''Ian Romero, the person I hate the most in the whole wide world. He turned the entire school against me, and then just left me alone in the hell he created.''
There's no one Cody Walker hates more than Ian Romero, who is the reason he has been bull...
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*Cody Walker's POV
The stands were crowded with students, teachers, friends and parents all alike. The air was heavy with clamor and high-pitched laughter. It carried the smell of hot dogs, making my stomach grumble, but I wasn't amongst the crowd and thus there was no chance for me to get one of those delicious buns. At least not until the race was over.
"Just look at all these people!" Oat exclaimed, their gaze roaming around the stands. "I'm gonna be sick.."
"Hey, no way." It was my time to yelp, although it wasn't because of the crowd on the stands. I had noticed them a long time ago and though it was unnerving it wasn't that much of a surprise to me anymore.
"Oh yes. Stop wriggling! I'm not afraid to use force if necessary." Oat was holding a scrunchie and they were trying to hold me still while gathering my hair off my face.
"No.. everyone is going to stare at me." I complained, but stopped struggling against them. Mostly because I didn't want to get pulled from my hair in the process.
"Stare at what?" Oat gave me a content grin once they had tied my hair in a small bun.
"My ears, dummy." I mumbled so quietly it was a wonder they could hear it.
"There's nothing wrong with your ears, dummy. Do you really think anyone is going to concentrate on your ears when you're spinning around this track faster than the speed of light?" Oat smacked my forehead playfully.
"I guess not." I sighed. They did have a point there, and I don't know why I was making such a big deal about it. There was no Bryce, Jeremy or Kaleb calling me Dumbo anymore, but sometimes I still felt like they were somewhere hiding and sneering at me. Sometimes I could still hear their laughter clear as day. I was almost certain they would appear in the stands and start cheering at me: "Cody! — Runner! — Cody Runner!"
Instead I saw a wide smile on Ian's lips, who was sitting on the stands with his mom and his mom's boyfriend, his dad and his dad's husband, my parents, Cole, Chloe, Ade, Callie and Hope. Ian gave me thumbs up as soon as he saw me looking and I nodded back at him as nervous as ever.
"Okay, hear me now, Rapunzel." Oat called for my attention. "We all know you're going to win this race, and I won't take any risks. Not even with the hair, so it stays up, okay?"
"Okay.." I gave up, my hand fumbling the small bun nervously. They were right of course: I needed to see where I was going and my hair always got in the way.
"Great, now go there and win this race." Oat winked then, proceeding towards the starting line. I followed in their footsteps.
"Aren't you planning to win?" I asked.
"Me? To win you? Like that's ever going to happen." Oat turned to look at me.
