Chapter 9

After doing a cool down lap, I lie down on the ground taking, wiping the sweat off my face.

Ms. Fallon comes running towards me with water bottles in her arms, passing them out as each runner crosses the finish line. "You did excellent Charlotte! Your time was 5:40 outstanding!" She hands a water bottle over and I gulp it down greedily. I offer nothing more than a thumbs up because I feel so tired. First practice back and I'm already dying, great. "Well it looks like the only person that trained the whole summer was Charlie over here." Ms. Fallon gestures to me and I cringe at the nickname she uses.

Sebastian comes over and lies down next to me, slightly out of breath. I wordlessly hand the bottle of water, that I was drinking from, over to him.

"Thanks sis," he mumbles guzzling down the water. "You did really good out there, I think the boys' were a little humiliated from underestimating you," he chuckles. I look over to where his teammates are and they are all sweating and panting. I giggle softly.

"That was a great race Charlie," Nathan walks over to us and sits down.

"Noooo," I drag with a groan. Sebastian pats my hair slightly.

"Lottie here has never liked that nickname," he coos. I smack him on his thigh hard.

"I think it's adorable," Nathan laughs.

"Oh, please you guys are pathetic," Michelle mumbles as she walks past bumping into my stretched-out leg.

"Speak for yourself Mitchell," I sarcastically smile at her purposely saying her name wrong.

"My name is Michelle," she sneers back at me.

"Is it? Are you sure?" I ask I fake concern. Sebastian coughs to try and hide his laugh and Nathan just looks back and forth at us completely confused.

"Fuck you, Hayes," She stomps away with her nose in the air.

"No thanks, maybe later!" I yell back with a wave, "I'm flattered though!"

Sebastian laughs loudly, "So she's still a raging bitch, huh?" Michelle has always been just a horrible person in general but ever since I had joined to track team two years ago, she has been a complete bitch. She just hates that I sometimes beat her running time, which apparently for her, was enough of a reason to hold a grudge against me for the rest of her existence.

"Why the hell did I ever think you were a quiet nobody?" Nathan asks throwing his arms outward.

"She's just mad that she can't get a reaction out of me," I ignore him and carry on talking to Sebastian.

"Now it makes sense why you're so fast when you chase people and vice versa, at least you're putting your talent to good use," Nathan smiles at me.

"Sure, I guess so," I laugh lightly, shrugging.

"My boys' let's go, this is practice not chitchat time!" Coach Miller shouts from where he's standing.

"Coach come on we just ran a mile, we need a little breather," Zach retorts lying on the grass with a group of juniors around him.

"And a bunch of girls beat you," Coach yells back, causing the boys to grumble and start standing back up heading towards their field.

"That's not very fair Coach, us girls worked our asses off to be the best," I stand up from the track ground and walk a few feet over to Coach.

"Miss Hayes, is this going to become a regular thing, you interrupting my practices?" He asks in a condescending tone.

"Well you were at my house, on my property and now you're on the side of the field where I practice. I would say it's inevitable," I shrug. God I hate this man.

"Then you wouldn't have a problem seeing me at my detention tomorrow after school?" He looks at me with a smirk as my eyes slightly widen. Shit fuck.

"I honestly don't think that a detention is necessary Coach Miller, Charlie was just standing up for herself and her gender. Do you honestly think it would be in her best interest to have someone knock down her views and opinions in this day and age?" Ms. Fallon asks Coach with a fake smile on her face. Yes! You can call me Charlie anytime Ms. Fallon!

"Boys let's go!" Coach barks at them.

Sebastian drops his jaw in shock and looks at me, he mouths 'How did you do that?' while getting to his feet pulling Nathan up with him.

"See you after practice sis," Sebastian ruffles my hair as he walks away.

"Have a good practice," Nathan smiles as he walks away. "Oh, and you can call me Nate by the way," he turns and smirks at me.

"Bye Nate," I smile slightly.

