CHAPTER 15
⌗ 𓂃 𖥔༌ ᰷ ﹅track meets & invites﹅ ᰷ 𖥔༌ 𓂃⌗
"ok, team. remember, run fast, keep your breathing regular, and don't be a sore loser if you don't come first, kayla," we all laughed as coach russo jokingly pointed at kayla. it was finally wednesday and north denver high's track team had gathered on the running track. we stood in a huddle as we listened to coach russo. "right, hands in the middle. tigers on three. one, two three:"
we all cheered 'tigers' and our school mascot did a little happy wiggle as we all prepared for our races. I'd been so nervous for this moment, nightmares of failing everyone and them all hating me had plagued my dreams that past couple of nights.
as I stood at the water stand thinking, I looked up to the bleachers. and as he had promised, dad was sat with gwen and finney at the very front. my heart warmed as dad and the kids waved to me enthusiastically, gwen jumping up and down and waving her arms in the air. I giggled a little and gave them a small wave back. a few rows up, bruce, cheyenne, carter, cameron and arlo were sat together.
and two rows above them sat a big family of blondes, save for the father and maddyson who had black hair. there sat vance, maddyson, heather - their soccer-obsessed 12 year old, olivia and sydney - the 9 year old twins and baby caleb who was only 1. i'd heard a lot about the other siblings from vance, mostly how he hated being basically the only boy out of five girls. when he'd told me about his six siblings, I was shocked at the size of the family. I thought the three of us was a lot. but seven kids?? nah.
our principle announced that the first run would be the 100m sprint. sighing, I stretched my last muscles out before following katy out onto the track; the crowd began to cheer as we assembled to our starting positions.
"on your marks... get set...
GO!" a whistle was blown and we were off.
I ran with full intensity, the wind rushing in my ears and the crowd passing me in almost a blur. and as quickly as it started... it was over. I crossed the finish line and took a second to breathe as other runners passed me. everyone looked to the board with bated breath. they'd write the top three numbers on the board from third to best.
"you ran fast, but we don't know yet. it was close." coach russo said to me. "either way, you did so good, kiddo. and you, katy."
3rd: 4.89s
13
I wrapped my arm tightly around katy's neck as her number showed up, kissing her cheek as the audience applauded.
2nd: 4.13s
26
not me. we all applauded for the girl from east denver who ran. breathing through the nerves, I locked arms with imani and katy either side of me. all of us were nervous to see who came first.
1st: 3.99s
07
what??
I looked to my shirt to double check the number stapled to my chest.
07.
I'd come first! the audience burst into applause as coach russo took me into a quick, tight hug. as he pulled away as the other runners congratulated, katy pulling me into a strong hug accompanied by a peck on the cheek. I spotted gwen running towards me and scooped her up into my arms as I spun her around. finney jogged over and I pulled his head to my shoulder in an affectionate hug and placed a kiss to his hair. beside me, dad had his arm wrapped around my shoulders and placed lots of kisses into my hair.
invigilators came over, hurrying them away from me and ushering us all off of the track to prepare for the next race. I watched as they denied the hopper family access to the track also, but they waved at katy and I from a distance.
"you did so good!"
"well done, we knew you could do it,"
"y/nnn!!!" imani screamed, pulling me into a tight hug as the momentum spun us around a little. "that was record breaking!! that's the fastest any tiger has ever ran! ever!!"
I laughed with her, both excited and happy at how fast I ran. we looked up at the 1K sprint was called to run.
"good luck, sweetie!!" I pecked her cheek before she went off. from the bleachers, I saw cameron blow her a kiss and wave as arlo pretended to gag.
***
"that is all for this time, folks! runners, we hope you will join us for our awards evening next month, invitations will be going out soon. thank you again!" our principle spoke into a microphone beside the water stand, facing the bleachers.
chatter filled the air as everyone made to leave, the bleachers slowly emptying from the middle as everyone split to head down the rickety stairs.
"hey, kid. shall we head home?" dad strolled over with the kids. something from the corner of my eye caught my attention and I spotted a blonde woman and a dark haired man walking over to us. oh god.
"hi, y/n, mr blake?" I turned to the sound of mrs hopper's voice. she had long, blonde, tumbling hair and a country accent. her eyes were a stark blue and had a face that loosely resembled vance's. she spoke with a smile. "I'm vance's momma, pam."
"hi! I'm terrence, y/n's dad," he shook the hands of both parents as vance's father turned to me.
"andrew hopper," vance's dad introduced himself with a smile. I could see where maddy got a lot of her features from.
"hi, it's lovely to meet you both," I shook his hand before mrs hopper drew me into a hug as she congratulated me on my win.
