My mom and I pull into the park in the small town that we just moved to. While we sit in the parking lot, an awkward silence fills the air. We both daze off, staring at the play set that is in front of us. After a few moments, my mom eagerly motions for me to get out of the car. It's no secret that she blames me for the move, but my dad says that it was a mixture of bad luck and horrible timing.
It's all the same for my mom. She's been bitter because the move caused her to lose her job. Now she sits at home jobless and lonely while my dad makes a three hour commute one way daily. It drives her nuts; I drive her nuts! You can imagine the excitement that consumed her when she received an email inviting me to join cross country. She couldn't say yes quickly enough. I climb out and glare down at her for a moment.
She doesn't seem fazed or guilty for not asking me for my permission. She just went and signed me up for some after-school program that teaches you about the different countries around the world so you can understand my confusion when she's taking me to the first meeting and, to my surprise, it's at a park. To me it's a red flag, but she's acting like it's nothing.
Sarcastically shouting, "Have fun and make friends!"
Regret sores through my veins as I slam the door shut and I watch as she drives off. I turn around and the second red flag is kids running around in shorts and running shoes and the girls have their hair up in ponytails and they are staring at me and my heels in confusion. It doesn't cease to amaze me that there's at least one girl that has the nerve to walk up to me with so much sass that her head is bouncing up and down like a bobble head.
She obnoxiously asks, "Why would you wear high heels to cross-country?"
I shrug and answer her question with a question, "Why does it matter what I wear to a program where they teach you about other countries?"
The confusion in my voice doesn't help. It fuels the fire and causes not only this girl but everyone around us to laugh. She flings her hand out into the air and, with more sass than her little body can handle.
She laughs out loud, "This is cross-country running, not across the country!"
As she continues to mock me with laughter. I get irritated. I can feel the burning sensation running up my neck and causing the redness of my cheeks. I clench my fists into balls and I'm about to put this girl in her place and possibly kick her butt, but I am stopped by another girl who has been observing us while swinging. She catches my attention when she jumps so far off the swing that she nearly bumps into the other girl.
I will not lie when I say it's kind of intimidating because as she lands inches away from this girl, she snaps back up and gets in her face and quickly raises her voice at the other girl.
"says you! You have no room to talk because you thought it was cross-country skiing!"
The girl quickly defends herself, "that makes more sense than studying other countries!
The girl rolls her eyes in irritation. She steps backwards to better glare at the girl and is clearly irritated as she continues to speak as if she's dumb.
"why would we have cross country skiing in the summer? That is a winter sport! Your logic makes no sense. If you're really trying to compare misunderstandings, hers makes more sense than yours!"
Everyone went from laughing at me to laughing at the Girl that was picking on me. The girl goes to defend herself against the girl that was defending me, but she stops her by swatting her away with her hand.
"Go away, you're just going to keep embarrassing yourself and digging yourself a bigger hole!" The girl grunts as she storms off in defeat.
The girl that defended me makes her way to me with a smile on her face and her hand out,
"hello my name is Irene!"
Her smile vanishes and with an unamused look on her face. She nods over to the other girl,
"that's Holly."
She lets out a painful sigh, "She's one of our many rude people in this tiny town.. I don't enjoy bullying and some people think it makes them cool."
When our hand shake ends, I inform her,
"I am Olivia."
Suddenly, a middle-aged man and woman approach.
The man joins his hands together like a speaker phone and shouts, "gather around, it's time to stretch!"
Everyone listens and I watch as they make a giant circle around the man and woman. Irene claps her hands together, "Time to stretch!"
She quickly makes her way towards the crowd and I can't help but to laugh at her running, jogging, skipping thing that she is doing. I've never seen someone so excited about running. I am not looking forward to this and I will have a talk with my mother later. I regretfully and unenthusiastically join the circle. The stretching part comes easily to me because I was a former cheerleader at my last school.
After a good stretch, the woman points out to the baseball field and demands everyone, "jog around that baseball field as a warm-up. Remember, it's a warm-up and not a race, so pace yourself."
Everyone jogs around this field, and I regretfully follow suit. I'm the last one to finish, and my feet are killing me. I Wish I had never worn these heels, and I do not know how I'm going to make it through the rest of this practice! I'm going to have to tell the coaches that I have to sit down. There's no way I can do this! I let out a small, grunting noise, because I see that everyone else is already walking over to another baseball field.
I groan to myself, "Why does there have to be two baseball fields?"
My body collapses to the ground and when I think I'm about to die.
I hear a soft voice come from beside me, "You might be better off, just taking the heels off and running barefoot?"
I look over to see Irene looking at my shoes.
I just shrug at her and she continues, "It has to be better than running in heels? I only wear heels to church, and even that hurts!"
I am very surprised when she offers to run barefoot with me. There's a part of me that feels like she might mock me, but then she actually takes her socks and her shoes off and encourages me to do the same. We spend the next 7 miles running side-by-side. She doesn't leave me, not once. I'm not much of a runner, so I almost fell a few times, but she is there to help me.
When the end of practice came, we parted ways, and I realized when she said she was going to practice again after practice that she wasn't kidding as she ran off to head home. I kind of feel bad when my mom drives past her on the dirt road and it causes dust to go in her face. When we get home, we go our separate ways. My dad is gone on a business trip and my mom is in an extra special mood, So I just stay in my room and keep to myself for the rest of the night.