Track Star: Part 2

Jelisa pulls up to the side of Penny with ease though, and smiles a devious smile at her before going full speed ahead of Penny. Penny suddenly has a sneaking suspicion that it was Jelisa that was behind her two freshman teammates walking off the track. She must have had something to do with this. She must have been trying to teach her freshman competition a lesson. Penny felt surprisingly…angry. It wasn't fair. She had been tricked. Jelisa cheated. Penny ignores the pains in her sides and forces her body to the best speed it can manage. But it isn't enough. Jelisa is still way ahead and winning. Penny wanted to retaliate. She wanted to do more than finish the race. She wanted to teach Jelisa a lesson of her own. She wanted to win. She needed more speed. She knew though, even though it would hurt, her body could mange more speed. She pulls up and seconds later she isn't that far behind Jelisa. Jelisa hears Penny's footsteps from behind and suddenly starts pulling away from Penny. Penny trys to push harder to stay behind her but the speed is too much for her to handle. Jelisa crosses the finish line and Penny does about three seconds after her...:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Penny stopped as soon as she crossed because she felt a dangerous pain in her body. She bent over and put her hands on her thighs and breathed. But her father's recovery method wasn't working. Penny felt light headed. She put her palm to her forehead and felt heat. Penny's lunges heaved for air, and her body burned like fire. Her hot and heavy clothes were stealing her energy and air, and not giving any back. Kenue ran over to her.



"Penny you almost won! I can't believe-" Kenue stopped. "Penny? Are you ok?"



"…I-I don't, feel ah-" Penny lost her strength and collapsed suddenly and fell out flat on her back. Everything blurred out till she could just barely hear Kenue screaming for the coaches' help.

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"…Penny? Penny? Can you hear me?"



"…There you go… How you doing?"



"…Ok Penny, I need you to look to the left for me. Could you do that to let me know if you're ok?"



"…Good. Ok, now look to the right for me."



"…Ok, now follow this light for me."



"…That's good... How are you feeling?"



"...…I…I think I'm ok." Penny said.



"Ok, here. I need you to drink this" The paramedic handed Penny a bottle of cold water. Penny sat up from the mat in the PE room and put the bottle to her mouth.



"Is she going to be ok?" Coach Weiser asked.



"She's going to be fine." The paramedic assured her. "Looks like she got overheated."



The paramedic turned back to Penny. He examined her heavy clothes and shook his head.



"Is this what you normally exercise in?" He asked.



Penny shook her head.



"These aren't the proper clothes to run in because they're too heavy and hot. Exercising in clothes like these could cause Heat Stroke." He told her. "When you exercise you need to be wearing something light and something that breaths. See how the other girls are dressed?"



Penny looked up and noticed for the first time that the entire girls track team was in the room. Kenue and Whitley were in the front. Penny suddenly felt embarrassed again. Jelisa stood near the back, next to Audrey and Antwani. Both Antwani and Audrey looked like they felt terrible, but Jelisa only looked annoyed.

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Penny felt especially out of place when she stepped back out onto the track. She felt like she was showing a whole lot of skin. She wore a sports bra, and spandex shorts that only went as low as her mid-thighs. The other girls gave her glances. Penny tilted her head down shyly as she walked back over to the coaches. All three of the coaches gazed at her and that made Penny feel even less comfortable.



"Penny? You feel alright?" Coach Weiser asked.



"Uh-huh." Penny replied.



"…Do you feel ok enough to run for us again?"



"...Uh, yes ma'am." Penny replied.



"Ok. We're going to do another relay." Coach Weiser said. "Take anchor on the second team. And don't worry about those other two girls. I've talked to them already and I'll deal with them tomorrow."



Penny nodded and started off for the other end of the track. Kenue met her halfway and walked with her.

"…You ok?" Kenue asked.



"Yeah." Penny said.



"Sorry…" Kenue told her. "I got so excited that you were running so fast, I didn't notice you were going to pass out back there."



"That's ok." Penny said smiling. "I didn't know that was going to happen either."

Kenue smiled back, feeling relieved that she wasn't mad at her.



"You were sooo fast!" Kenue said. "Your dad should definitely let you...oh yeah…"

Penny was smiling till she was reminded about her father.



"…How much time do we have left?" Penny asked.



"Uhh…like a little less than an hour." Kenue said glancing at her watch.



"…It's going to be close…" Penny said.



"Yeah, lets get this over with quick." Kenue said. "This is the last race."



As they approached Audrey and Antwani, both of them looked up in surprise and embarrassment. Kenue put her hands on her hips. Puppy-dog eyes didn't affect her.



"You two have something you want to say?" Kenue asked them.



"…Um, Penny?" Audrey said. "…Um we...we're sorry we walked off the track. It was just supposed to be a joke, we didn't want to see you get hurt…"

Kenue folded her arms and looked to Penny.

