I used to think that if I admired them from afar, nothing would ever happen. I was so very far away, and so very quiet; an invisible shadow pressed right against the wall. No one would ever notice me when I walked into a room, or sat down at my desk in class. I was sure that I was so ordinary that I blended right in to that sea of anonymous faces that floated by down the hallways; sometimes I thought that my classmates didn’t even know I existed. And so by that reasoning they should never have found out that I was ever there on the roof, watching the badminton courts down below from what must have been at least  a hundred meters away. But all it took was one unfortunate encounter to change all of that.

It was a day just like any other; the sun was just slowly beginning to fall from the apex of its climb across the sky and it was my last period of the school day, my lunch period. Some people hate it, some people love it, and I? I suppose I made the best of it carefully hiding my hunger until I was finally free to go off to eat, neither feeling any particular hatred or love for the delay of my meal. The roof was my usual abode; I liked the slight breeze that drifted by as I sat on the ledge by the fence, it made me feel as though I wasn’t quite as alone as I actually was.

It wasn’t that I didn’t have any friends or anything, I’d known Roy since I was a kid and ever since the time I beat him in that race we’d practically been glued to each other’s sides ; during school I was always just a couple steps behind him wherever he went. But Roy and the others didn’t share the same lunch as me, they were still in class right now and even if they had I don’t know if they would’ve agreed to accompany me up here; more likely I would have wandered off when they started doing things which I didn’t feel like joining in on. And so I sat on the ledge with a clear view of the backside of the school eating my lunch to relieve my starving stomach, sometimes whilst working, at other times just watching the breeze ripple through the trees and gardens that lined the outer courtyard of our school.

The girls badminton team practiced almost every day during fifth period in the badminton courts located at the far left of the school’s back area enclosed within a transparent glass box; where the school saw the logic in purposely constructing an off school indoors badminton area I didn’t know, but the transparent walls were convenient for me. I frequently watched them play; they reminded me of my sister, lean and tall with a light skip in their step as they shuffled rapidly around the courts. She’d always had that athleticism that I could never match; though I was a fair sprinter myself with a similar thin build with lanky limbs, I was a little clumsy and uncoordinated and I was always tripping myself on my own legs.

Nel had been captain of the badminton team at her school during her last two years, and I was just an occasional back-up runner on cross country and track and field. She would always be smiling in those photos with her team, leaning over her friend Ariel’s shoulder with that confident grin plastered across her face as her black bangs spilled just over the edge of her eyes to frame her face with a slight grey edge of shadow. I was the complete opposite, standing stiffly in the middle row looking anonymous and straight faced in the loose track uniform with my messy black hair shorn just above my ears when I was present in club photos.

I had finished my lunch and work for the day, and was watching the games down below. The girls below seemed to be holding a doubles tournament today; they were mostly clustered around the doubles courts while two teams at a time would face off against each other. Each victorious team would be met with a chorus of cheers as the losing team slunk off the court to be greeted by a crowd of consoling hugs and what must’ve been encouragement for their performance. A particular pairing between a girl who must have been the captain and another slightly taller girl was currently dominating the field; they had won their last three matches with ease and although I couldn’t see their faces or hear them speak, their body language conveyed an aura of confidence and ease. I was watching the two face off against their latest pair of opponents when I met her for the first time. Well, “met” might not be the best word to use to describe it; it’s somewhat difficult for me to describe the encounter now.

“So which one of them is it?” the voice was confident yet curious, and it had a sort of snarky superior undertone to it. I nearly jumped at the sound of it, and a startled expression of surprise must have crossed my face as I turned towards the source of the voice because a grin crossed hers when our gazes intersected. She was rather slim, though not enough to be called skinny, and her height was within the range which could be labelled as ordinary; her black hair was tied back behind her head into a pony tail which fell just below her shoulders and her eyes were a piercing grey. What was most alarming however was her attire; she wore the familiar light white and green top and black shorts of the school’s girls sports team uniform and carried a bag for a badminton racket slung over her shoulder. Inwardly I was almost cringing at her appearance, but I tried to maintain a calm composure.

“What do you mean ‘which one of them is it’?” I responded with feigned ignorance. It didn’t take a genius to realize she was asking me which of the two girls below I was watching in particular.

There she was with the confident grin again, I was pretty sure by now that I was screwed.  “Oh don’t give me that crap, you know what I’m talking about. Don’t think that you’re so invisible all the way up here; your outline might be a little blurry but I can still tell that someone’s up here watching us sometimes if it’s a good day without too many clouds. And that observer we have up on the roof would be you, am I correct?” She was watching carefully now like a hawk watching a mouse, her eyes burning holes into my shirt.

I shrugged in defeat; she had me. “Fine, maybe it is me up here, but I don’t know what you mean when you ask me ‘which one of them is it’” I looked away from those piercing eyes as I finished the sentence, determined not to be stared down.

“What, you must be watching someone in particular; I mean what’s the point of hiding out all the way up here if you aren’t hiding or anything?” the girl looked at me sceptically.

I crossed my arms over my chest, “I like it up here, is that a problem? It’s nice and sunny and there’s no one else up here to bother me.” I nodded in her direction, ”Apart from you; you’re the first one to ever come up here apart from me as far as I know.”

She sat down on the ledge where I usually would have been and gazed downwards at the courtyard, seemingly ignoring my comment. I stood stiffly to the side watching wordlessly as she scanned the horizon until her gaze settled on the badminton courts and the tournament going on below. “Were you watching Evelyn and the captain play before?” she asked suddenly without turning to face me.

“Yes I was, why do you ask?” I cautiously drew up beside her, leaning my arms along the railing preferring to stand rather than sit.

There was a momentary pause before she answered, I looked out into the far back of the courtyard where the wind swirled through the autumn leaves piled along the ground. “Nothing really, I just figured that if you weren’t watching out for anyone in particular then it probably would have been them who would catch your eye. They’re quite good, aren’t they?” I glanced over and thought I saw a sort of distracted expression on her face, but I didn’t mention it; it was probably nothing.

“Yeah, they’re pretty good.” I paused, biting my lip; what was I even doing talking to this girl who had just appeared out of the blue, I didn’t even know her name. “My sister was better though.” I chanced, finally deciding to keep the conversation going.

“Oh is that so,” she said rather quietly which was interesting given the confident manner with which she had introduced herself. “Your sister was a badminton player then?” she turned to look at me; most of the sharp edge had left her eyes and this time it was much easier to meet her gaze.

