Chapter 2
Ellie couldn’t stop the wide grin from spreading across her face as she entered the school’s football stadium to meet up with the rest of her overachieving teammates for their first day of optional practice.
She breathed in the crisp fall air and her smile grew even more. She loved this time of year.
She looked toward the track where a handful of girls and about a dozen guys from the track team were gathered.
She sighed. That number was pitiful given how many of them there were on the team.
Then again, this was mostly just sprinters and jumpers since the majority of the distance runners were on the cross country team and the throwers normally organized their own, separate practices.
It was disappointing that Ellie didn’t see any fresh faces among them, which meant the newest group of recruits didn’t feel the need to attend these practices.
Well, except one, apparently. As Ellie’s eyes scanned past her teammates gathered around the track, they landed on another girl standing away from the group—Sierra.
I really need to remember to look up her last name , Ellie chastised herself.
She was about to walk over and talk to her when a hand landed on her shoulder.
She turned around to find Chris Clemson, another senior on the track team, smiling at her.
With his sparkling blue eyes, boyish grin, and perfect blonde hair, Ellie was sure she would have a crush on him if it wasn’t for the fact that she only liked women.
“What’s up, Finch?” Chris asked, squeezing her shoulder before letting his hand drop back to his side. “How was your summer? Any new women in your life?”
Ellie had to stop herself from rolling her eyes.
You’d think the guys on this team had never met a lesbian with the way they thought the only logical topic of conversation was other women.
“Unfortunately not,” Ellie said with a lighthearted laugh.
“My moms were pretty much the only women in my life this summer.”
When Ellie noticed movement in her peripheral vision, she turned her head slightly to see that Sierra’s eyes had snapped toward Ellie and Chris, the furrowing of her eyebrows leading Ellie to believe she had never heard of someone having two moms before. Go figure. Maybe Juniper is right about her.
“Same for me.” Chris chuckled. “Well, minus the whole two moms thing. How are they doing? I miss them.”
Of course he did. Probably along with everyone else on the team.
Even with living over three hours away, Ellie’s moms were very involved, and everyone on the team loved them.
“They’re wonderful. Spent the summer trying to convince me I should switch my major to pre-med to take over the practice, though. ”
Ellie’s mom, Brinley, was a doctor and she and Ellie’s mama, Annalise, owned a medical practice in their hometown of Melsborough, a town in New Jersey that her parents had apparently fallen in love with after getting married there.
Ellie couldn’t blame them for that. She absolutely loved the town she grew up in and would be happy to end up back there if that’s where life took her.
Unfortunately for her parents, she was not interested in joining the practice.
Not that her moms actually cared what she did.
They only wanted for her to be happy. They just liked to joke about her joining the practice, mostly because her mom thought that meant she could retire sooner.
It wouldn’t be that hard for her to switch her major to pre-med, even this late in her college career, because she was an environmental science major, which meant she had already taken many of the required science classes.
Even though she wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted to do with her degree yet, she had no question that she didn’t want it to involve medicine.
She had plenty of time to figure out the rest of her life.
For now, her focus was on her track career.
Speaking of which… “I was thinking we could start off easy and just go for a loop around campus and through town today.”
“Easy for who?” Chris asked as he elbowed her in the side.
As sprinters, they preferred being on the track over going for a long jog, but Ellie especially hated it, and Chris knew that. Freshman year they had bonded over the fact that neither of them could keep up on such runs even though they were supposed to be the two fastest freshmen.
Ellie groaned. “I know. I really don’t want to do it, but I’m afraid if I tell them we’re starting out with ten 200s, no one will come back.”
“Aw, but I love that workout,” Chris said playfully.
“Me too.” Ellie smirked. “That’s why we’re doing it tomorrow.”
“Not taking any prisoners this year. I love it.” Chris clapped his hands together and took a few steps closer to the group of athletes waiting for instruction. “All right, everyone. Today we’re doing the campus loop. For those of you who don’t know…”
Ellie let his voice fade out as he described the route they would be running. It’s not like she needed to listen since she knew it like the back of her hand. She walked in the direction of Sierra and stopped when she was a few feet away
“Excited for the season?” Ellie asked. She knew Juniper would kill her if she knew she was still trying to be nice, but Ellie couldn’t stand feeling like a freshman was left out, even if that freshman didn’t realize that gay people existed.
Ellie waited for Sierra to respond, but when the response never came, she cleared her throat.
Sierra’s head snapped toward Ellie and those blue eyes were so intense, they made the hair on Ellie’s arms stand up. “Were you talking to me?” Sierra pointed toward Chris. “Sorry. I was trying to listen to the directions.”
At least she said sorry, even if it didn’t exactly sound sincere. “All good,” Ellie said as cheerfully as possible. “It’s cool if you missed anything. We all tend to stick together for these runs. No need for heroes today.”
Sierra opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by the sound of a phone ringing. Sierra snapped her mouth shut, took her phone out, and stared at it for a few seconds before looking back at Ellie. “I need to take this. It’s okay if you start without me.”
Sierra hit a button on her phone, then walked away, talking in whispers to the person on the other end of the phone.
“Good to go, Finch?” Chris yelled over to her.
“Almost.” Ellie pointed her thumb at Sierra. “Just waiting on one.”
The fact that they were waiting for her didn’t seem to bother Sierra. She spent another five minutes on the phone before walking over to join them.
“Everything okay?” Ellie asked when she noticed the tense look on Sierra’s face.
“I’m fine,” Sierra snapped before walking right past her to join the rest of the group.
