The Lucky Paw

Chapter 8

Monday was a terrible day for Katy. She forgot her necklace in her bedside drawer.

First, in English, the dreaded quiz was sprung on the students. Katy was sure that she had flunked it.

Math, science, and social studies involved subjects so complex that even Jenny Rosemary, the class smarty-pants, had trouble understanding it. In art, they discussed old artists, which was so boring that Katy had trouble keeping her eyes open.

But lunch was the worst. A small boy spilled half a tray full of spaghetti on Katy. She had to borrow ugly, baggy shorts from the school nurse.

After her horrible day, Katy was certain that track would not go well. After everyone had lined up to race, Katy noticed Mrs. Patterson standing at the edge of the field, watching.

Katy had never felt any pressure to do well at track, until now. Her thoughts were that if she could do well today, her foster mother might cancel the scheduled doctor's appointment. If she did not do well, she was most certainly going to the doctor.

The whistle blared, startling Katy out of her thoughts. She took off with the other runners, while watching Mrs. Patterson nervously from the corner of her eye.

She willed herself to keep running after the first of the race, for Mrs. Patterson's benefit, but sweat was already pooling on her shoulders, and her breath was coming in short gasps. She had to stop. But she couldn't stop. She kept running, trying to gasp in air. As it was, Katy was already in last place, which was uncommon for her.

Soon, Katy stopped breathing. Not a lot, or for a long time. She simply stopped breathing, just for an instant. But it was enough to make her stumble to a stop, knees bent, head down.

When her breathing returned to gasps, she pulled herself to the bench. She knew Mrs. Patterson was watching, but she didn't care.

She was tired, every inch of her body ached, and she was struggling to breathe normally. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. She had to remind herself how to breathe, which was obviously not normal, however much Katy wished it was.

She wished she could hide herself, or faint. How embarrassing for the #1 track star to drop out before anyone else at a practice!

Katy spent the remainder of her time laying on the bench, watching Beth and Anna do their events.

Mrs. Patterson made no mention of the disastrous track practice, and Katy did not tell her of her problems running.