“Yeah,” I felt a little stupid using ‘yeah’ over and over, but the time for using the more stiff and formal ‘yes’ seemed to have passed. “She was captain of the team while she was here; she looked very similar to the current captain now too now that I think about it. They share that same build, long legs and quick feet; arms that are kind of thin and lanky but carry a lot of power and a long reach.”

“You can see all of them from this distance in that much detail?” she raised an eyebrow, “you have good eyes…though that’s also kinda creepy if you don’t mind me saying so.” I shrugged off her latter comment and carefully noted how she had used ‘them’ rather than ‘us’, excluding herself from the rest of the team members, it seemed as though she was hiding something or leaving something out. That was curious…and yet why did I care? We had just met anyways.

“Well I wouldn’t bother watching if I couldn’t really see, now would I.” I slouched over a bit further and leaned over and put a hand on the bag carrying the badminton racket that was still slung over her shoulder, her gaze shifted to include the bag and my hand at the touch. “May I take a look?” I asked carefully.

She shrugged the bag off and unzipped the zipper, handing it over to me, “Go ahead, I don’t mind.” She said. The racket was surprisingly light, far lighter than the one my sister had used when she was still on the team; I took an experimental swing and the racket swished through the air easily as though it were but an extension of my arm. The girl watched carefully as I swung, her eyes tracking my movements easily.

“This is a nice racket.” I said carefully placing it back into the bag and handing it back to her. She seemed to barely notice as the racket passed from my hands to hers, perhaps preoccupied by other thoughts.

“Thanks…” she said placing it on her lap as she turned back towards the courts. I strode back to where I had been leaning over the railing before and she shifted slightly to the side, and motioned for me to sit. “It’s a great racket,” she continued from where she had trailed off as I sat myself down, “but not quite good enough to beat Evelyn and the captain I guess.” She let out a sort of quiet half hearted laugh, “That’s too bad, huh?”

“You played them before? I didn’t see you down there when I was watching.” It was true; I’d been watching the team for almost two months now and never once had I seen this girl before.

“Oh I’ve played against them both before, but not during this tournament so you wouldn’t have seen me down there today anyways. I’ve known the both of them a long time, I’m proud of them, leading the team this year after working so hard to get the spot.” The words were clean and honest, but there was a slight wavering in her tone of voice that gave it away: she didn’t like that those two had the positions which they did. I didn’t know if she was envious or anything, I didn’t have enough information to draw any real conclusions; but there was enough that I could see so that I could tell that something about the situation between her and the badminton team captain made her uncomfortable.

“What’s the captain’s name?” I asked carefully.

She smiled slightly, “Oh so you are interested in her then.”

I laughed slightly and shook my head, “No, just curious, that’s all. It seems a little awkward if we both just refer to her as ‘the captain’ when you know her name.”

“Anna’s her name, Anna Everest.” She paused for a moment staring back down at the badminton courts before turning back to face me again. “I’m Grace, Grace Li. What’s your name?”

I hesitated for just a split second; I guess I could say we’d been quite thoroughly introduced to each other by now. “The name’s Theodore, but you can call me Theo.” Theodore, I had always hated that name and insisted on using Theo instead, though my sister insisted on using my full name when I saw her just to annoy me. It was too long, too awkward, and it made my already rather stiff and formal persona seem that much more impersonal.

“Pleasure meeting you Theo,” Grace said offering out her hand which I shook. A bit of the confident smile which she had had plastered across her face originally when she’d first appeared had returned.

“Likewise,” I replied back, unsure of what to say.

“Wanna watch them wrap up the tournament? I’m sure Anna and Evelyn are going to wipe the floor.” She laughed slightly.

I nodded, a little overwhelmed with the pace at which we were moving along in getting to know each other. If Grace noticed this though, she didn’t show it, instead she shifted her gaze to the courts down below and so I did the same. And so we sat there quietly watching the tournament go on below us until all of the games were over, two ghosts on the lonely windswept roof.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

2: Thinking in Silence

Home, was it appropriate to call it that? I don’t know, really I didn’t do much of importance while there. I live in a non-descript suburban home tucked into the corner of one Topica Avenue at number 37, a plain looking brick house with a faded grey paint job which was slowly flaking off of the garage door exposing the thin wooden slats beneath. It wasn’t that we couldn’t afford new paint to go over them; in fact I was quite sure that my mother had managed to bug my dad into acquiring more paint for exactly that purpose, but no one ever got around to actually doing it. Like everything else that was supposed to happen in the household, it just got put off over and over as things came up which got in the way.

My dad is a civil engineer, he designs bridges and office buildings for a big construction firm from his office located downtown, big projects worth lots of money which keep him occupied most of the time. He used to make an effort to try and get home at a decent time once in awhile and spend a weekend or two every month at home with the family, but now that I’d grown up and entered high school he often spent the weekends out of town so I see little of him. I can’t say that we do or don’t get along since there really was not a lot of interaction between the two of us.

My mother on the other hand is a...I don’t know what she does actually, she’s always at home but she always says that she’s busy working when she isn’t cooking. If anyone ever asked me I would tell them that she was head chef at a restaurant because the food she made was always fantastic even when she says that she only put the bare minimum of effort into it. Other than when she’s cooking I see her out in the back garden diligently toiling through the dirt and mud attending to the flower bed and vegetable patch. She’s smart, she says she went to university and got a masters degree in Philosophy and she always asks me funny questions about how I’m feeling, but I don’t see what kind of work she could possibly do with a degree like that.

They tried their best I think, my parents that is. My mother tried to be around as much as she could and she was always offering to help me out with work, but I had never had much trouble with school work in the first place. It wasn’t as though everything came naturally to me; I still found a lot of work difficult, but I just made an effort to pay attention in class since it wasn’t as though there was anyone there to distract me. And through my efforts there I was able to understand the vast majority of my homework, and so I never really did struggle with school even though if you asked me I would say I have no talent at anything. She was supportive, she tried to point me in the right direction and made an effort to try and talk to me, to communicate with me every day. And we talked and got along, but serious conversation seemed to evade us, something always seemed to come up.

Dad, well, I guess dad taught me manners and brought out my curiosity. He was never strict and he didn’t discipline me, he left the scolding to my mother; but he showed me more by example how to behave. He didn’t talk much, I guess I got that trait of quiet solitude from him, and he was always polite, restrained almost, hesitant with his words as though he carefully thought each of them through before the exited his mouth. When I was younger he used to bring work home sometimes and he’d let me crawl up onto his lap and look at his drawings of big fancy buildings and bridges all sliced apart into neat technical drawings and blueprints and he would carefully explain the function of parts and designs when I pointed at them, not really understanding but wanting to know what they were none the less.

