Perfect Match

Part 3

I adverted my eyes, not wanting to stare. Autum, being the assertive person she is, walked over and hugged them both.  

"Oh God," I slapped my forehead, "Come on Autum, let's go."  

"Ok!" she laughed. We walked over to where her grandma was waiting to pick her up. She waved goodbye to me and sped off. I trudged over to the athletic locker room. I always dreaded this part of the day. Cross country. I groaned internally. When I reached my destination, outside the door, was crowded with handsome football players and cute swim-and-divers.  

"Excuse me?" I said, trying to make my way through the bodies. My hand reached for the bright orange door. I pulled it open, cool air flew into my face, and I entered.  

I heard loud voices and laughter coming from the tennis players. I cringed. I quickly went to my locker and opened it. 30-36-2. It clicked open. My locker was as bright was the door, maybe even brighter. I put on my sports bra, spandex and cut-off shirt on and waited for practice to start. The time finally said 3:00 and I slipped on my running shoes and went outside. I saw all of the cross country girls congregated by our meeting bench.  

The guys came later. We always managed to be outside before them.  

"Let's run warm-up, guys," A senior named Jared yelled. The varsity runners, including Jake, took off. I sighed, knowing today would be a hard one. I started running.  

"Hey Kyra," my friend Allison said, catching up to me.  

"Hi Allison. How are you?" I asked, propelling myself forward.  

"Could be better. I'm totally grounded and until my mother gets a 'sign', I am grounded indefinitely. It sucks."  

I said nothing.  

"What did you do?" another girl asked.  

"NOTHING! That's the thing!" she explained. I nodded silently.  

We finished warm-up quickly. We did our stretches and huddled around our coach, waiting patiently for him to tell us our run for the day.  

"Alright everybody! Come in closer!" Tac yelled. His name, Tac, meant something along the lines of "Tall Ass Coach". He was that cool.  

"Ok everyone, we are going to do the Federal Run," he said moments later. I heard groans from every person, except varsity runners. That was just because they could run five minute miles. It drove me insane. Why couldn't I do that? Running to Federal was a six mile run. Three miles there and three miles back. I was going to die.  

"Let's move out," Jared said loudly. Jake and all of the other good runners took off. And fast. I was so going to regret coming to practice today. Allison, Julia, another good friend of mine, and I started down the baking sidewalk. I got a serious case of cotton-mouth when we reached the one-mile mark. I the distance, I could barely make out the sprinting petit figures that made up girls varsity.  

Allison stared talking and I heard Julia laugh. I couldn't really talk during my runs because I lose my breath and I can't catch it again. I felt little beads of sweat drip down my reddened face. I sucked in the precious oxygen around me. I heaved. I was running to the pace of my breathing, which I tried to make it my nonnegotiable when running. If I was out of breath, breathing fast, that is how I would be running. I knew the true value of breathing slow.  

Allison and Julia continued to jabber on about something or another. I could see the corner and just a half-mile more would be the turnaround point for us. My leg muscles pleaded me to stop. I pushed myself forward even though every inch of me was in pain. The heat was excruciating. I saw Tac's green truck and huge orange water containers. I picked up my pace ever so slightly. I was in the desert, and there was my oasis.  

"Hey girls! How are ya doin'?" Tac asked his usual question, "Are you feeling good? Can you make it back?"  

I was breathing hard. I bent over and gulped down the water from the 20 gallon containers. I was careful not to drink too much because I got REALLY bad cramps. Allison and Julia finished their water break and we waved goodbye to Tac. I could feel and hear the water sloshing inside of me.  

"Oh God," I said, driving my arms.  

"What?" Julia asked.  

"I'm gonna puke up this water,"  

"Don't barf on me," She said, scooting away from me. That made me laugh and almost breathless laugh. Coming back didn't seem nearly as bad as going. I think it was because we all wanted to get done with the damn run. Allison, Julia and I reached the gate to find everyone doing stretches. We walked over slowly and joined in. Jake and his friend, Alex kept stealing glances at me. I felt my face grow hot. It was a good thing my face was already tomato-colored. I looked away from their sculpted bodies. I stared at my dirty Nike's. I felt their eyes on me still as our team got up to go to the weight room.  

Abs. One of my least favorite post-run exercises. All of us who were fortunate enough to be there first grabbed the mats. Allison was, and so she took one for all of us. When I am done with a run, there are only three things that I want to do: eat at ton, sleep a ton, and eat some more. In that order. We finished our grueling workout. I was wiped, and so was everyone else. Even the varsity runners looked a little winded. I put our mat back where Allison got it from. I bumped into Alex.  

"Hmp," he said.  

"Sorry," I blushed. He smiled a little and put his mat on the rack as well. I pivoted around and walked out. To the locker room again and snatched my things. I went to the bench again and waited for my ride.

Hey guys! it's me again! i hope you like this part. it took me forever to type! haha!  Sorry if there is a typo--no one is editing this, so bear with me:)

Lots o' love!  

-me