Broken Heart/Broken Mind

-Chapter Ten-

Sixth grade:

Sophie clipped her hair back. She was attempting to look halfway put together for her first day of middle school. So far, she wasn't having much luck.

She went back and changed into a light yellow dress. That finally seemed to do the trick. She grabbed her book bag and met Edaline in the car.

When she arrived at school, there were so many people. Why were there so many people?

She wound around the crowd to find her classroom. She let out a sigh of relief when she found room 603.

Thankfully, there weren't as many people in the room. The board said, 'Sit anywhere!'. She found a seat near the back that was less crowded.

A few minutes later, someone sat next to her. She stiffled a groan. There were a few dozen places to sit, why right there.

She changed her tune when she saw the familiar blonde boy sitting next to her. Her face lit up.

"Keefe!" she threw her arms around him. "I didn't know we were in the same homeroom."

He chuckled. "Neither did I. Not until I saw you sitting here." He glanced around the room. "But, holy cow, a real classroom is weird."

"Agreed. There's too many people."

He shrugged. "I'll get used to it."

"That makes one one of us," Sophie grumbled.

Sophie spent the next few hours going from class to class, learning her teachers' names, and finding out who was in all her classes. She had homeroom with Keefe, math with Tam and Linh, and English with Biana.

After that, she had PE, unfortunately. Good news, all of her friends had it with her!

She joined them by the track after getting changed in the locker room. They had to run the mile. On the first day of school. Yippee. Everybody in the crowd looked about as thrilled as she felt.

"Ok, who thinks I'm going to pass out?" Keefe asked their friends.

Tam started to raise his hand, but Linh snatched it down back to his side. She shot him a glare.

He shrugged. "He wanted to know." She shot another glare, and he held his hands in surrender.

They lined up as the coach started to rattle off the instructions.

"Feet on the white line," the coach barked. "On the whistle, you're going to start running. You run as fast as you can and no stopping until you make four laps around the track. That equals one mile."

Sophie got into position. She glanced beside her. She reached to Keefe to give his hand a quick squeeze before the coach continued, "On your mark. Get set. GO!" The coach blew his whistle, and Sophie took off.

All of her friends quickly sped ahead of her. She continued to fall farther and farther behind. She pushed herself harder.

Finally, with great struggle, she fell into a rhythm. Run. Inhale. Exhale. Repeat. Even though she wasn't catching up to her friends, she was still proud of herself for keeping a pace.

Three-fourths around the track, she heard the whistle blow, and the coach shout, "Keep running, Sencen, no stopping!"

Sophie turned her head. Keefe was doubled over trying to get a breath in, taking strangled gasps. She paused to make sure he was ok.

The whistle blew again. "Miss Foster, get to running! Don't concern yourself with him. And you, Mr Sencen! Keep. Running."

"I'm trying," Keefe wheezed.

"Well, try harder!"

Sophie turned and ran to him. He was still struggling to suck in some air. She hooked his arm with his, and they started a jog.

He was still breathing heavily, but at least they had a steady pace going on. The coach was yelling at them to go faster. Sophie ignored him, even when the threats of silent lunch came up. She just turned to Keefe and said, "Don't pay any attention, keep going. You're doing your best." He nodded and continued pushing through.

After nearly all the other kids, they finished their fourth lap. Sophie was a bit winded, but nothing compared to Keefe. She took him to sit on the bleachers with their friends.

"Are you ok," Biana asked.

He nodded. "I just... need a second."

The coach stalked over. "Why didn't you two run like you were supposed to? I saw that you were both capable."

"Capable?" Sophie asked. "He was having a hard time running like that! If he didn't slow down, he would've passed out!"

The coach scoffed. "Uh-huh. I know it's the first day of school, but I don't have children disrespect me. Detention, both of you."

They both looked up, shocked. "But that's not fair!" Dex shouted.

"How?" He cut Dex off before he could speak. "Let me guess, medical issue." He rolled his eyes. "Not that I've heard that excuse a million times."

"But it is," Keefe said. "Did you not read any of the doctor notes? I know for a fact I turned it in during open house."

The coach sneered, "It's the first day of school. You expect me to read all those already?"

"Yes!" Sophie yelled. "He could've passed out. I could’ve had a seizure. Some kid could have asthma. That's your job!"

The coach cleared his throat. "Well..." She had him there. "We'll deal with this later. I'll postpone the detention until this is sorted out."

The coach walked away, calling everyone inside. Sophie kept an eye on Keefe. Which was a good thing her next class after lunch was science. Both him and Dex were in her class.

The three of them sat at the group table, joined by another girl named Marella, who had come into class late, so seat pickings were slim. Something about her looked familiar, but Sophie couldn't put her finger on it.

"You alright?" She asked Keefe for the tenth time since PE.

"I'm alright, Foster," he assured her.

Even though he'd stopped shaking and had cooled down and caught his breath, she still wanted to make one hundred percent sure.

Her last class of the day, somehow miraculously, had all of her friends in it. She had zero clue how it happened, but it made history class a lot less boring.

On the way home, she texted her friends in the group chat: Wanna go roller skating Saturday?

After discussing times and plans, they had come to the conclusion that they'd meet up at the roller rink at twelve for their own back to school party of sorts.