Forever and Always, In my heart

Chapter 5:

Ch. 5

After school ended, I walked into the girls’ locker room and changed into a pair of track shorts, and a t-shirt, and threw my hair up into a high pony tail, getting ready for softball tryouts. I couldn’t be happier at this moment because this gave me a reason to be out of the house, especially since I’m grounded. I had written mom a note last night so she would see it this morning that I wouldn’t be home right after school. David had offered to stay and give me a ride, but I told him Ally would drive me home. There was no sense in him staying, plus it wasn’t like he was my boyfriend. I had friends to do stuff. I didn’t need him to help me with my every need, not that I wasn’t at least a little flattered that he offered. I blushed getting lost in thought about him, “PEYTON!” Ally yelled, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I shook my head, “What?”

She gave me a weird look, “You alright?”

“Yeah, perfectly fine, why?” I looked at her and finished tying my shoes.

“You were just lost in thought and then your cheeks got pink. What were you thinking about? Or maybe I should ask who?” She nudged my shoulder and gave me an expectant look.

“I wasn’t thinking of anyone.” I lied because I knew she would go off that I was thinking about David. I didn’t really want to deal with that right now. “Come on, we better get to the gym before we have to do extra laps.” I ran up the stairs and to the gym. Ally and I sat down in the middle of the gym, along with all the other girls that were in there.

As soon as Coach Smith walked in, we all got quiet. “Wow, this is such a great turnout!” He smiled. He was one of the greatest coaches ever. He was really sweet and kind, but at the same time, strict enough that we won our games. “I’m looking forward to this year’s team. We’re going to have such a great time. To get this year started out, we are going to do some laps around the school. Get our heart rates up. Peyton, Ally, will you guys lead them?”

“Sure thing, coach.” We smiled and stood up. “Okay ladies, just follow us. We’re going to run through the downstairs hall, out into the parking lot, back in, up the stairs and down that hall, and repeat about three times.” It sounded like a lot, but you had to do what you had to do. “First we’re going to do some stretches.” We led them in a bunch of different stretches to get their legs and calves stretched before running.

 Ally and I took off and the other girls followed us. Most of the freshman sighed, but the sophomores and other juniors were used to it. The few seniors who were trying out weren’t too happy that juniors were taking over, but I didn’t care. We sprinted down the hallway, going out the doors to the parking lot and running a huge circle out there, ran back inside, up the stairs down the hall and back. We did this about three more times. As we passed the end of the line on the last lap, I saw the girls struggling. “Come on girls, keep it up, you can do it. We’re almost done.” I said trying to get some pep back into their step. I remember being in their shoes. It was the worst.

I looked at the clock and then looked at Ally. “I think they’ve had enough running for now.” She said and smirked at me.

“Great job ladies.” Coach said as we all got back inside the gym. While he was talking, I put my hand on the wall, feeling a little dizzy.

Ally looked over at me, raising an eyebrow. “You okay?” She whispered.

I plastered a smile onto my face, “Yeah, I’m good.” I leaned away from the wall, getting my breath finally and clearing my head. That was weird. I’ve never gotten dizzy after running like that.

“Time for some warm-ups.” Ally clapped her hands, “Okay, let’s first start out with small forward arm circles. Thirty seconds…go.” She said and we all started arm circles. I knew exactly why she started out with those, because we both hated arm circles. They hurt so badly. Thirty seconds seemed to go by extra slow. “Alright, now backwards.” Thirty more seconds. “Now large forward arm circles.” And another thirty seconds. “Now backwards.” Last thirty seconds of that, thank goodness.