Before I could respond, Mr. Lee walked into the room. Vera mysteriously smiled in my direction and turned her attention to Mr. Lee, as well as the rest of the students doing the same.

I couldn't help but think about all that could go wrong with Vera openly inviting me to be her friend. It wasn't that I didn't want to be her friend, it was that I wasn't good at being a friend for obvious reasons. Not only did I not speak, but I was awful at responding to people in a way that would be considered normal.

Instead of stressing myself out over the topic, I focused myself on Mr. Lee, which felt oddly natural. Before he began to speak, he turned to me.

Out of all the people sitting on these bleachers, which for sure had to be at least a hundred, his eyes fell upon me and it made my heart flutter in a way that I was unfamiliar with. I have never felt something so exhilarating before. It was a good, warm feeling; something I had only experienced with my parents and knew was identified as love. But this? Clearly this was not family love, nor was it love at all, but it related to excitement. I couldn't help but smile with these emotions bubbling inside me.

"Are you okay?" Vera asked, chuckling slightly. My cheeks instantly flushed. I hadn't known she'd been looking at me smiling. Another embarrassing move on my part. It seemed that my body and my actions could not stop possessing such awkward and embarrassing movements.

When Mr. Lee and I locked eyes, which lasted for exactly five seconds and I knew because I was counting, I had smiled and oddly enough, he returned the gesture. However, his smile was more ghostly, more secretive. It was gone before I could revel in its' undeniable attractiveness.

"Okay," Mr. Lee said loudly, his voice echoing and bouncing off the walls. "This is Mr. Falliner, for the students who don't know who he is." He introduced, pointing casually at Mr. Falliner who smiled and waved at the giant group of eager students.

"Row by row I'll let you guys walk up to him and tell him what sizes you'll prefer for your cross country uniforms. And for the guys, I promise the shorts will be longer than last season. I can see how that'd be uncomfortable." Laughter echoed mainly from the boys, but a few chuckles escaped from the girls' as well.

He ended the conversation and disappeared into the doorway of the indoor track as chatter replaced his voice. Slowly, row by row, the students formed a line while Mr. Falliner jotted down the sizes.

Mr. Falliner was small and bald, but not in a typically unattractive way. His hairless head presented that it was in his consent. Black stubble dusted his chin and his whole figure was husky and insanely muscular. Veins swooped at different angles visibly under his skin on his arms and legs.

When it was time for our row on the bleachers to go, I shyly stepped down the bleachers, Vera confidently trotting down in front of me, her wavy dark blue hair bouncing against her back. My own hair fell down to my shoulders in a messy clump, which was a reminder that there is a possibility that I could put in effort to do something with it.

We stood on line for a few minutes with it thankfully moving faster, Vera making conversation easily with just about anyone who came by. Vera would introduce me to a few people, for which my eyes would glaze and my focus would diminish. I would unsteadily nod my head in their direction instead of speaking, for obvious reasons, of course. Some of them looked at me strangely but the attention was always back on Vera within the minute, not that I was complaining.

When it was my turn, Vera already saying her size and lingering near me, I froze in my spot like a deer in a headlight.

Mr. Falliner looked at me expectedly, his hazel eyes boring into mine with unintentional discomfort. The realization that I left my pad and pen on the bleachers began to sink in. My hands shook and I shoved them into the sleeves of my thin sweater while my heart began to skip a few beats.

With the embarrassment hanging above me and the fact that I was stuck in my spot and didn't know what to do, everything began to freeze before me. All I could hear was my heavy breathing and my ears ringing.

And then, all at once, everything went to normal after Vera saved me from what could have been the most embarrassing moment of my life.

"Both her shorts and shirt will be one size smaller than mine was," she said, clasping her hand with mine and practically dragging me back to the bleachers. I caught a glimpse of Mr. Lee from the doorway of the indoor track, a phone to his ear which clearly proved he was in a conversation, but it seemed he lacked the ability to speak. He was staring, and to any other teacher this would have been perverted, but when Mr. Lee stared and utter confusion and worry outlined his face, my heart raced so fast that I fell back into a daze.

"Earth to Poppy!" Vera whisper-yelled in my ear. Our gazes were broken and Mr. Lee shuffled back out of the room, out of my view.

