Ch 10: Nearing the end
I finished the track season with an average of 3rd place in the last few meets. I failed to qualify for Districts, which was no surprise, but had decided to go to the District Track and Field Meet anyway to cheer on Sarah, Jeff, and the other team members I knew that qualified.
Jeff managed a record-breaking throw and beat out the rest of his field by over three feet. I saw him after his last throw talking to a recruiter from A&M and a few other recruiters orbiting him like hawks. I gave him a wave and gestured I would see him later.
I picked a spot of fence on the back straight where I could see Sarah round the last sets of turns into the finish of her 1500M.
When the gun went off I saw the girls take off running. I cheered as Sarah ran by. The stadium was pretty loud as there were people cheering from well over 20 schools in our district. I could only imagine what this place would be like when the All-State meet was here in a few weeks.
"That's it! Good pace Sarah," I yelled as she went by. I checked the timer on my stopwatch to be sure.
On her second lap I could already see her start to get winded. She had gotten a cold last week and hadn't slept well. The last thing you want to be is sick going into the biggest meet of your high school career.
"Run through it," I yelled as she went by, "Sleep when you're dead!"
By her third lap she was back on pace. I almost regretted not being on the other side of the track and able to cheer her through her last 200 M.
"Aww screw it," I said out loud to myself, "I can just run with her."
When she came around on her forth and final lap I could see the tears running down her cheeks. She had slipped from 2nd to 5th over the past 100 M.
"Run damn it!" I screamed as I started jogging along the fence. "Run through it. You have this. You've been waiting for this all year."
5th to 4th.
"Come on. That's it. Breath!" I screamed.
I was now having flashbacks to my days on the swim team cheering Summer and Ben on in their races.
4th to 3rd.
"This is your race Sarah!" I yelled as I did my best to keep pace with her. I was okay over the short run, so hopefully I could stay with her.
3rd back to 2nd.
"You got it!" I continued to cheer.
2nd to 1st.
The stadium was on its feet and the place was the loudest I had ever heard an outdoor stadium be.
1st to 2nd. 2nd to 1st. Now she was side by side with the other runner and they were egging each other on. Tears poured down Sarah's face and her eyes fixated on the finish line.
In the end Sarah got 2nd place but managed to beat her time by nearly 6 seconds. Her last lap split was actually 2 seconds faster than her first lap split.
When I finally made my way around the backside of the bleachers to the fence near the finish line I was able to get Sarah's attention. Jeff, Sasha, Summer, and Jenn were all there as well.
Sarah came running over the jumped into our arms.
"Thank you," she said looking back and forth between us. "I could hear all of you on every lap."
I smiled knowing that as a group we would always be stronger than we were individually.
"And you," Sarah said looking me square in the eyes, "thank you most of all." She then wrapped her arms tight around me and gave me a kiss on the cheek.
After the long drive back from the district meet we were too bushed to get into too much trouble. Jenn invited Sarah, Summer, and I over to her place for a sleep over. For once, sleep was all we did.
Four people on a queen sized bed is a little tight. Luckily Jenn and Summer are pretty thin, and Sarah isn't much bigger. I managed to flop down first and let the girls squeeze in around me. With me on my back and two girls on one side and one girl on the other I fell asleep feeling like a king.
Sarah went on to run at the All-State meet and managed to finish in the top 12. Not a bad run considering she was still feeling kind of sick. With the track season finally under wraps it was time to focus on finals.
+++
"This is intense," Jenn said slamming her physics book shut.
"Yeah," I said rubbing my temples, "every time I think I got it I check my answers and I don't."
The week before finals was pretty much one giant unending cram session. Luckily as a group we had all our bases covered.
"Will buddy old man," I asked, "how about a little help?"
"Only if you help me with this humanities bull crap," he said sarcastically throwing a handful of 8x10 photos of famous paintings on the table in front of him.
"Deal!" I said. That was right up my ally anyway and I knew I could explain it in a way it would make sense. I just hope
By the time we were done studying we were so burnt out we pretty much slept were we sat. Each morning we would go to school for the teacher-lead review sessions in the morning and then come back to Jenn's house to study. The upstairs TV room that had been host to more than a few teenage orgies, porn video sessions, and naughty photo-shoots now rivaled the school library. There were stacks of textbooks, piles of papers, and pools of notes that covered every flat surface.