"Hey!" A voice from the towering bleachers called out, "Rhombus!"
Ha. Rhombus. I'm Rhonda Carpenter, but my friends call me Rhombus. The joke dates back to the fifth grade. I looked up to see my good friend Grace leaning on the railing around the stairs that led up to the stands. I waved to her and hurried up to meet her.
Grace Esplin, to say the least, is one of the nicest people I have ever met in my entire life.
"Rhonda, you were amazing!" Grace jumped up and down, her blonde hair all over the place. She showered me with millions of compliments. Too many, if you ask me. Third place is, in my opinion, nothing to congratulate me about.
I had just finished the 800-meter run. Today was the last of our conference finals for track and field. Both Grace and I had qualified for finals in our events. Me, the 800 meter and the mile, Grace, discus and shotput. Grace isn't as built for running as she is for discus and shotput. She got first in both events. Sadly, none of my other friends qualified. Taylor and Kinsley aren't exactly the most athletic people, so they weren't here today.
Grace gave me a big teddy-bear hug, which squished my feeble body. I'm built more for long-distance running, I'm skinny, like a twig.
"Come and sit down!" She beckoned me to the bleachers. I followed her up an exhausting flight of stairs, till I recognized my purple gym bag and plopped down beside it. After I guzzled down probably a gallon of water, there was an announcement from the speakers.
"First call for Girls' 3200 meter." It blared. "First call for Girls' 3200 meter." Those sort of announcements become nerve-wrecking when they're meant for you.
"Ooh, the two-mile is starting." I said to no one in particular. I've done the two-mile before and it sucks. But not as bad as the 5ks in cross-country.
"Hey, Rhonda, isn't Liam doing the two-mile?" Grace bumped my shoulder with a smug look on her face. My face got red as I nodded my head very slowly. "You wanna go down to the field to cheer him on when the Boys' two-mile starts?"
I nodded again. The only thing slightly annoying about Grace is that she loves to tease people about their crush, and what's worse is that she's already dating Joseph Freeman, so I can't tease her back.
Liam Driscol is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or LDS, for short. So am I. I live in a small, Alaskan town that is heavily populated by members of my church. Very few who live here aren't members. Goodwell is one of the nicest places in Alaska and I love it there.
Anyway, Liam is in my ward. Which is a wonderful coincidence. And my locker at school is right next to his, another wonderful coincidence. Hehehe. Note that the first coincidence is an actual coincidence, wards are often split up by ward boundaries.
I looked down at the track to see all the girls lined up for the two-mile race. I must not have heard the second and last calls for the run.
"You wanna head down there early?" Grace said. "I forgot that Nora was running the two-mile, we should go down and cheer her on."
Grace is friends with everybody, I swear. I vaguely know Nora, I once did a presentation with her in History. It was about the Salem Witch Trials, very fascinating if you ask me. Like, if you had more than two cats, you were considered a witch, along with some other dumb accusations.
We went down there anyway, to Grace's request and watched the girls run eight laps around the track. Nora has the funniest running face, others looked tired and lazy while running, but Nora looks possibly even worse, her face drenched in sweat with snot sliding down her dropping face. I get it, my nose always gets snotty when I'm running in cold weather, so I don't blame her. Sigh, Alaska is always cold. I'm surprised the snow has already melted.
Then, the bell rang for the last lap. Nora was in eighth place among twenty girls, which is very good. She placed seventh, being able to pass one girl at a dramatic sprint to the finish and got a time of 13:34.
Grace and I ran over to congratulate her, as well as her other friends. She was drowning in love and kindness, however, she was so beat-up and exhausted that she puked. The coach came over and helped her over to the bleachers to lie down.
I get a bit nervous around someone when they puke, so I just decided to stay away from Nora for a while. (Totally not referring to the time my older brother, Luke, puked all over me on a fourteen-hour road trip, no, not at all.) Grace decided to look after Nora, so it was just me, sitting on the football field, all by myself.
Then, I saw it. Liam Driscol passed by me. My face started to heat up. Liam is beyond cute with dirty-blonde hair that swoops to the side and a splash of freckles that compliments his dark blue eyes. I raced towards him. He looked really cute in our track uniform. A yellow tank top with a blue stripe running down both sides and "GHS" printed on the front. The back of the jersey said " HOME OF THE COUGARS"
"Hi Liam!" I smiled at him, trying not to look stupid.
"Oh! Uh- hi."
"Good luck on your race!"
"Um... Thank you." He said quietly. Liam walked away quickly. I hope I didn't make him late for the race...
"Last call for Boys' 3200 meter. Last call for the Boys' 3200 meter." I heard the speaker blare.
Soon, everyone was lined up, the audience dead silent. I faintly heard the words, "On your marks!", followed by the stomach-churning phrase, "Get set!". Then, the instant and abrupt gunshot that sent the contestants flying.