Vera turned to me and looked at me with complete pity. "Your figure is smaller than mine, but if the sizes don't fit I'll come with you to get a bigger pair of shorts or a shirt." She said quietly.

I scribbled on the pad that was thankfully back in my hands.

Thank you so much, you saved me.

"You're welcome," she said, smiling with sincerity. Her face then changed to a teasing sort of expression. A knowing smirk replaced her lips.

"I think you have the hots for Mr. Lee," she giggled. "But he's had his fair share of stolen glances if I do say so myself."

I violently blushed and shoved my head into my hands, letting Vera's almost contagious laugh drown out rest of the sounds of the indoor track.

***

After realizing how much I loved having extra time in the morning, I had requested to my father on my notepad that he drop me off early at school so I could have more time to run before class. He was giddy and excited to do so, probably relieved that I was attempting to fit in, which really I was just doing cross country because I loved to run. But either way, I arrived early on the track the next morning in a t-shirt and shorts, my iPod plugged in my ears and my heart set on running until I had no time left.

I repeated the cycle, my legs in a starting position and muscles tense, and then I was off again with the wind blasting against my face. The late August air felt amazing on my bare skin, with the sun slowly pushing the clouds away with the sunlight beautifully shining through.

As I was running in my own section of the track, a few students burst ahead of me with unbelievable speed. When they moved ahead of me and their running figures eventually disappeared from my view, I halted for a second and took my earphones out and wrapped them once around my neck where they dropped just below my chest.

I placed my hands on my upper legs and bent forward, allowing my breathing to settle and my anxiety to die out. It was one thing to run when you knew nobody could see you, but with others? It made me feel far too self-conscious to concentrate, but if I wanted to be on the cross country team I'd have to get used to it either way. But these mornings felt like they were mine alone. I couldn't help but let my heart sink in disappointment. I should have known the track would be occupied. It was silly of me to think otherwise, especially since there's so many students in the school.

As I was allowing my breathing to settle, voices erupted my concentration. I turned to the source where they came from, and as always I began to feel choked up and insecure when I spotted Mr. Lee. He was sitting with four other students and Mr. Falliner and they were all talking and laughing about something. Every few minutes they would watch the students sprinting on the track, perhaps observing? I had no idea what to think of this situation.

Due to Mr. Lee's presence, I lost all motivation to run and instead I shuffled to the side and made my way to the exit of the track.

"Isn't that the girl who got raped?" A guy asked. His voice was muffled from the distance but I listened closely.

"I heard she was abused. Someone told me she has always lived in this town but never went to school until now." A girl replied with a southern accent.

"I don't know what to believe about her. She looks like a freak to me."

Hearing these comments as I walked to the exit made me want to collapse altogether. My movements started getting slower and my heart felt heavy with insecurity, while a burst of heat flooded to my cheeks and near my neck. How could there possibly be rumors when nobody even talked to me besides Vera? It couldn't have been Vera, I haven't told her anything.

But were they even talking about me? Could they even see me?

"I heard she's a good runner, though."

"Enough!" Mr. Lee's voice erupted and all of the students fell silent. "If you guys want personal training for the season, you should know by now that I don't tolerate gossip, especially when you don't know the whole story. Assuming is lethal. You all are dismissed." Mr. Lee was the first to get up. He grabbed some papers and headed off the bleachers, now completely visible in front of me. He turned around and walked towards me swiftly, his glasses off and his blue eyes glowing with anger and pity at the same time.

"I'm so sorry," he said quietly, his eyes searching mine for anything that would indicate I was okay. But I wasn't, and that was given and he knew it.

I nodded and shrugged, mentally cursing that I hadn't brought my pen and pad with me. I should really start keeping it with me at all times.

Instead of letting the silence tear me apart, I walked past him slowly and made my way back into the school and to the locker room, where thankfully there was only two girls who didn't acknowledge me. I showered, threw on a pair of dark jeans with a black sweater and my white Converse, and tied my hair up into a messy bun.

My throat was signaling that at any minute tears would escape my eyes, but I contained the mess until I shoved myself into Mr. Garcia's office, where all at once I collapsed into the chair in front of his desk and let my emotions pour out of me.