Runners

Chapter 1

4 Years before (September 9, 2024)

"Wow Leah, you're already up." My mom asked as I was walking in the kitchen. "Good morning to you too mom." Hi, my name is Leah Alverez I am 5 '6 and mixed with black and Mexican. I only live with my mom because my dad left me when I was a baby because my mom had me at a young age. But let's not go into that let me tell you about my story.

After I got dressed and ate breakfast my mom took me to school. When I got there it was 7:50 and I met up with my friends Kayla and Miyia. Kayla is about 5'4, light skinned and always has her hair done in a cute hairstyle. Miyia is 5 '8, brown skinned and never wears the same outfit more than once (and I mean never like she wears it, and it just disappears).

"Hey girl.'' Kayla said "Hey, where is your boyfriend at?" I ask. Kayla and this boy Justin like each other; they're just too scared to say it, so I tease her about it.

Before she can say anything, I say "Hey Miyia, whatcha up to." "Nothin' just doing the homework that's due today." Miyia said. You see out of our whole group I'm the most responsible one, then Miyia, then Kayla. Well, I don't know if I should say Kayla is responsible because she only copies off of me and Miyia, but we still love her.

After we were talking for a while we decided to go to the gym. That's where I saw the cutest guy in my grade. His name is Ced, he's about 6'2 muscular and #1 on our football and track team. I have had a crush since we were in the 7th grade, and it hasn't died down yet.

When the teachers dismissed us from the gym, I said goodbye to my friends and went to my first class, which was English. It wasn't anything Spectacular, all we did was read any book of our choosing and write a couple of paragraphs on why we choose the book and what it was about.

After first period ended, I hurried and met up with Kayla and Miyia by the library. We talked for a few minutes before we all split up making our way toward our 2nd period class.

Right when I sat down Ced came up to me and said, "I like your shoes." When he looked me in the eyes, I couldn't help but stare. His gaze was very intense and overwhelming, and I feel like if I wanted to look away, I wouldn't be able to. It felt like we were staring into each other for forever, but it wasn't more than a minute.

Our staring contest was interrupted when our teacher walked and told everyone to take their seats. Ced and I smiled at each other, and he slowly walked to the back of the class to go take his seat.

Throughout class I would feel Ced looking at me. Every time I would turn around, I would catch him turning his head to talk to his friends. At one point I'm pretty sure I heard him ask Justin if he knew me, but I'm not sure. Me and Ced shared about 3 classes together including 2nd period. When the bell rang dismissing us from first period I hurried and walked out of the classroom to tell Miyia and Kayla about what happened. Right when I got up Ced came up to me and asked me what my second Third period class was.

He then asked if he could walk with me to our AVID class. As he asked me what my thoughts were on the school so far. I was a little confused why he asked me that, but I just said, "Well I think it's pretty cool." He just shook his head yea and we continued to walk in silence to our next class.

As soon as we walked in the class, we both remembered that we had a class field trip this morning and that the class would be back after lunch. We looked at each other and just started to laugh. It seemed like it took us forever to finally calm down but when we did, we just looked at each other and started laughing again. When we stopped laughing the second time we looked into each other's eyes and just smiled. It seemed like we were both just mesmerized by each other and couldn't break eye contact.

Eventually his phone went off and he went to see who it was. I don't know if I should be upset or happy that it went off, because his gaze honestly felt like it was suffocating me. After checking his phone, he said "come on, let's go sit down" I said OK and almost immediately followed him.

Right after we sat down, he asked "so you forgot about the field trip too?" All I could do was smile and say yea. "So, what's your name? Justin told me that you just moved here last week." So, he did ask his friends who I was. But wait, did he just say that I moved here last week? That's why he was asking me how I felt about the school. I swear the next time I see Justin; I'm beating him up.

"My name is Leah, and I'm not new. I've been in the same class as you since 6th grade." "Really? There is no way you have been in my class for five years and I've never noticed you." He said "Well I have. You should really start paying attention to who is in your classes," I say while laughing.

"Well, I guess since you know we have been in the same class since 6th grade, you already know that my name is Cedrick." "Wait, your full name is Cedrick. I really thought your name was just Ced because literally no one calls you Cedrick." "Well yea my name is actually Cedrick "He said while laughing. After our introductions we just started to play games on the dry erase boards.

Eventually we got tired of just sitting around so we started to play some board games that was in the teacher's cabinet. We had so much fun playing that we lost track of time. When we started to hear people outside the door, we checked to see what time it was and saw that we were going to leave class in about 5 minutes. 

A few seconds later our classmates came in and the first one to come in was Christi, Cedrick's girlfriend. 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Cedrick has a girlfriend named Christi. The thing is that Christi used to be my best friend before her 16th birthday party. 

So basically, Christi had a birthday bash for her 16th birthday. Cedrick wasn't her birthday at the time it was somebody named Jordan. I didn't know they were dating because he had been flirting with me that whole evening until he finally kissed me. After she noticed we had kissed she immediately broke up with Jordan, stopped being my friend, and about a week later started to date Cedrick (knowing that I had been liking Cedric for as long as I knew her.) Just trifling I know right.

So, till this day she still claims that I stole her boyfriend even though she never even told me that they were together in the first place. I try to ignore every chance I get but the constant bullying is honestly taking a toll on me.

When they walked in, she looked directly at us and looked furious. They had to go back outside and clean up their mess from the bus, but me and Cedric didn't, so we just decided to talk when they left. 

They came back right after the bell rang but because me and Cedric weren't done talking, we kept talking on our way to the cafeteria. I was a little nervous talking to him because of Christi, but It's not like me and him were doing anything besides talking.

 Noticing how nerves I was he nudged my shoulder before asking me was I alright. I then went into detail on how Christi has been bullying me for the past two years because what happened at her birthday party.

He listened the whole time without interrupting, and it felt so good to finally get it off my chest. I explained everything till we got the cafeteria where we split was. During lunch me and Cedric didn't sit and talk to each other but every once and a while I could feel him looking at me.