The Last Lap

Chapter Six

As the students trickled in, I started to notice the blankness of their stares and how homogenous they seemed to be. The same clothing, hair, and attitude. We were not one bit different from each other aside from Jia and Jasmyn. A bitter staleness filled the air.

"How was your weekend?" Jia asked Jasmyn as we sat for lunch. It was getting closer to Christmas. It didn't feel like it, however. It was very cold but no snow or ice was on the ground. I guess I should've said that I was lucky because then I would be able to run outside. Jasmyn pushed back her glasses and shrugged. She was never very talkative anyways.

"It was alright for me. I realized many things about my family," She responded.

"Yeah, I've realized many things too. My third eye has opened," She made two circles with her hands and sat crisscrossed on the seat. Jia looked so comfortable in her skin.

"Okay, I need to vent to you guys," I finally said after finishing my apple juice. I had no desire for eating any other part of my lunch so I just pushed it off to the side. I saw Coach Reynolds walking over to us. I kept forgetting that he had this period off. It was nice to see him. He always knew how to make the conversation fun.

"Hi girls," He put his tray across from mine and sat next to Jia. She smiled at him and they waved at each other. His square jawline was decorated with a dirty blond stubble and he was wearing a funny origami hat. "What are we talking about?"

"We," I gestured to the three of us, "Are talking about our weekend."

"Mine was okay," He shrugged with an annoying grin. If he were our age and our friend I would be able to punch him for fun. But he was our coach and although I threatened Jia with a speed day, I really didn't want it.

"Anyways," I started, "I realized how our school and our track team is so..."

"White?" Jasmyn finally commented. All eyes were on her and we all slightly nodded our heads. At least someone said it.

"Yeah. What is with that Coach? Like we have Alex but why is he the only one?"

"I don't know. He wasn't really recruited. We just saw him and his mom talked to us about it so we invited him over. I think he's a great kid."

"Yeah that doesn't answer my question Coach," I replied. He shrugged his shoulders in response and started picking around the plate. Jasmyn put her chin on her fist and looked deep in thought.

"Maybe we should do something about that," Jasmyn suggested.

I looked at her, "We have to do something. I'm tired of being stuck in a school full of the same people every day that look like they could be related to me. I already get that during the summer when I go to Bosnia."

"Well, I don't know what to tell you, Ema. I think that is a great idea and I'm up for helping the school grow, you know that. I just don't know how we would bring that up to the school board."

"Just tell them it's a problem," I replied, untangling and wrapping them back up again.

"Yes, that is obvious but what's the solution?"

I frowned, "I don't know but you have connections right? To other schools I mean. You can talk to them and we can, like, switch students for a day or something."

His face lightened up like a light bulb hit him. Jia looked like she was excited about the idea and leaned forward, "Dave!"

"Please don't call me that."

"Listen, Dave, you need to call Alex's old school and ask them to let the three of us shadow for a day and then three of those people can come shadow here."

"Yeah Dave, let's do that," I agreed with her. He was grinning shyly and chuckling to himself. He took a bite of his salad and looked back at us.

"What would you get out of that?" He asked.

"Well, we would understand how the other schools work and they would know what it's like to be at a school like ours."

"What was the purpose? To be more diverse?"

"Well, duh."

"First, Ema, you will know what their school is like. It won't improve the lack of diversity in our school. It will just waste the schools time and money. You have to think about people like Rosa Parks, Dr. King, the Kennedys and what they did. You can't just go talk to a person once and know what it's like to be in their shoes. You need to do something worthwhile."

"Then let's just take a day of our own time to go shadow. Let's talk to those kids and see if they want to bus here. Maybe they'll like it. Maybe they'll want to stay. Maybe we can actually understand. I'm tired of the racists' comments people make. I don't get it. Why do people waste their time hating others just on a stupid thing like skin color?"

"Because they have nothing better to do, Ema," Jia responded, "They are filled with fear. The main reason why white, southern Republicans think Mexicans are bad is that they are scared that all the factory jobs will go to Mexico. They think that getting rid of the black people will get rid of their problems but it's not like they're to blame right? White people never did anything wrong," She sarcastically said.

"White people, historically, have always blamed other people. Instead of owning up to their mistakes they just bury them into the sand. Think about Christopher Columbus, he supposedly found America but he ended up leading to the extinction of natives and rapes of many women. History never shows that side of him. He even gets a holiday. What do black people get? One month that people just ignore and then we are still blamed for being 'ghetto' or 'hood' when we just cross the street," Jasmyn spoke up.

"It's not just white people, it's all people, Jasmyn. We fail to learn from our mistakes and keep making them. Then we get mad that we are making mistakes when we know how to prevent them," Jia responded.

He finished his salad and sighed, "I'll see what I can do. Just write a proposal and email it to me. You know I'm behind you guys one hundred percent. No matter what, I will always have your back. On or off the track."

I smiled at him. Jia and Jasmyn both looked around the room. Aside from a few others and Alex, they were the ones that stood out in contrast to the sea of white. We were going to make a change. I could feel it.