Everyone covered their ears as the megaphone blared. The sound was like a mix of police sirens and a Siren's song. It was not a good combination. Luckily, it got everyone's attention and all talking stopped abruptly. No one wanted to do 50 push-ups, so all the runners were standing at attention, waiting for directions.

"Good. Now, if you're confused by any of these directions, ask one of the older runners," The coach told everyone. "Today, we are going to work some more on some speed, even though it's early in the season. No—Lucas—it's not a tempo workout today," the coach stared down Lucas because he was known to love tempo runs. "We are doing a track work-out." A chorus of 'seriously's resounded throughout the team. "I know you kids don't like it, but I have 3 words for you. Maddie, what are they?"

"Suck it up," Maddie said loud enough so that the people in the back could hear.

"That's exactly right, suck it up. This exercise will help you learn to use your legs at the end and beginning of a race. We have our first race coming up in 5 days, so I want you kids ready. Daniel, when is our first race?"

"Um... in a week?" Daniel said hesitantly. Sophie bet the coach had called on him because he was on his phone, not at all listening.

"Wrong. Ava, how many days?"

"Wait—how many days till what?" Ava asked obliviously.

"You know what, nevermind. You kids need to work on your listening skills. Back to what I was saying. You have run lots of distance during conditioning, so I know you got distance down, mostly. Some of you still need to work up your stamina..." He looked at some small kid.

The coach continued. "So, for our track work-out today, you're doing 8 eight-hundreds. To all the newbies, that means two laps around the track as fast as you can go. After that you kids are doing 5 four-hundreds. This is going to be one of the only days in awhile where we're doing a speed work-out, so use this wisely. I don't want any slackers. Girls warm-up around the garden, and boys warm-up around the track today. Now scat! The seniors will lead."

The girls all headed away from the track to the walking trail in the main Foxfire garden. There were multiple gardens at Foxfire, but the one they were heading to was the main attraction.

All the girls huddled around each other as they warmed-up, most likely gossiping, while Sophie stayed back. She didn't want to talk to them, especially after what Biana did to Maruca and how the other girls agreed Maruca was trash.

Marella eventually saw Sophie hanging back and joined her in her brooding.

"You're staring off into space again. You gotta stop doing that, it's creepy," Marella stated with pure honesty.

"I know, I just can't stop thinking about Biana. She needs to stop tormenting people." Sophie was a little hurt that Marella thought she was creepy, but like always she hid her feelings away from the world.

"I totally agree with that. She needs to find her place in the world and to stop trying to take people out of my life!" Marella had an unexplainable anger in her eyes.

"What do you mean by that?" Sophie definitely knew what she meant by that, but she wanted to know what experience Biana had put Marella through.

"Awhile back, I had a best friend that used to go to school here. She wasn't like all of my other friends, she was different. She cared about me more than anyone I've met, and I felt powerful around her. We both felt powerful. We would lift each other up whenever the other got bullied. Then, she left. Without even saying goodbye. She just disappeared from my life." Marella had silent tears slipping down her cheeks now, and Sophie stopped her extremely slow jog to give Marella a hug. If Marella was crying, she was extremely upset. "That sounded super sappy." Marella quietly laughed while sniffling.

She eventually wiped her eyes dry and they finished their warm-up and dynamics with the rest of the girls. The others didn't even notice Marella's slightly puffy eyes.

Sophie had already started sweating buckets before they started their work-out. It was miserably humid and the sun was beating down on her sweaty figure.

Right now all of the girls were heading to the track to do their workout. Sophie was dreading running in the heat. She was probably going to die of heat stroke.

When they got to the track, the guys had already finished their warm-up run and were just starting their dynamics. They had probably goofed-off the whole time. It shouldn't have taken them that long.

The coach screamed into his megaphone. "Get over here right now boys! It shouldn't have taken you that long, so now you have to do an extra eight-hundred!" They were busted. "Everyone, line-up. You'll start when the siren goes off. Ready?"

Everyone had gotten in the line when he commanded then to do so, so the runners nodded their heads when he asked if they were ready.

"3, 2, 1!" The coach screamed. His megaphone blared even louder than last time, and everyone took off.

Sophie ran as fast as she could. That probably wasn't a good idea, though, because she started to move to the back of the pack after her adrenaline faded.

As Sophie tired, she thought of motivational songs to keep her going, but the only song she could think of was the siren on her coaches megaphone. He was definitely attached to that thing. She would have to scheme something up with Keefe involving Coach's megaphone.

The realization of her being in the very back of the whole team stopped her scheming. She couldn't embarrass herself in-front of Biana. Just that thought was enough motivation for Sophie to speed up to the rest of the girls. She had more energy left in her, so she sped up even more, trying to pass them. But, the other runners sped up to match her pace.

The last 200 meters was spread in-front of Sophie, and she so desperately wanted to beat the other girls. She was able to speed up past them, but a few stuck with her. Biana was one of them, and so was Marella. There were still girls in-front of Sophie and her group, but right now all she could focus on was the competition between the three of them.

Sophie sped up as fast as she could go, but Biana was still in-front. Sophie's last realization as she stepped past the finish was that she didn't beat Biana. Now she would be the puny weakling forever.

To say she sulked for the rest of practice would be an understatement. She literally just stared at the bleachers the whole time. Luckily, the rest of practice wasn't very eventful. Sophie, sadly, didn't beat Biana for any of the eight-hundreds or four-hundreds they did. That didn't mean Sophie would never beat Biana, though. She was more determined than ever to beat that sad excuse of a princess.