He showed me how to think, he showed me that the world was just one big puzzle made of lots of little parts that worked together as one large functional unit. He piqued my curiosity in finding out how things worked and were put together, and so he introduced me to the realm of science, of a method for finding answers to all my questions. And I reveled in it, obsessed in it almost devouring every book I could find on engineering and design.

 I think eventually he realized that his indulgence in my obsession was keeping me from interacting with other people on a social level; when I was in grade six he began taking me out jogging with him and Nel in the morning on weekends, trying to get me to talk to other people I think.  It helped I think, physically at least even if it didn’t really have its intended effect of getting me to talk more; gradually I managed to put some muscle on my up till then skinny frame until I was a fair jogger and sprinter.

Eventually though, Nel went to University and dad’s work picked up so I was alone once more and left to my devices I gradually faded back into obscurity though my parents teachings did not disappear entirely; with a little encouragement from Roy I joined cross country and track and field, carrying on our weekend jogs in spirit even though it wasn’t quite the same without Nel and my dad.

I pulled my keys out of my pocket and unlocked the door stepping inside, even if my mother was home she would’ve locked the doors, was it a comfort thing? I had never asked, it wasn’t important really as long as I remembered to bring my keys. The inside of my house had a homey feel to it, a nice warm place with plain but friendly looking furniture and cream coloured walls that were easy on the eyes lit up by those curly eco-friendly bulbs that my dad had installed a couple months back, bathing the house in comforting white light.

“I’m home mother!” I called out, announcing my return as I set my hefty backpack down on the front bench.

“Oh Theodore, you’re home!” my mother came waltzing out of the kitchen in a light blue apron dotted with white flowers, her dark brown hair pulled back above her head into a tight bun and flour dusted arms told me she’d been baking. “Come on in, I was making some cookies for your father, almond and hazelnut oatmeal. Would you like some?”

Cookies weren’t really my thing but she would be disappointed if I refused, so I relented, “I guess I’ll grab one before I head upstairs, got assigned a lot of work today mother.”

She beamed, something I was never quite able to get myself to do, Nel had inherited that trait rather than me, “Such a hard worker, I’m sure it’ll all pay off if you keep it up.” She said as she pulled a fresh plate of cookies from the oven.

“Well go on, eat them while they’re hot.” She said, I took a moment to scan the spread of cookies before carefully selecting a medium sized one from the edge picking it up with the tips of my fingers to minimize the contact surface between me and the hot cookie. I shook it a couple of times to cool it off before taking a bite, as expected it was delicious, I mumbled my thanks and left the kitchen to grab my bag and head up to my room.

My room was at the far end of the hallway on the upper floor, a small L shaped double rectangle with my bed sitting in that narrow alcove and my work desk at the far side adjacent the bed, leaving the doorway clear of clutter besides the opening to my closet which was crowded out by several of my favorite sets of clothes which I left out hanging for regular use, rather than re-shelving them. I set my backpack down by my bed and stripped out of my clothes into a new set for wearing at home and lay down on my bed to think about the events of the day. Really I had already finished my homework on the rooftop before Grace had arrived so I had nothing to do, but the excuse would give me a reason to close the door to my room and get some privacy, which was something I appreciated.

I still had no idea who this Grace was, a member of the girl’s badminton team assumedly and a bit of a rebel coming up to the roof to find me I suppose, but beyond that I knew nothing. Her vision had to be excellent to have been able to see me from so far away, and from what I had seen of her tracking my movements as I swung the badminton racket she must also have had excellent reaction times, and so was probably a proficient badminton player.

She was the first person to approach me to speak to me since Roy, and that was what really caught my interest. Roy I could understand, I had beat him in a race after all, and he had been angry and demanded a rematch, ever the one to avoid conflict I had agreed and purposely let him win even though back then I was taller and had longer legs. He’d seen through that too though and demanded that I actually try, and it was only after four more repeat races which I won handily that he finally admitted his defeat, and to my surprise he shook my hand, introducing himself to me. And we’d been best friends since, though in my case it was more like he was my only friend, we often joked about that.

Boys will be boys, our friendship was forged through competition and competitiveness, I beat him and that earned me Roy’s respect back then, and over the years we had both mutually reaffirmed this respect and friendship through all our adventures and happenings. But Grace had approached me herself for no reason apparently other than to confirm my presence and my motives for being up on the roof. Certainly curiosity could have driven that, but to go so far as to sit down and talk? That was something else, something different. Or so I thought, I wasn’t exactly experienced in dealing with other people.

It didn’t faze me really that she was a girl, I didn’t have any problems speaking to anyone or anything, it’s not as though I was shy, it was more like I preferred not to speak at all unless I felt it was necessary. She could have been a guy and I will still be equally intrigued, though the sense of panic I had felt at the time certainly would have been lessened, it’s not as though a guy could have been a member of the very girl’s badminton team I was watching. Why had she chosen to approach me, just what exactly had been the full extent of her intentions?

She seemed different from other girls who I’d spoken to, mind you I’d never really had an in depth conversation with anyone besides Roy or my parents before, but still, it had been a unique experience for me. It had seemed as though she had really just wanted to sit down and talk a bit, though in the end I think she couldn’t bring herself to do it; the entire time it had seemed as though she had been holding something back, not saying something for some reasons known only to her.

Mysterious; that was how I would describe her compared to other girls I’d met, she made them seem all plain and simple, without motives or hidden thoughts. Or perhaps it was just that she was the first one to really show me that she was hiding something and had other things to say, maybe that was it. There seemed to be some hidden depth to her which I hadn’t seen in anyone else thus far and it piqued my interest, my age old curiosity sparked at the challenge of figuring her out.

Figuring her out, hah, I was such an unconventional thinker when it came to dealing with people. If my mother had heard me talking about people that way she would have scolded me, and dad would have said that I was being rude and not treating Grace with the respect she deserved by rationalising her into a mere mystery to be solved. But I couldn’t help it, that’s just how my mind functioned and how I interpreted the world around me, all just one big jigsaw puzzle to put together until I found the answers I was looking for.

And besides, it would be good to get to know her better; after all, Roy was always saying that I should try and make some more friends, why not start here?

I laughed at the thought, perhaps for once in my life, things were moving along in a direction I liked. That put a slight smile on my face, even if I did feel a little ungrateful as I grinned sheepishly up towards the ceiling. Perhaps as my mother had said, if I worked at this, something good would come of it, I looked forwards to that.

......................................................................................................................................................................

3: Pursuit Confrontation!

