We walked down the different halls till we were close to the front of the school. Erik pointed down the hall. "Alright, just go down this hallway, then turn right and go to the end of that hall. That's where the Girls' Locker Room is."

"And you know this…how?"

He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, unfolded it and handed it to me. "Ever heard of something called a map?"

"Ha ha." If our overconfidence didn't get us in trouble, then my sarcasm did. But I followed his directions. I soon found the door and entered.

Ashlie, Jamie, and Taylor were already there, waiting for me with another woman. By her looks and the whistle around her neck, I could tell she was the coach.

"Are you Rose Montoya?" she asked me.

"Yeah."

"I'm Coach Keizer, but everyone calls me Coach K. What size T-shirt do you wear?"

"She's the same as us," Ashlie answered for me.

"Alright." She pulled four bright orange T-shirts out of a box. They each had a white stripe across the middle of them, probably for writing names. On the top shirt, she wrote T. MONTOYA on the white stripe and handed it to Taylor. She did the same for Jamie, Ashlie and me, in the same manner. "You'll need a lock and basketball shorts."

"Will we be playing basketball?" Ashlie asked in a fake-worried voice.

"No," Coach K said, unsurprised. "You'll need shorts or else your grade gets docked for not participating. Now get dressed!" she walked out the door that led into the gym.

We chose our lockers and got dressed, and then hurried out to get our spots.

"You girls came on a good day," Coach K told us.

"And why is that?" Jamie asked, but I smiled. I already knew exactly what today was.

"Let's hope you have your iPods. Today, we run the mile."

Ashlie groaned. If she hated anything more than her ex-boyfriends, and she has had a lot of those, it was the mile.

Taylor smiled just a little. She knew my love of running.

"Have fun, Rose," Jamie said.

"Oh," I replied, "I will." I pulled my iPod out of my pocket just to prove my point.

"Well, looks like one of you is prepared," Coach K said approvingly. She led us over to the gym floor. "Now, when you're down getting dressed, you'll come and sit here, in alphabetical order, meaning Ashlie, Jamie, Rose, and then Taylor. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am," we said in unison, and then sat down. And, to our left, were the two Masen girls. They were talking about how we were 'so rude for sitting at their table'. I laughed inside my head. They didn't know anything yet.

Drew, Ashlie sent out. Are you ok? He shook his head and mouthed, "No." He was sitting right next to the three Masen boys, two of which whispering like the two girls over the stupid table. But Erik just kept looking at different things.

"Aww," Taylor sighed. She ran her finger from the bottom of her eye down to her chin. It was our way of showing sympathy to each other. Fake crying.

Purrrrrrrrrrrr! The whistles blew.

"Alright, everyone!" Coach K yelled over all the talking. "Listen up!" the room slowly quieted.

"Alright, everyone out." The other coach, probably Coach B, said in a loud, deep voice. Everyone stood up and walked out the doors that I assumed would lead us outside.

On the way, students pulled a mix of iPods and MP3's of different shapes and colors out of their pockets, including me. Some put both earphones in, others just one. I put both in, but kept it off. Once we were outside, I tried to get a good spot in the middle and up front, which proved to be hard, since everyone wanted the middle. I watched as Ashlie tried to take a spot in the back. I eventually took a spot on the very end, next to a fence that divided the school property from someone else's, with a set of bleachers ahead a few meters.

"Alright," God, what was with this school? Everyone saying 'alright' all the time? It was driving me crazy—as if I needed any more of that! "Ready…set…GO!"

And we took off.

I turned my iPod on and Muse's Supermassive Black Hole pounded in my ears. Instead of moving towards the middle, I ran where I was. I was only in the top 15 people, so I used the bleacher to my advantage. I jumped onto the second row of seats and ran along the plank, running past about five people. I used the very end as a springboard, jumping ahead of four. It didn't take long to run past the remaining six, and pretty soon, I was already on my second—and last—lap.

Running must've been part of my DNA formula. Like, a wolf or something. I just absolutely loved running.

I didn't know how, but suddenly, Erik was running alongside me, pulling out my right earphone so he could talk to me.

"So," he asked, "How's your first day?"

"Great," I replied. "Except for the 5th period mishap and lunch. Other than that, great. So are you on your second lap?" I slowed to a jog; I was so ahead no one was going to catch up to me.

"No, you are," he said it like he couldn't believe I was almost done with the mile. It's only been about five minutes. What was the big deal?

"What? Hasn't anyone finished the mile less than six minutes?"

"Never." He said. Then, shockingly, he laughed. "I swear, if you don't sign up for Track then people are going to be shocked."

"You know what kind of ticks me off?"

"The fact that no one can outrun you?"

"The fact that everyone one keeps saying 'alright'. Mr. Block, Mrs. Lyons, both coaches. It's irritating!"

"You'll get used to it."

"I don't think I will."

"You should still sign up for T&F."

I shook my head and took up running again. I ran up the hill and stopped.

"Amazing," Coach B said as he looked at the stopwatch.

"Unbelievable," Coach K said. "No one had ever finished the mile in less than five minutes."

Coach B smiled. "I think we have our Track captain."

Coach K nodded. "Well, Rose. We'll see you tomorrow."

It sounded like I was free to go, so I did.