The Wallflower of Parkview High

Chapter Fifteen

The rest of Monday and all of Tuesday was quiet for me. Alicia and I had resorted to talking every once in a while, but since I only had language arts with her, and break and lunch seemed to go by more quickly than ever, we only managed to get a few sentences in each time.

Zander continued to ignore me, instead hanging out with those loud, annoying basketball friends of his and throwing that stupid tennis ball around. I secretly appreciated the fact that they didn't throw it around while I was in the line of sight. Still, I managed to cringe out of the way whenever I saw them.

As for Damien...well, he was more tense than usual when we were around each other. I didn't know what his problem was, but I had the slight suspicion that it had to do with Zander and Alicia. Every time he was around them, he lost his cheery and easygoing demeanor and became all stiff and awkward, even a little angry.

Luckily I wasn't at the center of any drama these past days. People had seemed to forget about my spats with Zander and instead had moved onto something else - in this case, it was a girl who had been caught kissing another boy behind the PE locker rooms after school, therefore making her boyfriend jealous. They broke up shortly afterwards and it was all anyone could talk about.

The fact that I wasn't one of the topics of attention anymore caused a slight lift in my mood. It must have shown, because when I walked to PE this morning, a few people looked at me all weird. As soon as I sat down on my spot, Mr. Greene walked out of the equipment room holding a clipboard.

"Alright." Mr. Greene said, once he had called everyone to attention. "This is it."

I was confused for a second, trying to figure out what he meant, when I remembered...

The Mile Test

With all these things going on, between my arguments with Zander and my dream, I had completely forgotten that we were going to be tested on The Mile today, that your time really mattered this time around.

It's not like you can run very fast anyways, Noah I reminded myself as Mr. Greene dismissed us to go change.

As soon as everyone was done changing and sitting down, Mr. Greene went on about how important this was and how we needed to get a good mile time after all this training. I didn't know how much of this applied to me since there wasn't a chance in hell I was going to get a good mile time, so I sort of tuned out his words and briefly glanced around. That's when my eyes landed on Zander. I noticed that he was nervously fiddling with the hem of his shirt. Why he was nervous, I'll probably never know. He could probably run that mile in 5 minutes and come out looking like he hadn't run at all, certainly not the sweaty, panting mess that I and many other people were going to be in a little while.

After Mr. Greene explained about The Mile Test a bit more, he had us jog out to the cones that would act as a "starting line". As I ran, I already felt an aching in my small legs and fought the urge to cry out in pain.

When everyone had jogged out the cones, Mr. Greene led us through a series of stretches to get us ready, before turning to his clipboard and writing something down. I awkwardly moved towards the front of the group, hoping that it would at least get me a head start. Suddenly, I heard someone whisper in my ear.

"Go!"

I squeaked and stumbled forward, attracting a few looks. Turning to the side, I saw Zander doubling over laughing.

"You should've seen the look on your face!" he wheezed between fits of laughter.

I quickly mumbled an apology - for what reason, I didn't know - and averted my eyes from him. Just because we got into a little spat a few days ago doesn't mean he could go around scaring me...right?