Jesus H. Christ, Jennifer thought as she forcefully stretched her stride to a near sprint, her feet barely touching the pavement as she ran. She turned the corner onto Beaumont Street, and the two female dorms came into view, so she knew she only had about four hundred yards left. All the guys called Beaumont by the nickname P. A. because of those two dorms, with P. A. being short for pussy alley. Jennifer giggled to herself. The things a girl's mind will come up with when her lungs are on fire.
Fuck, she thought as she sucked for air and ran harder. Why'd I have to smoke that cigarette last night? Double fuck. Why'd I even let Jerry talk me into going to that fucking frat party? Who the fuck knew Reardon would be there?
At that moment, the image of Coach Nancy Reardon was coming into Jennifer's view. A Nazi bitch in black leather snapping a whip is what Jennifer saw. In actually, Nancy wore gray New Balance running shoes, maroon shorts, and a white polo shirt with a maroon collar and maroon lettering over her left breast which said Texas State University Tennis. Rather than a whip, she held a stopwatch in her hand and was yelling, "Sprint it out, Gordon. Show me some guts."
Fucking cunt, Jennifer thought. I'll show the fucking cunt. Drags me out of bed pounding on my door at five in the morning. Hauls me out to her car. Drives me five miles off campus and all but tosses me out onto my ass as she's telling me, "Five at five, Gordon. You know the rules."
Five at fucking five, Jennifer was thinking to herself. The only fucking thing Reardon knows. Run five miles at five in the morning. Five at fucking five. Skip a class and it's five at five. Miss a team meeting and it's five at five. Be two seconds late for practice and it's five at five. Smoke one lousy cigarette at a party you had no idea the bitch was going to be at, and it's five at fucking five. Fuck her, Jennifer thought, and fuck her five at five.
Nancy clicked the button on her watch as Jennifer sprinted by her. When Jennifer made her way to the grassy area in front of Clearway Hall and collapsed in a heap, Nancy looked at the time on the watch and merely shook her head as she walked to where Jennifer lay. She'd told Jennifer if she didn't run the five miles in less than forty-five minutes, she was going to pull the girl's tennis scholarship.
Nancy stood over Jennifer's prone form and watched the girl gasp until her breathing returned somewhat to normal before saying, "You know how fast you ran that five miles, Gordon?"
"Less than forty-five minutes," Jennifer said. "Other than that. I don't give a fuck."
Nancy blushed. Jennifer knew she would. That's why she'd used her words the way she had. "Maybe I shouldn't give a fuck either," Nancy said.
"So why the fuck do you?"
"You just ran five miles in twenty-nine minutes and thirty-three seconds," Coach Reardon said. "Shit, Gordon. There are probably girls on the track team that can't run five miles that fast."
"So fucking what?"
"Yeah," Nancy said. "So fucking what. So fucking what that I gave you a scholarship when I didn't have to."
Jennifer knew she was lucky to have the scholarship that she had. She'd wanted to go to Baylor with her on again off again boyfriend Oliver Bolton and her best friend Dina Nouri. Dina's parents were loaded and Oliver was at Baylor on a football scholarship, but Jennifer had blown her chances of going to Baylor when she got crushed in the semifinals of the state tennis tournament last year. She'd won the tournament when she was a junior but just didn't have the same kind of year as a senior.
"I know you didn't have to give me a scholarship and I'm grateful that you did," Jennifer said. TSU wasn't Baylor, but she'd been afraid she wasn't going to be able to go to college at all. Her dad had a good job now, but he'd been unemployed for a couple of years and that had really drained the family's finances. Even with his current job, they were still struggling to replace depleted funds. Still, Jennifer hated the way Nancy rubbed her nose in it.
"You were the best player I scouted two years ago," Coach Reardon said to her. "But you lost your focus somewhere. I don't know if it's drugs, or getting your cherry popped or what, but something happened to you."
Now it was Jennifer's turn to blush. There was no way Reardon could know, but she had started having sex with Oliver just before tennis season started her senior year. And she'd done a little drugs, mainly just weed though, over the summer; but she knew there was something else wrong with her game. She just couldn't figure it out.
Nancy saw that she'd embarrassed Jennifer and let her voice soften. "I know you miss your boyfriend, but you've got to do better."
Jennifer did miss home and her friends. Dina drove from Waco down to San Marcos to see her a couple of times a month, but with Oliver being on football scholarship she hardly ever got to see him. She was going home to Arlington for Thanksgiving. Part of her sour mood was that she was disappointed that neither Dina nor Oliver would be in Arlington over the long weekend.
Dina was going to Jamaica with her parents, and Oliver would be in Kansas playing a game against Kansas State University. He'd been an All-American quarterback in high school, but they'd converted him to free safety at Baylor. That was okay with Oliver. He got to start right off the bat that way. If he'd stayed at quarterback, he would have been red shirted his freshman year and more than likely would not have had a chance to crack the starting line up until his third or fourth year on the team.
"Jennifer?"
She snapped out of her thoughts and said, "What is it, Coach?"
"I asked if you were going home for the holiday."
"Oh," Jennifer said. "Yeah, my friend Laurie is driving down to pick me up after my last class tomorrow afternoon."
"Have some fun with your friends," Nancy said. "We'll talk when you get back."
As Nancy walked away, Jennifer forgot about tennis and thought about Laurie. Fun, with Laurie. That wouldn't be a problem.
Jennifer walked into the lobby of her dorm and stopped when she saw her friend Abby on duty at the desk. Abby smiled and said, "You survive, girl?"
Jennifer rolled her eyes and said, "Barely."
"Bet you don't smoke another cigarette for awhile."
"You got one?"
Abby laughed and said, "Sure if you want."
Jennifer giggled and shook her head. "Na," she said. "Believe it or not. I only had that one last night and it was the first one I'd smoked sense September."
"What happened?"
Jennifer shrugged. "I went over to see Jerry at his frat house and they were having a party. I needed to get with him about our term paper."
"Uh huh," Abby said.
"No really," Jennifer said. "That's the only reason I went over."
"Girl, please," Abby said. "You went over there to get laid."
Jennifer sighed. "Okay," she said. "I did get fucked while I was there, but I went there to talk about our term paper that we're writing."
"Yeah."
"You want to hear this or not?"
"I want to hear about how big Jerry's dick is."
"It's big okay. Now, anyway, after I sampled how big it is, we left his room and went out to the party. One of his frat buddies was lighting a cigarette and without even thinking about it, I asked him for one. Then, the exact second I took my first hit, Reardon was in my face pulling it out of my mouth and telling me to be up at five this morning. Fucking cunt."
Abby laughed. "What you get for cheating on that hunk of a boyfriend."
Jennifer snorted and said, "Like he's not doing the same thing."
"Well," Abby said. "He's a guy."
Jennifer rolled her eyes and said, "I don't even want to hear that shit. I'm going to take a shower."
Abby sniffed and said, "Good idea."