It's simply Niyah Sherwood

3-Out On The Track

I was awake by 6am. This was nothing new to me considering I got up this early almost everyday for practice.
I had my braids pinned up into a bun, teeth brushed, face washed and track gear on by 6:30.

It usually didn't take me so long but I've found for myself that relieving a bit of stress before my day starts makes things go a bit smoother.

I was sure everyone else was asleep , so I tried my hardest to quietly creep around the dorm. Once I left out of my room again Samara was in the kitchen sitting up on the counter with her phone in one hand and a drink in the other.

"You want some?" She held up the cup to me jiggling it a bit.

"What are you doing up?" I questioned as I stepped into the kitchen.

"We have track practice." She poured some of the red liquid from the container into a cup , setting it in front of me. "It's a strawberry energy drink , I have one before practice usually."

I took the cool cup and took a large swig, expecting it to be gross and just wanting to get it down but got a sweet intense flavor of strawberry that sent my taste buds over the moon.

"That is delicious!"

"You want to head down to the field together?" Samara asks dropping her cup into the sink and picking up her bag.

"Definitely!"

The two of us took our time strolling down to the track field since we had 30 minutes before practice started and as we closed in on the field, I was expecting not to see anyone but the soccer, football and baseball fields were filled with students running drills and getting ready for practice.

"I was not expecting to see all of these people out here...." I stood over the bleacher steps looking over the entire view before heading down.

"Yeah, I heard that this school takes their sports very serious and so do the students."

"I'll fit right in , frack has been my life since I was in middle school, I'm ready for this intense shit." As we stepped on to the track  we were able to see a woman sitting on the floor against the fence by the track.

"Hello!" She stood up quickly brushing herself off. "I love to see who the eager beavers are on the track team every year... I'm coach Mitchell's but you can just call me Jillian." She held out her hand for the two of us to shake solidifying this interaction.

Jillian didn't look too much younger than us in the face and her frame was fairy slender. She was heavily tattooed and her hair was cut in to a buzz cut.

"I'm Samara and this is Niyah."

"It's so nice to meet the two of you! I always like to do a bit of research on my new track stars and you two were quite the stars back at your high schools and I hope you can bring that energy to the Morris Track team."

While waiting for the other members to arrive the three of us chatted a bit and even got a bit of extra stretching in. As usual Coach Jillian had us go around and introduce ourselves and give little facts about ourselves that nobody cared about before beginning.

"Today i'm going to keep it light for you ladies and I want you all to give me 3 miles and yes you can listen to music and no I do not care who comes in first or last," Jillian turned her back on the group and began heading back to her seat.
I already knew what this was and I am sure most of us on the team did. She was only making us run so many laps to give her enough time to look over each and every person to see how long they could run, if they could stay at a consistent speed and other aspects. This is how she was going to figure out where we belonged on the team.