"…It's ok." Penny said with a smile. "...And I'm ok now."

"This time she's ok." Kenue said. "But the next time this happens, you're the ones gonna get hurt."

Both Audrey and Antwani looked scared. Penny put her hand on Kenue's shoulder and laughed.



"She's just kidding." Penny said smiling. Audrey and Antwani felt better to see Penny smile, so they smiled too.



"Heh-heh... no I'm not." Kenue said looking seriously at Audrey and Antwani. The both of them stopped smiling because they weren't sure if Kenue was kidding or not, nor did they plan on finding out. Penny destroyed the whole awkward moment with a smile and some laughter.



"You guys ready to run for real this time?" Penny asked.

Audrey and Antwani's faces lit up with excitement.



"I'm so ready to run this time!" Audrey said. "I can't believe we could have really won!"



"Yeah!" Antwani said. "I'm ready!"



"Yeah yeah, don't get too confident," Kenue warned them. "I heard gossip that the seniors might have held back on that race."



"Aww! You heard that too?" Antwani groaned.



"Um-hum." Kenue nodded. "And now that they've seen what Penny can do, you can bet their going to break out the woodworks this time to protect their reputation."



"But that's no reason why we shouldn't still do our best." Penny said. "...I going to run...I have to run......Am I going to do it alone?"



"...I'll run." Audrey said. "I'm with you."



"...I'm with you too." Antwani said.

Kenue looked to Penny.



"I'm ready when you are." Kenue told her.



"…Then let's race." Penny declared. "Let's win."



The four freshmen girls stretch together in a circle, then the coaches blew their whistles and Audrey and Antwani trotted off to their starting marks. Kenue locked hands with Penny in a good luck shake before going off to her position. Then Penny jogged over to her starting mark. She would race against Jelisa as an anchor.



Penny stretched her legs a little while everyone on the track got read to start the relay. Everyone at practice seemed to stop whatever they were doing to watch the race. Penny knew that her teammates and coaches are gonna want to see what she can do without the weight of the heavy clothes she was wearing before. Penny felt nervous. Really nervous, it almost made her feel too weak to stand up. Her legs feel a little shaky and her heart started thumping hard. Here it is. Penny's first race.



Jelisa turns a glance at Penny. Penny avoided her glance and looked down at the track. She didn't want to be distracted by Jelisa. Penny turned her body sideways and rested her hands on her thighs and waited. As soon as the whistle blew, everyone started yelling and shouting. Whitley the team captain again starts at the same time as the whistle and shoots out in front of Antwani and makes a gap. Penny bites her lip. Antwaini isn't striding the way Kenue was. Whitley turns the corner and hands off to Shanice. Antwaini closes on Audrey and passes the baton. Jelisa turns and smirks at Penny. Penny notices that Jelisa has cleats on. Penny knows she is at a disadvantage twice because she doesn't have spikes and the other team has a gapping lead. Audrey closes the gap on Shanice some prepairs to hand off the baton to Kenue. Kendal takes her signal and run three quarter speed until Shanice puts the baton in her hand.



"Go! Go! Go!" Audrey shouts.



As soon as the baton touches her hand Kenue goes all out; stretching her legs as far and fast as possible. Kendal has a big lead and Kenue isn't gaining much on the senior track sprinter. Kenue knows her only job is to get the baton to Penny as fast as possible. She puts herself in her imaginary world and makes belief that she is running for her very life.



"Come on Kenue…run…"Penny whispers.



Suddenly, Kenue's speed increases. Penny smiles as Kenue starts to close the distance on Kendal. Kendal signales for Jelisa to take off. Penny bends her knees and stretches her arm out waiting for Kenue to put the baton in her hand. Jelisa shot past Penny with her baton. Penny finally feel the aluminum baton touch her palm and she starts running.



"Go Penny!" She hears Kenue yelling. "Get her!"



She focuses only on the two lines and make sure she runs between them. Penny reaches top speed quickly and trys to focus on maintaining. Half the distance between her and Jelisa disappeares; but Penny feels as if her body can go faster, so she pushes her muscles harder and her body obeys. Her sneakers slam against the asphalt hard and strong. She focuses on maintaining the speed for a while and then she lookes up a little to see how far she has left to go. She can see the finish line only ten feet away, but Jelisa was nowhere in sight.



As soon as Penny crosses the finish line, she slowed herself down to a light jog before stopping. Then she thanked her body for not giving out. When Penny turned around Jelisa suddenly crossed the finish line. Everybody was in a state of awe, including Penny. Then the noise started. All her teammates ran over to her and started cheering in victory.



"We did it!" Audrey shouted. "We won, we won, we won!"



"...We won?" Penny asked.



"Yes we won!" Audrey and Antwani shouted.



