Through Thick & Thin

Chapter 12

Reyanna pulled up to the track and parked her car. She was a little early, but she needed the extra time to herself to get her head together. She had to admit that she was pretty nervous about what was about to take place. She was pretty much pulling a Hail Mary right now, putting all of her cards out on the table, and if this didn't work, then Michael's future at Brown University would be in jeopardy, and hers' would be over. Reyanna headed onto the track, headphones in, and decided to go ahead and get her warm-up laps over with. When she finished, she went over to the grass where her duffle bag was and just lay her head on it, staring at the sky. It was such a beautiful day out, a few clouds in the sky, and the temperature was perfect. Reyanna just decided to take it all in as she felt the cool breeze blow past her face. She had been through so much these past couple of months, that she hadn't even had anytime to herself. She hadn't had a chance to just stop and enjoy what was around her, enjoy the people she had in her life, or just be thankful for all of the opportunities she'd had. If all those opportunities were about to come to an end, or whether she was going to be kicked out and face serious legal troubles or not, she was thankful for it all.

Reyanna had zoned out as she heard the voices of her teammates as they were walking towards the track. Practice would be getting ready to start, which meant she would be finding out her fate soon enough. Reyanna grabbed her bag and headed to the bleachers where Coach Zellers was having everyone meet up. When Reyanna got there, she saw Crystal, Denise, and Sophia already dressed up and stretching. "Hey Rey, you ready to do warm up laps," Crystal asked, as she had just finished her quad stretches. "I already did mine," Reyanna said sitting her bag on the bleacher nearby. "I got here a little early and decided to go ahead and get them out the way." "That's Reyanna for you, always trying to get ahead of everybody. Told ya'll this girl was baby Felix. Straight out the womb" Crystal said with a laugh. "Yeah Reyanna, why don't you slow down and give the rest of us a chance to catch up," Denise said. "Well it really doesn't matter how much I slow down Denise," Reyanna said with a glare, "Because you'll never be able to catch up."

"Damn Rey, we were just playing," Sophia said. "Yeah Rey what's up with you. Why you being so feisty today," Crystal asked? "Nothing guys," Reyanna said. She didn't want to give anything away right now because it was too early. Everything would unfold during practice. Until then, she had to keep her cool and act like everything was still alright between them. "Sorry guys, it's just a lot has been going on these past few days and I've been a little on edge lately. I didn't mean it." "At least not to everyone anyways," she thought to herself. "Alright ladies listen up," Coach Zeller's had just arrived and everybody quieted down. Those who were finishing up their laps were coming in to meet everyone else by the bleachers.
"Alright you all, as you know we had a pretty hard workout yesterday, so today I decided we would switch things up a little bit," Coach said directing her gaze towards Reyanna briefly. "This is it," Reyanna thought to herself. "Time to set this plan in motion."

"Today, we're going to do a mock meet for all the sprinters. I've seen you all's hard work at the previous meets and in practice and I want to see how far you've come and all your progress. Just think of this as a promotion, and if you meet/exceed your times some of you might get moved up," she said. "But Coach it's the middle of the season. Why are we doing this now? Wouldn't changing up the relay teams cause a lot of confusion," one of the girls asked? "Damn girl shut up and just do what Coach said," Reyanna thought to herself with annoyance, but Coach kept her cool. "Well like I said, I've seen the numbers you've put up these past few meets and at practice and to be honest some of you may not be in the right relay team. So, I'm doing this to enhance our track team and ensure we have the best possible chance to make it to State this year. it's also going to see how much improvement we'll need to make if we even want to qualify for State. So, I want everyone to treat this like we're at a real meet, and give me 150% because you will be timed." There was chatter amongst the girls, some with excitement from the girls who had been working hard during the off season, and others who were upset that they hadn't.