She wondered, if she were a leaf floating in the wind, where would she end up?
What if she never landed at all?
"Clara, are you listening to me?" came a very distressed voice from beside her.
Clara jerked, as if flinging herself awake, and tore her gaze from outside the small, dusty windows of the school bus. Ben was looking at her, his expression alert and his body practically bouncing in his seat. He's the kind of guy who's going to make wearing school bus seat belts mandatory one of these days.
"Clara!"
"Sorry," she coughed. "What?"
"I was saying that you completely blew their mind! Seriously, that was amazing! You're a natural. Coach Aaron will make you Varsity for sure!"
Clara blinks. "But I just got here," she replied. "Aren't I supposed to have some seniority or something? And I know barely anything about the sport."
"Maybe seniority means something in other schools, but here it's 'if you're fast, you're fast'. And you are definitely fast! Seriously! What's your P.R.?"
"My P—what?"
"Your personal record," Ben gestured wildly, as if he could almost taste the numbers. Too bad she didn't have them.
"I don't know," she shrugged. "I've never really been much of a runner before."
"Never been—much of a—what? How?" Ben sputtered. "Impossible! You must have done some kind of running sport!"
Clara wondered if ice fishing was something Ben would consider a sport at all. "Nope. Today was my first race."
"But what about at your old high school?"
Clara hid her wince. "I... was home-schooled until this year.
"Whoah, really?" Ben looked on, surprised. "But you seem so normal!" Clara shot him a rather questioning brow, and Ben backpedaled rapidly. "I didn't mean—I just thought—"
"It's okay," Clara waved off the rest of his apology attempt. "I know what you mean. I get it." He looked like he was about to go on, and while Clara appreciated that he was trying to make sure she wasn't offended, she really wasn't in the mood to talk about it. "I only ever did hiking and then some... rock-climbing on the side. I did a little Copoeira for a while too, but eventually didn't have enough time for it."
"Hiking! Rock-climbing! Man, you do the coolest stuff," Ben beamed at her, and Clara could feel the heart inside of her chest beginning to put itself back together again. You know, she thought. Maybe I've been thinking about this place all wrong.
"Thanks," Clara smiled, feeling a little lighter than she did, say, fifteen minutes ago. "You know, it is pretty cool. I've been really lucky."
"And now we're lucky to have you!" Ben elbowed her playfully, scooting lower into his seat to join her. He wasn't as careful with his knees though, and one of their teammates immediately turned around to send Ben a mild glare for stabbing he and his seat partner in the back. Ben quickly ushered out another hasty apology, at which point Clara was sent into a quiet fit of laughter, and the next thing she knew, he and the other teammate ahead of them were play-wrestling around the edge of the narrow aisle. With a final burst of laughter, Clara pulled on his arm to move him from the fray, and the teammates in front of them turned back around to face forward, teasing Ben good-naturedly about how he'd already stabbed too many people in the back this season and how he was going to pay for it eventually.
"I see that you make friends rather easily," Clara joked, but only because she thought it was very, very true.
Ben laughed, but it gave Clara pause; it sounded almost sheepish, especially with the way he was rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, well. You know how it goes."