They had won. The practice team had just beaten the relay seniors. Antwani and Audrey jumped up and down. Kenue jabbed Penny on her shoulder and laughed. Penny finally smiled back at her friend, still feeling unsure of herself. Had she really just beat Jelisa with no spikes and a late start? The sour look on Jelisa's face told her it was true. The Coaches were in shock but they were also extremely happy with both team's performance. At the end of practice, they held the team meeting and congratulated the girls on the practice squad for working hard. After the head coach called the meeting, Penny and Kenue made a fast escape and headed home before anybody could ask any questions.



By the time the two were on the bus heading to Penny's house, they were both feeling the effects of the hard first day of practice. Penny was well conditioned because of her training, but today she used muscles that didn't get the same attention as her main groups, so for the first time in a while, she felt a little sore. Kenue couldn't stop talking about the win. Penny was busy worrying a bout her second practice. Penny got home in time to take a shower and fall on her bed. She wanted to try and get at least a short nap in before her father got home from work. Kenue plopped down on the floor and started on her homework. Five minuets later, her father flicked the lights on in her room.



"Get up baby, time to train." He said. "How are you Kenue?"



"Um, I'm good sir." She replied.



"Penny has to train." Her father said again. "Come on Penny."



"Coming dad." She said.



Kenue knew her father wanted her to leave so she gathered all her things together.

"Good luck." She said to Penny. "I'll see you tomorrow."



Penny dragged herself out of bed and went through all the motions she would do on the usual. She put on her sports bra and shorts, and laced her sneakers. When she went in the kitchen to drink her cup of Gatorade, her mother had just come in through the kitchen backdoor.



"Hey baby," She said putting her briefcase down. "How was school?"

"Good," Penny said right before she downed her Gatorade.



Her mother looked her up and down. She wasn't necessarily fully supportive of the project the two had been working on for years.

"Oh, heading out to train with your father?" She asked.



Penny kissed her mother on the check and ran out the back door to start her warm ups. She tried to look as fresh as she could so her father wouldn't know she had already practiced with the school track team. Still, despite her best efforts, it was nearly impossible for her father not to notice anything different about her. He eyed her suspiciously all through the stretching exercises and the warm-ups.



"How much sleep did you get before I got home?" He asked.



"...Umm, about an hour." Penny lied.



"I told you," He began. "Time and time again. Baby you have to get at least two hours before I get home from work because you have get up early the next day. I hope you know I'm not taking it easy on you today."



"I know." She said.



At the start of training, Penny's father always made her to do one hundred pushups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, squats, and heel raises. Then Penny trained with weights, and then her father drilled her on speed, and then they worked together on endurance. Penny felt miserable and lethargic through the whole first two hours of training. At the end of their workout were the sparing matches. Penny and her father taped and cushioned their hands, and then they put in their mouthpieces and strapped on their boxing gloves.

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Pow, pow-pow, pow, POW! Penny threw her jabs fast and hard. But more and more she started to abandon her defense, which her father kept yelling at her for. Her father took his shots at her unprotected body parts. Penny began to get frustrated and started to throw her jabs without protecting herself. She was letting anger get the best of her, and her father decided to punish her for it. When Penny reached into a long right jab, her father ducked under it and punched her full in the stomach. Penny's vision flashed white and her body immediately lost all oxygen and clamed up.



"Don't you fall!" Her father ordered her. "Stand up! You know why that happened don't you? I told you not to go wild like that in a fight! You can never let your anger get the best of you! Standup!"



Penny's mouthpiece fell to the matt. The pain was tremendous. Penny wanted to fall, but she obeyed and instead crunched over with her gloves on her thighs. Her father came over and put his glove under her chin and raised her head to examine her. Penny tightened up her face and bowed her head down to hide her tears.



"You're alright baby," He said. "Straiten up. Come on, I trained you to take better punches than that. Breath baby breath."



Penny tried but the pain was too much for her to just shake it off like he usually told her to do. She felt like a mirror that had just been smashed to pieces. Penny's body wanted to cry, and so did Penny but she didn't want to cry in front of her father.



"Come on Penny, stand up straight." He ordered her.



Penny stayed bent over. If she stood it would hurt worse, and she would cry. So instead, she stayed bent over and cried quietly with her head down. Penny hoped that he would think it was just her sweat dripping. Just as her tears started to stain the floor, her mother came out the back door.



"Is everything alright out here?" She asked. "Penny? Baby what's the matter?"



"She's fine Rachel, leave her alone." He said.



"Baby?" Her mother put her arm over her shoulder. "Baby stand up and let me see you."

Penny shook her head. She was still in too much pain to talk. All she could do was try to breath.



"Rachel leave her alone." Her father said.



"No Robert! You're pushing her too hard out here!" Rachael's mother said through clenched teeth,



"Go inside baby, you're finished for today. I'll be inside in a minuet."