Sierra’s time with the group didn’t last long. They were barely into the run when she pulled ahead and never looked back. So much for doing this as a team.
After a grueling run, Ellie made it back to the track with the rest of her teammates just in time to see Sierra packing up her things and walking away.
Juniper was definitely right. There was no point in Ellie trying with this girl if she wasn’t going to put in any effort, especially if trying meant going against her best friend’s wishes. If Sierra wanted to be cordial, the ball was in her court now.
***
As the weeks passed, Sierra continued to be in attendance at every optional practice, but her attitude didn’t improve at all.
She came, did the workout as instructed, and left without another word.
It was actually starting to piss Ellie off that this was the girl who was most likely going to get her best friend booted from the relay.
This girl might be fast, and dedicated, but she didn’t appear to be a team player at all.
Ellie was so frustrated with her, she actually considered not going to the last week of optional practices because she needed a break from being ignored.
She wasn’t sure why it bothered her so much, but it really made her blood boil every time she was around Sierra and Sierra acted like she had no interest in Ellie.
Half the time, it seemed like Sierra could barely even look at her. It was infuriating.
Ellie hadn’t missed one practice, optional or not, since freshman year, though, so there was no way she was going to start now, especially when she had such fierce competition on her own team.
Luckily, she was somehow able to convince Juniper to actually attend the last few optional practices with her.
Okay, she knew exactly why Juniper had agreed.
It was only because Ellie made a deal that she would drink at one more party with her if she came.
Ellie wasn’t against drinking and would do it when she wasn’t in season (which wasn’t too often, much to her best friend’s chagrin), but as soon as official practices started, she stopped.
There was always a big party at the track guys’ house after the first week of official practice to celebrate making it through , so Ellie had told Juniper that she wouldn’t only go, but would also drink this time.
“Be honest with me, am I going to completely die today?” Juniper asked as they walked to the track together.
Ellie shook her head. “Not any more than you normally do on the first day of official practice.” Ellie felt a devilish grin spread across her face.
“Great.” Juniper groaned. “So, I am going to die .”
Ellie put her arm around Juniper. “Don’t worry, I’ll take it easy on you.”
“Uh-huh, sure.” Juniper pushed away from Ellie, causing her arm to drop back to her side.
She was saying something else, but her words faded into the background as Ellie’s eyes latched onto someone walking in the distance. Even though Sierra drove her insane, she still often found herself unable to look away from her, and now was one of those times.
She was walking next to someone, and it looked like the two of them were having a heated discussion, but Ellie couldn’t focus on the other person.
Sierra was shaking her head and waving her arms in the air, and even though it was none of her business (and frankly, shouldn’t be any worry to her), Ellie wanted to know what she was saying.
Even though she wished she didn’t, Sierra intrigued her.
Maybe it was just the fact that Sierra was so hot, but it felt deeper than that.
A part of her wondered if there was more to this girl than she was seeing on the surface.
Or it had just been way too long since Ellie got laid and her libido was doing the thinking for her.
“What the hell are you staring at?” Juniper asked, causing Ellie to jump in surprise.
“No one. Nothing.” Ellie cleared her throat then turned her body toward her best friend, so Sierra was completely out of her field of view.
She watched as Juniper’s gaze moved to where Ellie had just been staring and held her breath as she waited for her friend to lecture her for checking out the enemy. Juniper furrowed her eyebrows and continued to stare as if she was calculating something. “Why does that girl look so familiar?”
Seriously? Juniper doesn’t recognize her own teammate and sworn enemy? What the fuck?
Ellie wasn’t sure how to answer her best friend’s question without getting herself in trouble. Ellie opened her mouth and was about to make up a lie about why she was staring at the enemy, but she stopped when a sly grin came onto her friend’s face.
Juniper snapped her fingers. “Fuck. I know who that is!” She waved a finger in Sierra’s direction, not even trying to hide the fact that she was pointing at her. “That’s the same girl you were checking out at the PA state meet this summer.”
Wait. What. Ellie turned to look in Sierra’s direction once again and blinked as she focused on the girl beside her.
The girl had red hair and was sporting a no-fucks grin that didn’t match the tense look on Sierra’s face.
And shit. Juniper was right. That definitely was the girl Ellie had supposedly been checking out at the track meet.
Why was she here now? What was she doing with Sierra?
What were they talking about? More importantly, why did Ellie care?
Juniper laughed as she brought her hands in front of her mouth to amplify her voice. “Yo, fresh meat, is your friend single?” She nodded toward Ellie. “I think this one has a crush on her.”
Shit . This wasn’t good. Ellie didn’t need some random girl she’d never met thinking she was checking her out. The girl’s smile changed to a scowl as she turned to whisper something to Sierra before storming away.
Sierra’s face was red, and she glared at Ellie and Juniper as she stormed toward them, head shaking the whole time.
“Teresa’s not gay!” she shouted so loud that it caused the redhead to momentarily look back before continuing to quickly walk away from them.
“She’s straight, so don’t even think about going for her.
She practically has a boyfriend. Maybe a few.
” Sierra rolled her eyes as if the thought of someone preferring the same gender was insane.
Before Ellie could even think of how to respond, Sierra pushed past them and hurried away.
“Wow. Tell me you’re homophobic without telling me you're homophobic!” Juniper shouted after her.
Sierra’s shoulders dropped slightly from her accusation as if she was ashamed, but she didn’t correct them. If she truly wasn’t homophobic, she would have, right?
Great. Not only was this girl putting Ellie’s position as the best 400 runner on the team at risk, but she was also a bigoted prick. Ellie was done being nice. Two could play at this game, and she refused to go down without a fight.