The Other Three Operatives
Chapter 2: Ogie, the runner
Ogie Hirsh-Rosenthal had a strong disliking for her first name when she was a young girl. She thought it was weird and so unheard of. Who the hell names their kid "Ogie"? She thought, the name her parents chose just never appealed to her; but it was the name she was cursed with, and she had no control over that. Aside from her peculiar name, children at school always taunted her for her size. She was a short, pudgy, quirky girl who wore glasses, and her hair in spiky-pigtails. For a while she felt awkward whenever she walked the hallways and she could hear some sniveling, snobby little girls whispering about her in the hallways and whenever she walked by full tables in the cafeteria. "She's so fat!" One girl would say. "Yeah", another girl would respond, "and what's with that dress?" If there's been something that always bothered young Ogie, it was the dress that her mother always made her wear to school. It was this navy-blue sailor uniform with red lining on the edges of the skirt and sleeves. She also wore Mary Janes, and matching bows in her hair, yet her mother let her hair remain unbraided. She absolutely hated it! Every other child was thin, and had friends and never had to wear clothes that looked like uniforms. They dressed like that wanted to express themselves entirely. She could have forced her mother to go to the store and buy her regular clothes to wear like the other children; but her mother insisted that she was not going to spend so much of her money on 'flashy, gaga, trashy clothing' as she put it, and she liked the idea of her daughter wearing 'better-looking' clothing, and spent the little money that she had to buy sailor uniforms. No, the family was not wealthy, her mother was working two jobs, to support her four children, and Mr. Hirsh was dead. Two previous years, he had died in a train accident, on the day Ogie performed as a lead character in a school play. She had wondered why he had never arrived at the school to watch her perform, but later that night she had finally come to know why. It was hard to cope with the loss of her father. She was the only female child among the other three children who were boys. Her father always spent time with her whenever he could; she was a bit of a 'Daddy's girl' actually. After his death, her Mom decided to work two jobs to support her children and pay for other expenses. Ogie could not stand being taunted by her classmates almost every day due to her clothing and appearance, yet she never cried about it, but she always complained whenever she began talking to herself when she was alone in a room.
Nonetheless, her year in the third grade was not entirely bad. That year, she made the school soccer team, and she proved herself to be an exceptionally good runner. Yes, Ogie was a fantastic runner, to the surprise of the rest of her classmates, and gym teacher. It all started on the first day of gym. After the children were ordered to change into their gym uniforms, the gym teacher, Mr. Calitosis, brought them over to the track and field area, where the school's track team often practiced. He was going to have the children race against each other on the track venue. There fifteen students and each of them were put into three group of five so each one of them could go on one of the five lanes. Ogie was part of the second group of children. As she watched the first group of children raced each other on the tracks, she could hear two girls talk about her from behind. "She's so fat; I don't think she'll be able to run that fast! She'll tire out." One girl said; the other girl just nodded in agreement. This made her mad, and determined to prove them wrong. How dare they judge her like that! Had she previously done something wrong to them that had made them so rude, and disliking of her? After the other group had finished racing and the children went to go rest their legs, and drink some water, she was ready to beat those girls and prove them wrong.