The Relay Race

As I walked out the front gates and crossed the street, the events of the day replayed in my mind. I thought about my fall, Andreas with his arms around me, Paige suggesting I try out for cheerleading, Trey telling me to go out with Marco, Marco getting angry at him for saying that, and then apologizing for it. A loud motorcycle roared by, snapping me back to reality. The noise faded away as I watched the biker zoom down the road. I heard footsteps behind me and turned around. It was Andreas. My heart jumped.

“Oh. Hi!” I said before he could pass me by.

He paused. “Hi.”

“Um…thanks for helping me today.”

He took a couple of steps past me before he decided to slow down and walk with me. “You’re welcome. How are your knees?” His tone was polite, but guarded.

“They still hurt, but once I get these jeans off they’ll be okay.” I realized what I just said and winced. My face grew hot.

“You’re almost home, so you don’t have that much farther to go.” He knew where I lived? So, he did notice. He smiled sheepishly. “I live across the street from you.”

“I know. I mean, I saw you move in.”

He nodded. “Oh, yeah. You tripped over the hose.” He chuckled. “You seem to fall down a lot.”

“Well, not really. I mean, it seems that way, but...it’s…just...” I realized it wasn’t worth trying to deny. “I’m Lilah.”

He smiled. “I know. We have a couple of classes together.”

My heart jumped. He knows who I am and actually remembered me! But, why has he been ignoring me?

“I’m Andreas,” he said.

“I’ve seen you working out,” I blurted. He raised an eyebrow. God, I was making a fool of myself today. “In your garage. I mean…with the punching bag.”

“Oh, ha. Yeah. I do some kickboxing. I’ve seen you out running. Do you do weights, too?”

“Yeah, I have a set of weights, but not like what you have. I’ve seen you running, too. Where do you go?”

“Around by the pond and the park.”

“That’s it?”

“Yeah. Why, is there a better place to go?”

“I know some pretty good places to run. If you want, I could show you sometime.” Oh my god, I couldn’t believe I outright asked him that.

“Um. Okay, sure. I’ll let you know.”

We got to our houses and went our separate ways. He didn’t make a definitive date to meet me to run. I was embarrassed that I asked.

Walking up to my room, it dawned on me that I had gotten what I had wished for. To walk home with Andreas. I smiled so broadly that I didn’t think my mouth could stretch out any farther. So much for ignoring him.

The next day, Mr. Belford explained to us that we were going to draw drapery with pen & ink. I glanced over at Andreas. He was getting his equipment out. As usual, he didn’t look at me.

There were pieces of cloth pinned to the walls with a light shining on them from the side.

I got out my pen nibs and pushed one onto the pen handle. Black India ink got on my hands as I opened the jar and I rubbed it off with a paper towel. I dipped the pen in the ink and started drawing.

The room was quiet and all I could hear was the scritch-scratching of quill pens on paper. My drawing turned out pretty good, but when I looked over at Paige’s drawing, hers was better. How is it that she was blessed with good looks and talent? Life was so unfair. I looked at Andreas’s drawing. It looked amazing.

Mr. Belford said we had ten minutes to finish our drawings and clean up. I closed the jar of ink and walked over to the sink to wash up. When I got back, Jamie was holding my drawing.

“This is good,” he said nodding, “but I know what you could do to make it better.” He dipped his pen in his ink jar and held it over my drawing.

“Hey, don’t!” I said grabbing for it.

He pulled it out of my reach. “Just wait!”

“Give it back! I’m not kidding!” We struggled. He laughed and I pushed him in his seat. His elbow bumped his ink jar and it fell to the floor.

He jumped up. “Aaaaawww! Look what you made me do!” I stared open mouthed at the black ink spilling out of the jar. He picked it up and I grabbed my drawing back.

“Mr. Schweitzer!” said Mr. Belford. “Clean up that mess!”

I inspected my drawing. He had made a couple of hatch marks in the shadows and there was a big line of ink that ran across the drawing. I was mad. “Jamie! I can’t believe you did that! Quit being so immature!”

“You made me do that when you pulled it away from me! That was your fault!” He turned back to the ink on the floor. “Are you going to help me with this?”

“No! That’s what you get for vandalizing my drawing! You’re just like Trey!”

His jaw dropped open in shock. “But…I was making it better!”

I glared at him, but he didn’t seem to realize he just insulted me. “Don’t do me any favors.”

I put my drawing away and started to pack my things. He got some paper towels and started to wipe the ink off the floor. The black spot got bigger and bigger the more he wiped.

“Aaagh!” he yelled in frustration.

I giggled despite my anger. The bigger the spot got, the harder I laughed. It got to be wider than his desk. People around him laughed, too. I sighed and went to get more paper towels.

The bell rang and everyone started to get up from their seats. Andreas looked at Jamie with indifference and left with Pete who was laughing. Paige shook her head and left. I felt sorry for Jamie, so I stayed to help him clean up. He tried to talk to me, but I remained silent. The fact that I was on my scraped up hands and knees helping him made me even angrier.

