The Love In Our Lungs

Chapter 6

A few weeks have gone by and school has gotten even worse. I'm sitting with my sketchbook wondering if I should at least show up to the race happening in a few hours. The school has this thing where the students compete in different events all in one day. I don't plan on participating in anything, given the fact that if I did, an ambulance would be called to take me to the hospital because of the adrenaline my lungs had to take in. I wouldn't want the school to have a bad reputation because one of their students had ended up in the hospital. My reputation in this school would be affected, and it wouldn't be a positive effect.

I'm wearing yellow socks today. This means I'm apprehensive of my surroundings, implicating that I would rather watch others play volleyball and race each other than run with them knowing I would lose. There are no classes today, but rather loud-filled classrooms with students divided into different teams. I'm in a classroom filled with some sixteen-year-olds as well as eighteen-year-olds, and a few people my age. Unfortunately, Tyler isn't in this classroom. I would have talked to him if he was. Silly me thought he would have been assigned to be in the same team as me, but life has other plans in store for us.

Right now everyone who isn't me is huddling with the popular kids who have been so kind to take upon the role of leaders for our team. This feels like a dictatorship. All the other students are clapping their hands while they salute their "leaders" who are who I think are the blonde that had bumped into me on the first day, and a girl with black hair as black as Dr. Gahn's. She could be his daughter, but I would rather not question his or her personal life.

I am sitting at the desk that is the farthest from the crowd of people, staring into the soccer field that is filling in with what I assume are the parents of some of the kids here. It's lovely to see how much adults care about us because we are the future. We will know more than they ever could think of knowing because we will live longer than our parents if life says so.

Watching as a group of students approach the soccer field, I don't notice my team has left me behind. I once again find myself alone, and more worried than ever. It's eight in the morning and our teachers think that playing soccer is ideal right now? I stay seated for a few more minutes just thinking about nothing in specific. When I think the time is fitting I get out of my seat, and with a little brown bag, I have gone towards the soccer field. 

With my ponytail swaying side to side I look towards the bleachers that are filled with people cheering their team. Students with blue, green, and yellow shirts are yelling profanities, songs, and sentences I can't seem to decipher. My yellow sweatband indicates that I am on the yellow team. I can't help but wonder what team is Tyler or Lola on? I'm pretty sure Lola would still hate me, even if we were on the same team. As for Tyler, he'd probably be weirded out. He'd think I was following, or that I was obsessed with him. Both of those make sense, but I'm simply intrigued by the boy. Intrigued by the boy with a black sweater that had been so sweet to me in a coffee shop, but can't even approach me at school the way he had in the coffee shop that day.

I somehow end up sitting in between two girls. One is from the blue team, seeing as she has blue paint scattered all over her face I feel uncertain as to how she will take all that paint off her face after all this screaming ends, and we are left to go home. My wavy hair that is trapped in a ponytail is yanked backward. The sudden action startles me and causes my eyes to widen. I look behind my shoulder to find Caroline. She has a smirk on her face, and Allison is beside her, laughing. I sigh and turn my attention back toward the soccer game between yellow and green. I stay there, no emotion on my face. When I thought that our encounter at the cafeteria would be the last time I had been around Allison and Caroline, I realized I was so wrong. This school isn't that big. Of course, that wasn't going to be the last I had seen of them.