by Lexy Timms
The rest of the afternoon dragged like the weather. She raced out of her last class, which was at Wavertree in the classroom part of the building. She pulled her phone out of her bag to see if Carter had sent any more messages. Aileen had sent one to see if she would be at practice. She quickly replied and asked Aileen if she were still at home, could she grab her bikini? She turned left at the fork in the hall and bumped into someone wearing an ugly, tweed suit jacket.
“Sorry,” she mumbled without bothering to look.
“Excuse me, miss.”
Jani kept walking, not paying attention until a few steps later when she realized he had spoken to her.
“Please stop a minute.”
The annoyed voice stopped Jani in her tracks. Crap, crap, crap!
“I didn’t see you in class this morning, Jani.”
She sighed and turned around. Busted! “Sorry, Mister Drab.” She quickly tried to correct herself. “Dab. Mister Dab. I, uh, wasn’t feeling well this morning.” She forced a cough and then sniffled.
He crossed his arms over his chest, clearly not buying it. “Well, I sure hope you’re feeling better by Wednesday’s class. Are you on your way to my office?”
Think Jani, think! Say something witty. Or at least believable. “I have track practice.” Lame-ass.
“Do you have your essay?”
“Not on me.” Was she sweating? Maybe someone had turned the heat up.
Mr. Dab frowned. “I understand your commitment to athletics and I know you are on a track scholarship. That doesn’t mean you get special treatment from your professors. This assignment is due at the end of the day.”
“When is the end of the day? Officially?” If she went to practice and went hard on her paper, she could have it done before midnight. It would mean missing Carter, but it might save her derriere.
“So, it’s not finished?” Mr. Dab inhaled loudly and pushed the air out of his nostrils with so much force Jani felt the wind brush her face.
She shuddered when a drop of wetness hit her cheek. She didn’t dare move to wipe it.
“Jani. I assigned this paper the first week of classes. You have had ample time to complete it. I warned everyone in the class that if it were not handed in on time, there would be no late papers accepted. Another student just dropped theirs off and another student sick with the flu has their roommate bringing their paper in before five o’clock. That is the cut-off time. Five. PM.”
“I have practice till at least five thirty! I can bring it to you this evening.” She quickly wiped her cheeks with her hands and then on her pant leg.
“I am leaving my office at five. If it is not in by then, it counts as a zero.”
Yesterday she didn’t care if she got an F on the paper, today she did. “Can I email it to you?” He probably wouldn’t check his email till the morning and she figured she could say she sent it at six, but the networks were slow and she couldn’t know what time he got it at. Maybe two am? Please say yes, please.
“No. Typed report with references due on my desk by five o’clock. Talk to your coach and explain your situation.”
“Coach Maves isn’t going to let me skip to finish a paper.” She had no idea what Maves would say, but she wasn’t about to let Mr. Dab know that.
“Jani.” He shook his head. “You are a junior in school now. This is your third year here at the University of Gatica. You’re not a freshman. My class is not a freshman course. If you can’t manage your time to complete a project by its due date, then maybe you need to reprioritize your priorities.”
She wanted to prioritize his ass. This was bullshit. He couldn’t give her a one time by. “Sir,” she said, trying one more time. “May I please drop the essay off first thing tomorrow morning? You can dock me points for handing it in late. I will have it done. I just can’t get it to you before five o’clock today.”
“Young lady, if I give you special treatment, then every athlete in this school is going to expect the same thing. If you can’t handle your workload, you need to drop some course. It is not my fault your paper isn’t finished. It’s on my desk today by five or it’s a zero.” His pushed his thick glasses up the bridge of his nose.
He ticked her off. Or maybe it was the fact that he was right. She knew she should have finished the freakin’ paper on time, but she didn’t. She never asked teachers for extensions. She had the legit excuse of practice. If he didn’t believe her, then screw him. “I guess I’m going to have to deal with a no mark, then.”
Mr. Dab stared down at her. “From what I recall, you need that paper’s grade, or I’ll be seeing you again next year in my class.”
She had no intention of taking his class again. Whatever. She would find another course that would cover it before she graduated. She had another five semesters to finish. Screw him! She shrugged, clenching her jawline tight. “Guess I’ll be seeing you around then.” She stepped wide around him and didn’t look back as she continued down the hall. She hoped his mouth was hanging open in surprise.
As she rounded the corner of the hall that led to the indoor track, she had to blink rapidly to stop the sudden urge of tears that filled her eyes. She knew she had screwed up, but he could have been a little nicer about it. Just given her an extension or docked points or something. Thank goodness she hadn’t done that much work on the stupid thing. She swallowed back the ache in her throat and pushed her shoulders back as she opened the fieldhouse doors that led up to the track.
At least she could go see Carter after practice now. She grinned. Maybe she’d sleep with him tonight. ‘Bout time we had proper sex.
Her grin widened into a smile.
Chapter 7
Jani decided to put all her concentration into practice. Coach Maves wanted to work on technical stuff and Jani was all for slipping on her high jump spikes and working on her approach. Track offered the escape from the stupid parts of life. She didn’t have to feel bad about not finishing her paper or dropping out of Mr. Dab’s class. In fact, as she worked through her warm up and saw Maves dragging out the high jump equipment and she completely forgot about the incident ten minutes earlier.
