Chap 4

The next day, my head still hurts from the hit of the badminton racquet incident. I walked weakly my PE locker to get changed for my next period, which is PE, we were starting track and field. I sighed, track and field is always such a pain. Chloe is absent today, probably going off in some sports competition again. I sighed again, not having Chloe here is like I lost a part of my energy.

“Hello Evelyn,” someone behind me said. I turned around, expect to see Chloe, but it was Elliot.

“Oh, hi Elliot,” I said plainly, as my excitement drowned.

“What’s wrong? You’re not acting yourself today,” Elliot said worriedly. He sure is great at observing people.

“Oh, nothing, I’m probably just a little cold, and Chloe is not here today.” I sighed, feeling better that Elliot is still here. “Ok, let’s get changed now…” I tried to switch the topic to avoid his worriedness.

“Sure…”Elliot still carried a worried expression on his face.

We gathered on the field after we changed into PE gears, the weather was still really chilly for April. Darn, I forgot my PE sweatshirt, or else I wouldn’t be so cold anymore. The teacher, ms Molly, gathered us, and said,” guys, today we will start the period about track and field, since the weather is getting better, we will have The Run today. For those who doesn't know what The Run is, I'll explain after we did our warm up.” I shuttered, The Run, the nightmare. We have to run three full laps around the school, and the school is huge, 1 kilo per lap. The worst is they time you, and last year---

“Miss Zhang, please try and not go on mind trips, especially in PE, or you will get serious injuries.” Ms Molly halted my thoughts.

“S-sorry miss Molly,” I answered shyly and slipped into one of the lines of people that is already formed while I was daydreaming. Across from me, Elliot stood in another line, he looked at me, still wearing the worried expression he had before class. I gave him a thumb up to show that there's nothing to worry about. But the worried expression on his face didn't leave.

“Ok!” Ms Molly’s voice sprang me back to reality. Elliot turned around too, “ so, today we are…” the voice of the PE teacher trailed off.

The whole warm up I was thinking about other things in my head, my schedule, about Chloe, and about Elliot. I just couldn't get focused on the warm up activities I was doing. Finally, ms Molly told us to gather around in a circle to explain the rules of The Run, I sighed in relief.

I was on the right side beside Elliot where I stood, taking the chance of the explanation of The Run, he asked me quietly, “Are you ok, Evelyn?” In a very worried tone.

“Yes, yes, I'm all right.” I said, trying to sound stronger, “I'm...just cold.” Which is true, the chilly weather makes it hard to concentrate even more.

Suddenly, without a word, Elliot’s left arm went around me, and pulled me close to himself. And I could feel his heat, it's a long time since I get heat from another human, and I felt a little more warmer.

“Are you warmer now?” He asked. My eyes widen in surprise, and looked at him, blushing. He looked down at me, wearing the same kind smile as when he smiled in the strings class, and said, ”you'll be all right, Evelyn. Now, cheer up! The Run will warm you up.”  

I just looked at him, and finally smiled back. He seemed a bit surprised, but smiled back again after a few seconds.

“Elliot and Evelyn, “ miss Molly said, “what are you guys doing?”

Since we are at the very back, nobody even paid attention to us, but now that ms Molly turned all the attention to us, everyone turned their head around. We immediately jump away from each other, feeling embarrassed. It was surprising that Elliot too, was a little embarrassed, he was always so light on everything, and cool about everything.

Good thing that we jumped away from each other just in time, and our classmates didn't see Elliot hugging me. They lost interested and turned their head back, towards ms Molly. Ms Molly was very confused about what was going on, so she dropped the topic and went on with the talking.

“Gang, “ ms Molly always have a habit of saying this word, “we will be starting the run in a few seconds. The starting point will be the cross walk over there.” She pointed towards the crosswalk that was straight across from a cherry blossom tree. Which they are along the field where we will run pass.

I sighed, I've always hated it, but felt better again, at least I get to run beside the cherry blossom trees. But I bet Chloe will be so excited about this, since she's literally the only person in the entire grade eight that likes The Run.