Trackstar Antelope

Trackstar Antelope Volume 4

Chapter 22: The Questions Pile Up

All qualifying students are to report to the gym during recess for a quick debriefing today. Regional Finals will be held at the Whigata Aerodrome Fields on Wednesday, 3rd of June. Permission slips will be handed out on Thursday. If you have any questions, queries or concerns, don't hesitate to contact Coach Harris in the Gym Office. Congratulations again to all students who competed, and best of luck to those who qualified.

I read the bottom of the qualification sheet several times. I'm still shaken with surprise and happiness that I qualified, even if I didn't come in second or first. Recess only just begun, so I'll need to go to the gym now. I follow some other students into the gym and make my way to the bleachers. Erica enters shortly after me and sits with me. I notice Sam and his friends just down below. He notices me and then looks away quickly. Maybe he's intimidated or embarrassed that I qualified.

I hope he doesn't act like this on the day... Once everyone fills in the seats, Coach Harris makes his way onto the gym floor and gets our attention.

"Alright everyone, listen up" he says. We all stop talking and listen attentively. "First of all, congratulations again to everyone who qualified. We had a record amount of students trying out this year, and it seems like it just keeps getting better and better. Second of all, I'd just like to also congratulate Jamel, in Year 10. Jamel is the first Herbivore to represent our school in 15 years, very impressive"

All eyes are landing on me. I've heard that some herbivores who don't know carnivores well get very nervous when a carnivore even glances at them. Well, I think I know how they feel. About 200 pairs of eyes on me, what am I supposed to do? Thank him? Greet myself?

"Anyway... the sports day is on Wednesday the 3rd, as you all know." Coach Harris begins again. Everyone's now focused on him. "You are to either meet up at school at 8:30AM for the bus out to the Aerodrome, or you can arrive there at 8:45. We will be facing off against Tangouri College and Jarijari P-12 Rural Education Centre. Once you finish your event, the bus will go back and forth between the Aerodrome and school. Final events will be at 3PM, and the events schedule will be released tomorrow." He adds

The rest of the meeting was about equipment being used on the day. Because Whigata is a small, rural town, we don't have an athletics track, so we do the Regional Events at the Aerodrome, which has a very large field which can hold every event. I heard that the High Jumpers landed on a bed of freshly mowed lawn, so all the students who competed in that went home smelling like cut grass (a smell that I adore, as an herbivore). The meeting continued until the bell rang.

"And if anyone has any questions, don't hesitate to ask me or the front office. I want to see Jamel and Sam now, the rest of you can go to your classes." Coach Harris asks. And with that, everyone shuffles out of their seats, talking excitedly amongst themselves, while Sam and I moved over to Coach Harris. I must thank him for the books he passed onto Riley; they're proving to be pretty interesting reads.

"Ahh, Jamel. You must be pleased that you qualified." Coach Harris says. "I believe that you can do a bit better between now and the race".

"Well, yeah... I did alright, I suppose" I say. I may have embellished what I said.

"No, Jamel. There is big room for improvement." Coach Harris says bluntly. Gee, I really did that bad? "But we can fix that. One of the books I gave you had an insert on hyenas. And Jarijari School wanted me to inform you that a spotted hyena will be running in your race." Coach Harris paused. Sam looked at me, a bit concerned. "You can do a bit of research on that later. Otherwise, I'll let you know when we can work on your training. Do you have any questions?"