Disclaimer: This chapter does have some direct quotes from Fallen by Lauren Kate.
Creds go to her.
BEEP-BEEP-BEEP
"Ugh!" I groan pushing my alarm clock off the nightstand. It lands on the floor with a crash, looks like I'm going to have to get a new one.
Last night after hearing Dimitri and Sydney's conversation I went back to the party and chugged God knows how many cups of beer. After seeing how utterly wasted I was Lissa decided to tell me that we have a fitness examination today.
I drag myself out of my bed and walk to the bathroom. I wash my face and brush my teeth. Looking in the mirror I actually didn't look so hung over.
What do you wear to a fitness examination? I opted for a red sport bra, a black running jacket, and black Nike pro shorts. I slip on the clothes and Nike running shoes. I pull my hair back into a ponytail and decide not to put any makeup on.
I make my way down the campus, the gymnasium was behind the school.
"Hey! Rose!", someone yells behind me.
I turn around and see Lissa catching up to me. She was wearing exercise clothes too. She had a blue spandex tank top, black cropped running pants, and Nike running shoes. Her hair is pulled back into a ponytail too.
"Hey." I say with a smile.
"Do you want to get eye-humped by every guy in there?" she asks pointing to the gym.
"Why would I get eye-humped?" I ask.
"Cause you're barley wearing any clothes!" she says laughing.
"This is clothes." I say continuing to walk to the gym.
"If you say so." she says.
"Wait, this is the gym?" I ask.
She nods,"Yep."
"But it looks like a church." I say.
"That's cause it was, it got remodeled so the inside looks like a gym, well sort off.", she replies.
We walk inside and it's full. A lady, I think her name is Alberta, stand up on the top of the bleachers with a megaphone
"Okay, listen carefully, I'm going to call your name and what you're assigned too.", she says into the megaphone," First group goes to the track, the people in that group are: Mason Ashford, Lucy Dyer, Rosemarie Hathaway, John Adams, and Sydney Sage."
Great, track with Sydney.
The group walked to the back of the church. The track was huge! Ever since I was little I've loved running. I don't know why I guess it was just a habit. Most people complain about running but somehow I felt free when I ran. It's like I'm in a bubble and I can't hear anything. Running always puts me at peace.
Everyone is stretching in front of the line. The coach, someone I don't know, was waiting on us to start. I stretch a little and started getting a little hot. I walk over to the bleachers to discard my jacket when I see Lissa, Christian, Tasha, and Sydney laughing they're asses off.
I drop my jacket on the bleachers leaving me in my tight running pants and sports bra. Lissa was right, sure enough I caught the attention of all the guys and some nasty looks from the girls. We all line up at the line, and then the coach blows her whistle.
I was about to run, but then I noticed my shoe is untied. I bend over and tie it.
"Um- this is a race, and you're losing.", the coach says to me.
I shrug," Well not for long." I say after I finish tieing my shoe.
I don't know why but seeing Lissa laughing with Sydney kind of pissed me off. I'm not a defensive person when it comes to friends, I mean you can be friends with whoever and I won't mind but it bugged me. Seeing them clutching their sides from so much laughter, it felt like Lissa was betraying me.
I shake my head to clear my thoughts. I look up at my 'competition' , they weren't too far. I could catch up in no time.
I take a deep breath, and I'm off.
From what I heard it is supposed to be a mile, which is 4 laps around this track. I look to my side and see that I've already passed Lucy, I think was her name, and Mason.
He gave me a proud smile. I smiled back and run faster. I pass the other guy, John. I was already almost done, I had half a lap to go.
"Dimitri.", I hear Sydney say.
I slow down a little and turn my head. It was only half a second, half a second when I saw Sydney standing in front of Dimitri before I tripped over my shoe and fell.
I hear a whistle blow," The winner is John."
"Woah! Are you okay?" Mason asks kneeling beside me.
I look down and see no blood," Yeah, I'm fine."
He lends me his hand and helps me up.
