Hello!

So I did the unfortunate task of going back and rereading some of the earlier chapters of Silent and oh my gosh, what was I thinking! I personally think I have improved greatly so I am now taking on the unfortunate task of "revamping" the earlier chapters. In other words, Silent is now under construction while I rewrite over half of it. The storyline will stay the same, just written better. It will still be open to read, but it probably won't make any sense until I'm done. This will be the last chapter for a little bit and I hate to do this after I just got off a hiatus but I can't put it off any longer or my procrastinator side will never get it done.

Naia's POV

I love running. Always have, always will.

I was never allowed to join the track team before, but now that I was living with Matt and Gabby, I didn't think twice before writing my name down on the clipboard.

"Go!"

My legs started pumping as I took off on the school track. I loved it when we had track practice after school. That was because I liked running.

There's a full-circle thing going on.

Something about the way my mind goes blank while my body repeats the same movement over and over again is just so mesmerizing.

No, mesmerizing isn't the right word.

I wasn't sure how to describe the feeling, but whatever the word is, that's what I liked about running.

There were a few other students on the track team besides me. Nate was one of them, and then there were the twins Izzie and Ava who were a year older than me and Wesley who was a year younger than me.

There were two track teams, one for grades seven and eight, and the other for grades four to six. Any grade younger than four wasn't allowed to join.

I wish I had been able to join earlier than grade seven because I really enjoyed this.

That's what I was thinking about just as I crossed the line our coach was standing at.

"Six minutes, ten seconds," He told me while I walked around, trying to catch my breath.

That wasn't bad. I could do better, I knew that. There was always room for improvement, but for now, six minutes and ten seconds wasn't bad.

Izzy and Nate had already finished before I did and Ava finished right after I had, followed almost directly by Wesley.

"Well, at this rate, we should be looking at making regionals," Coach Kennedy told us, a hint of pride in his voice.

I smiled, "That's good right?"

"Yes, it most certainly is," He nodded at me.

"Nobody made regionals last year," Ava said, biting her lip, "What makes you think we're going to make it this year?"

I had already gone to my first track meet, a couple of weeks ago. I didn't place in the top eight, but I came really close, coming in at ninth, the girl in eighth place beating me by just over a second.

"Because we have better people on our better team this year," Coach Kennedy smiled, looking around at the five of us.

I looked around as well, taking in everybody's apprehensive expressions.

"Alright, that's all the time we have for today," Coach Kennedy said, looking at his watch, "Pack up your stuff and get out of here."

We all laughed, now knowing that his humour often came out in a somewhat harsh way.

I packed away my water bottle and swung my backpack onto one shoulder. I waved good-bye to my coach before starting to head towards the front gates of the school.

"Hey," Nate had run to catch up with me, "Are you excited for the meet this week?"

I nodded, "Yeah, I think so."

"You think so?" Nate chuckled.

"Well, I'm nervous but excited," I explained, "Like a nervous excitement."

Nate smiled, "What are you nervous about? You did really well last time, you know, with it being your first meet and all."

"Yeah, I guess," I tried to hide how nice Nate's comment made me feel, "It's just now I feel pressured to do well. Like really well. Especially after Coach said that we might have a shot at regionals. I don't want to be the one that messes things up for everyone."

"You know not everyone goes to regionals right?" Nate looked over at me.

I furrowed my eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that only the top two in each event at areas will move on," Nate went on, "So if you placed second or first in fifteen hundred then you'd go to regionals, but if no one else places top two in their event, they're not going."

I took a moment to take in all the new information that I got.

"Naia?"

I nodded, "Got it."

When we got to where our roads split, I wished Nate a good night and continued on my way to the firehouse.

"Stop, you're hurting her!"

Walking didn't have the same effect as running. It didn't put your mind in this thoughtless daze.

"You're the reason they're dead."

I didn't know why I was having such trouble with these things right now. It had been so long since the events had occurred.

Why was I still thinking about them?

My thoughts kept running, from the Samuals to the shooting, and everything in between. My brain just kept jumping from one event to the other.

When an image of Jane bleeding from a bullet wound to her head popped into my head, it caught me so off guard I stopped in my tracks. I felt my shoulders sag as I started vividly remembering that night.

Somehow, I managed to start walking again and made it to the firehouse. I went through the door that led into the apparatus floor and saw that all the trucks as well as both ambulances were there, meaning that nobody was on a call right now.

Despite having a hurricane of thoughts in my mind earlier, it was now blank as I walked through the firehouse and to the common room where a few people were seated.

There was one time, when I was probably seven, that Ellie had been beaten so bad her nose had started bleeding. Not just randomly, she had gotten a couple of punches to the face and her nose started bleeding.

I thought they had broken it.

I remember being scared. Scared because the strong and brave Ellie was now bleeding and crying. Scared because all she had done was ask for something sweet to eat. Scared because the blood just wouldn't stop coming.

"Naia?"

I realized that I had just been standing in front of the entryway, not moving.

"Yeah?"

I started making my way towards an empty seat to start homework.

"We asked how was school?" Stella told me, "So...how was it?"

"Oh," I chuckled softly, "Good. It was good."

Severide nodded, "You had track practise today, right?"

"Yes," I started pulling out all my textbooks, "That was good too."

"You have a meet this weekend don't you?" Stella walked over to where I was seated, "Maybe we'll all come and watch you."

At my last track meet, Matt and Gabby had to be on shift and so I had caught a ride with Nate and his mom. This week though, they didn't have to be on shift so they were going to come this time, and apparently all of 51 as well.

"You don't have to," I smiled shyly at Stella.

"I know," Stella replied, "But what if we wanted to?"

I bit my lip, thinking about a good response.

"Then, sure...come if you want."