Running Free

by Laura Sieveking

  Within the first two days, I had sat my English, History and Science exams. They seemed to go okay – I felt like I’d studied enough. There was even a question on liquid displacement in the Science exam, and I was able to answer it as I remembered back to my ice-cream spider overflowing at Issy’s sleepover!

  But my biggest hurdle was only one day away – the Maths exam. Even though I felt like I was improving, I kept remembering the big, red thirty-eight per cent staring at me on my last assessment paper. I couldn’t fail again, I just couldn’t.

  I sat in the library, quietly working on Maths questions and formulas, as people around me tried to smuggle secret notes, hidden in glue sticks, to each other. That would have been me in the past – using the study time to mess around with Delphie – but not anymore. I had to get this right.

  The bell pierced the silence and everyone immediately leapt to their feet and bolted out the door. I slowly packed up my books and pencil case as the library emptied.

  ‘How are you going with Maths?’ a cool voice asked from beside me.

  I turned around and saw Clara standing above me, smiling. Her long, golden hair was in two French braids and her blue eyes sparkled.

  ‘I’m definitely heaps better,’ I said slowly. ‘But I’m so nervous about tomorrow’s exam. I have so much riding on this, you know?’

  Clara nodded. ‘I totally get it. How do you think I feel, with my dad as the Head of Maths? He really wants me to do well. I’d love to beat Nina this time around.’

  ‘Not everything is a competition, Clara,’ I said.

  ‘Yes, it is,’ she said flatly. ‘And I like to win!’

  I shook my head, laughing slightly. She certainly was determined. As I began to stand up with my books, Clara put her hand on my pencil case and pushed it back onto the desk. ‘Sit with me for a minute, Josie,’ she said. There was a demanding tone in her voice. I frowned but didn’t sit down.

  ‘Oh, come on,’ she laughed, ‘I just want to chat to you about something.’

  I sat back down, warily. Clara pulled up a chair beside me and rested her feet on the desk.

  ‘You know, Josie, to win, you sometimes have to be a little … creative.’

  I frowned. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘It’s like in sport. Sometimes you need … how shall I put it? Maximum advantage.’

  ‘Maximum advantage?’ I said suspiciously.

  ‘Yeah. I don’t mean cheating, Josie. I just mean giving yourself the best shot at winning. Like, if I have the very best running shoes, do I have an advantage against those with rubbish shoes?’

  I thought for a minute. ‘I guess.’

  ‘So, do you want maximum advantage, Josie?’ she purred.

  ‘That’s what I’m doing,’ I said slowly. ‘I’m studying my butt off to give me maximum advantage.’

  ‘What if you could have more?’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Like, I don’t know, maybe this?’ Clara reached into her bag and pulled out a large envelope. She dangled it in front of my face as if it was something I would want to grab from her.

  ‘What’s that?’

  Clara gently opened the envelope and pulled out some papers which were stapled together into a booklet. She passed it over to me. I instantly saw the front page:

  Year 7 Final Mathematics Exam

  My head whipped up to her as she snatched the paper back. “Uh-uh!’ she said with a cruel smile. ‘You can’t have it yet, Josie, because everything comes at a price!’

  ‘You have tomorrow’s Maths exam already?’ I spluttered.

  ‘Oh, Josie, there are pluses to having a dad who is the Head of Mathematics. I can’t help it if he’s careless with his papers!’

  I shook my head, disbelieving. ‘But Clara, this is cheating,’ I hissed.

  ‘It’s not cheating, Josie – there are no answers on this paper. Cheating would be having the answers. These are just the questions! You would still need to go home tonight and work through the paper. You’d just have a slight … advantage … tomorrow.’

  I frowned, thinking. Was this like having the best running shoes? I shook my head, unconvinced. ‘Why would you offer this to me anyway, since you want to win all the time? Why would you give me the chance to beat you?’

  Clara laughed. ‘Josie, I don’t want to sound rude, but you are not exactly a threat to me in schoolwork. Even with this paper, you are never going to beat me in the exam. I’m hoping this paper will help me to beat Nina in the exam. No, you don’t beat me in the classroom. You beat me somewhere else.’