It was awhile before I saw Grace again, I didn’t share any classes with her as far as I was aware of and she hadn’t shown up at the roof again. I took some time to look for her in the badminton courts every day but never once did I see her; though she’d been wearing the team uniform and carrying that badminton racket it seemed as though she did not exist. It had been a gruelling day; I began my day with a half hour jog through the wooded trail that ran behind and around the school along with the cross-country team, then I had gone through a math test on graphing trigonometric functions first thing in the morning.

Right after that came physics and chemistry and though I had no particular hatred of these science courses in general the teachers responsible for both classes, Ms. Lenderson and Mr. Ferdinand respectively, were mind numbingly boring teachers who could make even the most interesting of experiments seem like the dullest thing in the universe. How they had even managed to get a teaching job in the first place with their disinteresting teaching styles and uninspired methods was beyond me.

My final class in architecture was the only respite I had all day; we were studying gothic arches and Mr. Hal showed a power point presentation which I slept through. He handed out worksheets later and I used the work as an excuse to duck behind my binder and sleep again; I think he caught me but if he did he ignored it and let me continue, he always was my favourite teacher at the school.

By the time the fifth bell rang signalling the beginning of my lunch period I was ready to just rush home right then and there; I lived a fair distance away but if I started walking now then I would arrive perhaps fifteen minutes before fifth period normally would have ended, just in time to stop my parents from driving out in the old van to pick me up. I walked over to my locker and carefully packed away my science textbooks and pulled out the heavy math textbook; though the sciences came to me easily I usually took at least two hours to struggle through my math homework every day and my mark in the course was still only mediocre at best. I stuffed the textbook into my bag alongside my binder with all my notes and walked towards the main entrance to make to leave.

That was when I saw her, it was the way the even strides conveyed such confidence that gave it away. The average height and thin build was not uncommon amongst the girls of my school, (the general region around the school included a whole bunch of athletes) and the green and white sports team uniform was not at all distinctive but it was the way in which she uncommonly slung the badminton racket over her shoulder and that air of calm that she seemed to project that really made her stand out to me amongst all the other students flooding through the hallway. That was what gave it away and really confirmed my suspicion that is was indeed Grace.

I almost considered trying to call out to her for a moment, but I caught myself and thought better of it. It was unlikely that she would hear me over all the ambient noise and bustling crowd, better to follow along before stopping her to speak when the rest of the students thinned out. I knew she was heading out to the badminton court, but the question was which path she would take; I couldn’t see her all that clearly and she was difficult to track, I didn’t quite have the same ability of locking onto a target at ground level than I did following a person’s progress from above, as I had done tens of dozens of times already over the course of my lunches.

I managed to track her to almost the end of the lengthy main hallway before I lost her; just as the crowd began thinning out she seemingly disappeared from sight into thin air. Where had she gone? I could have sworn that she had been right there not twenty meters in front of me. I quickly stepped up to the spot where I’d seen her last and rounded the corner and grimaced as I realized that the doors in front of me opened into one of the side stairwells that lead down to the lower floor. My hesitation and confusion when I lost sight of her had cost me too much time, she would be long gone by now.

I sighed in defeat, well there was always tomorrow. At least now I knew approximately where to find her, she’d been close to the science wing when I spotted her so her fourth period class was likely around there so now I had a place to start looking when I tried again tomorrow. Hopefully, it would go more smoothly than things had today. It had been an odd sort of rush, tracking Grace through the crowded hallways.  

It was odd, I suppose, and perhaps a tad creepy if I really sat down to think about it; almost like stalking if we weren’t...well I don’t know what we were really, we’d only met and spoken once if you really thought about it. Though I’d really only just met her, she intrigued me for reasons which I couldn’t quite explain; perhaps it was because she was the first person since Roy to approach me on their own, usually my invisibility and quiet self had meant that most people had left me to my own devices, I had had to approach people myself if I wanted to speak to them.

Well, there wasn’t much point in sticking around then if I’d lost her, so I decided that I may as well head home. I could head back up to the roof to see if I could spot her, but I wasn’t really feeling up to it today; besides, seeing her wasn’t the same as speaking to her, and I’d already reaffirmed her existence to my doubting conscience by spotting her today in the hallway, no, I would head home rather than head back up to the roof.

I pushed through the double doors of the stairwell to head down to the exit to leave and did a double take as the face of a badminton racket shot up right towards my face; I let out a yelp of surprise and jumped back shielding my face with my hands. The racket slammed to a halt centimeters from my face with a sharp hiss of air.

“What the heck!”

“It’s me, you idiot.” That voice, I knew that voice.

I slowly unfolded my fingers and peered through the cracks and to my surprise found myself face to face with Grace who had lowered the badminton racket and had a haughty sort of look on her face.

“Grace?...What are you doing here?” I asked, confused for a split second.

“Waiting here for you to stick your thick head around the corner of course, what else. Why are you following me?” she asked; she had a sort of irritated tone to her voice.

I was speechless for a moment, how had she managed to see me so far behind her through all those people? I was sure that there was no way that I hadn’t done anything to make myself obvious or grab her attention.

“Well go on now, explain. You do know that tailing people is not normal behaviour right?” she raised an eyebrow, then smiled ever so slightly, “Then again, you watch girls playing badminton from during fifth from the rooftop, that’s pretty creepy too.” She laughed.

“You’re one to talk, disappearing for a whole week. Where have you been?” I shot back, deflecting her comment though inwardly I winced at her observation which I myself had made only moments ago.

“Disappearing? What do you mean by that? I haven’t missed a single day of school this entire year.”

“I haven’t seen you at all the past week, not even down at the courts. If you’re on the team then I would think that you’d go at least sometime during the week to practice.”

“Why do you care how much I practice, I kick ass regardless of how much I practice.”

I snorted, “And yet you complain when you can’t beat out your team captain. I see her down at the courts almost every day ‘kicking ass’ all the while helping other people out. Maybe that’s why she’s better than you, hmm?” She scowled slightly at that, there, that was a better reaction.

“Doesn’t matter, she would be better than me no matter how much I practiced,” she said brushing it off pretending that it didn’t matter, ”And seriously, why were you following me before. You need something from me or something?”

Why had I been following her, it wasn’t as though I had needed anything in particular, I had just...decided to I guess, “I just wanted to say hi since I hadn’t seen you in awhile.” I spat out, the words sounding fake and empty. I didn’t have a reason really, so I would just have to make something up and go with it.

She put her hands on her hips, seemingly unconvinced, well what did she want me to say? “Oh common, you didn’t push through that crowd all the way here just to say hi, there must have been something else, what is it? Come on, spill it.”

I held hands above my head in mock surrender, “That’s it, seriously, there’s nothing more to it, I haven’t seen you in the past while so I thought I’d catch up to you and say hi before you headed off.”

