Preppy

POV Lydia:

I absolutely hate pep rallies. Not that I am trying to say anything other than that they are too loud and take too much time away from the things that are truly important. Things like my crystal math test that I have tomorrow. I could be studying that instead of watching cheerleaders in tight skirts run around doing flips and waving their fuzzy pom poms at us. Jay stood up suddenly along with rest of the crowd and cheered dramatically as one of them did a fancy dismount off of their thirty foot high human pyramid. Everyone slowly took their seats and I watched as one of them took a microphone and walked towards the stands. Her hips swayed as her weight shifted, and I couldn't help but glance to the side to see if Jay was fixated on her a-

"Are y'all ready to have some fun?!" She shouted, pumping her fist up.

The gymnasium filled with unintelligible, deafening screams.

"Very good, very good, but I can't hear you! You wanna try that again on the count of three? I know you can be louder than that!"

Once more she outstretched her hand and the crowd roared.

"Good. Today, we have for you a group of random students, four from each grade. They will be doing a relay race!"

She raised her hands and the school went wild screaming their lungs off in an attempt to impress only heaven knows. Nearly everyone screamed all the more louder. Jay hollered along with the rest of the crowd and I gave him a disapproving glare. He sighed and shook his head, but he stayed patient with me.

"What? Come on, I know that the day has been a little strange, but try to enjoy yourself a little bit," Jay smiled and gripped my hand. I sighed in happiness, only for him to stand up and holler as the cheerleaders completed one more stunt. It was good while it lasted. Looking around for a minute, I could see some of the sullen faces of the professors. Some of them were almost twitchy with impatience. At least I could trust in the fact that they shared the same feeling of utter boredom and despair.

The rest of the rally went by in a dull, noisy blur. Next thing I knew, Jay elbowed me in the ribs.

"Go on," he said into my ear and nudged me out of my seat.

"W-what?" I stammered, suddenly bolting up from an all-consuming endeavor to work out solutions for Clay Mathematics Institute's Millennium Prize problems. "Jay, I was having a moment."

"Lydia Gale, if you're up there, would you mind coming on down here?" That very-peppy cheerleader's voice echoed again from a tiny microphone.

I promptly sat my rear back down, rooted in place by unbearable terror. I disliked many things, but being called up in front of the entire campus of over one hundred thousands students for something I never signed up for was too much. Jay stood next to me and yanked me up by my lower arm. He sat down looking very pleased with himself, leaving me standing there in front of everyone.

"There you are!" The cheerleader beamed as she waved me forward.

Once I was down and standing in a line with three others, she faced the crowd once more. Now that I was able to get a closer look at her, I recognized her. Her name is Madeline Hickory. In short, she is pure evil mixed with cupcakes, glitter and dipped in the depths of hell. Or if you want the long version, she is Jay's ex girlfriend so far as I know. Even though he broke up with her back in high school a long time before he met me, she is still holding a grudge.

"The winning class gets... well, you'll just have to find out." A wicked grin glided across her makeup caked face. She might as well have said "Alright, kiddos. It's time for public humiliation. Put your hands together as Lydia manages to look like an absolute moron."

The obstacle course already seemed terrifying. It was simple if you thought about it; a couple of trampolines intertwined in layers of rope nets and ending with a dead sprint to the end wasn't too complex. I've done my share of running, but this was ridiculous. That, though, was only my leg of the race. The challenges dealt to my teammates were far worse.

The first portion of the race would be run by a girl with pretty blond hair tied in a ponytail and a skirt and blouse ill-suited for racing. She had the petrified look of a deer caught in headlights. She would have to run a couple feet to an empty gallon water bottle inside an empty five gallon bucket, grab the bottle, and run about fifty meters to a bucket filled with water on the other side. She would have to keep sprinting from bucket to bucket, fetching water repeatedly until she had filled the empty bucket to the brim.

Once they smacked the hand of the next person, who most everyone recognized as one of the best players on our football team, he would have to run a lap around the entire football field. It seemed easy enough; he must have done this multiple times already. However, he had to start with picking up a fifty pound weight and running one fourth of the distance of the track's perimeter. There, he will pick up his second of four weights of equal mass. He would repeat this every hundred meters until he finally runs across the finish line carrying two hundred pounds total. The average football player's weight in his age demographic is around two hundred eighty to three hundred pounds, so if he is able to run while carrying a fellow teammate, this could be possible. When he finishes, a horn will sound for the third person to start.

The third person would be climbing up a rock wall, the simplest challenge of all of these. All he has to do is climb all the way up and touch the button at the top. The only problem is that the one forced into this was from my forensics class with about as much muscle mass as a newborn calf. Our ragtag group was against the freshmen, sophomores, and seniors. We were doomed.

