Two Seconds

One & Two

PART ONE

*Jess' POV*

Many Weeks Earlier

"Jess you were almost two seconds too slow on that one!" my Trainer yelled at me as I crossed the finish line of the track and reached out for the bottle of water he was holding.

"Fine, I'll make the next one two seconds too fast," I replied between huffs of out-of-breatheness.

"You are so stubborn," my Trainer, Joe, laughed.

"Well if I start running slow then these are empty miles and I might as well just start over," I shrugged, shaking my legs out.

"Ready for the next one?"

"Yup," I smirked.

"Ok... Go!" Joe said, hitting the start button on his stopwatch. I took off around the track on my eighth 400m out of fifteen. As an athletics star, I found myself at the track for hours everyday, doing different workouts to get me in shape for my dream, the London 2012 Olympics. This workout was a speed one, I had to do fifteen 400m runs all at the same time. And that time had to be fast. If I started to slow down then the workout was sort of not worth it, especially since it was the later laps that mattered the most for my conditioning.

"You're unbelievable," my Trainer laughed as I pulled up to a stop after my lap, holding the stopwatch up for me to see.

"Ha!" I said, stretching my back gently and getting my breath back.

"I didn't think you were serious when you said you do the next one two seconds fast, but you were spot on."

"I'm the queen of pace," I smirked.

"You're also a cocky shit," my Trainer laughed, "Now let's go. You've got seven more still and we need to get you across town for that Sport Relief thing."

"Ugh, I feel bad complaining about it since it's for charity, but I really don't want to do all of that, it's too much attention."

"You're just a lazy arse," Joe replied, "Now get going."

I rolled my eyes at him before lining up to take off on another lap. When I ran I let my mind go blank, I didn't have to think about anything or anyone, just getting to the finish line as fast as possible. It's why I loved it so much. That and I couldn't help but be super competitive.

Forty-five minutes later and I was in the showers, having finished my workout, done a cool down, and stretched out. I was taking the day off from weights, which gave me a bit more time to get ready for my meeting with the Sport Relief team. I was supposed to be meeting up with a few of the organizers and some of the other "celebrity" supporters. I used celebrity in loose terms because I didn't consider myself famous at all. I was just a runner that happened to be kinda fast. Like former world champion fast. But it was no big deal, at least in my eyes.

"Jessica you ready?" Joe shouted into the locker room.

"Five minutes!" I shouted back, hurrying about to get some jeans and a jumper on. I threw my somewhat wet hair back into a ponytail and pulled some boots on, locking my training things up and grabbing my purse as I headed out.

"Your car is waiting," Joe said as I came skipping out of the locker room.

"Cheers, see you tonight!"

"Behave!" he replied, "Don't make them regret choosing you for this."

"I won't!" I replied, laughing to myself as I did.

I played on my phone for the entire ride to the Sport Relief offices, and then sat idly in reception for a few minutes waiting to be called into my meeting.