Life is starting to look up a little ;; Skylar

For the first time in a long time, Winter felt strong. She had been running with the other track members, just like Coach V had suggested, and her endurance had improved so much! She even felt as if she was making friends with the girls who practiced with her. They were all really nice, and encouraged her when she felt as if she couldn't go on any longer.

However, she still sat alone at the lunch table. She didn't bother looking up from her tray as she went to sit at the little table in the corner by the window. She always sat alone, because nobody else wanted her. It sucked, but she was use to it by now.

With a quiet sigh, Winter set her lunch tray down and sat behind it. She had a chef salad for lunch, with apple juice to drink and a cheese stick on the side. Yum!

Skylar's lunch period used to be shared with Jeanine. Over the past two months she had been sitting alone at lunch, reading or working on homework so she wouldn't have to do it later. The months had been hard-- lunch was something she always looked forward to spending with her best friend.

Today as she was walking through the dining hall, towards her new-normal spot outside under a tree she noticed the new girl from track. Winter. Skylar had never met Winter before she had joined track, but some of the other girls had said nasty things about her at first. But as the season went by, Skylar had actually found herself liking Winter. They probably could have been friends if Skylar had been in any mood to talk, recently.

But Winter was sitting alone, looking down at her food with a bored expression. Did she always sit alone?

Why don't you go and say hi? Pen asked. He was perched on her shoulder as a little sparrow, a quiet voice in her ear.

He had been trying to get her to bounce back lately, and her sitting in silence during lunch wasn't a good way to get that to happen. Besides, Skye knew that Winter was a nice girl. She had even started winning over the other girls on the track team, once they had given her a chance.

Instead of walking past her, Skylar slipped into the seat across from Winter. "Mind if I sit here?" she asked, knowing of course that she had already sat. She smiled at her teammate.

Winter actually jumped when somebody sat down in front of her. Nobody had ever sat by her before. She looked up from her salad and saw who had sat across from her and smiled. It was Skylar, one of the girls from her track team.

Skye wrote:"Mind if I sit here?"

"Oh no, of course not!" Winter replied.

Skylar was very nice and was actually one of the girls that Coach V had suggested Winter pair up with. She had been gone for a month though, because her best friend had passed away, but it was nice seeing her back. Winter knew it would take a long time for Skylar to become one hundred percent happy again, but she could tell she was slowly feeling better.

Only now she wasn't sure of what to say.

Awkwardly, she sat there and began to nibble on her cheese stick.

Maybe say something about track? Wesley suggested.

"So," she started. "Are you ready for the track meet this weekend?"

Skylar was happy that Winter had smiled at her, but it was obvious that she felt awkward. Skye watched her nibble on her cheese stick.

"I am so ready," Skylar told her, when Winter finally started to talk. She was pumped for the first track meet of the season. She was especially excited for the long jump, which she had been practicing hard for.

After her sit-around-and-be-sad phase had ended, Skylar had thrown herself into her running. This weekend she would put all that hard work to the test.

"How about you? This will be your first one ever, right?"

Winter was actually very nervous for the first track meet. Sure, Skylar and the other girls had helped her a lot, but they had years of practice. Winter only had a month or two.

"I'm actually really nervous," she replied. "I've never ran like this before."

She was participating in the 200 meter dash. She had discussed it with the coach, and they both agreed that she'd probably be better at sprinting the short distances rather than running for a mile.

"I'm not even entirely sure why I joined track." She told her honestly. "But I have been building my endurance."