The Evergreen Lion

☀️Juniper: 2

"Go Leo! I knew you could do it!" I cheer my best friend on as he drags himself to sit next to me, under the shady tree.

"Fourteen minutes is not doing it. The max is twelve." His breaths are short and ragged, like their being cut with a knife, and my scrawny friend looks like he just died inside, with his pale face becoming even paler.

"I know, but the mile is hard for anyone. Even me."

He scoffs. "The mile? Hard for Juniper the track star?" He rolls his eyes. "Yeah right."

"I don't run track anymore." I remind him.

"Doesn't mean you still aren't fast." He moves from his current position of leaning against the tree to laying down on the grass. "You know Danny? The tall guy with a mustache?"

I nod. Danny and I used to be on the track team together. I knew him more of an acquaintance then a friend. Damn, that kid could run though.

"He finished it in six minutes. Almost five. Isn't that crazy."

I shrug. "I guess." I watch the other kids participate in gym class. Some kids are playing volleyball, others finishing up the mile, some just waking around the track. I never was bothered by physical activity, but gym class was always pointless to me. At least it's a good day to be outside.

I watch Leo as he watched the sky. He always said that the sky was his favorite part of the day. Which I always thought was stupid because the sky was around twenty-four seven. When we were little he would look up at it constantly while I sat there watching him, bored out of my mind.

"Juniper! You need to run your mile!" Near the track, our gym teacher yells out my name. I obviously can't run with all these bruises on my body, but I can't tell her that. If she found out then she would report them.

I jump off the ground, and hid behind the large tree we were leaning against. "Leo you have to hide too!"

"Why?" He questions, and sits up from the grass.

"Because she knows that we're always together! If she sees you she'll come looking for me!"

He sighs, and slowly removes himself from the ground. Every step he took he groaned in agony. I roll my eyes at his exaggerations. "Stop being a drama queen, and hurry up!"

He sticks his tongue out at me like a five year old, and I flick him off.

I pull him against me, inhaling sharply at the pain it caused me, so she couldn't see us behind this tree. Please don't let her send people out to find me. I'd probably collapse if I have to run this mile. Leo was pushing up against my body, so she wouldn't see us. But having Leo against my sore body is killing me, and tears start to form in the pocket of my eyes.

"Hey, don't cry." Leo takes his thumb once again, and brushes some tears off my face.

I clear my throat. "I'm not crying, idiot." I remove his hand from my face.

"Well it kind of looked like water was falling from your eyes."

"Well you looked wrong."

"And I'm pretty sure it tasted salty, like tears."

I give the teenage boy a puzzled look. "Salty? How do you know-"

He interrupts my sentence by licking my face repeatedly, like a little dog. His tongue was getting saliva all over my face. If I was wearing makeup today, he'd be gagging on it. I start to squirm.

"Ew! Ew! Get off me you weirdo!" I try to push him off, but even thought he's scrawny, his death grip never seems to fail.

After a few seconds, I'm finally able to push this dog off my face, and onto the ground. Leo continues to snicker while pushing himself off the floor.

"I hope you're happy, that my face is going to smell like your tongue for the rest of the day!" I exclaim. I lean back against the tree in pain.

"Very." He grins at me.

I glare at him as I wipe the spit off my face.

"Leonardo!? Have you seen Juniper?" I hear my gym teachers voice come our way and immediately I try to cover myself with the tree again. Crap! Leo had been exposed after I had pushed him on the ground, and I had no idea that our gym teacher was heading this way.

"Um, no ma'am." She helps him off the floor, and then turns her back to the tree I was hiding behind. I try to use hand motions to communicate with Leo, and tell him to make her go in the opposite direction.

The boy looks at me with confusion, and starts to communicate with his facial expressions.

Our gym teacher rapidly turns her head to look at the tree, and I quickly bring myself behind the tree once more. I try not to make any sudden movements in hope she won't get the urge to check behind the tree.

I guess Leo finally realized what I was asking him to do, and decides to distract her. "But uh, have you seen that blood stain from that kid who accidentally hit himself in the head with the metal baseball bat? It's really gruesome." He informs our gym teacher.

She gasp. "It's still there! The janitors told me that they were going to clean that up!"

He shrugs. "I guess they didn't do a very good job. Let's check it out."

She rants enraged, at the fact that the blood is still there and Leo slyly leads her away from me. I sigh in relief. I know he's not coming back anytime soon, because she's quite the talker that one. That poor janitor is in for a mouth full. So I decide to skip the rest of gym, there's better things to do then to pretend to exercise.