Chapter 29
Ellie
She pushed herself to make sure that happened, then anxiously watched Sierra’s race.
Sierra finished third, which meant she had finished better than she was predicted to.
Oddly enough, even in separate heats, Sierra and Ellie had practically run the same time again, this time with Sierra coming out ahead.
Ellie was happy for her. Plus, that put Ellie fourth for the race and got them even closer to that championship trophy.
After cooling down, Ellie gathered their relay team together and led them over to their coach so they could get an update on where they stood for the meet.
Their coach informed them that if the last track event that was left aside from their own, as well as the final field event, went as expected, there would be no pressure on the relay team.
Of course, neither event went how it was supposed to, so with only the relay to go, they were down by one point.
As the top-seeded team in the relay, they should have felt good about their chances.
The problem was, the second-seeded team, whose qualifying time was much too close to theirs, was the team currently winning the meet.
This whole championship was riding on their relay team. It was riding on Ellie. She wanted to give her teammates an elaborate speech to inspire them, but she was too nervous to form words. Instead, she gave them each an anxious nod before walking toward the starting line.
A hand gently grabbed her arm, and when Ellie turned to see who it was, she found Sierra standing beside her. “We’ve got this,” Sierra reassured her. “ You’ve got this. I believe in you.”
Ellie didn’t need an inspirational speech. Sierra believed in her, and those words were what was going to get her through this race even though her legs were tight and her body was aching.
She watched as her first teammate stepped onto the track, looking just as nervous as Ellie felt.
When the gun went off, her teammate was a little sluggish.
She was clearly still feeling the strain from running the 400 earlier in the day.
When she handed off the baton, they were in fourth place, which was not the position they needed to be in, but Ellie wasn’t losing hope.
Their second runner eventually moved them up to third, but the first two teams were pulling way ahead, especially the team that was currently winning the meet.
Ellie really didn’t know if they had any chance at this point, and she was starting to feel defeated until Sierra took the baton.
Sierra closed the distance between herself and the second-place team and by the beginning of her second lap, she moved past them. The first-place team was still a decent amount ahead, but Sierra was quickly closing that gap as well.
When Ellie stepped on the track to wait for the hand off, the race was neck and neck.
Ellie watched Sierra coming toward her and turned to start running as soon as her body told her it was the right time.
When she looked over her shoulder to grab the baton, she was in the perfect position.
It easily slipped into her hand, the slight contact with Sierra’s fingers causing a spark to shoot through her arm.
That spark gave Ellie the extra energy she needed to win this race.
She and her competition remained side by side throughout the first lap.
All around them, the crowd was going crazy, but Ellie tuned all of that out.
Her focus was on one thing only—winning this race.
She started to pull away when there was about 150 meters left in the race and she didn’t let up until she stumbled across the finish line.
Her legs gave out from under her, but someone grabbed her before she hit the ground.
She wasn’t surprised when she looked up and found herself gazing into deep blue eyes. “I told you, you could do it, baby,” Sierra said quietly.
Ellie wanted to stay like this forever, but their special moment was broken up by their teammates rushing onto the track and attacking both of them with hugs and high fives.
When Ellie finally broke free, she looked around the gym to search for her family and found them standing beside the track with Sierra’s family as if they were old friends.
Ellie walked over to them and was wrapped up in congratulatory hugs from her brother, her moms, and her Uncle Dalton, Aunt Shelby, and three of her cousins.
After they were done making a big deal out of her, Sierra’s family, including an aunt and uncle Ellie was meeting for the first time, congratulated her with high fives.
A hand landed on the small of her back, and she looked over to find Sierra standing next to her. She stayed like this the whole time they talked to their families, and Ellie could have floated away because she was feeling so light and happy.
Unfortunately, this moment was also broken up, because they had to receive their trophies for the 4x400, and even more importantly, the team trophy.
After getting their relay trophies, they listened as the announcer went through the team results, starting with the last place team.
When they finally got to first place and announced West End as the winners, their whole team erupted into cheers once again.
All of her teammates pushed Ellie into the middle to accept the trophy on their behalf.
As she held it high in the air, she was pretty sure this day couldn’t get any better.
At least, that’s what she thought until they announced her as the meet MVP, and she received another trophy to add to her collection of hardware from the weekend.
Her teammates took turns congratulating her, and Ellie didn’t miss the fact that Sierra held her a little longer than everyone else when they hugged.
Now the day definitely couldn’t get any better.
Right? There was no way. Ellie was on such a high, she was pretty positive she couldn’t get any higher.
When they were back on the bus, Juniper stared down at all of the trophies and medals on Ellie’s lap. “You killed it today,” Juniper said with a pride to her voice that made Ellie feel proud of herself.
“You had an awesome weekend too,” Ellie told her. “Your 400 time was so good.”
It was true. Juniper had run her career personal best, which was an especially big deal since times were normally much better during outdoor season when they only had to run one lap for the 400.
“Not good enough,” Juniper said with a defeated sigh, most likely referring to the fact that she had finished ninth during the qualifying races and had missed the finals by one position.
Ellie understood how frustrating that must be, but it was also the best finish Juniper ever had at a conference meet, so Ellie wanted her to be able to celebrate that.
“You still did better than ever. That’s what you need to focus on.
You should be so proud of yourself. I’m proud of you, and I have no doubt your dad would be too. ”
“Do you really think so?”
Even though it was dark on the bus, Ellie could tell Juniper was on the edge of tears, so she reached over and grabbed her hand.
“I know so. You’ve worked so hard this semester, and we still have a whole outdoor season. There’s no question in my mind that by the time of the outdoor conference meet, you’ll be on that podium.”
Juniper laid her head on Ellie’s shoulder and sighed once again, but this time, it was a contented sigh.
“Thanks. That means a lot coming from the meet MVP.” When she picked her head back up, she smiled at Ellie in the way she always did when she was about to give her bad news.
“So, would you hate me if I didn’t go to the track party tonight? ”
It was a strange question for a plethora of reasons.
Juniper always went to the party that was held after the conference meet, while Ellie was the one that only went half the time, and it always took a bunch of convincing from Juniper to get her there.
It was also strange since the party was at Chris’s place.
It seemed like an odd time to decide not to go.
“Skipping your own boyfriend’s party?” Ellie asked.
“Yes, but only because he is also skipping. We decided to celebrate by ourselves… at our place.”
Ah. Now it made sense. “So, what you’re saying is that I need to find somewhere else to stay.”
Juniper shook her head. “No. I’m not going to kick you out of our own place. I just wanted to warn you that I’m going to be a bit preoccupied.”
Ellie laughed. “Don’t worry. I’ll see if I can crash with one of the other girls from the team.” And I know exactly which girl to crash with.
Ellie took out her phone and sent a text to Sierra. Any chance I can stay in your dorm room after the party so I don’t have to listen to my roommate have sex all night? It worked out since Teresa wouldn’t be back until the next day.
That works for me :) I didn’t realize you were going to the party.
Ellie didn’t have to go to the party, and she would certainly skip it if Sierra wasn’t interested.
The only reason she was considering it was because they had so much to celebrate this time.
Only if you want to. If not, we can do whatever you want.
Ellie definitely wouldn’t hate celebrating by snuggling in bed with Sierra.
I was kind of hoping we could have a party of our own…
If Ellie had any doubt over what that text meant, the next one cleared it right up. I’m ready.
Ellie was wrong. This day could get better, and she was about to have the best night of her life.