“What are your events?”
“Four hundred meter hurdles.” She grinned. “Mile, 800, and I help with the 4x400, too, if needed. I’m a distance girl. I run cross country, as well.”
“Nice. I’d love to be running buddies.” I was a sprinter for sure, but I needed to keep my mile-time down as well for basic.
“You got it.” Her blue eyes sparkled. “I know you’ve had kind of a rough start in Woodhaven, especially with the accident and all, but I promise, it’s a pretty decent place with good people.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” I let out a sarcastic chuckle.
“I know you’re stuck with Preach, serving your hours and him driving you to school—”
“Wow. Small-town gossip moves quickly around here, huh?”
“Well, you are the new kid,andPreach Armstrong is involved. So, yeah, the town knows.”
I wondered if they knew about his mom’s gambling issues? My stomach ached at the thought. What a horrible experience for his family…
“I don’t know what’s going on with Preach. He’s usually a really good guy, but it’s like, after he hit you, a switch flipped.”
“So I hear.” I thought Willow might have been talking him up because Preach was her boyfriend’s best friend, but now someone else was claiming he was a really good guy, too? Interesting.
“He’s normally super focused, good grades, volunteers loads, goes to church, the whole nine yards.” She picked up the pace.
Trying to keep up, I focused on my breathing. Another person vouching for past Preach? Sure, I’d seen him be nice, even joke around a bit, but it didn’t make sense… Before the accident, he sounded like a completely different person. Now, after the accident, and more specifically after he got the bad news during his second-opinion appointment, he was cutting classes, going out and getting drunk, and blowing off PT appointments.It sounded like he had either done a 180 overnight or that we were talking about two different people.
Thirty minutes later, Sam and I stopped running.
Bending over, I leaned against the wall and tried to catch my breath. My legs felt like jelly, and I loved the feeling. Finally, something was normal again.
It’d been a year of abnormality filled with grief over Emmett, and now my wrist injury. So yeah, I craved normal right now.
“Good run,” Sam said.
“Uh huh,” I managed to say. “You aren’t even out of breath.”
Still sucking in air, I followed her over to two large padded mats laid out under the basketball hoop and plopped down. As I began stretching my hamstrings, Sam waved to Preach. He nodded back and then turned his attention toward a guy wearing a Woodhaven Track T-shirt.
“Can you tell me who’s all standing around Preach, there?” I asked Sam. “I’m still trying to learn everyone’s names.”
“Sure. That’s the 4x100 team. The guy with the bright blue mohawk, that’s Oliver Kaminski.”
“I’ve seen him in the halls. Hard to miss.” He looked to be just under six feet tall and his skin was the same color as the sand on Cocoa Beach.
“He’s super wild. Comes from a rough background. Like really bad. You’ve seen the scar on his cheek, right?”
I nodded.
“That’s from a former foster dad.”
My heart sank. “That’s really sad.”
“Yeah. He’s with a great family now. They adopted him last year.” Sam smiled. “He’s wicked fast and the only junior on the team.
“Tall one, standing all straight and serious looking, that’s James Weber. He’s all into political science stuff. He wants to be a congressman or something one day.”
I could tell what she meant about seriousness. His black hair was short and precisely cut. He stood tall, his broad shoulders pushed back, giving him perfect posture. The white tank top he wore was a sharp contrast to his dark brown skin. Muscles rippled along his arms as he used his hands while talking to Preach. Must be telling an exciting story or something.
“And lastly, we have Mateo Perez. He’s the one holding a candy bar. He’salwayseating. Last week, a bunch of us went to McDonald’s, and he slammed four Big Macs and a chocolate milkshake afterward.”