"Thanks." I say.
"You were winning, what happened?" he asks jokingly.
Sydney happened.
I turn back to the bleachers and see that Sydney, Lissa, and Tasha gone.
I shrug to answer Masons answer and walk back to the bleachers. Christian was there, he throws me a small towel.
I smile a thanks and start wiping away the sweat.
"You were doing good, well until the end." he says.
I should say 'thanks' but no being the straight forward person I am I say," Are Dimitri and Sydney dating or something?"
He laughs, loud. And I already know he's going to tell Dimitri.
He points behind him to two glass doors. I squint and see figures, it was a weight lifting room. And sure enough Dimitri was there.
"How about you go ask?" he says walking away.
Why do I even want to know!? I mean Dimitri can be with whoever the hell he wanted. Maybe Sydney was into guys who flicked girls off.
"Rosemarie, come on we have to go into the gym now to take your push ups, sit ups, and pull ups test." The coach calls from inside the weight lifting room. Isn't there another way inside the gym!?
The coach walks through the room and out the door leaving me by myself not wanting to go in. Maybe I can just walk through. Don't look anywhere but forwards. I nod and walk inside the weight lifting room. I get about half inside when I hear people whistling.
I turn around, despite my earlier pep talk about looking forwards, and saw all the guys checking me out. But I had my jacket on! Right?
I look down and sure enough I'm not. Here I am standing in the middle of a room filled with hormonal boys only wearing a sports bra and the smallest tightest shorts I own. I groan and turn around to get my jacket when I run into a wall.
"Sorry." I look up. Just my luck, Dimitri.
"Uh-Hi." I say lamely.
His eyes roam my body and the stay focused on my eyes. Too focused. He was trying to hard to look me in the eyes and not anywhere else.
"Hi." he says. And for the first time there's nothing snarky in his tone. He actually sounds calm. Well sort of, with a half-naked girl standing in front of him I doubt any guy would be completely calm.
"So did you win?" he asks pointing out to the track.
"No." I say simply not wanting to get into it. I'm not going to lie I'm competitive. And the fact that John, a scrawny boy with braces and no muscles , beat me is kind of sad.
Dimitri looks confused,"But you were always-"
"I was always what?" I interrupt now confused.
"I mean it looks like you were a good runner. You were all cocky in the beginning." he says some attitude seeping into his voice.
Great we're back to this again.
I'm not going to take this crap from him again. I turn on my heels to leave when I hear him whisper, "Oh, Roza."
I freeze.
Turning around he obviously thought I left and didn't hear him. His back was to me.
"Did you call my name?" I ask.
He flinches a bit not knowing I was still here.
"Well it sort of sounded like my name but-"
"I should go, it's my turn for track." he says walking past me.
"Wait!" I say resting my hand on his arm.
Electricity shot up my arm. He yanks his arm out of my grasp. It was more like a shock than electricity but the odd thing is, it felt good.
His face. He looks so familiar. I know for a fact now I've seen him before. At least once.
"Do you ever feel like we've-" I start but trail off.
The resemblance. I can't put my finger on it. He resembles someone. Someone I know. But I could never forget a face like his. Where have I've seen him?
"This might sound crazy, but I swear we've met before.", I say.
His eyes look into mine. They look sad, then shocked like something happened, then they hardened over.
"Well everyone here is crazy." he says harshly.
Ugh! He's so bipolar one minute we're fine and the next he's a total ass.
"I'm not joking." I say getting pissed off.
"I'm not either. Are you in here for being a stalker or something?" he asks.
My fists clench at my sides," I'm not a stalker."
"And stop brushing this off, you didn't answer my question. Look me in the eye and tell me that I've never seen you before.", I say.
He walks closer to me and puts both hands on my arms. He even bends down a little so that our eyes level. Very slowly he answers my question as if he were explaining something to a fiver year old,
"Never in this life have you seen me before."
With that he turns around and walks out to the track.
What do you think?(: