Chapter 3: Run, Ogie, run! Zoom, Ogie, ZOOM!
So it was now time to prove to the other children that she was more than just a pudgy, awkward-looking girl with glasses. Ogie bent over, with her hands stretched in front of her. One leg stretched back, while the front leg was bent. She looked as if she was going to pounce on something! Beside her, at the start of the next lane, was one of the girls who had previously taunted her behind her back. Her name was Nikki Blaine. Nikki Blaine was one of the most popular kids at Gallagher Elementary school. She and her best friend, Christine Curst, were one of the five children who belonged to Cleveland's most affluent families. The two of them always walking into school, every two weeks with the newest tech toys; specialized cell phones; purses; fashionable outfits, shoes, and just about anything that they would have an opportunity to show off. Usually the other students would observe the two fashionably dressed girls walking down the hall with their new hairstyles, while they played games on a new cell phone with special features, and gossip about random things that occurred in school. Ogie absolutely despised them both! They were two of the snobbiest, rude, obnoxious, attention horny, disgusting girls she had ever come across in her entire life! Or at least that is how she put it. The two always taunted her because of her weight and fashion sense. Now she was going to take the opportunity to prove them wrong about everything they had been saying about her since the first day of school.
Mr. Calitosis stood by the first lane, in his hand was a large green flag that he rose up. "One your marks…,"he yelled. A small drop of sweat fell from Ogie's forehead. "Get set…," yelled the coach. Her hands planted on the ground. Her heart was beating fast; she looked at the obstacles that were before her. "Go, go, and go!" The coach finally shouted. Off the children went, running, breathing heavily, sweating while the heat beat on their backs, some panting and pressuring themselves to run faster. Ogie tried to catch up with the rest of the group; she was behind all of them. Leading the race was this healthy, and physically fit, blond boy named Lake Schneider. The thing about Lake was that he was a fifth grader, or at least he was supposed to be; too bad he did not graduate from the fourth grade. Two years ago, Lake had been in the fourth grade, the time a woman named Susan Summers was still teaching at the school. Ms. Summers loved teaching all her bright young pupils news things everyday, and gleamed whenever she saw the smile on their faces, and the results of her teaching methods.
Every student was a bright young star in Ms. Summers' classroom, except for Lake, the class's grade-A slacker, who never did any work aside from lifting a pencil, or staring at the clock, waiting for the bell to ring while his teacher taught the class. Lake did not do much of the work during the year he was in fourth grade; he did not do much work during the year he repeated the fourth grade either. His teacher called in his parents one day to talk about his academic performance and his behavior in class. Shocked, his parents gave him a stern talking to, but to no avail. After the talk, Lake continued to slack off in school, and he failed the fourth grade once again. This was his third year in the fourth grade; and this time his parents threatened to not only take away his video games, but also take him out of the school. They knew how much he loved his school, and friends, despite his poor academic record. That was enough to convince Lake, to work harder; he was tired of being ridiculed by the seventh graders (his friends he hang out with at recess) for still being in the fourth grade anyway. Seventh grade girls would not want to talk to some little fourth grader who couldn't even pull his grades up anyway. "Lazy little loser," they would call him, while they snickered whenever he walked by at recess. This year it was his chance to be successful and make it to the fifth grade. As much as he liked his fourth grade peers, he only hoped that after this year, he would no longer have to be a twelve-year-old among ten-year-olds. Despite his age, and reputation at school, Ogie took a liking to this boy. He was quite handsome for his age. His light blond hair was combed up, pointing upwards towards the sky, almost looking like a little Mohawk. The lightness of his hair was only a contrast to his tan skin that was a result from being in the sun often. He had these eyes as blue as the sea that a girl could get lost in, and he was very athletic. All these traits were enticing enough to make her glasses fog up whenever she was near him. She admired him while she was trailing behind the others. However, she could not let him win, nor could she continue to go slower than the other children. Some of the children who were on the sidelines were already taunting her, and commenting on how slow she was.
