“I can be speedy,” I say, my voice quiet in our buzzing street.
Granny Dee looks at me like she’s never seen me before. Like I’ve just sprung out of the ground fully grown, the way Athena popped out of the head of Zeus. Like I’m someone she doesn’t know at all.
“Granny Dee?”
“What … When … What…” She shakes her head as if she’s shaking water out of her ears. I can tell she’s underwater, that everything is murky and blurry for her and her information is coming in all garbled. But she’ll come up soon.
I put my hand under her wrinkled elbow and help her up; the skin there is so loose it hangs like a pair of jeans on a washing line. She’s still gawping at me.
“Wing…” she says, and I won’t lie, I’m glad she knows who I am, because from the way she’s eyeing me, I was starting to worry that the shock was too much for her and my attempt to impress my grandmother might have given her a stroke or a heart attack or something.
But before she can finish her sentence, a car, the same car I saw at the end of the street, pulls into our driveway. And now I know where I’ve seen this car. It belongs to Eliza Thompson.
Who is staring straight at me the same way my Granny Dee has been staring at me.
And like that, all the gold and sunshine on me melts into a puddle at my feet.
I’m starting to think that showing off what I can do might not have been the best idea I’ve ever had.
CHAPTER 26
I can feel Aaron’s eyes on the back of my neck. I can perfectly picture his lips moving in a silent whisper, encouraging me, telling me this is the right thing to do.
Coach Kerry appraises me like I’m a horse she’s thinking of buying. Eyes up and down and up and down. “Can I help you?”
I force myself to meet her gaze. Where is Eliza? The other girls are huddled around Coach Kerry, eyeing me warily. I wonder what Eliza has told them. I look at the ground and notice they’re all wearing the same brand shoes. Riveos. I wish I had a pair of those, best running shoes you can get, but at least I have Aaron’s mom’s old running shoes and not just my Converse.
“I’d like to try out for the team?” I mean to say it as a declaration, but it comes out like a question.
“Anyone can join the track team,” says the coach, her voice weary now. “You don’t need to see me for that.” She turns away, back to her huddle of girls, and I know I am already forgotten. My shoulders slump.
“Coach!” a voice shouts from the other side of the track. “This is the girl I was telling you about! The one I saw tearing down the street. I swear, this girl is faster than me.”
Coach Kerry straightens up slowly and turns to face us. Eliza has jogged over and is standing next to me.
“Eliza.” The coach’s voice is sharp; it jabs through Eliza’s excitement like a prong going through a gooey marshmallow. But Eliza’s excitement is sticky, and it’s spreading.
“You’ve got to see her.”
“She looks a little … big to be a runner. Maybe she should go for the football team, take her brother’s place,” someone says in a stage whisper, and hushed giggles rise into the air like a flock of startled birds, getting louder the higher they get, the farther they fly. I swat one right out of my face, and just like that, they all stop flapping and fall back down to earth, silent again. Then I drop my bag and walk over to the starting line.
“You can do this,” Aaron says.
The coach’s head snaps up at the sound of his voice. “Aaron, what are you doing here?”
“I’m her coach,” he says, and his chest swells up so big I’m worried he won’t be able to see past it.
“Her coach,” says Coach Kerry, her face stony still.
“Maybe he gets community service for it.” The same person who said I was too big to be a runner speaks out again, and this time when the giggles start I don’t just swat at them, I run straight through them, scattering them in every direction, and I’m running so fast they can’t catch me.
When I circle back around again, Aaron and Eliza are wearing matching smug expressions. The other girls are staring at me like I’ve just grown snakes for hair, and Coach Kerry’s mouth is wide open like she’s trying to catch flies for breakfast.
“Told you she was fast,” says Eliza as I pull up next to her and pause to catch my breath.
Things move pretty quickly after that. Aaron asks Coach Kerry if he can be assistant coach but still train for his own races, and she has to get some kind of permission from administration, but not only is he still going to be my coach, he is going to get credits for it.