euphoria | cazzie

One Step Closer to You

My feet took off from the starting line in a swift motion. At this point, it was muscle memory. I knew exactly how to have the edge over everyone else and I knew exactly how to win. I remember Clayton Prep not participating in my relay race, which I have to admit I was quite disappointed about. The moment I crossed the finish line, I took in heaves of oxygen. I could hear the crowd erupt into cheer as I bent down to catch my breath.

"You did it!" Sharice yelled, jumping on my back. Still tired from the run, I let out a chuckle and gave her a light fist bump. When I finally stood up, I saw Zahid, Evan, Sam, Elsa (and no Dad) jumping around. A smile broke out on my face almost immediately. I loved doing them proud. "Dude Clayton has nothing on you," Sharice whispered, giggling.

Clayton...

Immediately, my mind wandered back to that girl. I subtly tried to look around to find her and the moment I did I instantly regretted it because she was staring straight at me. I turned around casually, hoping that it would be enough to convince her that I was most definitely not trying to find her. I put my arm around Sharice as we both walked back to the rest of the team.

"Hey, you know that girl over there? Do you have any idea who she is?" I asked Sharice, carefully darting my eyes towards the direction of my muse. "Oh her? That's Izzie Stewart. Captain of Clayton's team," Sharice said, as if it was global knowledge.

That's a huge deal... Why have I not heard of her before?

"Why you got a little crush on her?" Sharice asked and I shoved her lightly. "Shut up," I groaned and we quickened our pace towards our team.

We had a celebratory dinner at Don's before we all headed home. Coach had given us the week off to rest and I figured it was time to start on all my overdue homework. I was not exactly the best student but I wasn't horrible either. A few missing assignments here and there and a couple of Bs and Cs. But I always had the same excuse- training for track. Now that the competition was over, I had no reason to not start studying. Mid-terms were coming and no university will take me no matter how good my track records are if my grades were this horrible. It was incredibly difficult to focus on the math equation in front of me because my mind was filled with thoughts about Izzie Stewart. I was confused. I've never felt like this before. I haven't even talked to the girl yet! I whipped out my phone and went on to Instagram.

I searched for her name multiple times but nothing came up. "Does this girl not have Instagram?" I asked myself. And that's how the rest of the night went. Lying on my bed, scrolling through Instagram, Twitter and every social media known to earth but there was not even a trace of the brown-eyed girl. I threw my phone on the bed in frustration. I was probably only going to see this girl at the next track meet and who knows when that would be?

That night, Izzie was on my mind.

I absolutely hate the sound of my alarm. The moment I opened my eyes a wave of frustration came over me. The routine of going to school was absolutely disgusting. Why do we even need school? Half the teachers don't even care about us. The moment I entered school with Sam, I saw Zahid, Evan and Sharice by the lockers. "Casey! Sam!" Evan called out to us. "Sorry, I don't have time to talk. I told Paige I would help her study for Biology," Sam said and left the group. "Casey you look horrible," Zahid said and I rolled my eyes. "You don't look any better yourself," I said, my middle finger facing him. "You look like you haven't slept for days. Up late studying?" Evan asked. Yeah... studying my phone to find just one picture of Izzie...

"Yeah, mid terms are coming so..." I said, opening my locker to take out my History textbook. "No way you actually had the motivation to study. What were you really doing?" Zahid said, staring straight into my eyes. At that point, I wanted to tell them everything that was going on in my mind. So I did. "Ok guys look you can't tell anyone!" I said and they moved closer, more curious about what I had to say. "So you know that girl yesterday? Izzie Stewart? The captain of the Clayton team? Yeah so ummm..." I trailed off and looked down to cover the blush forming on my face. "She's kinda cute..." I said, ending off with a lifeless chuckle. "Sooo... a crush?" Evan asked and I nodded sheepishly. "I knew it!" Sharice yelled in glee. "Izzie Stewart is one heart throb. Every guy in Clayton wants her," Sharice said and I looked at her with my eyebrows raised. "Or at least that's what I've heard..."