That made her so angry; she had enough of this taunting. Just because she was a little big, it did not mean that she could not win a race. It did not mean she could not do a back flip like everyone thought, it did not mean that she could not do anything athletic that children skinnier than her could do, and it certainly did not mean other children had the right to make fun of her for it. She could do anything, she was smart and capable. This is what she realized at that very moment, and it was then that she pushed herself to run faster. She ran as fast as she could, sweating, quickly breathing in and out as she was beginning to exceed the other children. Suddenly she was running next to Nikki Blaine, who was surpassing her best friend in the next lane, and Lake Schneider. Lake briefly looked over to Ogie who was in the third lane running like a mad dog. The other children were in shock. "She's running pretty fast", said this blond boy named Donnie. "Yeah, fatty's a pretty fast runner!" replied his friend, Chet. "I don't think she's going to win, though!" He chuckled. Nikki Blaine glared at Ogie as she saw that the both of them were running at the same speed. She rolled her eyes and tried running faster so she could go further. Ogie tried to run a bit further as well. Nikki looked over to her, giving her a dirty look. Ogie looked at her, only to see the unfriendly countenance on her face, and then she rolled her eyes and continued to focus on the race. "You know," snarled Nikki, "You can't beat me. You can't win; you're too slow!" Ogie tried to ignore her as the two were about to finish the second lap. In the middle of the third lap of the race, Ogie, Nikki, and Lake were still in the lead among the other children. Ogie was beginning to tire out, and she felt that she did not have enough stamina; but she surprised herself by remaining in the lead for two laps so far. The children on the sidelines were now cheering for Ogie, and encouraging her to win the race. "Come on, Ogie, you can do it!" one of them shouted. "Get it going, Ogie!" shouted another one. Ogie could not believe it, she suddenly felt uplifted by all the cheering, it felt great to have people cheer for her. She pushed herself to run faster so that she could make it to the finish line. Nikki also tried to make it ahead. By then, the children were almost to the finish line and they were neck-in-neck, trying to run faster than the other, nearly leaving Lake behind. First it was Nikki, then it was Ogie, then it was Nikki, then it was Ogie, then it was Nikki, and then Ogie tried to increase her speed, and before she knew it, she dashed across the finish line. The children cheered. Ogie felt wonderful, she had finally won a race, small race during gym class, but still a race! Nikki stood there behind her scowling and folding her arms before walking away with Christine to go get a drink from their water bottles that were placed on the ground next to the fence. "She just got lucky, ya know? Ya could have beaten her, anyways." said Christine. "Oh, whatever, it's not a big deal to me", Nikki said as she looked at her nails. "She's still a loser anyway." Christine took a sip out of her water bottle. "Yeah," she agreed, "Come on; let's go sit down somewhere." Nikki nodded, and the two girls proceeded to go sit on one of the seats.
"Well," said Mr. Calitosis, "that was quite a run ya did there, miss, eh?" Ogie nodded. The coach gave her a pat on the back, "Good job." He left to go grab his equipment bag. "Thank you, sir." She called after him. Lake was near the tracks surrounded by the other fourth grade boys laughing at some joke told by his friend, Johnny. Ogie stood there looking at him, only to catch his attention as he glanced over at her. He excused himself from the small group, and began walking over to Ogie. Ogie began to feel the heat, and she began to sweat as he was approaching; he was actually going to talk to her, she could not believe it. "Hey," he said in that soft deep voice of his, "You were pretty fast, you know?" His blue eyes looked as though they were gleaming in the sunlight. Ogie began to blush. "Yeah, thanks," she replied, "You weren't too bad yourself." He nodded and smiled. "I mean, not that you were "bad", essentially," she began to say nervously, "But, you know…you run well…and stuff, you know?" He nodded again, "Thanks. Well, I'll see you around, okay?" He walked away as she watched him catch up with his friends who were leaving the field with the other children following the coach.
The day she won that race became a really special day for her, even if it was just a gym class. It was the day that she showed the other children that there was more to her than what they usually saw. She was not just some awkward-looking, obese little girl in the sailor uniform. She was more amazing than that. As the year went by she began to be more confident and for once she was actually proud of her round size; and she began to show a more sassy side of her personality. Now-a-days, anytime Nikki and Christine tried taunting her about her appearance, she would have something snippy to say that would only insult the girls and get them to walk away in annoyance. In the middle of the year, Ogie became friends with four other children. Two of them were in Grade 4-B; their names were Bruce Lombardi, and Ashley Erica Arota. Bruce was usually sane, and sensible, but he could be very jocular and sarcastic, and he was not afraid to speak his mind about anything. Ashley was calm in certain situations, but she was also a bit eccentric and peppy at times. Ogie got along with the two very well. The other two were David Daniel Ackerman III, and Leonard "Lenny" Badeau. Daniel was usually quiet, but it does not mean he was not friendly. Lenny loved having fun and cracking jokes, and he loved playing sports. These four children became her best friends, and most trusted companions. Later on that year, she took an interest in cooking and technology and cooking. She eventually become inducted as a member of the Kids Next Door after a year of training and a display of her exemplarily skills in both technology and the use of the spatula. Her codename was Numbuh 0. became the last member of sector Z, but one of their most invaluable members.