  ‘The track?’ I whispered.

  Clara nodded, smiling. ‘I’ll help you, if you help me, Josie. I will give you this paper for you to work on tonight if you do one thing for me.’

  I breathed in deeply.

  ‘You need to knock down one hurdle in the State Finals.’

  ‘No way!’ I screamed.

  Clara held up her hands to quieten me. ‘I’m not saying lose the race. I’m saying knock just one hurdle – the hurdle of your choice. Give me that one advantage and I’ll give you this one,’ she said as she swung the paper from side to side in front of me.

  ‘Deliberately knocking down a hurdle is illegal – I’ll be disqualified!’ I said, shaking my head.

  ‘Well, you’re going to have to be a good little actor then, aren’t you? Stumble over just one hurdle. Make it seem like an accident. It’ll slow you down, sure, but that’s the price you are paying for this.’ Clara continued to swing the paper in front of me.

  I reached out to take the paper then quickly pulled my hand back. That paper could give me the advantage to pass tomorrow’s exam. It would keep me with my friends and let me progress to Year 8. My breathing quickened.

  But it was cheating, wasn’t it? I shook my head stubbornly. ‘No, I can’t do it, Clara.’

  ‘It’s okay, I know it’s a big decision. Think about it. The exam isn’t until tomorrow afternoon. If you decide you want to work on it tomorrow morning, let me know. But remember the price you have to pay.’

  Clara slipped the paper back into the envelope and sailed out of the room.

  ‘Maximum advantage, Josie,’ she sang over her shoulder as she walked out the door.

  Maximum advantage, I whispered. I felt my head spinning with conflicting thoughts.

  The exam.

  Failing.

  Repeating Year 7.

  The clunk of a falling hurdle.

  Thirty-eight per cent.

  Fail.

  Win.

  Lose.

  I shook my head violently, trying to shake the thoughts out of my head. I needed to get out of here. I picked up my books and ran out of the library door.

  That night I had so many dreams. Dreams of taking an exam with a paper in a language I couldn’t understand. I dreamed about standing on the winner’s podium. I dreamed about Clara with a gold medal around her neck. I dreamed I had amazing running shoes.

  I woke feeling heavy-headed and not at all well rested. Part of me wanted to run to Clara and get that paper. But I’d never cheated on the track. Could I really cheat in the classroom? The weight and importance of the exam sat heavily on my shoulders. That paper could be the difference between a pass and a fail. Year 7 or Year 8 next year. Win or lose.

  Or, maybe I should report Clara to Mrs Cooper. I mean, it wasn’t fair she had that advantage, right? But who would believe me? It would be my word against hers and I had no proof. It might look like I was trying to sabotage Clara out of the State Finals – people would think I’d lost my edge and was trying to cheat my opposition out of the competition. Of course my friends would believe me, but who else would?

  When I arrived at school I saw Clara, leaning on my locker, waiting for me. She reminded me of a prowling cat.

  ‘So, what did you decide, Josie?’ she purred as I unloaded my books into my locker.

  This was my last chance to take her up on her offer.

  I thought back to Dad that morning. He
’d made me a special exam breakfast – a fruit smoothie and a banana and blueberry muffin. He said it was ‘superfood’. I remembered him kissing me on the head and saying, ‘I’m so proud of you, Josie. Your mum would be so proud too.’

  Mum. I wanted to make her proud by passing the exam. But I knew in my heart that she would never have approved of me taking that paper from Clara.

  ‘I don’t want it,’ I spat.

  ‘Oh, Josie!’ Clara hissed, shaking her head with a look of anger in her eyes. ‘Bad decision! Well, I can’t make you take the advantage. But, I can tell you, I sure am happy I was able to have this in advance.’ Clara leant in closer and whispered in my ear. ‘The exam paper is HARD.’

  Everything in me wanted to snatch the paper from her hand and run away with it. But I held fast. Clara slinked off, humming to herself. Her words echoed in my head. The exam paper is hard.

  I spent the rest of the morning doing any last scraps of study I could. But the minutes of the morning seemed to whisk by at lightning speed, and suddenly I found myself lining up outside the hall with my pencil case in my hand, ready to go into the exam.

