started running, Charlotte gave a huff before taking off. She hated running but she knew if she didn't make this time she wouldn't be able to show her face to the team again. Charlotte ran around the gym doing her laps as the other girls ran up the stairs and back down coming through the gym all shouting at her to hurry up every time she passed them.

"Pick it up Helmsley"

"Or else"

Charlotte pushed herself faster and finished a couple of laps, 20 around the gym was a mile to the coach and by the time Charlotte hit 15 her leg started to hurt a little, "You got 2 minutes left Helmsley"

Charlotte huffed out her held breath and ran faster feeling the scars on her leg burns as her bone started to ache. Ever since her accident her leg healed back properly but it was very easy to aggravate which is why she was always the slowest runner on the high school team, and when she complained about it to her mother Stephanie said that running faster didn't make her better. Her mother told her that it was her character and her attitude that held her above the rest but from Charlotte's stand point if she couldn't run fast or play perfectly she wouldn't be good enough. Her teammates constant jeers and glares confirmed this for her long before she ever played her first high school game.

"And time!" the coach called out, shocking Charlotte causing her to stop and see that she had already ran her five laps. The rest of the team gathered around coming down from the stairs all huffing and out of breath as they waited for the final time, "It looks like we're all going home early. 7 minutes and 58 seconds Helmsley....next time we'll aim for seven thirty...alright everyone hit the showers and head home"

The rest of the team gave relieved sighs and patted Charlotte on the back except for one blond girl who stood across from her with a frown. Charlotte had recognized right away that this was Natalya the team captain and imediately ducked her head down to avoid eye contact. If anyone hated her on the team it was Natalya, "You were really close there"

"Yeah" Charlotte shrugged and gave a nervous laugh

"Look Charlotte, I like you-"

"You do?"