*******************

"Good practice everyone, you're free to leave," Ms. Fallon tells us.

I walk over to my bag feeling the strain in my muscles from the hurdle jumps we just did. We were the last group on the field, having run over practice by fifteen minutes. I rush over to the parking lot where I can see Sophie and Sebastian leaning against my car on their phones. Sebastian glances at Sophie saying something with a scowl on his face, she glares back at him and says something back which Sebastian obviously did not like. Crap. I click the remote on my car unlocking it, Sebastian climbs in immediately but Sophie waits against the car for me.

"What was that about?" I ask quietly hoping Sebastian doesn't hear me.

"Just the usual, I'm a 'backstabbing bitch of a twin' and other similar things," she shrugs. I thought they got over this already.

"Seriously, I thought you guys worked out that whole issue?" I ask exasperated.

"Oh, we did, but apparently even saying a general 'Hello' to Cole is off limits now," she rolls her eyes walking over to the backseat door and climbing in my car.

I scoff climbing into the driver's seat and stare at Sebastian until he looks over, "Get your annoying possessive ass bullshit together." I start the car and head home.

"So, has he called you yet?" Courtney asks taking a bite of her apple. We're sitting at our table outside in the senior garden at lunchtime.

"He texted me saying that he's got nothing to apologise for, if that's what you mean," I scoff talking about the message Chase sent me on Saturday morning prompting me to ignore it because he's an idiot.

"You know I never liked him," Olivia voices, pointing a finger in my direction. "He's a choad." I almost spit my drink out.

"Do you know what that means Olivia?" Quinn asks puzzled.

"Yes, I do, just because I don't get the highest grades at this table doesn't mean I'm not educated!" She argues back. I put my hands up in surrender.

"No one said you weren't educated Liv, we just weren't expecting that," Courtney states logically.

"So, are there any plans for this weekend?" Quinn changes the subject.

"I was thinking Girls' Night Out, with a movie, dinner and maybe the arcade?" I suggest looking at the girls.

"Yes, I'm down. I can finally kick your ass at that Terminator game," Olivia smirks evilly at me and I just laugh. I am the champion at that game.

"Oh, it's on," I smirk at her.

Courtney playfully rolls her eyes, "You two are like children."

"And that is why you're the mom of the group Courts," Olivia chuckles throwing a piece of her popcorn at her.

"I am just mature," Courtney turns away sticking her nose in the air making all of us laugh.

"Well now that we've established that Court is the group mom, we need to do something about Soph," I say looking at each of them. "I can't deal with her depressed state anymore. It's been like this for almost a month, it's not fair that she gets all the blame and becomes a pariah to my brother but Cole is still his best friend."

"I thought they hashed all that out at the start of school? He's still being petty about it?" Quinn asks disgruntled.

"You want me to take out Cole? I know some people, make it look like an accident," Olivia shrugs like it's no big deal.

"Jesus, no Liv, what the hell? Who do you know?" I ask in curiously.

"I've already said too much, carry on," she folds her arms and leans on the table.

"I was thinking setting her up with someone else, help her get over Cole," I look around the area for any potential date options.

"Not going to lie, your idea sounds a lot less fun than Liv's," Courtney grabs my attention, gesturing to Olivia.

"We are not killing Cole!" I state, surprised that this conversation is even happening.

"I'm not saying we have to kill him, I'm just saying it's an option," Olivia leans back with a smirk on her face.

"But wouldn't that make any guy we choose a rebound?" Quinn asks ignoring Olivia's comment.

"Why do they always have to be called rebounds? A rebound is usually intentional, and we all know Sophie would never consider someone a rebound. What if she ends up really liking him? It's not a rebound it's just one date," I reason with them.

"What about James Carson? He sweet and cute," Courtney suggests.

"Didn't she get into this situation because it was with Sebastian's friend? James is on the baseball team with him," Quinn shoots down that idea.