  ‘You’ll do great,’ Issy’s voice whispered in my ear, giving my shoulder a squeeze.

  We formed a single file line in alphabetical order by surname. We walked into the hall in utter silence. Our formal black school shoes clacked along the polished wooden floorboards of the hall as we made our way to our seats. We had individual desks with our surname taped to the top right-hand corner of the table. I found my seat, pulled the chair out and sat down. I took a long deep breath to steady my nerves. My hands felt freezing despite it being a warm day. I sat on my hands to warm them, as my eyes searched around the room. Nervous faces and jittering legs punctuated the otherwise still hall.

  When everyone was seated, the examiner walked around and checked our pencil cases which had to be open on the desk. Checking for cheats, I supposed. Cheats like Clara.

  I glanced over and could see Clara sitting on the right-hand side of the hall. She sat up, straight and confident with a beaming smile. I shook my head angrily.

  The examiner handed out the paper, facedown, onto each desk and instructed us not to touch it until she told us we could. Once the papers were given out, the examiner allowed us to turn them over and begin the exam. We had one hour.

  With shaking hands, I flicked over the paper and turned the page.

  The first section was on geometry – measuring shapes and angles. I stared at the first question that asked for the circumference of the circle which was neatly pictured in a box below. Suddenly, I felt panic rise in my chest. I couldn’t remember the formula. Pi … something squared … a two maybe? My heart beat hard in my chest and my forehead began to sweat. I felt slightly dizzy. I glanced around the room and saw Nina several rows ahead with her head down, furiously scribbling her answers on the paper.

  You just need to get a rhythm.

  I thought back to the hurdles she had set up for me. Circumference of a circle. That was hurdle number one. But what was the formula?

  I closed my eyes and imagined myself crouched down at the start line. I could almost feel the starting blocks below my feet. In my mind I lifted my head and focused on the hurdle in front of me.

  Take your mark, set … Go! I whispered.

  I kept my eyes closed and imagined myself racing towards the hurdle. A voice in my head shouted, ‘Two pi R!’

  My eyes shot open and I turned the exam paper to the blank page which we could use for writing down notes and workings. I scribbled C=2πr on the sheet. I closed my eyes again, envisioning the second hurdle. I imagined myself racing for the hurdle, focusing on the wooden bar in front of me. A voice rang out in my head: ‘Area of a circle: A = πr2’.

  I went through the entire hurdles race in my mind, madly scribbling out the formulas I would need for the exam. When I finished, I checked back over my notes and exhaled a sigh of relief and joy. I had the formulas, which meant I had the tools to do this section of the exam.

  I couldn’t believe how quickly time passed after that moment. I put my head down and concentrated harder than I ever had before, carefully using my formulas to answer the questions on the paper. Some of the other sections of the paper, particularly the algebra section, were pretty hard. Clara had been right about that. But I didn’t feel clueless.

  ‘Pens down!’ the examiner boomed from the front after one hour.

  I put my pen down and bent my head into my hands. I felt exhausted. It was like I had just run the biggest race of my life. I’d barely had time to go back through the paper and check my answers, but I had completed. I felt like I was going to weep with exhaustion and joy.

  We handed in our papers and were dismissed from the hall. As everyone walked out the doors, the usual post-exam hum of ‘what did you get for question five?’ began. But I didn’t join in. My exam was done and I didn’t want to dwell on it for a second longer.

  ‘How’d you go?’ Nina said, running up to me.

  ‘I think I did the best I could,’ I said with a smile.

  ‘It was pretty easy, wasn’t it?’ a voice chirped from behind. It was Clara.

  ‘I thought it was quite hard,’ Nina replied.

  ‘Well then, we’ll just have to wait and see who wins, won’t we?’ Clara said, sauntering off.

  ‘And you know what this means?’ another voice said from behind. ‘You are off your training ban!’

  I hugged Issy happily.

  ‘Not much training left to do, though,’ I said mournfully. ‘The State Finals are only a few days away now.’

  ‘You’ll smash it, just like you smashed that exam!’ Nina laughed.

