From Broken To Brave

Gym Class

“Everyone line up!” coach yells as all the guys turn and stop staring at me. I finish putting my hair in a ponytail and line up next to a tall guy with red tented brown hair. The guy turns towards me and stretches out his hand. I shake his hand as he whispers his name, Andy.

“Sabrina.” I whisper back before turning to see coach standing in front of me.

“Are you done?” he asks rudely. I nod my head not wanting to speak. “That two more laps for you today.” He orders without batting an eyelash.

I groan quietly and watch as he counts all the students then walk us outside to do four laps witch is six for me now. What I don’t understand is why that Andy kid didn’t get extra laps. He’s lucky I don’t say anything, but I’m not the kind of person to try and pull other people down with me, Even if it is their fault. 

When we start I feel like running but I know I need to hold back. As I watch the guys I see them all running the straights and walking the curves.  I decided to follow my instincts and just keep running. I watched as I passed Andy. I can’t believe I just lapped him, and then I passed David who was leading the pack.

“Slow down you’re going to wear out your wolf!” I head David from behind me.

I look back before yelling. “I’m fighting to stay at the speed I’m at!”

“Whatever!” he yells.

I finish my third lap then start to pick up the pace so I could finish with the boys. I stretched my legs out father and leveled my breathing like Weston had shown me to. In no time I finish another lap, then another, till I’m back with the group on my final lap. I get up the David who is running also. “You want to race?” I ask hoping he’ll say yes.

But all he does in speed up trying to beat me. I smile and start to let myself run as fast as I can. I felt my heart rate raise and the wind blow the loose strands of hair around my face back. I was next to David again then I ran past him finally passing the finish line. I stopped to breathe and see David slow down and continue walking. “One more!” coach Gordon yells at the boys as they pass him. I use the back of my hand to wipe sweat off my forehead as coach walks up to me. “That was fast, are you sure you did all your laps?” he asks accusingly.

“I know I did, but I saw that you were counting so you tell me.” I say trying to make it still sound polite through clinched teeth.

He turns as the guys finish and line up next to me. “Ok good job people, today were going to play capture the flag. Here are the teams of two.” I listen for my name as he lists off everyone. “And Sabrina you’ll be playing by yourself.”

“But coach that’s not fair.” David argues.

“Well it wouldn’t be fair to put her on another team either and this is my decision.” He says making David go silent. “Now everyone back to the gym!” he yells then blows the whistle.

Once were back in the gym coach has me up against two boys that look like they could be twins. They both stand about two feet taller than me and could throw me across the school with one hand. I feel my heart rate pick up and my teeth stab into my lip cutting it and letting blood run into my mouth. As this point I feel my eyes changing but I don’t try to hide them. The coach explains the rules and then blows the whistle again.

Both boys charge at me, without hesitation I slide under their legs and run to the flag. I hear the loud sound of their feet hitting the gym floor as the start to catch up to me. I try to remember the rules, you can use anything within the court boundaries, and I scan the room and see a bag of dodge balls. I change course and run for the balls scooping them up while I run.

Once I have the bag open I turn and start throwing hem at the boys. Once they were distracted I ran at them and flipped over their heads using their shoulders to jump farther. I land in front of the flag and turn to watch them as I grab the flag off the top of the pole. “Game over.” I say as I lift the flag above my head.

I look over at the coach and see him simply staring at me. As I’m trying to see why David runs over and pats him on the back “you ok coach?” he asks snapping him out of his confusion.

Without answering David’s question he blows the whistle. “Well there goes the winning streak of the twins.” Coach say before picking another team to put me up against.

I had won seven matches when coach called out the last team. “David and Andy.” They stand up and walk down from the bleachers. “now for the last match of the day I’m going to give David and Andy ten seconds to hide from Sabrina so you have a better chance of catching her off guard.” I see the guy’s high-five out of the corner of my eyes and laugh quietly. On coaches command I close my eyes and count to ten.

I hear the sound of a screaking whistle as the game starts. I look to see if Andy is anywhere but I can’t see him, what I do see is the flag in the corner of the gym. I look again and this time I see Andy running at me from the side. As he gets closer I jump as high as I can look down as he slides across the floor. I land back on the ground on both feet and run to the flag. Just as I stretch my arm out I feel someone closing in behind me I turn to keep from getting hit and see David slam into the pole. I spin around and use his hunched other figure to propel myself over him and snatch the flag off the pole.

I life the flag into the air as all the teams on the bleacher cheer. I hear the whistle again and bring the flag back to coach. “So that eight to nothing!” he announces making me smile. “Good job Grace!” he says patting my sweat covered back.

“Thanks coach G.” I say then go to the locker room to change before the guys do.

Just as I pull my shirt over my head Andy walks in and just looks at me. I pull another shirt over my head and walk back into the gym with my dirt clothes in my arms. Once I’m in the gym coach dismisses everyone to go change.

It only took a few minutes for David to finish and once he did we walked down the hall to the cafeteria silently. Then Andy walked up next to me handing me a piece of paper then walking away. I open it and read it as we continue to walk.

"236-768-5734, sorry about want happened in the locker room."

I laugh and fold the paper back up and slip it into my back pocket. “What was that?” Weston asks as he wraps his arm around my waist and kisses the side of my head.

“nothing.” I simply reply as we walk into the lunch room.