~ 42: Marathon - Part 2 ~

Amongst the many heads, there was no familiar face except Aidan's. There were hardly any athletes I had heard of and whoever I had seen, I didn't know their name or what they were great at.

I nudged Mel lightly on her arm and asked her to fill me in on the events that they had scheduled for the day.

"Other than the ordinary relay races and individual races, there will be hurdles, long jumps, high jumps shot put, discus throw, javelin and any others if they exist. In the end, there will be an actual marathon, which is quite tough since the athletes will be tired by then."

"Sounds harder than the international sports events," I hummed.

"That's the reason they are starting early and they have kept people mostly for the shorter races. The participants in the long ones aren't allowed to go into the last one until they have recharged themselves properly. They should be able to finish most of the races in the first two hours and then let them off."

"Why have they even kept a marathon? To decide the ultimate champion from that school?"

"That seems like the only possible reason. That person gets to have a full-course scholarship at their college or anywhere they are going to study. That's an amazing offer that nobody wants to lose out on."

The ceremony started with a short parade in honour of the athletes, though they themselves didn't take part in it to avoid exhaustion. The curious flags didn't help me to identify the teams and I had to depend on the announcements amidst the loud cheering voices.

They immediately started announcing the teams to gather to the centre of the field and then go to their respective areas as their teams are announced. The participants, along with the audience, stood up and sang the song of their university and left as their athletes' names were called out.

The event rules were explained to the public, and then they were let go to go see any other events across the field if they wanted to. So half of the many seated left their spots and went to watch the other events.

With the sprinters' names being called out last, I spotted a black-haired person who belonged to our team and stood out the most. His muscles were rippled but not so burly like a weightlifter's. Yet compared to the rest of them, he was definitely the bulkiest.

Hearing 'Aidan Aoki' being called out make the crowd squeal and the two of us clap with joy. Then when I heard 'Lucas D'Silva', I froze for a millisecond but clapped with the same enthusiasm as before. The crowd wasn't very enthusiastic and they murmured amongst themselves.

I couldn't believe that the crowd had hatred for a member of their school, who was surely not famous for singing. But I was pretty sure he participated in many other events compared to the rest of them. I felt determined to prove them wrong.

I took me a while before the realisation hit me. I was sitting at the edge of my seat, biting my nails in nervousness. The game's atmosphere was going to be suffocating with the two of them in the same team for relay.

"Oh shoot," I exclaimed in a whining voice. "We're screwed."

"Why, what happened?" Mel turned to ask me as she could hear the despair in my voice and at me biting my nails.

"Lucas and Aidan," I spelt it out for her. But she didn't have a clue. It was after some explaining that she realised that Aidan would probably not be happy if he knew that Lucas was the man who had saved us.

"He'll be so annoyed that I think I better not tell him until some time has passed," I said with worry.

The gunshot marked the start of the 100m races. With half the crowd around, the cheers were still high and went pretty far as heads near the other events turned. The close competition would have made it very hard to decide the result if the timer wasn't set to milliseconds.

An hour passed quickly, leaving only the relay race and the hurdles to be completed. Everyone waited in frantic anticipation as this was one of the toughest races at the tournament. The result depended highly on teamwork as well as on the ability of the members.

'You actually came,' I heard a voice in my head say as I watched the 100m races finish. 'Or is it because of your friend?'

I immediately turned my head to face him and saw him give me a glance before he listened to his team's discussion.

'I didn't know if you would come, especially with Aidan on the team,' I answered him. 'Even if you invited me to such an event, you think I would refuse when it is the school who is participating?'

'I would do anything for my team. And I highly doubt you would have come for me.'

'I will always be here to cheer my team on. I know how much it means to the students of our school. If no one claps because they find you queer, I'm going to do it.'

The races continued smoothly without any disturbances. Some of the participants fell severely ill after the long races and one possibly suffered from a heart attack, making us sit at the edge despite the school they came from. Their coach was able to administer the first aid and the young lad had to be taken away from the field. Thankfully, everyone had enough substitutes so there were no worries when some of them dropped out.

All the team members were cool with each other in their teams, and a few were friendly with participants from the other teams. But then came the two notorious ones from Wildon. There was not a person who couldn't see what was going on between those two.

The wrath of blessing the other with death gleamed in their eyes as the team prepared themselves for the last set of races before hurdles. I couldn't understand what the problem was between them.

Was it a lover they both shared and then one of them caused her to die or lose her in some other way? Or did their friendship break because one harmed the other or couldn't save someone valuable in their life because he wanted to save his own life?

One wouldn't tell me, and the other would probably blast at the mention of the man. So I had to drop the topic until the time I needed to know.

Their hostility would have left a bad taste in my mouth if the coach hadn't interfered and the vampire seer hadn't dropped it. Aidan's childishness could be cute and amusing, but this was not the time to be one. He had to be mature as this was a competition where teamwork was obligatory.

The sudden gunshot straightened my back as I anxiously watched the race. I hoped that they would be able to win a gold medal, although two of them had pulled a bronze and silver medal in the 100m race, Aidan had gotten himself a silver in 200m, and Lucas had made it with the gold medal in the 400m race.

There was no sound in the audience, and the tension weighing in the air might have stressed the athletes. Only when the baton was exchanged there were a few cheers and then complete silence. It was strange that Aidan and Lucas had to be paired at the end, where the burden of winning the medal depended more on Lucas than the others.

There were cheers when Aidan had the baton, which died down ever so quickly. We were seated exactly where he was to give the baton to Lucas. With how the baton was passed and the time it took, I was sitting at the edge of my seat and cursing while I heard Mel pray.