Evangeline (Unedited)

16

A T T I T U D E   A N D   A P P R E C I A T I O N
(It's my birthday October 5th, so I wrote an extra chapter of my favourite story of mine. Had a bad panic attack today so this is how I make myself feel productive since I probably won't do any schoolwork for the rest of the day haha. Enjoy!!!)

I thought yesterday was hot, and trust me, it was. But I did not consider how blistering this heat would be what felt like miles into the woods, with nothing but a lukewarm plastic water bottle and some sneakers that barely fit my feet, trying to keep up with these giants. Their legs are much longer than mine—at least the older boys. Leo and Noah are similar in height to me, so our legs are basically the same. Though, I might have a smidge on Noah.

Either way, it was not hard to tell that the entire family was athletic. Even the ones who swore to me they weren't when I was nervous about joining them. Backstabbers.

This was an entire family kind of outing, which I was also not prepared for. If it weren't for Leo pretending to get tired and wait up for me, I'd probably be lost in the woods to never return home.

"I've definitely broken a sweat." Tommy pants, slowing down from his jog. Alessandro kept going, leaving all of us in his dust.

They had lapped the group twice since nobody else felt like running. I was basically running trying to keep up with their pace, though. I think if I really started running, I'd trip and fall and die. Trying to lift my legs and avoid the roots sticking out of the muddy ground, whilst also moving my body faster than ever before, was not for the weak.

"Don't get me started." I groan quietly under my breath.

He hears and lets out a chuckle.

"It isn't that bad." He shakes his head, eyes still wandering in front of us. I deadpan at him, the silence making him look at me. He breaks into laughter which makes Leo look up at us from the cool rock he found in his hand, and claps a hand on my back. He immediately pulls it off. "Oh my, you weren't kidding. I guess it's pretty hot."

"You guess?"

"Okay, attitude." He raises a teasing eyebrow at me and I huff, focusing ahead of me and narrowly missing a large rock that surely would've taken me out. Nail in the coffin. "Hey, Sandro?"

Alessandro halts in his jog, pulling an earbud out of his ear, but continuing to face away.

"Can we take a short break? I don't think the kids will make it." I inwardly thank him for not saying me, because we all know he meant me.

I also inwardly thank everyone for pretending like they didn't know it was about me.

How do I share genetics with this family?

I can't imagine being forced to do this every weekend like Noah complained about at breakfast this morning. Breakfast was incredibly good, and was making my stomach rumble just thinking about it. Luckily, Elio wasn't that athletic either. We were both kind of losers at school, neither of us in clubs, except for him with the student council and the newspaper committee. I, on the other hand, was only sent to the student council room and meetings when I had nowhere to sit for lunch since he would be there and always welcome me—which was often I would sit in the back and eat my lunch as I awkwardly watch the group talk or organize whatever event they were throwing, craft whatever poster they needed. Sometimes Lucy, the president, would offer me something to do. She always seemed really mean, but was pretty sweet once you spoke to her a couple of times. I was always jealous of her since she was so well-liked and well-known.

I don't like attention, but I still crave it sometimes. It's weird.

"Yeah, sure." He fully stops, turning around and taking a couple of deep breaths. His forehead was glistening with sweat like the rest of us, but somehow, he still looked clean and put together. "Any preferences?"