That Girl

Prologue

***Hey guys, so first book just want to say I had no clue how to start this book so not all of it will be this athleticy. So please just keep reading.***

BANG

At the sound of the gun, I start running. I can hear and see the eight other runners but I try to block them out, focusing on the track in front of me. As a junior the odds of me winning the mile in the state track meet are very small, but that does not stop me from trying. When I was younger my mother told me that nothing was impossible and that as long as I have hope and I work my hardest I can achieve anything. That is what I focus on as I finish the first lap.

In track, a mile consists of four laps. The first lap should be my warm up so to speak, and as the laps progress, they should get faster and faster. The third lap is the most important, it is when I am the most tried, and it is the most discouraging to get passed. So as I start on my third lap I speed up slightly, pushing myself to the front of the group.

I pass the start line for the third time putting on an extra burst of speed to make it to the first position. The last lap is all mental, my legs hurt, my lungs burn, I feel as if I can go no farther. But I do. I push myself until I have broken so many times you cannot count it on both my hands, but then again that's still not very many times.

And then I did it, I won. A sense of glory came over me as I handed that little popsicle stick with the number one on it to the women with the clipboard. My friends surrounded me and for the first time in my life I felt like I actually fit in, it was magnificent. I finally understood what it was like to be alive.

Exaggeration, that was a huge exaggeration. I know what it is like to be alive. At that particular moment in time, my best friend Genevieve came up to me.

"Hey Ivy, great race. Although you do look like you're going to have a heart attack or something." Leave it to Genevieve to kill my high.

"Thanks, Jen, I really appreciate your concern," I respond sarcastically, adding a fake smile.

"Oh it wasn't concern Ivy, it's the truth." She returns the fake smile and we both burst out laughing. This is why Genevieve is my best friend, she understands my dry sense of humour.

"Well thanks anyway Jen."

"Oh no, I'm serious Ivy, you look like you had cement poured on your face and then had it ripped off."

"Okay, okay, I get your point, my face is red."

"It's not just red. It looks like a..."

"Shut the fuck up Jen. I love you but sometimes you can be so annoying." She laughs at that, a pretty laugh that boys consider sexy. Actually, most boys consider everything about Jen sexy, she's just one of those girls. Tall, curvy, long black hair, olive toned skin. I'm not lesbian guys, I just am good at noticing other people's strong points.

"I'm going to go clean up, do you know where the bathroom is," I ask Jen before she notices my silence.

"Yeah, it's just across the parking lot in that sketchy grey building. All come with you."

"Aren't you supposed to be at the high jump pits right now?" I say as I start to walk away.

"Oh shit, never mind can't come with. See you later."

"Bye Jen," I yell at her back as she runs across the tracks towards the high jump.

As I walk towards the ominous grey building that could very possibly be a marijuana joint run by undercover drug addicts I can't keep the smile off my face, damn winning feels so good. I get a few weird stares, probably because I'm smiling like the joker right now, but other than that I feel great. A few people even come up to congratulate me.