“Jani!”
She turned to her right at the sound of Aileen’s voice. “Hey, girl!”
Aileen jogged over. “I got your text but didn’t see it till after I was here. Sorry.”
Jani waved her hand. “No worries.”
“You plan on swimming after practice? Or icing down in the athletic therapy room?”
Jani shivered. “No ice. Plus,” she said, pointing to Coach Maves carrying the high jump pole, “I’m high jumping today.” She fist pumped as they walked to the indoor marked track and began running warm up laps. She ran beside Aileen for four laps and then settled on the infield to stretch as Aileen ran another four or six laps. The two hundred meter indoor track always made warm up seem longer because it took twice as many laps as the outdoor track to hit eight hundred meters. Coach Maves required warm up to have at least half a mile. Jani hated long distance running so she always did the minimum. When Aileen moved in at the end of August, Jani had started doing a lot more running with her roommate but now she began falling back into her old habits. They would have their preseason meet in about a month and she wanted her legs to have a bit of freshness to them. Too much distance meant flat springs in the legs in her opinion.
Aileen dropped down beside her and immediately began hurdle stretching, one leg out straight in front of her and the other bent at the knee and behind her. She leaned forward and rotated her legs so they switched positions. “What time did you get in last night?”
Jani yawned and they both laughed. “It was late.” She sighed as she yawned again. “Carter’s addictive. Like a different kind of high.”
“Higher than HJ?” Aileen teased.
“About the same.” Jani raised her hand to a pretend level of a high jump bar. “He’s a close second.”
“Cool. As long as he doesn’t pass it, I won’t bug you.” Aileen brou
ght both legs out in front of her and shook them to loosen her hamstrings. “By the way, did you get your essay handed in on time? I figured you worked late, or should I say early, since I couldn’t wake you up this morning.”
“Yeah, sorry about that. I didn’t mean to miss weights. How’d they go?” She veered away from answering the essay question.
“Good. Not the same as when we work out together. It’s better when you’re pushing me.”
Jani nodded. “I’m going to have to go after practice today, or tomorrow and lift two days in a row.” She never missed training. She might miss classes, but never track.
“Do it today. Otherwise Wednesday’s lifting will suck. The cycle’s meant for a rest day in between the lifting.”
They moved to the back straight-away to go through high knees, butt kicks and the rest of the warm up training drills. After accelerations Aileen headed to Coach Anderson to work on blocks and the first hurdle. Jani jogged over to Coach Maves who tossed her a roll of athletic tape.
“I’ve marked out your three-step, mid-step and your ten-step approach we measured out last week.” Coach Maves pointed to the three pieces of tape set out in a backward ‘J’ shape away from the high jump mats. “Start at the ten and do a couple of run-throughs. The tape is so I don’t have to measure it again.”
Jani nodded. Maves always did the first measurement of the year, after that it was each jumper’s responsibility to use their feet or a measuring tape to mark it out again. Jani only needed to know the point where her curve started and the ten-step where she started. She never paid attention to the rest of her strides. Her feet knew where they were going.
She moved to her spot. Maves liked working with one or two jumpers at a time. Any more and she complained of spending too much time raising and lowering the bar. Jani preferred it because it meant one-on-one coaching.
Her first run-through with no high jump bar felt close. She jogged back and ran the approach again focussing on accelerating and letting gravity pull the left side of her body toward the ground as she hit the curve. Her take-off location was better.
“I’m going to put the bar up. Just low.” Maves set the hot pink bar up on the standards.
Jani moved back to her tape and waited for Maves to set the bar to the height she wanted. Maves never discussed height in practice unless you asked for something. Jani loved that also. As she continued with run-throughs, the stress and worry of the day evaporated. She forgot all about her paper or the fact she’d be flunking a class. Whatever happened, she could handle it.
Maves raised the bar to a height that looked somewhere about when Jani usually came into a competition. Probably one-seventy, maybe one-seventy-five. Five foot seven, or eight tops.
Jani set her tape marker the length of her foot up from its original spot. She watched Aileen blast out of the starting blocks and cruise over the first two hurdles. Her legs glided over the hurdles like they weren’t even there. She was fast. Jani’s old roommate, Linda, had gone out at the same time and had only hit the first hurdle when Aileen had already passed the second. Faster than fast. Jani grinned. Indoor nationals was going to be a riot this year.
“Anytime, Jani,” Maves called out from her usual position on the left side of the high jump apron. She liked watching the full approach, focussing on the curve and then half the time she lifted her leg as if trying to help her jumpers over the bar.
Jani visualized her run-through and her body position as she would coast over the bar. It was low so she wanted to concentrate on getting her approach spot on. She took a deep breath and forced it out hard as she drove her legs the first two steps of her run. Acceleration kicked up a notch as she leaned into her curve and counted; one… two… three… four-five. She then drove her right knee high, aiming for above the bar and floated over the height.
It felt like she had loads of time before her shoulders landed on the pink high jump mats and she rolled over into a back summersault.
