Defending Parker

[Chapter 4]

Chapter 4

The minute that Saige said that Parker was her cousin, a million questions started to swarm around inside my head.

How were they related? What happened to him that made him so aloof? What happened to Freya? Why does everyone hate you because of him?

However, before I could utter a single word, I saw the pained look that had suddenly appeared on Saige’s face. Biting my tongue, I pushed any curiosity to the back of my mind, deciding to keep quiet and just continue to lunch as if nothing had happened. I had only known her for a couple of hours, and although it seemed that we’d be close friends in the future, I didn’t want to push her to admit something that she didn’t feel like sharing at the moment.

The week passed quite easily after that. I had gotten quite familiar with my classes, as well as learnt my way around the town for the most part. I sometimes found myself missing my old classmates and friends, but as the days started to pass, I realized that I had to just accept it and think about the present, and not get stuck in the past. Saige and I had become close, and I was glad that I had somebody to talk to and rely on in this town. I hadn’t touched the subject of Parker again since that first day in the halls, but from time to time I’d see him wandering the halls between classes and wonder what his story really was. It was one of those things that constantly picked at the back of your brain, bothering you at the most random times of day.

On top of school, I had attended my first track practice after school on Wednesday, and although I had been fairly intimidated at first from what Saige had told me, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I ended up being the fastest one on the team, but with some of the looks that were being sent my way, I definitely became aware of my jealous teammates.

I didn’t want to write off all of my teammates as jerks yet, because I knew that a lot of athletes didn’t immediately warm up to a new team mate, but I figured that maybe after a couple of weeks that would change. If it didn’t, I’d have to find a way to shrug it off and just focusing on running my best at the meets.

Because of the fact that I wanted to get used to the town and memorize my route to school, I hadn’t gone running in the morning for the past couple of days, and I was actually saddened by it as I loved waking my body up with exercise. As the hours of Thursday started to dwindle, I slipped into my pyjamas before climbing into bed. However, before closing my eyes, I set my alarm for an early hour, determined to have enough time for a morning jog.

With my alarm set and my eye lids drooping, I laid back in bed and let a wave of sleep wash over me.

It seemed as though seconds later a monotonous beeping was sounding in my ears as my alarm woke me from my sleep. Groaning, I rolled over to stop the alarm and saw that it was already six in the morning. Sighing, I stayed wrapped up in the warmness of my bed for another minute or two before getting up and slipping into a pair of workout clothes.

Dressed in a pair of leggings and a loose fitting t-shirt, I quickly grabbed a hold of my running shoes and my headphones before barreling out of my room and downstairs.

Opening the front door, I was greeted with a gust of chilly morning air. The sun was just starting to rise, and although the darkness was still prevalent, I didn’t mind much as I started to stretch out my muscles.