Tracking a Star

Chapter 3: Rest

I have been benched.

Not for forever, I’m just missing a week of practice and our first meet. It’s a bummer, I know, and I’ve been pretty down about it. Coach Bolton thought I was hurt that badly, no matter on how much I pleaded for him to sign me up. Although I did trip when I turned my heel away from him.  

Nothing exciting has been happening so far, other than that Josh got permission to come sit next to me in the field to keep company for the whole practice.  It sucked that I was required to come to the practices and not run, but Josh was nice to talk to and made the time go by fast. We were sitting side by side on the grass, where the track was right in front of us. I kept my legs stretched out in front of me and Josh kept his crossed. I was tempted to just lean onto him, but that would probably look awkward and give Megan a heart attack.   

“This still sucks, we were going to run the mile and a half,” I complain once again to him at practice. He gives me a reassuring smile, as though his looks were going to make the situation any better. It didn’t, in case you were wondering.

“You know there’s going to be plenty of other meets you’ll run in right?” he points out. I nod.

“I know but, this is would’ve been my first meet, the one I just have to miss,” I add and sigh at the end, staring down at my knees.

“Dani, you know I would protest, but you can barely walk. You’re not well enough to compete in a meet quite yet,” he sighs.

What does he mean? I can walk totally fine, sort of. He’s right; I’m not well enough to run, but I can walk. Of course I can’t run a mile and a half.

“I can’t run, but I can walk,” I protest.  I stand up and walk a few steps, instantly feeling aches and pain shoot through both of my knees. As I start to feel myself falling, Josh wraps his arm around my stomach and pulls me back.

“And this is why you aren’t running in the meet,” he jokes, helping me sit back down on the warm grass.

“Alright, you win,” I give up, looking back into his hazel eyes. They were touched with golden specks around the light brown of his pupil that highlight his eyes.  Some girls stare into deep blue eyes and run their fingers through blonde hair, but what I see now is way better.

“Your eyes are so pretty,” he whispers.  I actually think he’s going to make a move on me, press his lips against mine and hold them there forever.

He slowly leans his head in as he tries to kiss me until a dramatic clear of the throat breaks us apart. Oh no.

Megan glares down at me with crossed arms and her foot tapping on the edge of the track.  She looks over at Josh and smiles.

“Come on Joshie, you can’t sit around here forever. You are running in the first meet aren’t you?” she pouts at Josh. Oh God he can’t actually be joining her for running? I didn’t want him to leave, but then again, it might be a bit awkward if he stays with me.  

“Right, see you later Dani,” he says standing up and heading over to the track with Megan. She smiles her white gleaming teeth at him then looks over to me and snarls.

"It’s just too bad you can’t run in your first meet after a little incident isn’t it?” she says sarcastically, then smiles and skips to the track to run with Josh.                                                    

                                                                        ***********************

Penny seems to be right on cue as they leave, walking over and sitting down next to me.

“Soooo what were you guys talking about?” she asks smiling with curiosity.

“Nothing,” I sigh. Her smile drops.

“What was it? Did he say something wrong?” she asks. I shake my head.

“I thought he was going to make a move on me, and then little miss perfect had to show up and make him run with her,” I explain. She shakes her head and sighs.  

“You know he’s going to try again,” she says, a smirk returning to her face.

“Maybe, but wouldn’t that be so cool? Just think of it, making out with the Josh Hutcherson. A girl would die for this,” I say optimistically. Weird of me, I never dreamed of this actually happening. I was just simply hanging out with a celebrity and I’m acting all calm about it.  

“I never knew you were actually dreaming of this,” she says.

“It’s turned into one now I guess, but besides. He’ll have to probably go do another movie soon, you just watch,”

Penny shrugs and leaves without a word to start running again on the track with another friend of hers. Josh would always be at Megan’s side, and would wave at me every time when we exchanged glances, but I could tell Megan was restricting him from even coming over to actually say hi.

She is jealous of me isn’t she? They have never even kissed. I’m actually not getting this whole relationship between them. He met me first, not her. A month later he could be having sex with her. I mean, this is high school right? This kind of stuff is supposed to happen. 

                                                      ***************************

Josh’s P.O.V.

Megan was really starting to get on my nerves.  I wanted to just stop and go back to Dani to carry on another conversation, but I had to keep running. Or it’d be just nice to run by myself. Right now, I’d do anything to get away from her.  

“Keep up Josh!” Megan calls out in front of me. I notice I was walking now so I immediately pick up the pace and run next to her. As we pass Dani, I reach my hand up to wave again but Megan yanks it down. Did she have to do that? I was only throwing a friendly gesture to Dani. She was sitting there all alone with nothing to do.  

“What’s your problem?” I ask a little too stern. She turns her head to glare at me.

“Quit waving at her, you’re running with me now. And she’s not even going to be in the meet so why bother?” she snaps.

“Come on, she can’t even go to her first meet, so just give her a break,” I tell her as she purses her lips.

“Well, you seem to like her way better than me, and I can’t possibly see why.  She’s not right, there’s something up with her that just makes me cringe,” She says.  

My jaw dropped at her remark. Dani is perfect to me, way better compared to Megan. She had no right to say that about her. I so badly wanted to trip her, but I knew it would be mean and the last thing I wanted was to get in trouble because of her. But I kept my mouth shut, letting us do the rest of our required run in complete silence.