The Track and Me

Six

Chapter Six

I walked up the hallway to see Jake outside the history door.

"Hey Ryan, I'm just a little nervous."

He ran his fingers through his hair and began pacing.

"Jake, I knew we shouldn't had hung out. You should had studied."

"I know. I wanted to help you. I wanted to make you see I'm not the bad guy and for doing that I don't care if I fail."

"Hey, Jake."

Great, here comes Kate......

"Hey, Kate. Um. I'm going to go study real quick. I'll save you a seat Ryan." Jake said taking my bag and walking in the classroom.

"I don't know what you think you're doing but everyone knows that Jake and I have a thing so go find someone else." Kate snarled.

"Is there a problem here girls?" Coach said from behind us about to walk inside the classroom.

"No problem here Coach. Just telling Carrie how great it would be to have her on the team." Kate beamed back.

"That's not what it sounded like. Kate, I need to see you before practice today." He said and walked into the classroom.

"Remember what I said." Her demeanor changed completely once Coach left.

Before she could say anything else I walked into history. Jake was sitting in the back of the classroom with my bag in the seat beside him.

"Hey, sorry to leave you out there with the she-witch. I just wanted to cram. What did she say?" Jake said glancing at his notes ever so often.

"She pretty much just threatened me for ever learning about your existence. Apparently she has claim."

Jake quickly looked up at me and busted out laughing.

"She told you- that she and I- oh wow." He said between laughing.

"Oh yeah. Coach overheard and wants to meet with her before practice."

"Oh, that should be interesting."

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"How do you think you did?" I asked Jake while we walked to practice.

"Hopefully good enough. I couldn't imagine failing. I'd get kicked off the team for sure." Jake's eyes slowly saddened.

"I'm sure you did fine." I said hitting him on the back. "I'll race you to practice?"

He quickly smiled. "You're on Ryan."

I let him beat me this time but I felt like he wasn't giving a 100 percent. Maybe he was trying to let me win.

"You weren't even trying, Stanley." I said to him catching my breath.

"Maybe." He said walking toward the changing room.

Jake Stanley, you're something else.

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"Get up, Ryan." Jake said offering me his hand.

When I was running around the last straightaway, my feet got tangled up and I fell straight down on my face.

"Are you alright?" Jake said looking at my ankle.

As soon as I put pressure on my ankle I was going down. Jake caught me quickly.

"Ryan, are you alright?" Coach said walking over toward me.

"Nothing a little ice can't fix coach." I said back trying to stand up again on my own but failing.