Choose Him

All Star

       

"I can't wait to leave this class." Zach Hyman whispers. Here we are sitting in our last class of the day, at least for us. I've had a pretty long day, and I am ready to go back to my dorm today. I am exhausted, and I want to take a power nap before practice at 5:30. The prof finishes his lecture on whatever we were even learning in the past hour. Who knows? I wasn't listening, and Zach and Connor surely weren't either.

"Finally. Freedom!" Connor Brown says relieved making me chuckle. "What? We had an early skate this morning!" He defends.

"Wait you guys had practice? Why didn't Will, Mitch and Aus go?" I ask

"Optional skate. But coach wasn't too pleased that they didn't come." Brownie shrugs.

"Why didn't they go to practice?"

"Obviously Will was too busy cuddling with this one here, and Mitch and Aus had to wait for their cuddle sesh to be over." Zach grins.

"How did you know?" I ask slightly annoyed.

"Mitch sent a snap to our leaf's chat."

"Of course he did." I roll my eyes.

"Will took a screenshot too!" Zach chirps. "Didn't you see it Brownie?"

"No. Where did you and Will go last night anyways?" Brownie asks.

"We just chilled for a bit. I guess we fell asleep." I shrugged.

"Sure." Zach says not believing me, making me roll my eyes again.

"I'm gonna leave now. Excuse me." I say pushing through them nicely.

"Where you headed Caelyn?" Brownie calls after me.

"My dorm."

"Are you sure?" Zach asks catching up with me.

"Yes."

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My alarm goes off and I reluctantly get up. Surprisingly I had a great power nap. I now have 20 minutes to change and get to the varsity stadium. I quickly change out of my leggings and into nike pro shorts, and pull sweats over them. I change into a sports bra and dri-fit shirt before pulling a Varsity Blues T&F sweater over my head. The winter weather in Toronto has gone up a bit so it wasn't as cold as last month. I grab my track spikes and pack other necessities into my practice bag before making my way to the indoor track.

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"So the OUA's are coming up next weekend and we need to finalize the number of athlete entries for each event. So far we have Carolyn, Steph, Gillian, Jake and Ross for the 100m dash, Julia, Evan, Henry 200m, James, Julia, Evan, Jackie, and Alex 400m." I wait as she reads out the rest of the team and their events until I hear my name. "Caelyn, Jordan, Lucia, and Sam for the 800m and 1500m, and Caelyn, Ambrook, Sam and Lucia for the 3000m. Sound good?" Coach Ethan asks, and we all nod.

"Alright now for the relays. The 4x100 Girls: Kelly, Steph, Carolyn, and Gillian. Boys: Jake, Ross, Evan, and Alex." I tune out for the rest of his roll call since I don't run relays. That's until I hear my name being called "Ellie, Sarah, Julia, and Caelyn, you guys are running the 4x400m." I look at Coach Ethan questioningly but he doesn't seem to notice my confusing since he is so focused reading out the entries. I look over at Sarah and question her, and she shrugs. Whereas Ellie gives me a thumbs up. How in the hell did I get entered for a relay? I don't fucking sprint for shit. I run long distances.

"Sprinters, you guys have a work out planned by Coach David over there. Middle Distance stay here with me." Everyone moves to where they are supposed to be, and I make a bee line to Ethan.

"Ethan I never signed up to enter for that 4x400m relay you put me in." I say confused.

"I know. I put you in it because i've seen your progress so far this season. I know you're new to this team but we could really use you on this relay team."

"I don't understand. I'm a middle distance runner, not a sprinter. You know I can't sprint for life." I tell him.

"Listen to me Caelyn. You have potential. I see you run miles all day long. You can run hours long for sure, but you've also got the strength and speed a sprinter needs. I've seen you run the 400m in relays back in high school. You've still got it in you. Just trust in me and yourself okay kiddo?" Ethan says.

"Yes. Thank you. I won't let you down." I smile.

"That's my all star." he cheers.

"Alright, gather around people!" Ethan shouts. All of us middle distance runners move in and listen to his instructions for our workout today.

"You guys are already warmed up, so we are going to do some intervals today. 2 minutes hard, 1 minute easy. We will do it 6 times. Then some 4x800m's, and finish off with accelerations. Then we will rejoin with the other group to cool down and do some core and strength exercises.

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"Come on Caelyn! Come on Sam and Jordan! Push push push!" Ethan yells as he glances at his stop watch. "Last 150m!" I sprint hard passing Sam and Lucia, and finally finishing the last 800m death. Track in high school was way easier than track in university. This is way harder than I thought.

"How did that feel?" Ethan asks me.

"Good. I felt stronger this time." I grin.

"You should be proud of yourself. You beat your personal best!" Ethan chirps.

"Oh my. That's so great! I've been training really hard." I say.

"I know you have. Keep running like that and you'll be wining national titles." He says, and I thank him. He heads over to Jordan and Sam. I go over to the bleachers and grab my water. Damn am I thirsty. My throat is literally as dry as a desert.

"Take a water break! Make it quick. Then come back over here."

I take large gulps of water and end up emptying my water bottle. I quickly head back to Ethan for his next instructions. "Since you guys worked so hard today, we will only do 2 accelerations to the 80m line. And then we will wrap up practice."

All of us file against the starting line and take off at our own pace. My feet take off and I gradually increase my speed and then go full out until I reach the 80m mark. I circle around and jog back up to the starting line for my second acceleration. I am so hungry, I cannot wait for practice to be over. "Hey Caelyn! Freshii for dinner with Jake, Ross and I?" Sarah asks as if she is reading my mind. "Yes please." I reply.

"Sweet." Ross says.

"Wanna race?" Sarah asks. She loves competition, and so do I.

"Let's go!" I say as my feet take off from the starting line.

Sarah ends up winning but I don't mind. She's the closest girl friend I have on this team so far. I'm still new and trying to get to know the team better.