Rewired

Chapter 2: Saved Your Life

The next day of track practice hadn't gone as badly as I'd expected. Sammy had pretended to trip as soon as he saw me headed toward the track, soliciting laughter from the two guys he was warming up with, but other than that, things had seemed to be pretty normal. To top it off, since  it was the night before the district meet, we'd only run an easy mile followed by some stretches.
After that workout, my legs had felt good and I was pretty pumped when I heard my lineup for events. 1600 and 3200 were my specialty, and they'd finally had the sense to take me out of the 4x800 relay. I could hold a good pace for quite some time, but when it came down to it, I just didn't have a lot of natural speed. I was more the come-from-behind-and-lets-see-who's-tougher type.
Right now it was 6:30 am, already working its way up to about 80 degrees, and as Layla, Carlie, and I stood waiting on the bus, I could already feel beads of sweat forming along my hairline. I pulled my near two feet of curly brown hair into a ponytail, but with the humidity already making the air feel sticky, it didn't do much good.
I had inherited the thick mess of curls from my mother. Between that and my dark brown eyes, there was no mistaking my Spanish heritage. Both my sisters, Ella (short for Gabriella) and Ava, looked nearly identical to me, save for being about two and four years younger. My older brother, Mark, on the other hand, had bright red hair and blue eyes inherited from my father's side of the family. Now 22, he was enlisted in the Marines, currently serving in Afghanistan. He worried me, but he was tough. I sure missed having him home, though.
As far as speaking Spanish, I wasn't fluent or anything, but my grandparents could still be heard bickering with one another in the language from time to time.
     I fanned the air with my hand for all of thirty seconds before I realized that wasn't going to do any good. Carlie emptied the rest of her water bottle, straining her eyes down the road to see if she could make out any traces of a large, yellow bus.
"It's hotter than hell out here", she complained, "I swear I'm going to run a 9 minute mile today."
"You'd better not!", Layla said, laughing, "we need the points if we're going to beat Ferry!"
Martins Ferry had some of the best runners in the area, with the boys track team sending members to state for the past three years, and the girls team had a few star athletes, as well. In particular, Jada Reynolds ran a 5:20 mile in the 1600 event, which would have been unbelievable if I hadn't seen Carlie run times like that on a regular basis. The two were always neck and neck in the races, and believe me, after getting beat by literally one step last week at the OVACs, Carlie was out for blood today.
     Now me? I was just hoping to place well enough in my heat to make it to regionals.
     The bus finally pulled up to the curb, and I was ready to put on some music and sleep the whole way to Meadowbrook. I loved my teammates, but 6:30 was just so damn early. Normally I would have had a hot, black coffee with me, but with this being the district meet, I wasn't taking a chance on getting sick in the middle of my race.
     As I stepped up to board the bus, though, I felt two, strong hands grip my shoulders and pull backwards- hard. Confused, I let out a shrill cry and braced myself for a fall, only to be jolted forward again, just as quickly. I was about to turn around to see what was going on when I felt someone move close to me and whisper, "Saved your life again!"
     Annoyed, I turned around, again taken aback at Sammy's beautiful eyes. This time, I noticed a few flecks of brown within the green, paired with a sharp jawline and just a little bit of scruff. His light brown hair had a short, neat cut, which paired well with his lean but muscular build. How had I not noticed how cute he was before? I was torn between this and wondering why the hell he was all of a sudden so intent on messing with me.
     Not sure what to say, I settled for, "Doesn't count if you're the one who put my life in danger in the first place!"
     "But what about yesterday?", he countered.
     "Next time don't let me hit the ground", I replied, playfully nudging him with my shoulder.
     "Don't worry," he responded quickly, "with your coordination, I'm sure there'll be plenty of opportunity to get it right, even by your standards."
     He then rolled his eyes at me, shoved me up the next step, and made his way to the middle of the bus where his friend Elliot was waiting. I continued on to the back and found a seat where I could hopefully set up a pillow and go to sleep.
     As soon as I sat down, though, Layla took the seat across from me and propped her elbows up on her knees. She grinned suggestively at me, her head in her hands, looking over the rims of her black Aviator sunglasses. Here we go, I thought, half annoyed and half amused.
     "What?", I asked her, point blank, having accepted that this conversation was inevitable. If there was a guy involved, there was no way Layla would let me off the hook without some sort of explanation. I swear, she had a good career in journalism coming up.
     "So, you and Sammy....", she trailed off, expecting me to fill in the rest of that sentence for her, I was sure.
"Me and Sammy, what?" I replied, not sure why I felt myself blushing a little, "So he tried to scare me getting on the bus. He's immature."
"Aaaand?", she added, prodding me along.
"Aaaand, nothing. I fell, he helped me up, and he's been teasing me about it for two days."
"And that would have nothing to do with the fact that you're gorgeous and prom is coming up?"
"Layla, he probably has a date. It's nothing, we're nothing, I'm going to bed."
I turned around and started fiddling with my pillow.
"Okay, Marielle, whatever you say", I heard her reply from behind me. I could literally feel the skeptical look that was going on behind me. It was no use. We started cross country together as kids, and by now, she knew when my wheels were turning.
     She also knew when getting any more details out of me wasn't going to happen. Still, there really was no "us" where me and Sammy were concerned. Like I said, up until this past Thursday, we hadn't even talked.
Could he be flirting with me? I guess. I mean, I didn't necessarily get hit on a lot, but I guessed some people might consider me pretty. Still, Layla was right. Prom was coming up.
Who knew? I was tired, and I definitely didn't want to share my embarrassing, half-baked analysis of the situation like some kind of eleven year old talking about her crush at a sleepover. I had to chuckle at the thought, though. I was currently clutching a pillow and wearing Charmander slippers, for crying out loud.
It wasn't even a real crush, though. He was cute, but, hell, we were graduating in a month and things would fizzle out then, anyway. Either way, I was going to sleep.
     Laying my head against the, thankfully, cool window, I finally managed to drift off sometime around the mall. I barely even noticed we were stopped until Carlie kicked my shoe, to which I responded by chucking a bottle of purple Gatorade at her.
"We're here, let's go.", she informed me, tossing it back. "Let's go kick some ass!"