  I smiled at my friends. I wasn’t sure if I was going to ‘smash’ the State Finals, but I sure was going to give it my absolute all. Just like I did with my exams. And I was going to beat Clara in that race. Because there was nothing she could do to stop me now.

  I closed my eyes and focused. My psych-up playlist blasted music into my ears. I imagined myself on the blocks, bursting forwards and sailing over the hurdles, sprinting for the finish, breasting the line with my chest and crossing first. Then I’m on the podium. The highest podium. The number one.

  ‘Josie, did you hear?’

  I shook my head and opened my eyes as I was ripped out of my daydream. It was Issy and Nina. I frowned at them, only a little bit annoyed that they had broken my mental preparation time. Usually we didn’t speak to each other right before our races, as we wanted to give each other the best chance to focus.

  ‘Hear what?’

  ‘Clara is out!’ Issy gasped.

  ‘Out? What do you mean?’

  ‘She’s out of the competition,’ Nina spluttered.

  I thought back to my morning races. I hadn’t seen Clara all day. She wasn’t present in the sprints, in which I’d placed fourth. I was happy with that result – it was the hurdles I wanted to win – but I hadn’t really registered her absence while I was focusing on my own races.

  ‘Injured?’ I asked.

  ‘Disqualified!’ Issy breathed.

  My eyes widened in shock. ‘Disqualified? For what?’

  Nina sat down next to me. ‘Cheating.’

  ‘Cheating in her race?’ I blurted.

  ‘No, in her exams,’ Nina whispered. ‘Her dad found a copy of the final Maths paper in her room on the morning of the exam. That means she had the paper in advance. He reported her to Mrs Brunette, and she’s been suspended from school for two weeks. That means she is automatically disqualified from the State Finals.’

  ‘And she gets a zero in her exam,’ Issy added.

  I shook my head, disbelieving. In that moment I thought about confessing to my friends about how Clara offered me the test too. But no, I needed to focus on my race. This wasn’t about Clara. It was about me.

  ‘So, that instantly improves your chances of winning the hurdles final,’ Issy added.

  I nodded. I knew I should have been happy about that, but
for some reason, it didn’t give me the relief it should have.

  ‘Anyway, your race is soon, so we’ll leave you to prep,’ Nina said gently. ‘Smash ’em, Jose!’

  Issy and Nina left me sitting on the bench in the warm sun. I took another long sip from my water bottle and then jumped up and started stretching again. My race was soon and I had to focus and keep warm.

  I peeled off my Academy sports T-shirt and shorts, revealing my running gear. I was wearing the blue and gold Academy crop top and running undies. I made sure my number was fixed properly to my crop top. My pale skin glistened slightly in the sun from the suncream I had applied earlier. I slipped my sneakers off and dumped them in my bag. I put on my lucky socks and slipped my running spikes on over them. I did several tuck jumps, making sure my muscles were warm and supple.

  ‘Okay, you need to go and get in position for your race,’ a voice said behind me.

  I nodded at Coach Jack.

  ‘You’ll smash it, Josie, I know you will,’ he smiled, patting me on the shoulder.

  The sun beat down on my face as I walked over to the marshalling area. I’d run a good time in the heats and had secured centre lane for the final. Everything was in order for me to win this one. There were no other Academy runners that had made the hurdles final. Clara definitely would have been in the final race if she had been in the competition, but with her disqualified, my chances of winning were higher.

  There was a runner from Hunter Sports High who was a great hurdler. Her name was Lauren Ashton and she was probably my toughest competition. I saw her standing in her black and white crop top and running undies. Her dark hair was pulled back tight into a short ponytail, and bobby pins kept her fringe out of her face. She was jumping up and down, keeping her muscles warm. She had a frown of concentration on her face.

  All the runners in my race were ushered into our lanes. We each adjusted our starting blocks to our own dimensions and I practised a couple of starts, bursting from the blocks, then slowing into a trot before returning back to the start line.

  I glanced to my left and caught Lauren’s eye. She quickly looked away, focusing on the hurdles ahead. Lauren usually qualified faster than me in the finals but she’d clipped a hurdle in her heats.