“Tshh,” she let out a puff of air, “if you were anyone else...all that effort just to stop me to say hi, you don’t get enough I’d bet. Don’t you have better things to be doing like hanging out with your friends or something?”

“I am hanging out with my friend, right now.” Would she go for it?...

She laughed a little, “You are hella lame, you know that Theo?” I slowly let out the breath which I hadn’t known I had been holding, there, I’d said it.

I laughed, “Hey, at least I don’t stop people by swinging badminton rackets at their faces.” I shot back.

“You totally deserved that, following me through the hallway without so much as a greeting. And I don’t normally stop people like that, only creeps who act like stalkers.”

“I doubt you would’ve heard me over all the other people.”

“Oh I would’ve, trust me; I have good hearing.”

“Fine, next time I’ll let you know that I’m going to be following you, in fact I’ll yell it out to the world that I’ll be stalking you down the length of the hall, alright?” I said sarcastically.

“You be sure to do that, in the meantime I gotta head down to class, Anna’s having a training session with mandatory attendance.”

“Alright,” I nodded, “I’m gonna head home, work hard and be sure to practice.” I took a step forwards onto the stairs.

“Yeah yeah, I’ll beat Anna yet, you just watch me.” Grace finished as she rushed down past me, doubling the steps and exiting my line of sight, I heard the door slam shut seconds later while I was still only halfway down the winding stairs.

Well that was a different sort of conversation, very refreshing, a nice change from the one sided arguments I had with Roy, I thought as I stepped out through the main entrance into the crisp cold fall air, still, I hadn’t managed to figure out, just how had she managed to see me, so far down the hallway behind her?

Mysteries, it seemed that Grace Li was just full of them. Interesting.
........................................................................................................................................................................

4: Favours

“Hey Theo, wait up a sec, would ya?” I turned at the sound of Roy’s familiar voice and was thus unsurprised to see him jogging up behind me sporting his usual good looks followed by a loose gaggle of girls who trailed on his heels.

I rolled my eyes, “Brought the typical crowd along with you today I see, need something?” I said.

“Hey I can’t help it if they follow me around man, it’s not like I can make them go away.” He shrugged his shoulders in mock helplessness.

“Well how about mister handsome asks them nicely to give you a little privacy then.” I said acidly.

He turned slightly, “Well what do you say girls? How about you give us a little time to ourselves like the man says hmm?”

They left reluctantly, not because I had asked them too but because they didn’t want to do anything to possibly offend him. They walked off, but I knew they wouldn’t go far, they never did.

“Well what do you need Roy?” I asked after they had gone.

“I have a favour I need to ask of you.”

“Well that much I already guessed, from the fact that you’re here looking for me at this time of day. Usually you’d be out doing...whatever it is you do with your other friends.”

“Unfriendly to the girls I expect, but unfriendly to me? Uncalled for man; is something up?”

“Nothing’s up. It’s just your appearance before me at this time of day is rather unusual. Unusual usually means bad.”

“Well aren’t you just a ball of sunshine today Theo, did someone ruin the day for you?”

“Are you going to ruin it by wasting my time here, or are we going to move along now.”

“Whatever man, but don’t say that I don’t ever pay attention to you or ask after you or anything later.” He rolled his eyes now, “Anyways I need you to deliver a message for me.”

“A message, to who?”

“Evelyn White, she’s on the badminton team; I hear you’re friends with one of the girls there so you should be able to visit without too much trouble right?” he stopped, sending a smirk my way, “Good job on that by the way, I was surprised to hear it.”

The name sounded faintly familiar to me, but I was momentarily distracted from this by Roy’s biting comment. “And pray do tell who gave you that tasty tidbit of information.”

“I have my sources, now, will you do it?”

I took a moment to think things over; I’d never actually set foot into the Badminton courts before so I felt a little reluctant to do so, but then Roy was also my best friend since forever. It was difficult to really come to a decision on what to do, the different parts of me all wanted to do different things, I couldn’t come to one unified conclusion on the best course of action. “You’ll have to give me more than that, what’s the message about?”

He raised an eyebrow, “What do you think it’s about?”

“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking.”

“Don’t be difficult Theo,” he laughed, “I’m just asking her if she’s free this weekend, I wanna hang out is all.”

“You own a cell phone,” I said, pulling mine out of my back pocket.

“I also thought I had a friend here who could make things a lot easier for me here.” He looked at me pointedly. “Besides, you can have a nice chat with your friend while you’re at it; you should introduce me some time, I’m curious to see who this girl is.”

I sighed in defeat, “Fine, describe this Evelyn to me, wouldn’t want me to deliver this message of yours to the wrong girl would you?” My familiarity with the name, though an excellent clue, wasn’t quite enough for the memory to quite connect in my head.

“I don’t know, from what I’m told they seem an attractive bunch, you’d know better than I though, care to share?”

I laughed, Roy, always the joker. “I’m afraid I probably know even less than you about that, you know how I am.”

He let out a chuckle, “Hah, anyhow, you’re looking for a brunette with hair curled slightly on the ends, stops at the shoulders, kinda sharp nose, hangs with a girl by the name of Anna, know her?”

“The captain right? I know who she is.” That name I recognized, so perhaps there was a relationship with the captain as well.

“Yeah her, tall thin one. They look alike, ‘cept Anna’s a bit taller and her face is sharper and such. Otherwise they look pretty similar, so if you can recognize Anna you’ll be able to recognize Evelyn.” The tournament, that was it, that was where I recognized the name from;  Evelyn had been Anna’s doubles partner.

I shrugged, “Yeah sure then, she’ll get your message.  Need anything else from me?”

“No, not really, I’ll be on my way then grouch.” Roy laughed, starting to walk away. He stopped a moment and turned to wink at me, “Good work by the way, tell me how it goes with your girl eh?”

It was my turn to laugh, “Yeah, sure thing man.”

I watched him walk off, not quite sure what to think. Regardless, I would do as Roy had asked, I owed him that much at least. I never was much good at socializing, if not for Roy, I don’t know if I would ever have spoken to anybody else at all. Everyone else seemed so strange, so foreign and different from me. I was always thin and gangly, but never had I been physically incapable; I was always a fair sprinter even as a kid, in spite of my stick thin build and seeming lack of any muscle mass I somehow managed to put out quite a bit of energy when it came to running around.

However, I was never the fastest, just fast enough to keep up with the front of the pack; I could’ve been if I really wanted to, I know I could’ve beat out any of my classmates from way back when almost every year of my elementary school life, but I didn’t. That would’ve drawn too much attention, and well...I didn’t like attention, I still don’t if you really take a close look at it, but at least now I can tolerate it to a degree. Still though, even with Roy I was occasionally testy; but he understood that let it slide. He got that I just didn’t have it in me to laugh and socialize like he did. And for that I will be eternally grateful, thankful for the fact that I at least have one friend who I can rely on.