“Good drive. I want you to squeeze your glutes tight as you’re over the bar.” Coach Maves used her hands to demonstrate when she wanted Jani to tighten. “At this point, the flexing will pop your hips up and force your back to arch. The bar’s too low so you are being lazy over it.”
“It felt easy.” Jani tightened her butt and noticed her hips pop out. If she tilted her head back at the same time, it would create even more of an arc over the bar. She would need that at the higher heights when coming down seemed to happen a lot faster than the drive up.
“I’ll raise the bar up a couple inches.” Maves moved to the standards as Jani walked back to her take-off point.
“How’s my knee drive?” she asked.
“Good.” Maves moved to the next standard to level off the bar. “Really good.”
Jani nodded. Maves only said what needed to be said. She never offered out information unless she wanted her athletes to concentrate on something. When Jani asked why she didn’t say something about each approach, Maves had told her that high jump was fifty percent skill, fifty percent mental. She believed if she filled the brain with too much information it got too confused. It worked great for Jani.
She stared at the bar and wondered how much higher Maves had set it. It looked ten centimeters higher. About five inches. She still had to translate her metric mind to feet and inches. Canada used the metric system but America refused to change their imperial one.
After her usual pre-jump routine, she visualized, inhaled a deep breath and took off. Counting as she rounded the curve, she said the rhythm in her head with a quick last two-step and drove into the air again. This time she shot her head back and hips up. She felt her calves brush lightly against the bar and quickly lifted them so they wouldn’t take it down. She landed and got off the mat. “Too far away?” she asked, referring to her take off point.
Maves nodded and went over to where Jani had planted. She mimicked her knee drive. “You’re a lot faster this year. Even compared to the end of last season.” A starter gun went off at the hurdle area and Maves glanced over. “I think working out in the weight room with your roommate is helping you.” She smiled. “Once you figure out how to control that speed, you are going to fly.” She leaned over to set the bar standard higher. “Again. This time move another show length closer.”
“Closer?” Jani turned around to double-check with Maves. “You mean away, right? If I’m going faster I need more room.”
Maves shook her head. “Faster means quicker, shorter strides. You took off too far away because you’re faster. Move a shoe length up. See what happens.”
Jani did as instructed and pushed out of the back again. She drove her knee high and noticed her hips where almost over the bar before she even began arching. That equalled high jumps. She only noticed that at the lower heights. She flew over the bar with lots of room to spare. She rolled off the pit mats and grinned as she walked over to Maves. “You love it when you’re right, ‘eh?”
Maves winked. “I love it when a plan comes together. Three weeks till the first meet.” She pointed a finger at Jani. “You’ll make NCAA standard before Christmas.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “Really?” She turned to check what the bar measurement was. “Holy crap! That’s one eighty-eight!”
Arms crossed over her chest like it wasn’t a big deal, Maves nodded without showing any excitement. “Six-two. First time working on your full approach. I was going to have you move up to your three-step approach to work on your timing over the bar, but this seems to be working fine today.”
“Can we raise it?” Jani was totally up to seeing how much more she could do. Imagine if I set a PB in practice? Six two in practice is huge. I’m lucky if I jump five nine at most practices! She couldn’t believe how awful a day it had been before practice. She wished she could live in the fieldhouse forever. Screw school and just train. That would be awesome!
“Let’s call it a day for jumping. End on a great note. Go mark out your approach and write it down.”
; Ahhhh! Jani didn’t argue. Maves knew what she was doing. “You have a pen?”
Her coach handed her a permanent marker. She knew Jani always wrote the measurement on the inside tongue of her high jump shoe. “When you’re finished, you need to do a medball circuit and then finish with some resistance sprints.” She handed Jani a sheet of paper. “Here’s the circuit. Medballs are by the shot put area.” Coach Maves walked away and called another high jumper to start warming up and help her set up her approach.
Jani bounced and did a quick set of high knees on the spot. It was going to be an amazing year. Aileen, Carter and whatever other ingredients were working. She was going to blast this season! A new school record. Maybe a Canadian record were in her sights – in her heights!
Chapter 8
“Want me to jog to the weight room with you?” Aileen offered. She stood beside Jani just inside the doors of the fieldhouse as the rain fell by the buckets.
“You have got to be the nicest person in the world. Or the craziest.” Jani frowned up at the sky. “This weather sucks royal poop.”
Aileen laughed. “Royal poop?”
“I’ve decided I need to keep my language more respectful.” Jani tried to keep a straight face, still on a high from her high jump technical practice she had just had. She put her arm around her roommate. “Thanks for offering to come, but I can’t put you through this. It’s November. With my luck, this’ll turn into snow by the time we get to the weight room and then ice when we’re finished. I’ll have you sick through finals and during your first meet. Coach Anderson would skin me alive to put his little freshman superstar near death.”
“A run in the rain isn’t going to kill me.”
Jani gave her a watch-it look. “You say that now.”
“I’m offering to cheer you on and keep you company while you lift.”
“Which is super sweet of you.” Jani hugged Aileen. “I appreciate it. I really do. But my tired-ass this morning is not your fault.”