August 30th, 2017

By the time Anna had made it out of the girls' locker room, she had heard her first live comedic monologue courtesy of Simran, and a lecture from Kiko about why she should never make bad friends.

Simran was her own walking Hollywood. She was a theatrical person; every time someone told her "Hi", Simran would gasp and say, "Is it possible? Could this be real? Is (insert person's name here) actually talking to me? How could this be?"

By the time they had made it to the gym, where a crowd of boys and girls had, undoubtedly, gravitated towards the charismatic aura that surrounded the one and only Grant Blackwell, Anna was tired listening to Simran discuss her makeup and why her hijab style was only a "trend" and not a "classic".

She spotted Jayden standing off to the side, talking to what Anna perceived to be one of the coaches. They looked like they were engaged in a serious conversation, but when Jayden saw the three girls emerging out of the locker room doors, he waved them over.

The tall women beside Jayden gave them a kind smile which revealed a pair of buck teeth. Her head was shaven, but it was covered by a red cap with an angry red boar logo on the front of the cap.

"Coach Adams," she greeted as she shook hands with all of them.

Jayden then introduced the girls to her, "This is Simran, Kiko, and Anna," he said while pointing to each person.

"Nice to meet you Coach," the three of them chorused.

Suddenly another tall, well-bodied person stood within Anna's periphery.

Grant had arrived.

Anna's heartbeat sped up a tiny smudge.

Traitor.

Anna watched as he gave the women a big hug and she hugged him back, laughing all the while.

"I missed you too buddy," she said, ruffling his hair playfully.

She noticed Anna staring inquisitively at the pair and clarified, "I'm the P.E., soccer, and cross-country coach here, but I've been watching this guy play soccer since he was four years old," she said, smiling affectionately at Grant.

"Cute," Kiko squealed while throwing Grant a wink as he frowned in response.

She gave them one last smile and picked up the whistle at the end of the red lanyard slung across her neck, and she blew into it, letting out a large SCREECH.

All of them plugged their ears with their fingers as the sound rang across the large room. The children scattered throughout the gym looked towards their group, and the white noise that had filled Anna's ears died down.

"To everyone who didn't already know, WEDNESDAYS are the days we run 1.5-miles, so the plan is for us to do some quick warm-ups and stretches and finish up with the run, so get in your class lines, and let's get started!" Coach Adams shouted.

Anna looked at Jayden who went towards her and pulled at her wrist, nodding towards a red-faced man near the wall with a buzzcut and brown bristles cropping up across his chin.

They started walking towards him and Jayden explained, "That's Coach Larsen, our teacher. We're not in," he gave a sideways nod towards Coach Adams, "her class."

"Right."

They kept walking until Jayden stopped at the black line where their teacher stood.

"We warm up on these lines."

"I would have never guessed," Anna teased.

He gave her sideways glance and smirked.

"So how was your first day of –"

"EVERYONE ON THE LINE, BUTT KICKERS TILL THE END OF THE GYM, GO!" a deep voice yelled.

And so they embarked on their workout for the day.

¤《》¤

By the time they were done with their run, Simran had sweat right through her layers, Anna was panting like a dog, and Kiko's eye makeup looked like a toddler had smudged their grubby fingers across her fragile lids.

But that didn't mean their run times were terrible.

Kiko got a 15:45, Simran with a 12:42, and Anna was the fastest, with a solid 9 minutes and 34 seconds.

But of course, this was excluding the guys.

Grant had come out of his run with an 8:26, and Jayden an 8:11.

Anna had chosen to ignore their gleeful crows of merriment at the success of their times.

She had a competitive streak, and it didn't sit well with her to be beaten by two boys. If there was one thing she thought she was good at, it was running.

Even The Guild knew she wasn't a bad runner.

She was just extremely, extremely clumsy.

Which is why she was supposed to be sitting in a boring cubicle in The Guild's technical division floor of the building. Not chasing around cute, egotistic–

Cute!? Anna, he's your ASSIGNMENT, not a godda–

"Anna, babe, where the fuck did you learn to run like that?"

She turned around to spot Kiko with a raised eyebrow, arms across her chest, and all her weight shifted to her right hip. Simran stood next to her, with a look of appreciation directed towards Anna.

"I used to be on my middle school cross country team, so I'm kinda' used to long distance running."

"Dang, our middle school was so cheap we didn't even have a cross country team," Simran exclaimed.

"Well, looks like you ladies are in luck, because we just so happen to have a girls cross country team, and tryouts are next week afterschool for the entire week. I better see all of you there, especially you," Coach Adams emphasized, staring at Anna.

"That was an incredible run out there."

"Thank you ma'am," Anna said in a chipper voice.

She watched Coach Adams turn around and walk away, watching her figure grow smaller and smaller, until it disappeared behind the door to the coaches' office.

Cross Country.

Hmm.

She felt someone tap her right shoulder, and on her right appeared a tall, dark figure.

"You should actually try out you know. Coach only invites people she wants on the team," he said, looking in her direction.

Anna cleared her throat, "I don't know, I mean, I'm pretty busy–"

"You don't need to give me excuses Anna, I was just saying that if you try out, you're guaranteed to get in."

Anna pursed her lips and looked away from him. Kiko suddenly caught up to them and she jumped on Jayden's back, laughing as she did. He let out a loud oomph, and Anna could hear Simran let out a giggle behind them, muffling the sound with her hands.

Simran's gaze went from the playful wrestling match to Anna, and she grabbed her hand and swung it up and down, while lightly dragging her back to the locker rooms.

Simran started whisper-yelling to Anna behind her, "Don't tell anyone, but I ship those two so hard, you have no idea. Kiko's always been more playful with Jayden around, and honestly it's so cute OML," she said, adding flamboyant hand gestures to emphasize her point.

Anna turned back to the pair who had ended up holding each other's forearms like they were about to wrestle.

Anna chuckled amusedly, and turned back to Simran with a smile lighting her face. "I can see it," she said decidedly. "They would be a cute couple."

Simran clasped her hands in a lively manner and squealed, "Guess who just found her new best friend? Meeee!"

Simran suddenly embraced Anna's stick-straight body into a hug, and Anna found herself returning the warmth of friendship that Simran had just bestowed upon her.

Just as they were drawing apart, a bony body crashed into their embrace and they suddenly found themselves hugging none other than Kiko Takei.

"Why didn't I get invited to the hug circle guys? I introduced you guys to each other, and Anna hasn't even given me a hug yet!"

Simran lifted up her head and snootily said, "Well, clearly there's a reason for it, after all, I am the better, more beautiful, smarter, and–"

"Bitch, shut up."

All three of them broke into laughter as they stood in a circle, holding onto each other's backs.