Juggle

Chapter 1

My eyes close for what feels like less than a minute and then my alarm goes off. I roll out of bed and throw my t-shirt and shorts on. I head downstairs with my bags pack and step out of the house. It was a cold morning but not cold enough to wear long sleeves. I open the driver door and hop in.

I drive down the long curvy roads and I almost fall asleep to the tune of the quiet hum of the old Jeep. By the time I get comfortable, I'm force to pull into the parking lot and station my jeep in the narrow school parking spaces. I pick up all of my luggage (gym bag, school bag, lunch, etc.) and walk across the parking lot to the wide grassy field behind the baseball diamond. I feel the chill of the air as I take my jacket off and place my stuff on the grown. At least half of the team was already here and gather around in a group. I walk up and smile at everyone.

The cross country team is friendlier, than the basketball team. I enjoy talking about upcoming events and unrealistic goals they have after we get out of high school. Although if we never dream unrealistic nothing would become reality.

There are four boys and four girls on the team. Two seniors, two juniors and three freshmen pulse myself. We were hard workers, embracing our fortitude to keep up with the difficult sport.

After next year the school decided to discontinue the sport and instead start a football team. The school board believes it would bring in more participation, more funding, and more school spirit. So our cross country team will sport spirit of our school's pass. Darrson started building a football field in the middle of our trail this summer. This forced us to relocate to highways and side streets on the border of the school grounds.

The coach yells at us that it's 7 a.m. and practiced begins.

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

After practice we hit the showers to get ready for school. I was the first one to leave the locker room, ignoring the morning gossip with the other girls. I go and sit in the lunch room at the table with the other two junior boys.

They are cracking dirty jokes about a video they've seen, ignoring my innocence. I simply smiled and just listened as I munched on my extremely unhealthy strawberry Pop-Tart, which is probably filled with fake food coloring and artificial flavoring. The lunch ladies drive by with this morning's school breakfast slop cart. The boys get and leave me behind to eat their gross breakfast.

The peaceful silent is interrupted by the buses arriving and the flood of students coming in. I put in my headphones to tune out the unpleasant roaring and roughly crowd. I put on my sweatshirt to prevent the chills from the morning wind seeping through the open glass doors.

Kara was the first familiar face to appear from the mindless condense crowd. Kara is a fabricated blonde. She has had her hair dyed and re-dyed since the 5th grade. She is pretty smart academically. Today, Kara is wearing her normal entire, of a graphic-t and some colorful skinny jeans to match. Her blonde hair flies flawlessly and her face is accented with her hipster thick rim glasses.

"Hey Girly," I say like I say every morning just trying to be friendly and open up to conversation. Some time I get a response and sometimes I get barley a glance.

This morning I got a glance from Kara and a small smile as she sat down. Kara placed her head on her hands. She breathes in deeply, letting go of her stress.

"What's the matter," I asked trying to be a good friend.

"Nothing, just tired," she said mumbling through her arms.

I could tell by her tone that something more was wrong. My guess was her parents. Her dad move across the country a year ago to Main and her mom is complete control freak. Kara also has a long distance relationship with a guy in town a couple miles away. Her mother definitely doesn't approve.