“Yeah, but it’s not like in the big schools where you have to fight for spots on the team. Our version of tryouts is more me and our assistant coach watching everyone to find out where they best fit on the team.”
“Makes sense.”
Coach pointed ahead of him, and he hurried away from me. “Oliver. Are you kidding me? That doesn’t go there!”
After shaking my arms and legs out, I started on a lap around the gym. I fell into a pace, and it was like the angst of my injury, frustration with Preach, and annoyance over my delayed basic training start date vaporized.
It even helped deal with the memories of Emmett. Last night I’d dreamed of him again. He and I played a prank on Alec. I’d filled his hands with shaving cream, and Alec used a feather to tickle his face. Emmett had ended up with two handfuls of shaving cream all over his face! It was a classic, but one of my favorites because once Emmett realized what was going on, he’d chased us outside and tackled Alec into our pool. We laughed for like three hours straight that night.
An ache tightened my chest, so I let out a long exhale. The calming sensation of running and focused breathing chased the tension away. I needed to stay in shape while I healed from this wrist thing so when I could actually start basic I would be ready for it.
I rounded the corner and caught Preach staring at me.
His big brown eyes were wide and focused. He rested his hand atop the handle of a big broom he’d been using, and his chin rested on top of his hand.
Man, that guy was confusing. First, he hits me with his car. Then, I was forced to get rides with him to and from school, not to mention serve out a completely ridiculous community service sentence. And during those things, he’d occasionally lighten up, but he was mostly distant and sometimes flat-out grumpy.
But then this morning, he was kinda nice by offering me a ride to the school. Almost like he was worried about me slipping on the ice. If that wasn’t ironic, I didn’t know what was.
Three guys surrounded Preach that I didn’t know, but I’d seen them around the school. Especially the one with the bright-blue mohawk. It’d been green and then silver the other two times I’d seen him around if I remembered correctly.
Preach stood there, watching. He was slouched over, his dark curls falling forward along his forehead. A swirl of heat tickled my stomach at the intensity of his gaze. It was like he saw only me through the ten or so people milling around the gym.
And wow, that felt good.
Wait a minute. No way. I couldn’t—
“Let me guess, you were a track star at your old school?” A girl’s voice pulled me away from the weird cross-gymnasium interaction.
I looked over my shoulder and made eye contact with Samantha.
“Um, yeah, I ran track at my last school.” Taking an extra stride, she caught up with me.
Her high blond ponytail bounced as we ran side-by-side. “I’m Sam. We have Algebra II together.”
“Yeah, I remember. Hey.”
Besides Willow, Brodie, and Preach, I hadn’t really talked to many people at Woodhaven High.
I snuck a quick peek to see if Preach was still watching me, but he was gone. The fact that him looking at me warmed me up was still freaking me out. Maybe I had low blood sugar or something.
“So, what events did you run?” Sam asked.
“My main events were the open 100 and the 4x100 relay. But I also did the long jump and sprint medley.” My hamstrings and quads burned. And it felt amazing. This was exactly what I needed.
Sam nodded, keeping her eyes trained in front of us. “Nice! Our 4x100 team is really good. State championship good. Well, that was three years ago, but still.”
The thought of being part of a state championship team made my body tingle with excitement.
“Are you going to be able to run with that thing on?”
“I can run fine, but coming out of the blocks and handling the baton, not so much.”
“Oh, you were first leg?”
“Usually. Our coaches moved us around sometimes, but mostly I started.”
“Youarefast,” Sam laughed. “You’re not even sprinting right now and look at you go!”