"vance would not stop talking about how proud of you he was! where is that boy?" mrs hopper looked around. "oh, there he is!"
vance was stood with his sisters, laughing lightly at something maddy had said. he looked so happy at that moment. it warmed my heart as he laughed, the sun bouncing off his skin so perfectly and his full lips parting to reveal his white teeth. I felt butterflies swarm my stomach as he looked over to me and his eyes lit up as we locked eyes. he began to walk over with a big grin, gaining some weird looks from people who'd never seen him smiling before.
"hey," he greeted us, slinging his arm around my shoulders. I saw finn and gwenny share a cheeky look at the affection vance was showing me.
"hi, sweetie! we were just meeting y/n and her family! these two must be gwen and finney!" mrs hopper leant down a little and waved at finn and gwenny. both smiled and said 'hi' back.
"we were wondering if you'd like to come back to ours for dinner? if you don't have anything planned, obviously," mr hopper asked with a smile.
"kids... whaddya think?" dad asked. I eagerly nodded to which everyone laughed at.
"yes! yes! I get to see katy! yes!" gwenny cried, hanging onto the bottom of dad's shirt. meanwhile, finn just said 'yeah, sure'. y'know, like a normal person.
dad, mrs hopper and mr hopper began arranging how to get there as gwenny and finn went off to see vance's sisters. vance turned to me with a smile.
"you did so well, I'm so proud of you," he said with a proud smile as his hand moved from my shoulder to my waist.
"thank you," I smiled. we would've kissed but were both hyper-aware of our parents stood next to us.
"right, let's go. y/n, wanna get the kids? oh, vance is more than welcome to ride with us if he'd like? we're going the same place." dad offered.
"oh, thank you! vance?" mrs hopper looked to him.
"yeah, sounds good to me." he nodded.
"we gotta stop home first so y/n can freshen up but we shouldn't be too late," dad said.
"oh, of course. take your time." mr hopper smiled.
"great. we'll see you there."
***
as we walked through the door, I headed straight to the bathroom, locked the door and turned the shower on. I wanted to look good and not be late for my first dinner with vance's parents.
"y/n, i'm gonna take the kids with me to get something from the store for the hoppers, ok?" dad called through the door.
"ok, dad. have fun!"
"we'll be about 20-30 mins. be ready or as close as possible when i'm back." he said before his footsteps diminished down the hallway. the door shut behind him as I hopped in the shower.
I washed my hair, scrubbed my body as much as I could to wash the scent of sweat off of me and nervously shaved every strand of unnecessary body hair I could find. what, I was nervous, ok?
I finished up quickly and rushed across the hall to my room in my towel. I let out a cry of shock as I saw vance sitting on my bed flipping through one of my magazines, having forgot he was at the house.
"hey, babe," he said nonchalantly, disregarding my scream. he looked up. "oh... hey!"
I blushed as vance continued to shamelessly check me out in just my towel. I self-consciously held the towel closer to my chest in fear of it dropping.
"c'mon. up." I ordered.
"what?!"
"I need to change."
"ok."
"so leave!"
"nah!" I huffed, annoyed at vance's idiocy. "what, can I not watch my hot girlfriend get changed? I like to admire what's mine!"
"I'm not hot..." I muttered. vance stood up with an over dramatic frown and walked over to me.
"you," he placed his hands on my waist. "are so hot."
"hotter than... jacqueline bisset?" I asked with a teasing smile.
"way hotter than jacqueline bisset." he began placing kisses to my collar bone. I sighed as he began kissing up my neck.
"hey... no hickeys, ok? we're having dinner with your parents tonight." I ordered.
"ok," he whispered before placing a long kiss on my lips. I kissed back immediately and felt him pull me closer to him by my waist.
"let me change, and then you can come back in," I whispered, pulling away. vance groaned. "please, vance!"
"fine, fine." I yelped as he slapped my ass while leaving the room before turning to close the door behind him with a wink.
I turned to my wardrobe and picked out my outfit. deciding on a cute, powder pink mini skirt and a black turtle neck, I pulled my outfit together with a simple, delicate {gold/silver} chain necklace with a heart pendant from my mom and matching earrings.
"you can come in now!" I called to vance as I fastened my last hoop.
"finally- woah." vance stopped dead in his tracks as he took in my appearance. "you look... woah..."
"glad you think so," I smiled. the front door opened and shut as dad and the kids came back.
"you two ready to go?" dad asked, appearing behind vance. vance blushed red as he realised he was almost caught checking me out by my dad. I answered with a 'yep' for us. "great, the kids are in the car. whenever you're ready."
dad headed back through the front door, this time leaving it open. I walked with vance to put our shoes on and just before I walked through the front door, I reached up and whispered in his ear with a smile:
"I'm wearing my black, lacy thong that basically covers nothing under this skirt."
***
-ELIZABETH BANKS AS PAM HOPPER
-HUGH JACKMAN AS ANDREW HOPPER
A LITTLE BIT OF SPICE AT THE END THERE FOR YOU 🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭
PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR A LITTLE SOMETHING 🌶️ NEXT CHAPTER 🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