Persisting Anyway

19) State

Sydney's POV

My stomach fluttered with butterflies. This Saturday was my time to shine and right now I wasn't feeling so shiny. In fact, I was feeling sick. People had begun to come in and find a seat in the tons of bleachers. I took a drink of water and eyed Claire and Rory bounding towards me. They were smiling brightly.

Soon I was being thrown backwards with such force. Claire and Rory hugged me tightly.

"Ah! I'm so excited for you, Sydney! You will do amazing!" Claire jumped up and down which created a need for Rory and I to jump as well. We probably looked like idiots in the middle of the field, but I didn't care.

"This is your chance to shine, take every moment of it in, cherish it and crush everyone. Make them all eat pit sand." Rory broke the hug first and I gulped in unstale air.

"Thanks guys," I smiled. But my smile fell when I saw Carter and Josh and Max walking around finding a seat. "What are they doing here?" I frowned.

"Oh! That reminds me! We have to tell you about Carter!" Claire exclaimed.

"He really didn't kiss Amanda on purpose-" Rory started.

"Amanda kissed him and Carter couldn't pull away because-"

"She has witch nails that are full of poison that hurt cute boys." Rory became animated.

"Okay, maybe not full of poison, but she still has long nails,"

"That really did dig into Carter's skin."

I became overwhelmed with the choppy story. "Okay, okay, guys, calm down, start from the beginning." And for the next few minutes Claire and Rory took turns telling me the story of what happened between Amanda and Carter. Little tears welled in the corner of my eyes when they told me what Carter thought of our relationship, how he described it as perfect and he was okay with going slow. I smiled brightly, confident that what they were telling me was true.

"Do you believe us?" Claire pleaded.

"Please tell me you believe us, because if you don't I will be really upset because we told Carter we would get you to believe us, and you two would get back together because you have to get together because you two are perfect." Rory rambled. "I mean, if you two don't get back together, I could just date Carter instead of you becuase as this rate Josh sucks at making a move-" Rory was interrupted by Claire punching her arm. "Sorry." Rory mumbled.

"I believe you guys, I know Carter-he would never do anything like that on purpose. I was stupid to think any differently." Rory and Claire smiled and engulfed me in their arms again. "Alright, I have to go guys. Wish me luck!" I let go and then jogged over to the Long Jump. I gave them my sticker and stood in line. I saw the boy from the meet talking to Stephanie Heyven, the girl that came in first last year. He saw me and smirked. I watched him as he sauntered over to me.

"Well, look who is here. Come to place second again?" He smiled sweetly but I didn't buy it.

"No actually, I came to place first. So, if you will excuse me, I have a jump to complete." I shoulder my way away from him and found my number. I stared at the white line and took a deep breath. I watched the guy give me a thumbs up. With one last deep breath I began sprinting, picking up speed, and eyeing the white line for one of the last times in my high school career.

This was the moment I had been working towards since seventh grade. I was here and I was going to win. My feet slapped the concrete, the white line grew bigger, and so did my confidence. I had worked for this, this was my moment and no one was going to ruin it.

The white line disappeared and my feet were infront of me. I threw my arms forward and I landed perfectly. That split second right after you stick a jump is weightless and pure bliss. That split second is filled with confience but its also the split second where you don't really know what's going on. So I looked to my coach. Coach Hersh was smiling.