I let myself drift off to class and think about how I’d get that favour over with; it was inconvenient that I’d have to do this in person. Since I wasn’t an actual regular visitor to the courts it would be somewhat strange for me to just head down there out of the blue and deliver a message like that, no one there would even know who I was, apart from Grace of course...The thought made me pause; it certainly made sense to at least show up alongside Grace, it would be awkward if a guy suddenly showed up at the meet for the girl’s badminton team wouldn’t it?

Well, that was the story I was going to stick with anyhow; various other thoughts floated through my head but I had already made up my mind to go find Grace and speak to her about this. I still had no idea what her schedule was like though apart from the fact that she had science of some sort fourth, so I contemplated on what I should do. I could try to look for her around the cafeteria during each period interchange but that would only work if she actually ate in the cafeteria; from what I knew of her she didn’t seem to have that many friends so I somehow doubted that she’d be comfortable eating there.

I could of course just wait till after fifth and try to catch her on her way down to the badminton courts but that would involve looking awkward as I waited patiently at the school exit and stood there waiting apparently for every member of the damn girls badminton team to pass me by; creepy to say the least, and if anyone asked any questions I didn’t know what I would say to them. I tried to distract myself from the matter by focussing on my classes, pretending that I might find a solution to my problem while concentrating on my studies but to no avail; no solutions came and no work  got done. In end by the time fifth period rolled around I still no idea what I was going to do; I walked my way through the halls up to the roof, passing through the math and science wings before I finally made it to the stairwell which would take me up to the rooftop.

As I flipped open the double doors I found myself face to face with Grace, fully garbed in her badminton getup; I quickly recovered my composure and put on my best game face.

“Surprised to see you here.” I said, “Shouldn’t you be heading to practice?”

“Funny, I came all the way up here just to say hi to you before heading down and this is how you greet me? Hell of a friend you are.” She responded sharply.

“And I was supposed to know this how?” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

“I unno, but you don’t have to look so displeased to see me.”

“Do I look displeased? Because to be honest I am rather happy that you’d take the time to swing by.” I smiled, genuinely pleased.

She sighed, “You are so weird, you know that?”

“Pleasure to be of service,” I said with a joking bow.

She laughed, “I should get going I guess, I’ll catch you later.”

It hit me that this was the opportunity I had been looking for, “Wait, I’m coming along.” I said turning around to follow her.

“What’s this, I recall this being the girl’s badminton team no?” she said raising an eyebrow.

“My friend Roy asked me to deliver a message for him, but I wasn’t really sure how I was supposed to get inside without…looking weird. It’ll be easier if I come in with you, is that ok?” I asked tentatively as we walked down the steps.

She seemed to consider it for a moment, grey eyes wandering before turning back to me with a shrug, “Whatever you want man, I don’t see why you need to tag along with me to do though. Who’s the message for?”

“The captain’s partner, Evelyn I believe was her name; Roy wants to see if she’s free this weekend.”

She rolled her eyes, “Oh, that Roy; doesn’t he have enough girls to mess around with already? Honestly I don’t see what’s so great about him, I guess he’s sort of good looking but he’s nothing special.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that, after all Roy was my friend too, I supposed that I should defend him. “He’s not that bad if you get to know him a little; it’s not that he wants all the attention, he just…attracts them I guess.”

She sniffed, “Whatever, overrated. And I don’t see how Evelyn is so hot either, girl has legs but not much else the way I see it.”

There was a dangerous look in her eye as though she was daring me to say otherwise, I wasn’t quite sure why she’d want me to say anything so I stayed silent. Best not to risk things I didn’t fully understand; I just let myself nod slowly in agreement, not saying anything else. She seemed to relax slightly after that and we quickly made our way over to the courts.

She walked me over to the office where I could see Evelyn talking with several other girls through the glass; several gave me a couple of odd glances as Grace pulled the door open and led me inside.

Evelyn took a brief glance in our direction and stepped towards us, towering over Grace by a good half foot, she was really freaking tall. “Who’s our guest you have here Grace?”

Grace seemed to ignore her imposing presence, glancing slightly to the side. “This is Theodore, brother of the former captain of the badminton team Nel; he has message for you from a certain Roy.” She said. When I didn’t move, she gave me a little shove forwards as though she wanted to get this over with quickly.

I found it a little difficult to look Evelyn in the eyes, she was just so damn tall, taller than me even. “Uh, hi, yeah so…Roy wanted to know if you were free this weekend to hang out.” I said nervously, not quite sure of how I was supposed to deliver the message; I really wasn’t cut out for this sort of thing.

“You came all the way here for this? You Roy’s bitch or something?” Evelyn laughed; I saw Grace scowl out of the corner of my eye. “You tell him to make plans and call me up; I’ll see if I can fit him into my schedule.”

“Fine. And I’m not his bitch, I’m just doing him a favour.” I growled.

“Whatever you say kid, now get lost I have a practice to run; and you, Grace, don’t make this a habit.” She said giving her a stern glare before stalking off. Damn, this hadn’t really gone the way I had expected it to.

I was unsure of what I should say to Grace but she smiled apologetically at me as I turned to speak to her, “Yeah sorry, maybe I should have warned you that Evelyn is a little…difficult.”

“No it’s ok, I should be the one apologizing, I got you grilled over something you didn’t have to do for me.” I said shaking my head. I really did have to be more careful when it came to dealing with new people.

“It’s alright, I agreed after all; anyways I gotta head over to actual practice or Anna going to yell at me some more, I’ll catch you later.” Grace said, turning away.

“Later Grace!” I said turning to head off.

Roy owed me big time, I was going to make sure he knew that.

…

5: Track Race

My weekend structure went something like this: I’d wake up at seven in the morning to jog down to the local community center to swim laps for half an hour, then I’d head back to work for two hours, take an hour off, work for another hour or so until lunch eat, go out and chill with friends till the evening, come home, then work till I slept. The other day where I didn’t do this we used to go out around town shopping or just eating out as a family; I lived in a fairly urbanized area of the region so there were plenty of things to do around town but I these days I frequently found us spending more time at home. With Nel off at university I was left on my own after going out shopping with my mother; frequently my dad would leave after this heading off for various freelance work opportunities of his. Having finished most of my work by this point I usually found a spot in the house to catch up with the latest book I was reading, but today I had other plans.