I was so lost in my train of thought that I wasn't aware that the horn had already sounded and the first contestant took off running with her empty water jug. I watched as she took her time filling up the bottle to the top and capping it gently. Surprisingly, she seemed to glide across the field. To my amazement, she finished in second with the buzzer announcing her completion.

The second runner finished his lap faster than I thought was possible, leading us to first place. Somehow, he managed to do so without dropping any of the weights. None of the other groups were fortunate enough to say the same. Now I watched horrified as the skinny boy made his way up the rock wall. He seemed to take forever, hesitating at every rock in paranoia before he even touched it. Surprisingly, he was more than half way up when the freshman girl started her climb. Oh, the pace she set made every inch of my body ache, and I hadn't even started.

My buzzer went off with a loud blaring sound.

"Lydia, go!"

I took off at a jog, trying to analyze the rope I was about to climb.

"Oi, she's almost at the top! Quit stalling and move!"

I snapped back to reality, still managing the first portion of ropes. The rope maze on the other side was no joke. There were several different ways to go and not all of them lead to the finish line.

"To the left!"

I crawled along a narrow passageway which tightened as I wriggled through. After breaking through, there was hardly time to sigh in relief; two split passages lay waiting for me.

"Jay, which way do I go now?!"

"Right."

He said it in a manner that almost made him sound bored. This passage was different. There were no floors, just rope walls and ceiling, the only thing below me was a steep thirty foot drop. My hesitation cost me, because now I could feel the ropes move and know that I'm not alone in here anymore.

I grasped onto the right wall of ropes and pulled my way across. God, I really shouldn't have cared about this, but it was either try hard or humiliate myself at this point. Plus, Jay would have been disappointed if I didn't. And glance into one of the and watch as a sophomore boy wiggles his way along the passage and I try hard to suppress a giggle.

"Yoooo, they made that passage WAY too dangerous! Think they skipped a few building regulations there. Be careful."

"Yeah, I noticed, genius! Someone's gonna break their neck falling down there! "

As I jumped down onto a narrow platform, I glanced up to see what else he could have meant. There were three large rope nets set up across from one another. The problem was, there was a six foot leap between the two. I took a running start and braved the first one. I was surprised how fast I cleared the distanced. But the force on which I hit the net sent my head spinning. My stomach lurched and I hung onto the net dangling for a few seconds.

"Lydia, there is someone right behind you; they're about to jump. You have to go."

I tried to steady my nerves as I got ready to jump. I jumped and grabbed on rift key just as the other person jumped to the net I was previously on. I jumped one more time and barely made it to the next one. My hand slipped and I began to fall, lucky and not so lucky for me, my left foot was caught in the ropes and I fell backwards. I was relieved that I did not fall, but the feeling of my foot suddenly take the weight of my entire body was excruciating. There was a sudden sound of a pop and a crunch and I knew I had broken something. Pain rushed up my leg in a hot wave that made me struggle hard not to screen.

I could feel tears welling up in my eyes but I lacked the strength to wipe them away. I look across the nets and almost screamed as I gazed at the cheerleader girl who had called me down and put me in this horror show.

"What are you doing?" she screeched at me.

"What?" It came out more like a croak than a question.

"Why are you hanging upside down? This is no time to dilly dally. You are so close to the finish line. Now go!" She smirked at me.

"M...my ankle, it hurts."

"It doesn't matter. Now go."

I was about to yell at her, then I saw Jay running us. She watched my eyes and turned around just as he came up. I half expected her to yell at him as well, but to my surprise she grinned. Not one of her "I would be glad to rip your heart out of your chest looks".

"Hello Jay." She said in a sing-song voice.

"Are you okay?" he said to me, dismissing the fact that he just totally ignored her. Although all of my blood is rushing to my head so I may not be seeing things clearly.

"Jay? Don't you remember me" she got in between us and leaned against the cargo nets. He gave no answer except silent seething. He pushed past her and scaled the ropes and jumped to the one I was on. He climbed down and detached my now blue foot from the net and jumped with me to the other side.

"Are you ok." He repeated softly into my ear. I shook my head.

Even though he wasn't supposed to, he picked me up and finished the obstacle course by walking the hundred meters to the finish line. The Junior section roared as we finished first but we did not stay to celebrate. Jay walked right off the field and put me down on one of the side benches.

Ten minutes later, we were seated in the nurse's office. My foot was in its new makeshift cast which was bright green of all colors. And Jay kept sending the candy jar in the corner of the room a desperate look. I blinked and the candy jar disappeared, I wasn't surprised at all to turn and see Jay shoving handfuls of candy corn in his mouth.

"Hungry, are we?"

He turned to me and his eyes widens. I was starting to think that I had something on my face when I turned around to see the nurse standing in the doorway with a very displeased look. Oh, he's going to get it this time.

"Mister Stanton?"

Jay gulped "Ma'am?" smiled and put the candy jar dawn.