The Unfortunates

Chapter Five

"Seriously, Leah?" Zenna shook her head at me as she ran past. "I've barely broken a sweat, and you look like you're about to pass out."

She wasn't wrong, technically.

We'd been running for three miles now, down the greenway trail that snaked through my neighborhood. Anna told us that endurance was one of the most important things in a battle—you would be exhausted too early to even have a shot at winning if your stamina was low.

I supposed she was right, but I didn't have to like it. I had never been a runner, and I was being reminded of why at this very moment.

"I..." I managed to eke out with a gasp, "...am doing my best." I wiped the sweat off my brow and prayed my face wasn't too red.

Zenna smirked at me as she jogged beside me, her long, strawberry-blonde hair swishing. "Sometimes that's not enough. Wanna race?"

"I don't know," I said sarcastically, heaving in a deep breath and pumping my arms. "Do I look like I want to race?"

"Come on! Race to that tree," she said, gesturing to one. "The rest of the team were being boring and said no." She pushed a long strand of hair behind her ear, having opted not to put it up for the run.

"Wonder why?" I rolled my eyes. "Fine. Just to that tree."

"Three, two, one, go!" Zenna shouted, and took off sprinting. I groaned, wondering why I'd agreed to this, and followed behind.

The tree was maybe a hundred meters away, about the length of the shortest race the track team had to offer, I knew from Anna's lengthy explanations. I pumped my arms and gasped for air, but Zenna continued to pull steadily ahead.

I felt my braids thwacking my shoulders and I grimaced, determined not to give up so easily. I pushed into a little bit of energy I didn't even know I had and caught up with Zenna.

She looked at me, surprised, as the tree came up in front of us. "Got any energy left?" she asked, finally a little bit of effort in her voice.

I didn't even try to talk, and instead grit my teeth and tried to pull ahead.

But Zenna just had more power. She leapt the last couple feet and smacked the tree. "I win!"

I slowed down, noticing the rest of the team waiting up ahead. "Thank the Lord. Are we done?"

"Yeah," Zenna said. "That was sad, Leah, I crushed you!"

"You did not," I scoffed, bending over and putting my hands on my knees, trying to regain my breath. "I was close. Ish."

Anna jogged up to me as I straightened up. "You were going so fast back there!" She slapped me on the back and pulled the scrunchie out of her hair, popping it on her wrist.

"And I still managed to be the last person to finish on the team," I sighed, shaking my head. I didn't dare touch my hair; it was frizzy enough already. "Zenna even doubled back to get me!" Not out of any kindness in her heart, just to taunt me. But had I expected any less?

We walked towards the rest of the team together. "I think you did great. Think about it," Anna continued, "Chase and I are on the track team, Mason swims so he's really in shape, and Zenna is just like a superhuman all around. You did pretty good, for that!"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," I said, trying to bite back a smile. "Are we going to debrief?"

"Yeah, we're heading back to the shed, Sunshine," Anna smirked. "We need to figure out if we're ready to go for Swift yet or not."

"Don't we have another power training session later today?" I asked, shoving my hands in my pockets and shivering.

"I don't know. A lot of people don't like those sessions." Anna glanced at me. "They say Zenna is too hard on everyone."