Something's Wrong With the Different Realms

Twenty-Two: Track & Field

Alexa Parisi

Just one more block to go! I thought to myself as my feet pounded on the pavement of the road, trying to motivate myself to run faster.

My face felt hot and I was huffing for air but I felt good. I felt energetic. I could feel the thoughts of the past few days fade away every time my feet hit the asphalt road. Running was an amazing distraction and it was something that I had been doing more these days, especially with the first regional track meet taking place tomorrow.

As soon as I hit the driveway of Fleur's house, I halted to a stop and paused my time and took out my earbuds. I looked at my time. 5 minutes and 47 seconds. That was a record for me. I pumped my fist into the air as I started to walk around the block to cool myself down.

"Fleur, wake up!" I shouted, pounding on Fleur's bedroom door.

A weary Fleur cracked open the door. "What time is it? Why are you waking me up so early?"

I tightened my ponytail and heaved my bag up. "It's 6:20 AM and buses don't run this early so you have to take me to school."

"Why?" asked Fleur.

"Remember, I have my track meet," I said, crossing my arms.

"Sorry, just give me five minutes," she grumbled. "You can wait in the dining room and eat breakfast, I guess."

"I already ate, and I made myself some bread-thing for lunch. You know, the one with meat and vegetables in it? I forgot what it's called."

"A sandwich?"

"Yes."

With everything going on, I was glad to have the track meet taking place today. It gave me something to focus on, something to think about. I didn't want to think about Horizon's betrayal, Isla and Jasper's conflict, and finding a way to get home myself any more than I needed to. Essentially, it gave me an outlet for my festering anger.

Besides, I had to admit that going to the track meet was kind of exciting. It was a new experience and we didn't have this back in Zenobia, the only competitions we had were arts and magic competitions, so I was curious to see what a track meet would entail.

"Did you bring sunscreen?" Fleur asked as we arrived at the school.

"Of course," I said, nodding as I bid her goodbye and dashed to my coach to sign in.

I gazed out the window as the bus rolled by desolate fields and lone country roads. I took in the sky as it brightened, the coral streaks being replaced by the bright blue. I wished I could tell Horizon about my track meet but I still felt betrayed by him so I wouldn't feel comfortable sharing this part of myself with him.

But maybe I should let him talk to me. Especially since I had been itching to share my realization about the portals with someone. Besides, I knew Horizon well enough to be sure that he probably had a good explanation for what he did but that didn't necessarily mean that the damage wasn't already done.

I felt torn.

A few years ago, Horizon had gotten an invitation to some sort of light capturing convention in Stinniabe. Since Stinniabe was half a day away from Zenobia, he had to stay there overnight.

However, he didn't feel the need to tell me about the competition so when I knocked on his door the next day, his mother had informed me that he was away for a few days due to some competition.

I was infuriated because we usually told each other almost everything, especially important things such as an invitation to a convention!

"Lair, I won!" he exclaimed when he came back.

"That's great," I mumbled passive-aggressively.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" I asked.

"I did, did I not?" he contorted his face in confusion. "I mean, I told Zarin to tell you at least?"

I rolled my eyes. "Next time, just tell me directly. Knock on my door even. Okay? I would appreciate it if you told me directly."

Horizon pondered for a moment before saying, "okay."

I beamed, "congrats on your award by the way! You deserve it!"

We embraced each other. Talking had solved that conflict but it was a much smaller problem than the one that was currently happening. It was a lesser act of betrayal that was easier for me to forgive.

No, I needed to stop my mind from drifting. I needed to stop playing every memory of our friendship. It'd just leave me feeling like an emptied-out hollow husk. What I needed to do was to focus on the track meet that was taking place today. I needed to make sure my time for the 1,500 meters was under six minutes.

So I spent the rest of the bus ride looking longingly at the scenery and wondering about what a track meet would look like.

The track used for the track meet looked like our school track, except the bleachers were much larger and there were eight lanes on the track instead of six.

Since my event took place in the afternoon, I decided to spend my time wandering around and taking in everything. I could do my warm-up run later. I took in the brightly colored tents that displayed the emblems of various high schools throughout the county, the athletes all adorning their school colors warming up on the sidelines, and the tired volunteers not wanting to be here early in the day.

Since there wasn't anything to do, and the events hadn't begun yet because the volunteers were still setting everything up, I returned to my school tent and grabbed my science textbook to prepare for my upcoming unit test.

"Oh, you're here," I raised my head at the sound of the coach's voice trying to see who he was talking to.

It was someone familiar, someone I was sure I had seen before but I wasn't sure who. They were new since I hadn't seen them at any of the track practices before. But where did I see their terracotta eyes and maroon hair?

When they spoke, it clicked into place. It was the strange other-realmly creature that I had seen that day when I was shopping for a laptop downtown. The same creature that I was sure I had seen lingering around at the Zenobian festival.

"So... which one am I doing again?" they asked.

"Senior boy's 4x100 meter relay, Malum," said the coach, flipping the pages on his clipboard. "Tom moved away and no one else volunteered so I guess you're lucky we took you."

"I'm nonbinary though," muttered the creature whose name was Malum.

"Yes, I'm aware of that. They don't have a separate category for nonbinary athletes, unfortunately, and your testosterone levels are high enough so... you're on."

"Okay," they said as they took a jersey. "Thanks for taking me in at the last minute."

"You're welcome, I guess."

Malum headed into the tent to grab a jersey and a number when they spotted me with my science textbook propped open, staring at them.

"Have I seen you before?" they asked at the same time I said, "how are you here?"

As they took another look at me, realization dawned on their face. They must've felt my other-realmly or something because they said: "I've definitely seen you before," before leaving the tent.

As soon as they left, pain shot up my body, the same pain that I felt the first time I spotted them. I clutched my textbook to my chest as I buckled over. The only reasonable explanation for this was that they were causing the pain and they were the ones who sent me here!

Red hot anger shot up my body.

I'm going to destroy them.