I looked at Paige as I walked into Biology and we smiled at each other in mutual acceptance. Daisy talked about cheerleading tryouts while we waited for class to start. When Marco walked in, I ignored him as usual. This time, he didn’t talk to us at all for the whole period. He was quiet and the only girl he talked to was Chris since they shared a table. It made me feel bad about the day before. I had the urge to talk to him, but I couldn’t.

Jamie tried to sit next to me in P.E., but I gave him a dirty look and went to sit next to Andreas. Andreas raised his eyebrows and looked from me to Jamie, but he knew better than to speak when the coach was calling roll. I wasn’t really that mad at Jamie anymore, but I used it as an excuse to sit next to Andreas. Marco was sitting nearby staring at Andreas with narrowed eyes.

“Today you’ll be doing relay races!” said Coach Castellano. A few people groaned loudly, but he ignored them. “The team that wins will each get a gift certificate to your favorite hangout, Heaven’s Cup Café.” He held the gift certificates above his head to get our attention.

Everyone seemed to perk up.

“Now don’t expect this every time,” he said. “I’m just trying to get rid of these because they were a gift and Heaven’s Cup isn’t exactly the type of place I like to go.”

Everyone laughed. Heaven’s Cup Café was a coffee and tea shop where local kids liked to hang out and study.

“I’ll take ‘em!” said Jamie, raising his hand. Protests and laughter rang out over the class.

“No, no, you’re gonna race for it,” said Coach Castellano. “The first five people in each row will make up a team.” I was at the edge of the row with no one to my right. There happened to be only five people in my row.

“It looks like you’re my teammate,” said Andreas. There was a faint smile on his lips and I wondered if he was happy that I was with him or because he had confidence in my running.

Tak Haruno was on our team. He was one of Pete’s friends from the soccer team, so I knew he could run. We had a good team so far. Paige and Trisha were also on our team. Paige was pretty athletic, but Trisha complained about every exercise we did. She probably got her figure from starving herself rather than working out.

We practiced our handoff before the race. Trisha kept dropping the baton and laughing. Andreas and I exchanged annoyed looks. Tak stood quietly observing everyone with an arm across his chest and his fingers stroking his chin. I assessed our competition.

Marco was on a team with Devin, Kayla, one of Paige’s ditzy non-cheerleader friends named Brittany Beaudine, and school photographer Thomas Vincent.

Jamie’s team consisted of Chris, Flora Wang, Blaine Makani, and Eddie Gorovsky. Although Chris looked and dressed like a boy, she couldn’t hide her feminine curves in the tops we had to wear. If Jonah Hill from Superbad had a sister with a buzz cut, that would be Chris. I guessed that she wasn’t a fast runner. Flora was skinny and athletic, Blaine was a tall Hawaiian guy who could easily play football but didn’t, and Eddie was a hockey player. Jamie and Chris were the weakest links on their team.

Tak was the first one up. He ran swiftly and easily, but Flora was right behind him in the next lane. I giggled at the surprise on his face when he saw how close behind she was to him. Kayla was several paces behind them.

Tak handed the baton smoothly to Paige and she ran faster than I thought she was capable of. I cheered her on in excitement. With his long legs as an advantage, Jamie caught up to her. Brittany was not far behind.

Paige held the baton out, but Trisha dropped it and started to run without it. She doubled back to pick it up. Chris and Thomas Vincent ran on ahead of her. They were slow runners, so Trisha almost caught up to them before their next handoff.

Chris handed the baton to Blaine with Devin just behind him in the next lane. I grabbed the baton from Brittany and ran as fast as I could to catch up to the guys. They took off fast, but Blaine was a big guy and ran out of steam quickly. Devin passed him and I closed in on him. I had not even begun to get tired. Devin had a longer stride than me since he was taller, but just past halfway through, he started to get tired and slowed down. Remembering that Devin was friends with Trey lit a fire under me. I lowered my chin and sprinted forward. With a burst of energy, I flew past him. He turned to look at me and lost his footing. He stumbled forward, but righted himself back up before he could fall. I could hear him cussing behind me.

I passed the baton to Andreas with ease and bent over trying to catch my breath. Andreas burst ahead of Marco and Eddie who were neck-and-neck, but Eddie trailed off and Marco went on ahead to try to catch up with Andreas. With the head start I had given Andreas, Marco wasn’t able to catch up in time.

Crossing the field, I regrouped with my teammates. When Andreas crossed the finish line, Paige ran up to him and gave him a hug. Totally unnecessary. I refrained from rolling my eyes, but couldn’t stop the jealousy from rising up within me. Trisha hugged him, too and Tak gave him a high five. I walked up to him not sure what I should do. He hesitated, then put his arms around me in a tight hug. His body was completely solid.

“Good job,” he said in my ear.

From over his shoulder, I could see Marco watching.