The crowd erupted with screams of encouragement. Myself included.
By the third lap, Liam was in second place. Time went by and he was on lap 5, being able to lap a few people. He stayed in second until the sixth lap, moving down to fourth. I ran up and down the football field, cheering him on at every chance I could. It was a workout. Grace was probably laughing at me from the bleachers.
Then, it was the last, final lap. Liam had moved up to third. He went around the bend, and soon to the last hundred meters. He was tied closely with another boy, sprinting it out to the finish. Then, a burst of energy seemed to overwhelm him as he passed his competitor and passed the finish line. I really love those overly-dramatic sprints to the finish.
I almost sprinted as fast as Liam while racing to the finish line to drown him in compliments.
"Liam! Liam! Liam!" I repeated overenthusiastically, "You did awesome! You got second place! Second!" I almost went in for a hug, but decided to stop myself from public embarrassment. So I substituted it for a fist bump. Liam returned the gesture, but very weakly.
As awesome as I told Liam he was, he didn't look like it. His face was pale and sweat dripped down him as though he had been dunked in water. His hands rested on his trembling knees, holding up his upper torso.
"Liam?" Everyone around me wore the same look of concern on their faces as me. He staggered for a bit, then dropped to the ground.
My coach, Coach Green, pushed through a shocked crowd immediately after hearing the news. She squatted down, then checked his wrist for a pulse.
"He's not breathing." Coach Green tried not to panic.
I was panicking big time. I thought I would pass out. Coach Green pointed at me, " Rhonda, call 911," she pointed to the boy next to me, "Aiden, get the AED." Then she started to do chest compressions on Liam. I raced over to the bleachers and began searching for my phone frantically. Grace and Nora, who was feeling better, began asking questions as I was ripping my bag apart looking for my phone.
"Rhonda, what's going on?!"
"Liam isn't breathing." I said very quickly through gritted teeth, then dashed away, no time for stupid chit-chat.
I opened up my phone and urgently dialed the number. The long, irritating ring unsettled me, just hurry up already! Someone is dying! Then, I heard a female voice that relieved me greatly. "911, What's your emergency?"
"I'm at Goodwell High School on the track field, a student passed out after a race and isn't breathing." My voice was shaky.
"Ok- we'll be there as soon as we can." She hung up. Wow, it must be crazy to be one of those operators, being able to have the calmest, prettiest voice during a crisis. Like, "911, what's your emergency?" "I'VE BEEN SHOT BY SOME PSYCHO AND HE BEAT MY DOG TO DEATH WITH A WRENCH!!!"
"Ok, I'm sending the police down right now." Anyways, I raced back to my original front row view of Liam Driscol dying.
"T-they're on their w-way." I informed the coach, due to the fact that I ran all the way here.
"Ok-" she was still doing chest compressions, "Where's Aiden? Does he even know where the AED is?!"
" I don't think so, he moved here after we had our CPR day..." some girl with red hair pointed out.
"Well, go help him!" She was still doing chest compressions, but she didn't seem to be making any progress. Liam looked like a dead fish. I was on the verge of tears. Coach Green was exhausted, doing continuous drives into Liam's chest with her hands was wearing her out. "Rhonda- Rhonda, your turn now..." she gestured me over with her tired hands.
I remember learning CPR about two months ago. It's pretty easy, I gaslighted myself. I got down on my knees and tried not to think about how I could slip up and watch my crush die in front of my eyes. While intertwining my hands, palm on top of palm, I placed them at about the bottom of his ribcage and began chest compressions.
My heart was beating at lightning speed and sweat was dripping down like crazy. I tried to imagine Liam as one of the CPR dummies that you practice on, except hotter and more lifelike with actual eyebrows and hair. Though, no matter how hard I tried to tell myself that, I just couldn't get past the fact that I was working on an actual human being.
Suddenly, the whole world went out of focus. I was so concentrated on saving Liam's life that I couldn't think. Just me, Liam, and Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees were on my mind at the time. What's funny is that when you learn CPR, it's said that you're supposed to do chest compressions to the beat of that song. And its title is literally "Stayin' Alive".
I continued chest compressions 'till my arms were numb, I literally couldn't feel them. But then, I heard the most sickening sound of my life. A crack. When we learned about saving someone's life through CPR, we were told that accidentally breaking the victim's rib is okay, as long as they live. Knowing this, I still continued to press on, but it still freaked me out, and I felt bad.
Out of my peripheral vision, I saw Aiden and that red-head girl come in with the AED, but that was useless. Because I heard a small, but clear breath issue from Liam Driscol.
word count: 1970 words, perfectly even, which I find pretty cool.
Hope you enjoy the next chapter!