mellifluous (life is strange 2)

EPISODE ZERO / water

i'm not super sure how many of these chapters i'm actually going to write, but this was just a fun little "canon" one-shot i had in mind when i realized that i said that juli had met sean before at a track meet.

note: i have never personally gone to a track meet before, so i can't exactly say i know what i'm doing, but...hopefully it isn't too atrocious haha

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Six months before the events of "Life is Strange 2..."

Juli leaned down and pressed her hands against the floor. She let out a deep breath and counted to ten in her head before she straightened and pulled a leg behind her back. The sun beat off the red track path and she squinted against the glare. She was in the second lane, with a tall, lanky, redheaded girl next to her and six others filling the lanes to her right.

The girl directly to her right looked like a stereotypical track star. Juli made a mental note to keep track of her throughout the race. Everyone else seemed either average or way too athletic to even be in high school. This shouldn't be a challenge at all.

She smirked and faced forward. Maybe she was being cocky, but at least she couldn't scare herself.

"Come on, Juli, beat their asses!"

She flinched and looked up. Wyatt stood at the very front of their school's section, holding an obnoxiously large poster that earned him more than a few glares from his fellow students. Wyatt paid them no mind, though, and gave Juli a huge grin and a thumbs-up. "Make them eat dirt!"

"Wyatt, this isn't a wrestling match!" Holland scolded. He turned to face forward and clicked his tongue. He pointed threateningly at Juli, his dark skin almost glowing in the hot sunlight. "Regardless...Juliana, you'd better not lose, otherwise I'm going to beat your ass!"

She made sure the referees weren't watching and flipped them off. Wyatt grinned and Holland rolled his eyes. Juli laughed and turned to face forward.

"Runners to your mark..."

She bent down and pressed her feet against the starting block. To her right, the track star girl took a standing start. Juli raised her eyebrows in surprise and tensed her legs. The moment the starting pistol fired, she shot off the block and took an early lead.

She blocked out the sounds of cheering and focused solely on her lane. Everything around her tunneled. Her breathing began to grow labored as she rounded the second corner of the track. The track star girl wasn't too far behind her, maybe a few meters, and everyone else was about double that.

Juli smiled and pushed herself harder, enjoying the feeling of the breeze through her hair and arms. The familiar buzzing sensation crept up her legs and she rounded the third corner, the track star falling farther and farther behind.

She slowed to a jog as she crossed the finish line. "Moon, 54.37," the announcer droned.

"Fuck yeah, baby!"

She turned and blew a kiss at Wyatt and Holland. Wyatt snatched the air kiss and blew one back. Holland swatted it out of the air, but even he was smiling.

As she walked back over to the stands to chat with them, she made eye contact with one of the boys getting ready to run the 400m. She suddenly remembered why she had a crush on Wyatt last year, because...Holy shit, he was cute.

Wyatt passed her a water bottle and she turned to watch the event. The cute boy stretched and did a few jumps in place, then lowered himself down to the starting blocks.

"¡Venga, Sean! ¡Sí, se puede!" someone yelled from another school's stand. Juli looked up and saw a father and his son cheering. The cute boy looked up and rolled his eyes, a faint blush coming across his cheeks.