Roy had invited me out to ‘Hang’ with him, not a rare occurrence but an oddity never the less; I had been under the impression that he had been planning to spend time with some girls, and Roy generally did not invite me to such events since he knew I didn’t like them. Relative to me, Roy lived close to the down town region in an area without the green scape of my home so when I swung down to visit him all I usually saw at the addresses he gave me were the greys of concrete and brick browns or the latest trend in interior design for the interior of cafes. So it was a surprise to me when I found myself standing in front of a sports center when I went to the address Roy had given me; as promised, Roy was waiting for me by the doors sticky with sweat in track clothes but still he somehow managed to look handsome as ever.

“Hey Theo, ‘sup! Glad you could make it.” He shouted over to me as I walked up the front steps.

I gestured at the building, “What’s with the setup? I thought you were on one of your dates?”

“We decided to try something else today; Evelyn said she was bored with just talking and drinking so we decided to head down here for some action.”

I nodded, “Uh huh, and why am I here exactly?”

Roy gave me a sheepish grin, “Well, I need you to run some laps for me, 200, and then 400 meters to be exact.”

“Laps? What the heck for?”

He opened the doors and pointed inside with a slight movement of his head, “Let’s go inside first, shall we?”

I crossed my arms over my chest but after a moment’s hesitation stepped forwards to follow, “Fine, but you have some explaining to do.”

We stepped inside the main entrance and Roy helped me get past the sign in; the receptionist glared at my street clothes but Roy simple grinned and assured the woman that I was going to get changed and that lovely face of his got us in, god he was useful even if he was annoying sometimes. We walked over towards the change rooms and Roy walked over to a locker and pulled out a set of track clothes, tossing them over to me.

“Get changed Theo, I need ya to defend my pride yeah?”

“Yeah? And why would that be? I recall you being a pretty fair sprinter yourself, quite capable of holding your own.” I replied dryly.

“I’m good, but I recall you being better.” Roy laughed, “That Evelyn, she’s got a pretty big head but she’s damn fast; she brought two of her own along and challenged us to a race me and Jason and William who are waiting down at the track.” He frowned, scratching his head, “They kicked our ass man, and well, I said I’d show them a real sprinter who would leave them all in the dust.”

I scowled, “You called me all the way out here for a silly bet? Don’t you have better things to do man?”

“Yeah I know but…it’s Evelyn, you know? She’s pretty enough but…she just has to have her way, you know? I want to wipe that cocky smile off her face, you know what I mean right?”

I thought back to my previous encounter with Evelyn, that girl definitely needed someone to check her attitude, but this was just a run and I hadn’t ran hard in a long time; I was a long distance runner but sprinting was something I hadn’t practiced in years now. I was fit enough but I wasn’t certain I could do this but…

I stopped; what choice did I have? Roy had already decided for me that I was doing this, and I might as well try right? And this Evelyn needed someone to teach her a lesson, so I would try my best to make myself and Roy proud.

“Fine, I’ll do it.” I said, unbuttoning my shirt and pulling on the track clothes, “But I can’t guarantee to you that I’m going to win, just that I’ll try my best.”

“Theo bud, that’s all I ever ask of you.”

Roy showed me to the track where Evelyn and two other girls stood waiting looking bored alongside William and Jason, two of Roy’s friends who I didn’t know all too well. Anna was sitting on a bench to the side along with some other girls from the badminton team, including I noticed, Grace. I was tempted to wave to her but I wasn’t sure what kind of impression that would create in front of all these people so I refrained from doing so.

“So, the prodigal son returns.” Evelyn laughed when she saw us, “And with your ace in tow eh?” she said, raising an eyebrow as she glanced over me. “Well if it isn’t your little dog Roy, are you really trying to impress me with this?”

Roy sighed, “This here is my best friend thank you so if you wouldn’t mind cut it out with the insults. Theo here is going to leave you all in the dust Evelyn.”

“We’ll see about that; well then I hope Roy here explained the rules to you?” she said, gesturing lazily at the track.

I scowled at Roy who shrugged in mock helplessness, “Whoops.”

“No actually, he didn’t; you’ll have to give me a brief run through.” I said.

“The rules are simple, you race my two girls here at the 200 meter, if you manage to beat both of them you race me ‘round the 400 meter. Stay in your lane and wait for Anna’s call to start. Got it?”

“And there are no breaks for me in between?” I asked, looking sceptically at the two other athletically built girls with Evelyn.

“ ‘Course not, you’re supposed to be the ace. Besides, us three have already been running awhile kicking down Roy and his boys here so you should have an advantage being fresh off.”

“Fine, let’s go then.” I said walking up to the track. One of the girls peeled off to walk beside me taking the inner most track so I positioned myself somewhat ahead of her on 2nd lane, waiting for the signal. I felt strangely nervous as I flexed best I could within the confines of my sneakers, I really should have warmed up before doing this.

“We’re all yours Anna!” Evelyn shouted in the distance, the Captain barely glanced up from her reading and pulled a horn up from the bench and with a loud *Honk!* we were off.

We both pulled away from our starting positions at full pelt, accelerating into full sprint; the world blurred around me and my field of view narrowed to include only the two lines on either side of me within which I had to stay. My heart pounded in my best as I rounded the track, muscles pushing me forwards but my lungs seemed to hold up just fine which was what mattered and before I knew it I was across the finish line, a good three seconds before my opponent. I slammed to a break and glanced around me reorienting myself with the rest of the world. My track had me start about a meter and a half forwards but I was confident that I had still finished first because of how much sooner I’d crossed and a nod from Anna and a scowl on Evelyn’s face confirmed my theory.

Roy and his friends let out a chorus of shouts and cheers but it barely registered in my ears; I let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding and extended my hand to my opponent who has half bent over with her hands on her knees, after a moment she blinked and clasped my hand in hers and shook.

“Nice running.” I said.

She nodded, “Thanks, good luck.” She said before slowly slinking off to join her companions.

“Alright, who’s next.”  I said, pacing slowly back towards the starting position. With a quick nod Evelyn sent the other girl off to meet me, a lanky blond with thin features and crisp blue eyes. Again we took our starting positions and again I came out on top; either Roy was severely out of shape, everyone I knew had suddenly become physically incapable, or I was a better sprinter than I remembered.

 

And then it was time for me to take on Evelyn, something that I would already have been hesitant to do if I was in top form; I wasn’t really all that tired from sprinting around the track twice but this time we would be running the 400 meter, and after seeing those legs on that girl…I was unsure of whether or not I could pull this off. It wasn’t as though I had been practicing for this either, Roy had just pulled me into this out of the blue the way he always handled things; but there was no backing down now. As Evelyn paced down to the track with a scowl on my face, I tried to slow down my breathing and put myself in the mind set to run; I was a long distance track runner after all, I was a sub for the A team for a reason. I could do this, I could feel it.

