My Double Life

Last Day of School, or Not?

“Phillips?! What are you doing?”

“You know, it would have been very easy for someone to kidnap you. You have to be more careful, never know who’s out there?” He laughs his amazing laugh and I can’t help but smile back at him. I really am going to miss him after I leave.

“Yeah, well, maybe I wanted to get kidnapped. Or maybe I just knew it was you pulling me.”

“Yeah right! I was totally sneaking.”

“In your dreams, Phillips. So, what did you need?”

“So, I’ve been thinking. We should go out, you and me.”

“I don’t know…”

He cuts me off before I can properly turn him down. “Look, I know that we barely know each other. But that doesn’t change the way I feel whenever I see you or whenever I show up to school and you aren’t there. I need you to know that I’m here for you. For anything.” He looks me straight in the eye and I can tell he’s being honest with me. Something I picked up on over the past few years.

“It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s just that…”

“No excuses. We’re going out. Tonight. I have the perfect date planned.”

I really hate when people cut me off, but I really didn’t want to have to turn him down. I guess I can do one date before I disappear forever. “Yeah, okay. A date tonight sounds great. You know where to pick me up.” I quickly get out of the car and make my way towards the school building. This day just got a little bit better.

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Most of the day went by quickly. Boring classes that I wasn’t really paying attention to.  I’m now sitting in gym class waiting for the coach to meet us in the gym. He’s running late which is frustrating.

“Alright class, listen up! Today we’re going to be playing soccer. Go down to the track and run four laps, I’ll meet you down there.”

I haven’t actually done anything in this gym class yet. I’ve been absent quite a lot and when I get back they don’t let me participate because I’ve just come back from an illness. I’m excited we’re playing football though. These Americans have no idea what they’re messing with.

I get to the field and begin running.

I’m fourteen and super excited because my parents are finally letting me join a sport. They’ve always been so protective, something about me being clumsy and them not wanting me to get hurt. We agreed on track because it’s a no contact sport. Running can be useful too, if you ever have to outrun a hungry dog or lion or something. I can’t really remember why I wanted to join a sport, I just remember wanting to do something. Anything. There was no rhyme or reason for it, just something in me told me I had to do something else with my life.

Before then I was so boring. The girl that people came to when they needed help on homework. The girl in the mathletes and science club. Being a jock sounded pretty cool to me.

It was the first day of practice and the coach had us start out by running a mile for warm up. I had never really run much before so I was extremely nervous. Not to mention these burley looking blokes dressed in fancy suits were watching from the bleachers. At the time I thought maybe they were scouts or something.

Not that they would be scouting me. Afterall, who could possibly want me? I'm not good at anything. 

I was distracted by the suits and my self-doubt when the coach blew the horn, signaling that we were supposed to begin running. Here I was stuck at the starting line and everyone else was already so far ahead. I began to run.