The night had been great. Gabe's bed was so comfortable and, except for Chase's chronic snoring, he had had wonderful sleep.
However, around 5:30 am, Gabe and his roommates were awakened by a loud knock and an even louder voice.
"Up! All freshmen up now! 5 mile run!"
Gabe opened his eyes and looked around the room. It was still dark with only a hint of sunlight shining in.
He looked over at T.K who sat up with the blanket still upon his head.
"What the hell?" he said to Gabe as he placed his glasses on his face.
"I think that was the coach. Gabe said, blinking, trying to get the sleep out of his eyes.
"It's 5:30! T.K exclaimed. "A.M!"
"I have a feeling this will turn out worse for us if we don't get up after the first request." Gabe answered logically.
"Did he say "run?"
"Welcome to Cascadia." Gabe answered, smiling slightly.
The two boys dressed in knee length shorts and light t-shirts. They then walked over to Chase's bed where their roommate lay, still sleeping, and began to wake him up. After poking and prodding which resulted in a very chilling "Not now, Riley.", they grabbed the mattress and tipped it, toppling Chase onto the floor. This effectively woke him up.
Twenty minutes later, after three or four hyper bars, Gabe, T,K and Chase stood out by the forest path with the other Cascasia first-year guys, stretching.
"5:30! God!" Chase said for what seemed like the hundredth time. " I was having the best dream."
"Don't share that please." Gabe said, bending over to touch his toes. T.K laughed at this comment.
"What do you mean?" Chase asked curiously.
"Nothing." Gabe and T.K said at the same time.
Five minutes later, the girls showed up looking just as, if not, more tired then the boys. Of course the short shorts and muscle shirts the girls wore made a lot of the boys look a lot less tired. Riley and Max spotted Gabe, T.K and Chase and walked over. They were smirking.
"What's so funny?" Gabe asked, reaching his arm over his head in a stretch.
"Lara had quite a hissy fit when Skinner came knocking." Max answered duplicating the stretch.
During their conversation in the Open the previous night, Lara had come up so the boys were already aware of her.
"Who would come here against their will?" T.K asked again. Gabe was about to answer when Lara came strolling into sight. Gabe watched T.K and Chase's jaws drop. She was quite pretty. Shorter shorts then the rest of the girls. Tight, black muscle shirt. Her hair though, unlike the other girls was out and flowing while other girls either had it tied back or, like Max, had it tucked into a bandana. She had obviously spent more time one her looks then prepping to run. Hair that long was bound to get into her face. As she walked by, the jaws of all the guys parted company with the top of their mouthes.
You called it, girl. Riley muttered to Max. "What's wrong Gabe? Usually you're among the petrified when a hot girl walks by." Gabe shrugged his shoulders.
"I guess I'm looking for more character in girls nowadays." And without even realizing it, his gaze had fallen upon Max. Her eyes met his and they looked away, blushing. Fortunately, only Riley noticed this and she didn't say anything about it.
Gabe turned to his roommates and knocked their jaws back up.
"Focus,boys." He said, causing Riley and Max to laugh.
T.K and Chase faces burned.
"Alright. Fall in!" The speaker was Coach Skinner. He was pretty young. Maybe mid-twenties. He wore a white T-shirt with Cascadia on the right side and a sweatband in his blonde hair. The students all lined up in front of him.
"Welcome to your first training session. I'm going to warn you now that it will be difficult at first but I know that all of you have the potential to do anything I ask of you whether it be a 5 mile run or 10. Any back talk and you'll do push-ups Any misconduct of any kind and you'll do push-ups.
I quote my predecessor, Coach Gunnerson: Here we play to win. Is that clear?"
Everyone nodded.
"Good. Now we are jogging around the grounds 5 times which is the equivalent of 5 miles. No matter how long it takes, you will do this. If I don't see you running, it will be push-ups."
Gabe prepped himself. He wanted to make his mark here. He wanted to show he had what it takes.
"Ready." Everyone put one leg forward and crouched forward.
"Go!" Everyone took off and began running. Gabe broke away, passing person after person, and reaching the front of the crowd. He had been in cross country since Grade 7 and had won several races. Long distance running came naturally to him. This was going to be a cakewalk.
Max reached up and wiped the seat from her head. Even though she wore a bandana, the sweat had begun to seep down to her eyes. She looked back and saw that there wasn't anyone there.
She wasn't sure if there was anyone in front of her. She had broke away from the group around the third lap. She was currently on her fifth and final.
She then saw ahead of her, the form of a boy lightly jogging. From the stuck-hair in the back, she recognized him as Gabriel. She smiled to herself and pushed her speed a little harder to catch up.
