“Hi I’m Pam Oliver, and I’m here at the world famous Penn Relay’s track meet here in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Standing here with me is the current Connecticut State Champion 4x4 team, hailing from Hartford, Conn; the Grey Lodge Wildcats.” Moving to the left of the camera man, Pam allowed the camera to get a close-up on the talent young girls who’d be competing for the high school “Champions of America” title.
“Here we have: Ashley, Britney, Autumn and Kristina” She said motioning to each of the girls present. From the far right of Pam, Kristina flaunt a quaint smile and wave before placing her hands behind her back.
“Now girl’s this is your first time at the Penn Relays, what do you think about all that’s transpired so far?” She asked, positioning the microphone in front of Ashley’s face.
“Ahhh, It’s all so overwhelming, I never realized how big this event was until we showed up today.” Ashley replied, almost turning red in the face.
“Ummm, It’s a little intimidating, I’ve seen Olympians out here running, they were so fast I thought to myself we must look so slow compared to them” Autumn then replied, holding on to Britney and Ashley.
“Britney what was your week like leading up to the Relays?” Pam’s question prompt the adept camera man to shift to an extreme close-up on Britney the perceived leader of the relay squad.
“We did a lot ofum, training, like a LOT, watched a lot of tapes and worked on finishing at the last 200m. Hopefully with what we did we’ll do pretty good.”
Finally, Pam pushed pass the other three focusing now on the youngest and most important member of this team, 15 year old Kristina Huntington—the Anchor.
“Kristina, last year you were the recipient of not only a Teen Choice Award for best female athlete; but you also won an ESPY award for rising Star. Are you at all nervous that the pressure that comes with those awards will hinder your performance here today?”
Kristina wanted to roll her eyes, what a stupid question! But there were millions of people currently watching her on television; including her mother in the stands, there was no way she’d allow herself to act outside of the etiquette.
“Before the event my mother told me, “The Past is the Past for a reason” So I haven’t really thought too much on last year’s achievements. My goal here today is to secure victory for the team.” She said, motioning to her teammates.
“Alright girls, I look forward to seeing you compete later, back to you Sam” Once the camera’s were down and Pam issued her handshakes to all the girl’s they immediately went their separate ways. This was no team, they all knew it.
Ashley, Autumn, and Britney whined about not being given the same chance at success, and in response their track coach threw this 4x4 team together. They weren’t friends; as a matter of fact the cliqued trio hated Kristina, and saw this as a shot to steal the limelight.
Walking back toward her mother with her eyes focused on her neon green and black spikes, she moved across Franklin field taking a relaxed posture next to her beautiful mother. “What did I tell you about walking with your head down?”Just the sound of her mother’s voice cause the 15 year old phenom to jolt back to perfect form.
“I apologize mother, I was just admiring my new shoes” Kristina lamented, watching as several collegiate athletes sped pass them engaged in the 100m dash. “You need to go to screening, hurry back your event will be starting soon. Oh, here” She said, handing the young athlete an orange Gatorade—her favorite.
Kristina’s coach always scrutinized Lorelei for not showing enough support to Kristina’s talents, but his opinion held no merit. Her mother was the most supportive person she knew; she kept her in line, and made sure the teen didn’t say anything that’d make her seem ignorant. She was the reason Kristina could conduct an interview without using crutch words such as; “Ahhh or Umm”
She hated screening, but she understood why it was necessary, being of both divine and mutant origins the T&F Association needed to make sure Kristina’s powers weren’t active before she raced—which they weren’t. Currently, she didn’t have anything, not trace of her mother or father’s skill set in her blood, which cause others to accuse her of steroid use.
All assumptions and accusations eventually fell on death ears, at proving it through a tedious process, Kristina was clean, because of their whiny attitudes towards her raw talent in the past; she’d make their children regret stepping on the track with her.
Hearing her name called for the event, the young Huntington walked back to her mother to receive her routine kiss on the cheek before moving to the check in point. Her teammates look nervous, and they should be, if any one of them fell behind this team would fall apart long before she took the baton.
Pinning her number to the side of her shorts, Kristina watched as Autumn moved into their designated lane 5 (Which sucks ass), and prepared for the gun to go off.
The 4x4 is traditionally the last event of any track meet, and usually the liveliest (Next to the 4X2); she could hear feel the vibrations from the crowd moving through her spiked shoes. “What dreams are made of” She said moving to the side of the track to “cheer” on Autumn as she ran.
As runner number 1, Autumn was forced to stay in her lane until she reached the 100m designator on the backside, not that it mattered, once Kristina got the baton she could run in whatever lane she chose to run in.
“On your mark.”
“Get Set”
“POP!”
With the sound of the gun, Autumn took off fast, but almost 50m behind everyone else, the horrible start cause Kristina to close her eyes; she had no intentions of watching the first leg.
Surprisingly enough, Autumn managed to stay the same distance behind everyone; keeping her pace steady enough for Ashley. On the Exchange Ashley exploded out of lane one looking to hawk down the other seven girls in front of her.
Ashley fell back another 50m, her body was conditioned for running longer distances; she blew most of her energy on her take off, at the exchange, Britney took the baton almost 150m behind everyone else.
The moment Britney left the starting line, Kristina moved into position. Instead of watching the race, she lightly jumped in place preparing to receive the baton and execute her portion of the relay. Britney closed the gap considerably, on the backside, but lost it at the last 100 meters.
At the exchange, Kristina was already 100m behind…and she still was in last place. Exploding off the start, Kristina leaned into the curve, pushing her piston-like legs into the air with her knees, thrusting her engine-like hands forward, she immediately close the gap and pass two runners before entering the final curve.
Now in 6 place, and at her favorite part of the track, the legendary team propelled herself forward pass yet another runner, 5 place now. Seeing what was happening the massive crowd at Franklin field released a deafening roar, immediately dwarfing the sounds of Kristina’s labored breaths.
Pushing toward the end of the curve, the young Huntington shift to the balls of her feet and pushed her body into a mad dash down the 100m lane passing the 4th, 3rd and 2nd place runners before stealing first with a “dive” captured by photo-finish.
Hardly having the energy to celebrate, she immediately plopped down to her buttocks, before falling back in the grass. Ignoring the many that suggest she stood up, she continued to lay there awaiting her mother’s serene shadow to overtake her, and congratulate her yet again.
As Britney, Ashley and Autumn plop down beside her celebrating their team win, they all remained completely ignorant to the fact that this Freshman in high school ran one 22 second 200M dash, and a second 24 200m dash giving her a personal split time 46 seconds. Had she been at least 17 and this been an individual event; and Kristina would’ve been on her way to the Olympics.
“Mommy…” She gasp reaching for her Gatorade and her mother’s attention. “Did…I do a good job?”
“You did excellent sweetheart, you ran so fast other people were cheering for you…” she responded flaunting a quaint smirk.
“I want to be the first Huntington…that ever wins a gold medal.” Kristina said, rising to her weary feet.
“When we get home, I’ll check to see if anyone has ever done it. If not, then I’m sure you will.”
Blessed like any other Huntington with brains and beauty, and like any other Liafador with ambition, her amazing split time was the start of an amazing precedent for both her families. Olympic Gold.
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