Blue Belt

Chapter 1

                                                                                 I.

 The weather was darker than any typical cloudy day here in Sacramento. There was also some drizzle in the air. I suppose you could say that the weather that day matched my mood. I fixated on the California state flag out in front of the school, which was fully extended from the strong gusty wind that was blowing. As we pulled into our parking spot where my Mom was dropping me off I noticed the empty bike rack that was normally filled with bikes. My ride to the school that day was filled with these nostalgic thoughts of my school, and I knew it had something to do with the fact that my stay at Merriwether High was coming to an end. It was my last track meet. As I got out of the car I felt the coolness of the breeze blowing across the lot. I instantly knew what running straight into that would feel like, and it was not going to help matters. Oh well, I thought, it's just one last time.

As I wished my Mom well, I saw the masses of students and coaches starting to cluster together in groups out on the football field. I detected the fog in the air as I tried to see who already was over in our group, which was out towards the middle of the field. I walked over, as some students jogged right past me, to get to where my team was. I put down a towel on the field and decided to take a seat and begin my stretching right next to Trent who was one of my friends on the team and one of our better runners.

"Lane!" Trent yelled shortly after I sat down. Running across the field toward us was my best friend Lane. Lane was quite short and slim for our age. Unlike Trent he probably was not the best fit for the track team, but he was still fast enough to sprint, although not doing so today. He would be running in the 10k with Trent and I today. Lane, like me, had brown hair, although his was longer than mine. Lane and I had been through a lot together : from paintball, playing PS3, going to his martial arts classes with him at times, and too many other things to name. I felt better just hearing his name.

"Whassup guys." Lane sprinted over and threw down his bag.

"Nice weather." I snidely remarked.

"As usual I can count on you to help motivate me." Lane remarked back.

"Hey, I'll catch up with you later." Trent looked at us as he headed over to a couple other friends of his.

"Coach." Lane remarked as suddenly our coach appeared from behind us.

Coach Scott was an older teacher at our school, in his early fifties, with thinning gray hair, and a narrow frame. Dad really liked him because he was a die hard when it came to running. Even on a normal school day, one could approach Mr. Scott's desk and find at least two or three running magazines strewn across it. He was a social studies teacher, but took track very seriously.

"Matt, are you set?" He asked me as he patted me on the back.

"Yes, I think I'll be fine." I responded plainly.

"Finish strong Matt. I think you've got something to prove, don't you?" He asked rhetorically.

"Yes sir." I responded, still looking at the ground.

Mr. Scott walked away and I looked up at Lane who was kind of looking away by that time. I now felt worse than I did a few minutes ago.

"What an ass." Lane remarked to my surprise as I just nodded in reply without anything to say in reply. I felt numb. There was an awkward silence.

"Yeah, whatever. Hey, I'm going to go find Trent." Lane said as he slowly walked away.

This had been a really long season to me. Aside from a single meet mid-season in San Francisco, my standings were worse as a Senior then they'd been as a Junior. And it's not like coach or my dad had really been in my face over it. I think they knew that with the accident, things would be different for me.