Penny painfully walked crunched over to the backdoor and went inside. She unstrapped her gloves and dropped them on the floor as she hobbled her way to her bedroom. Penny crawled onto her bed and curled up and wrapped her arms around her stomach and waited for the pain to subside. She was so glad she could rest finally. Her father had knocked all the wind out of her with one punch.



Minuets later, her mother can into the room and sat on the bed next to her.



"Baby, are you alright?" Her mom asked.



"Yes mom." She replied quietly.



Penny smiled but her mom was really concerned about her.



"Here," Her mother said handing her a bag of ice. "Lay on this."



Penny moved her pillow and placed the ice bag underneath her stomach. The coldness of the bag did dull the pain some.



"Penny, you know you can quit doing this whenever you want right?" Her mother said. "You don't have to box if you don't want to."



"…Do you want me to quit mom?" Penny asked.



"Baby I want you to do whatever makes you happy." She said rubbing her face. "I just don't want to see you get hurt. And I don't like the way your father pushes you in training."



"…I'll be careful mom.' Penny said.



"I know you will honey."

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By the next day, the entire school was buzzing about the senior girls relay team getting beaten by a practice team lead by this new freshman girl from out of nowhere.



"I'm the new freshman girl everyone is talking about?" Penny asked Kenue at lunch. Penny looded desperatly at Kenue hoping she would say that it was somebody else.



"Uhh, yeah." Kenue said like it was as basic as English. "And don't forget you're from nowhere."



Penny hung her head in embarrasment. Kenue smiled.



"Don't worry, it's not like they know it's you!" She said.



Penny covered half her face with her hand and looked around the large lunchroom. Most of the other students were just eating and talking and doing whatever, but here and there Penny noticed short glances that came her way, followed by head nods and whispers. Right then Penny could tell that some kids had figured out who this unknow freshman girl was and they were starting to spread the word around. Penny looked at Kenue knowing that she too has caugh some of the glances.



"...Uhh...well some people know it's you," Kenue said with a little smile. "But don't worry, they say a rumor only lives thiry days right?"



"Thirty days!" Penny complained.



Kenue laughed. She was trying to make Penny feel better but in all honetsty she was enjoying every second of Penny's torture. Penny and Kenue were sitting at a table in the middle of the lunchroom having lunch. It was Penny's first time in such a large lunchroom. Kenue elbowed Penny and pointed towards Audrey and Antwani approaching their table with trays in their hands.



"Hey ya'll," Audrey says. "Y'all mind if we join ya'll?"



Kenue gave Penny a mistrustful look but Penny smiled and welcomed them to the table anyways.



"No funny business." Kenue warned them.



"Jelisa's not talking to us anymore." Antwani told them.



"She mad cause we won yesterday." Audrey said. "But anyways. Guess what ya'll!"



Kenue and Penny smiled at each other. Audrey had a really loud and energetic voice that they didn't really expect from her. Antwani was more quiet.



"I'm walkin round school right?" Audrey says. "And everybody's looking at me! It was sooo crazy; I mean I'm turnin heads now! Oh yeah, in my class people was talkin bout you Penny."



Penny folded her arms and put her head down.



All the senior girls looked at Penny a little differently. At first they were looking to see the face of a girl that had just come from behind and beat not just the fastest freshman in the entire school, but the fastest seniors too. They looked her lean and wiry frame up and down for any traces of cockiness or pride; but they couldn't find any. It impressed the seniors, especially Whitley. Following her lead, they went over to congratulate her.



"Err-hum." Whitley pulled Jelisa from behind Kendal. "Jelisa has something she'd like to say."



Jelisa looked at Penny and frowned. She looked back at Whitley who gave her a sort of stern look without frowning one bit.



"…Sorry…" Jelisa said, but nobody could really hear her.



"Excuse me?" Whitley said. "She couldn't hear you, say it again."



"Sorry!" Jelisa said louder. "U'm sorry bout yesterday! God!"

Jelisa crossed her arms and cocked her head, ready to be insulted like she deserved.



"It's ok." Penny said.



"What?" Jelisa went.



"…It's ok." Penny said.



"…It's ok?" Jelisa exclaimed. "I just apologized to you! What chu mean, it's ok?"



"…Nothing." Penny said cautiously. "I'm just saying that I didn't get hurt so, it's fine."



"It's fine?" Jelisa said. "What, my apology ain't good enough for you? How bout thankyou?"



"I'm sorry." Penny said.



"No, don't apologize to me!" Jelisa exclaimed.



"…….." Penny said. "…I said it was fine..."



"See that's what I'm talkin bout! Why can't you just- " Jelisa threw her hands up in frustration and started to storm away. "Oh my God! Please have mercy on my freakin soul! Dis girl must be a alien!"