You're My Sol

Chapter 3

I sat in english, twiddling my pen around my fingers, not paying attention. It was fine, English was an easy A anyway. I was too busy thinking about track. It was the first day of practice and I was more than excited.

"Penelope, are you paying attention?" Ms. Clemston snapped me out of my daze.

"Yes, ma'am," I responded.

Someone in the back whispered, "kiss ass."

My ears tinged pink.

"Penelope, if you were paying attention, then can you tell me what the conch represents in Lord of the Flies?"

Phew. I was worried there for a second, but that one was easy.

"Well, in the Lord of the Flies, the conch represents power. You can see the shifts in power subtly through how the conch gets passed around, along with how they view the conch. Even though Jack takes it over, it was still a representation of Ralph's power in the beginning. In the end, when he destroys the conch, it symbolizes how Ralph has no power anymore, and cannot resist Jack's tribe," I said.

"Well done, Penelope! See class, this is what we want! You should be more like Penelope: really look into the book and derive deeper meanings!" Ms. Clemston said, smiling at me.

I beamed. Even if I couldn't catch a break socially, I could at least do well in class.

The rest of the class, however, did not agree. I could feel the glares burning into my back, the eye-rolls, the whispers.

The bell rang and we all raced out of class, me especially. I got a couple shoves here and there, but mainly got out unscathed. I walked as fast as I could to the locker room and got changed. I was out on the track before even the coaches.

"All right! Listen up. I'm Coach Taryn, and you'll be reporting to me for the rest of the season. Today is the first day of practice, so we'll be going over the basics before getting into more complicated drills. I'm gonna do roll call and then we'll start with a two mile warm-up," our coach said.

I stretched and got ready. The rest of the group did the same during roll call.

"Penelope Iven!"

"Present!" I called out, halfway through stretching.

I leaned down, touching my fingers to my toes.

She called a couple more names.

"Marisol Tellez!"

I fell flat on my face. I looked up to see Marisol looking curiously at me. "Present," she said sweetly, turning back to Coach Taryn.

I smiled mockingly at her and then continude stretching.

"Ok, now we're gonna get started with our warm up. On the whistle," Coach Taryn said. She blew the whistle and I was off like a bullet.

I didn't care, I just wanted today to be behind me. I pushed off and ran. The rush of the wind whisked my ponytail behind me. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the run. I was far ahead, not slowing down for anything, even when my breathing grew heavy.

Footsteps pounded next to me. I turned and there was Marisol. I couldn't escape this girl, could I?

Her pretty caramel brown hair was pulled into a ponytail, just like mine. Her face was tinged pink from running. She smiled at me, her face glowing. Was it just me or did my heart start pounding faster? No, it was probably because I was running so fast.

Marisol started, "so I was thinking about what you said earlier and I--"

I ran faster, trying to pull ahead of her. I didn't want to be near her, I wanted to run away from this whole day.

She didn't give up that easy. She just caught up. "Whew, ok. So I guess we're sprinting."

"We aren't doing anything," I said.

Marisol furrowed her brows, and then smirked at me. "If that's how you want it to be, then fine."

Somehow, she went even faster. She sped ahead, taking the lead.

My eyes widened. How did she slip in and out of that perfect-little-good-girl act so easily? One second she was an angel, the next an asshole. I didn't get it.

In any case, she was not one-upping me today. I forced my legs to move faster, pushing myself to the limit. I pulled in front of her, looking back and smiling.

A concentrated expression crossed her face. She was panting, but didn't stop. We were neck-and-neck. The end of the final lap was just up ahead. I was going to win.

Out of nowhere, Marisol zoomed ahead and crossed the line. I made it behind her, dropping to the ground to breathe. She stood off to the side, gloating.

Ugh.

Coach Taryn came over to us. "That was just a warm-up, girls. No need to show off."

"Oh, we're just two friends being competative, right, Penny?"

I bit my tongue to stop myself from saying "Penelope." I made a strained smile. "Yep. Just two buddies having some friendly competition," I said to Coach Taryn.

She smiled. "Well, if you two are having so much fun together, why don't you be partners for the next few drills."

I stared at Marisol. She smiled at me sweetly. Infuriatingly.

As everyone else finished running, Coach Taryn started explaining the next few drills. We would be running with a partner, passing a ball back and forth as we ran. Pretty simple.

Marisol and I toed the line of the track.

"On three," Coach Taryn shouted.

Marisol was holding the ball first.

"One,"

I looked down at the ground.

"Two,"

I looked at Marisol.

"Three,"

She winked, and we were off.

She threw the ball to me, I caught it and ran ahead. She caught up and I threw it back to her. It was harder than I thought it would be, it took quite a bit of coordination.

"So," Marisol huffed out. "We can't seem to get rid of each other, huh?"

Yeah, no thanks to you.

I said nothing.

She took that as a sign to continue. "So, since we're probably gonna be spending a lot of time together, wanna call a truce?"

I fumbled on the ball.

"Penelope! Keep your focus," Coach Taryn yelled.

Marisol snickered. I picked up the ball and threw it back to her, running once again.

"So about that truce..." She started again.

I sighed. "Okay, fine. We're not friends. But we can be aquaintences."

"Aquaintences," she nodded. "I can live with that."

We passed the ball back and forth until making it to the end line.

"Well done, Marisol," Coach Taryn said. "Penelope, work on your coordination."

My face went red with anger. Well done, Marisol. She distracted me! I did just as good.

I took a breath. "You're right, coach." I put on my adult-pleasing voice.

Marisol looked over at me quizzically.

"Ok everyone, great work for our first day. Now we're gonna go over expectations for the rest of the season, and then we're done for the day. Sound good?"

We all nodded.

For the rest of practice, I stole glances over to Marisol. Something about her made my stomach hurt.