After about a minute, she had caught up.
"Hey." She said.
Gabe turned and noticed her. He smiled as well.
"Hey"
"You see anyone ahead of you?"
"I think we're at the front of the pack."
She smiled and ran a little faster, getting slightly ahead of her.
"Oh, so you want to race, huh?"
"Maybe." She answered, slyly.
"This hadn't really been where she had first wanted to flirt with Gabe but they were alone and he was flirting back so she guessed this was as good a place as any.
"Alright, Freckles." Gabe said, equally slyly. "Want to make it interesting?"
"Depends. What did you have in mind, All-Star?"
"Say, twenty bucks to the winner?"
You're so on."
"Cool."
Gabe then charged forward getting ahead of her.
"Fine." Max muttered, running forward as well.
For the next half mile, the two competitors pushed themselves to the limit, each one gaining the lead more then once.
As they neared the finish line, where only Skinner was standing, Max was in the lead. But then Gabe put one last burst of energy and ran ahead of her, coming into the clearing just before Max.
"Whoo!" Gabe shouted, falling onto the grass, breathing in and out. Max collapsed next to him.
"Nice job you two."
"Thanks." They answered, both happy they had impressed the coach.
"Dawson, right?" And West?"
Gabe and Max nodded.
"If you two can play as well as you run, you'll be the top of Group A in no time."
"Thanks, sir."
"If you two are going to get a shower before class starts, you should get going now."
Gabe and Max brought themselves to their feet and began walking back to the main building.
"You totally kicked my ass!" Max said, as they made their way to the school building.
"Oh come on. You almost had me." Gabe said, smiling. "And I believe there was the matter of twenty bucks…"
"Yeah, yeah." She said, holding out the note.
Gabe reached out to get the bill and his fingers brushed her palm. It was so soft. It was also slightly sweaty. Like Gabe's. Was she nervous being here with him? As nervous as Gabe? She really was cute. He looked into her stunning green eyes and she into his. This intense moment might've escalated to something but suddenly, the school bell rang out, signaling their first class.
Gabe and Max both retracted their hands.
"We should really…" Max began.
"Getting to class." Gabe finished for her.
"I hope not every day's like this." T.K said.
"I hear that." Riley said. "I honestly don't know how I'll be able to hold a racquet this afternoon."
Between the running in the morning and the note copying in the midmorning, Riley's arm felt like rubber.
She rested her neck against Gabe's. They were sitting by the lake, waiting for their first tennis practice. Her and Gabe were sitting back to back, leaning against one another for support.
T.K was on his back, hands folded behind his neck, staring up at the clouds. Chase was throwing a tennis ball against a canoe and catching it and Max was lying face down, her face in the folds of her arms.
"Oh, Gabe. I just remember. You know that guy from the bus. The one that freaked out at you?"
Riley said, remembering something she had heard earlier.
"Yeah. I know he goes here." Gabe said, lazily. "We had another run-in in the halls of the boys' dorm." Riley was surprised at this but knew she knew something he didn't.
"Did you know that he's Marcus Freeman?"
"What?" Gabe said, surprised. T.K and Max sat up and Chase missed the ball that had rebounded off the canoe.
"As in the champion of British Columbia, Marcus Freeman?" Chase said.
"One and the same." Riley said, turning to see Gabe's expression.
"That explains the attitude." Gabe said, looking slightly annoyed that he hadn't recognized him earlier.
"Hey, did you guys here that at the end of the tournament in Calgary, when he lost, he threw his racquet and knocked out a reporter." Max said.
"And didn't even get sued." T.K added.
"What do you think he's doing here?" Chase said, "He was well on his way to the pros."
"Who knows?" Gabe said. "And who cares. I'm willing to bet that I can take him with one hand tied behind my back."
Riley laughed. "Come on, Gabe. Marcus has been all over Canada. All you've won is a couple small tournies back home."
"Metals don't prove skill. Skill proves skill." Chase said, picking up his tennis ball.
"Thanks, Chase." Gabe said, though his friend's allegory had struck him as a little strange.
T.K glanced at his watch.
"We should get going guys. It's almost 2:00. Our first tennis practice starts in like 20 minutes."
Everyone started to get up.
They began walking back down the path back towards the school.
"Let's make a deal, guys." T.K said. "No matter if we make it or not, we'll still hang out together, huh?"
"Are you worried, T.K" Riley said, teasingly. "Scared you won't make it?"
"Me? I'm worried about you guys." T.K answered, as the others laughed.