Track Practice

"I said we can sneak in tonight once you're done with all your practices," Tori was explaining. "I already put a piece of tape on the door so that it won't lock."

"Not tonight." Autumn shook her head. All the practices today had made her tired, and she wanted to be at her peak for another of Tori's plans. She knew Tori had been pressing for the break-in to occur that night, in typical Tori fashion. She always wanted to rush into things as soon as she thought of them. Still, Autumn was pretty good at delaying her to a more reasonable time frame. "Weekend."

"Why not tonight? You're right I suppose, we could use a little more planning besides just the usual breaking and entering. I bet she has all kinds of security. Oh! You know who has some awesome security? Claire's dad. I bet Claire could help us figure out how to get into the office. But anyways, it's the Librarian we're talking about. And I bet she has all sorts of magic spells or alien technology or some such guarding her lair."

That was something Autumn liked about Tori. She could carry on both sides of the conversation by herself, so Autumn didn't actually have to say much.

"Besides, I remember your grandma has some sort of thing planned tonight. What was it again?" Tori asked. Autumn opened her mouth to reply, but Tori kept going before she said anything. "Oh yeah, I remember. That gardening show thing. She was going to show off her black roses, and some lilies or something."

Autumn nodded her head. They headed back to the locker, where the other girls were already finishing. Final practice of the evening was track. Autumn liked track the best. She didn't have to worry about outshining the other girls too much, or never getting passed to and still making all the shots. She could concentrate on her own efforts. Besides, Tori was on track with her.

Autumn kept the door of her locker nearly shut as she changed. She didn't like letting people see the inside, which was decorated in a pink biker lady pattern her grandmother had got her. If she let them see, the other girls would probably laugh.

Tori was already changed and out the door in the time it took Autumn to dial open her locker for the third time that evening, waving a hurried "See you on the field!"

Autumn followed more slowly, behind the rest of the girls. Maybe the reason she couldn't get a guy to ask her out was because of her smell? But Autumn took 3 showers a day, so much it dried out her skin a little. Sometimes she felt like she lived on the field and in the shower, with short rest periods for school and sleep. It was the beginning of the year, but already she was looking forward to spring and summer, when she could have a little lazy time. Besides, ghosts came out more often in the fall.

Tori was already jogging laps, and Autumn joined her as she came around the track the second time. Maybe Tori would know how to get a guy to ask her out? But no, Tori was always moaning about David. She'd gone out with a couple other guys, but never any second dates. Anyways, Autumn didn't want David asking her out. He was too popular, too public. She'd have liked a nice, quiet, undemanding guy she could feel comfortable around. Not have people staring at her constantly. And taller than her. Although, that last bit was a little difficult. Maybe, as long as he didn't mind that she was taller, and probably better at sports...

Heck, pretty much any guy that had the guts to ask her out would be nice. Autumn tossed her hair. She didn't need a guy. Still, it couldn't hurt to ask Tori for some pointers.

"Tori," She huffed, interrupting the elaborate plans Tori was making. "What do guys like?"

"What?" Tori asked. "You like someone! Tell me!"

Autumn blushed. Then again, Tori might not have been the best person to tell after all.

What did you say?

 “Ghost, don’t tell anyone.” Autumn told tori as they walked back to the school. That was one thing Autumn didn’t need, more people thinking she was strange or weird. She wanted to tell Tori more wanted to tell her how she communicated tell her what had just happened if only so she wasn’t the only one who knew.

 “You think you saw a ghost?!” Tori said looking around excitedly. “Who was it? What did they want? Did they send you on a quest to keep them from dying?!”

 “Gone.” Autumn said with relief. “Don’t want looks.” Autumn said shyly. It was nice to have Tori just take what you said and believe it. Not everyone was like that. “think I’m weird already.”

 “I don’t think you are as weird as you think you are.” Tori commented. “So what did the ghost want?”

 “Nothing, I uh I uh don’t know… why they show up here.” It was hard getting that much out at one time. Inside autumn felt a little surge of pride for being able to do it.

 “Well I’m not surprised you saw a ghost here. Come on, what school isn’t haunted?” Tori said opening the door to let them both into the school. “Well what about tonight?”

 “What about tonight?”

“You know” Tori said looking around. “The other world thing.”

“Have to check on Gran.”

 “You have to check on your Gran first!” Tori said incredulously. “If there is on woman on the face of this earth who does not need checking up on it’s your Gran. Why…”

Autumn let Tori’s rant wash over her. They had just entered the girls locker room and Autumn could feel them staring. She could almost feel the words in the air as they talked behind her back. But really could she blame them.

Each women’s coach wanted her for their team, but if she was on every team she wouldn’t have enough time to do any of the sports. So all the coaches devised a plan to have her on every team. They split up practice time for her, so that she was only ever at one teams practice part of the time. She would then go from practice to practice. Each coach was very guarded about the time that they had Autumn and would be calling her if she was even a minute late.

It didn’t seem very fair to do it that way to Autumn and she was sure that the other girls felt the same. They never talked to her and the looks that she received from them were full of disdain. Not only were these other girls showing up to the full practice and getting yelled at by the coaches but they put their heart and soul into it. Then Autumn comes along for just a part of the practice and outperforms every single one. Well all except for Tori, no one could outrun Tori. It had caused a rift to form between her and the other players. Autumn kept meaning to say no to all the sports but she just couldn’t say no when someone said they needed her.

Her freshman year had almost been unbearable. No one talked to her, everyone acted afraid of her and stayed away. One of the happiest moments of her life was when Tori came to there school two years ago just to run track. She didn’t care about Autumns reputation and the two of them had been close ever since.

Something Tori was saying caught Autumns attention and dragged her focus back to the present.

 “Hold on, what did you just say?”