“So, ready to get your ass kicked kid?” Evelyn laughed taking up the innermost position along the track, “I don’t know how you managed to beat out Lil’ and Serena but I won’t go so easy on you, you’re done for.”

“We’ll see.” I said evenly, digging my feet into the dirt.

“Oi Anna, let’s go!” Evelyn shouted, and after a moment’s delay the horn blasted and we were off.

In her first few strides her long legs easily took Evelyn meters ahead of me but I let myself settle into a comfortable pace all the while making sure I was never more than seven to eight meters behind her; we would be going around the track twice so I didn’t really have to worry about pulling ahead of her until the second stretch. As we rounded the last bend to begin the final lap I put a little more energy into my legs letting my breath get ragged and pushing harder so that my lungs began to burn; from a quick glance I could tell that in her arrogance Evelyn had screwed up, she’d burned too much energy in her initial few dozen meters and had slowed down somewhat by now. I pulled up behind her closing the distance and as I passed her by with four dozen meters to spare before the finish line I exchanged glances with her; she scowled and seemed to put in one final effort to try and surpass me once more but it only took me a tiny additional expenditure of energy for me to pull ahead in spite of her best efforts.

As I crossed the finish line I slammed to a halt braking with my feet, bending over holding myself up supporting my upper body with my hands on my knees; I was more tired than I thought I’d be, perhaps I’d been running on adrenaline after all. Evelyn came to a slow halt mere seconds behind me despite the lead I’d built up, looking more frustrated than anything else; she locked her gaze with mine as she strode past before breaking away as she stepped past me.

“Grace, get over here!”

A blinked, frozen for a moment; had I heard what she’d just said clearly?

“Hey, what’s with this Evelyn, I thought we were done here?” Roy said as he came up to us.

She glared at him, “You got an ace card, so do I.” she said, looking back up at the rest of her teammates sitting on the bench, “Come on Grace, what’s taking so long?! Get over here!” she snapped, Grace still hadn’t moved.

“You said you were better than anyone I could bring to the table and that you’d even give me an ace card to call in if I wanted to, that was the whole point; you’re supposed to be better than anyone. You didn’t mention about any ace card of your own, come on Evelyn, I won this.”

“You get an extra, so do I; that’s how it goes, it has to be even.” She said stubbornly; I glared at her but she refused to meet my eyes.

“He’s exhausted, look at him! How can you expect this to even be a fair match?! He just ran three times in a row for you, don’t be such a sore loser.” Roy growled. Well at least he had my back after dragging me out all the way here, that was something.

“I’m here because Anna dragged us out for practice, not because I wanted to come play your little dating game here.” Grace said as she jogged up to us, looking rather unhappy. “I’m not down to do this Evelyn.”

“You owe me a favour though, so you will do this for me.”

I spared Grace a glance as I pulled myself onto my feet, tired but not beaten; she gave me a funny look and mouthed something at me that I couldn’t make out.

“Fine, if he’s up for it I’ll run; I don’t know why you’d choose me out of all the others though.”

“Don’t give me that, you think I don’t know you’re good just because you skip out on practice all the time to do god knows what? Run your damn laps for me.”

Grace crossed her arms over her chest, “You really sure you want to use that favour I owe you over something so petty?”

Evelyn seemed to ignore the comment, “Go, beat him; show the world how friggen fast you are and why you’re the doubles tournament’s only solo player.”

That comment perked my curiosity but I didn’t have time to think about it; Roy and I exchanged glances and he shrugged, “If you’re up for it go ahead, but I won’t force you on this one mate.”

I turned towards Grace sizing myself up against her, moving so we were face to face; there was a hard edge in her eyes similar to what I had seen the first time we’d met on that rooftop, but I could see something behind it as well, a spark of interest. She’d seen how fast I was, she wanted this challenge.

I flexed my arms in front of me stretching them out as though I were merely warming up to begin, “So what do you say Grace, you up for a spin round the track?”

“Evelyn, we’re done after this alright?” she said without looking at me as she paced towards the track, Evelyn seemed to reluctantly shrug and stepped away and motioned for me to follow; it seemed as though I had one last race to run for the day.

One final time I took my place at the second innermost lane and placed myself ahead of my opponent, Anna, seemingly tired of supervising her friend’s antics had handed over the horn to Evelyn herself and after a brief countdown shouted out by everyone else present she started us off with a *Honk!* and I put myself into motion. Like a well-oiled machine Grace overtook me in three smooth strides as I was still getting myself up to speed; though I was the taller one between the two of us she somehow till managed to keep ahead of me even as I studied her stride in the few seconds she was close to me to try and match her pace. I bled speed on the second turn and forced myself to accelerate to try and catch up as we neared the end of the first lap, without looking in my direction Grace seemed to sense my change in speed and pulled ahead in turn.

There was one last turn for me to round, Grace was already approaching the end of it as I pulled in and I leaned into the turn and dug my feet into the sand really pushing myself forwards as I rocketed down the final stretch; moments after I began accelerating Grace seemed to slow down. I could already tell though that it wasn’t going to matter, she’d put enough distance between myself and her she could cross at a leisurely pace and as I thundered towards the finish line she casually sauntered across a mere second before I did.

She gave me a casual smirk as I drew up beside her, “So what do you think Theo, how was that?” she gave me a slight grin that only I could see.

I let out a small pant, sides heaving, “Maybe if I was fresh I could give you a better showing you show off, don’t go and make me look bad at the end like that eh?” I gave a slight scowl, but smiled quickly afterwards to show her that I wasn’t really angry about it.

Roy and the others had made it over by now and he clasped me on the back, giving me a reassuring smile. “It’s ok man, it was going to be hard anyways. Don’t mind Evelyn’s bullshit, I’m grateful for the help you gave me today.”

Evelyn herself sniffed dismissively at me but after catching a glare Anna directed at her out of the corner of my eye, she reluctantly held out her hand to me, which I shook after a moment’s hesitation.

“Well then if your little game is over, why don’t we head back the day, shall we girls?” Anna said standing up from where she sat; the others murmured their agreement as Anna waited for Evelyn’s response.

Evelyn shrugged before relenting and following Anna and the rest of the badminton team towards the change rooms, as they filed out Grace punched me lightly in the shoulder as she passed by, “Later speedy.”

I laughed, waving back at her before she disappeared through the doors.

“Well who’s that?” Roy asked once she’d disappeared.

I thought about it for a moment before answering.

“My jogging partner.”

…