Side Story 19.1: Athletics Event – part 1.1

After all the participants lined up behind the pole with their school's flag, they all waved at the crowd, who clapped and cheered for them. The Principal explained through the sound system installed around the field what the tasks of the Athletics event were, and he then told the participants to get ready and to check the pairings.

Against the gym's wall, there was an enormous billboard with the team names that were participating.

Sophia grinned when she read the first pairing. Her team against Eliza's team. The winning team would advance to the next step and face the winners of the second pairing. Emma also saw it, and she grabbed her arm and said, "You are not going to put us out of this Competition because you hurt someone, will you? I am going to kill you if you do that!"

"Relax; I don't need to hurt anyone. Eliza will hurt herself without me having to do a thing! She is very clumsy, you know? She might fall and hit her face on the ground, and there is no way you or anyone else will think I had anything to do with that!"

"I am going to kill you, Sophia…"

"Hehehe! Let's warm up because depending on their line-up, I want to run when Eliza is going to run. I want to beat her and make her realize this Competition will be all mine." She then faced the three boys on her team and warned them, "And if any of you lose against one of them, you better be ready for some punishment, because I am going to hurt you a lot!"

Seeing the seriousness in Sophia's eyes, the boys quickly nodded and, following her lead, started their warm-up.

On the benches around the field, Mia Mills was next to Jack Cross, nervously biting her index finger. Jack looked at her and asked, "Why are you so nervous? It is not you who is going to run."

"Oh, shut up! I am worried that crazy kid of yours will send someone to the hospital!"

"I know she will, but she will be very careful not to be caught doing it. Look, it's about to start! Now you will see that if she wanted to catch you, you couldn't outrun her."

Mia frowned and watched as the first runners went to the starting line. The signal resonated on the gym's wall, and Emma Pearson darted forward, firmly holding a foam baton, reaching the first wall she had to climb ahead of her opponent, a slender guy who was doing his best to match her absurd speed.

The next obstacle was six hula-hoops laid on the ground that the runners had to step inside, one foot at a time. Emma barely touched the ground as her feet moved at an impossible speed, granting her a few more metres of advance against her opponent.

Right after, there was a set of enormous tractor tyres lined up together, making a three-metre tunnel that the runners had to crawl through to reach the other side. Emma flew through them all, rolling on the floor on the other side and continuing her running without even bothering with the crawling part.

For last, there were four standing hurdles separated by a few metres from each other that the runners had to jump over. Again, Emma jumped as if she had wings or strings on her feet and reached the end of the track, with her opponent barely reaching the middle point of it. She ran back, straight ahead, to the next member of her team, who was waiting in the starting line to receive the baton she was carrying.

Emma passed the baton to the smiling boy, and he ran away, gaining even more metres ahead of the other team.

Mere minutes later, he was running back, where Sophia was glancing at the other team, making sure Eliza Francis was about to get ready. She sighed because the gap was so enormous that there was no way she would run at the same time that Eliza was going to run unless she delayed her running or the boy on Eliza's team arrived in the next few seconds.

Emma noticed where she was glancing and whispered, "Don't you dare! I want to win this, so don't you even think about trying anything!"

"Oh, come on! Just one slight push, and she will fly away!"

The boy arrived after getting up from a massive fall, and Sophia ran forward the moment she grabbed the foam baton. Eliza was already climbing the wall, and Sophia jumped up, using only one hand on top of the wall to jump over it.

In a split second, she changed her landing target by pretending to have tripped and landed over Eliza's, making her fall flat on the ground and using her elbow to press Eliza's against the floor.

Sophia rolled to the right and continued her running, but not before she asked, "Are you alright? I tripped on that stupid wall! Thank you for softening my fall, or I could be hurt! You are really sweet, Eliza!"

With a grin, Sophia reached the second obstacle, while Eliza was rubbing her chest and cleaning her tears from the pain. She knew there was no way her team was going to win because of the tremendous advance that Sophia's team had, but she wasn't going to quit. She was the Queen of that school, and there was no way a stupid brat would do better than her in that Competition. There were still two more events, and her team had a very good chance of winning both.

Eliza continued her run, watching as Sophia reached the starting line and gave the baton to another member of her team.

As she was running back, she saw there were way more members on her team that hadn't run yet compared to Sophia's team, making them the absolute winners unless the last boy running had an accident.

She passed the baton and frowned when she saw the boy on Sophia's team running at a low speed through the obstacle course and heard Emma shouting, "That's it! No need to get tired! You must save your strength for the next run, and there is no need to get hurt today!"

The boy smiled back and continued forward, not even bothering to look back at his opponent because he was the last to run and Eliza's team still had one member waiting.

When he returned to Emma's side, the crowd clapped for their victory, and Emma shouted, "Let's rest and get ready for the next step!" She then glanced around and whispered, "Sophia, if you get caught, and they punish us because of you, I am so going to kill you!"

"Caught because of what? It is not my fault if I am clumsy, you know?"

"Yeah, right… Let's go everyone; let's have a seat and drink some water while we watch the next team."

…

By lunchtime, Emma was fuming. The Athletics Event was only in the middle, and despite her team having won every single pairing until that point, she was furious.

The last team dropped out before the race even started because they were afraid of what the other participants were now calling Sophia, the clumsy menace.

Every time she ran, she always tripped or fell and landed over her opponent, and two participants were already in the hospital, one of them with a fractured finger.

The worst of it was that every time Emma asked what happened, she would pretend to be innocent, but more than once, Emma saw her friend grinning, clear evidence that all those accidents were on purpose.

As they were in the changing rooms again, after finishing their lunch, Emma pushed Sophia against the nearest wall and asked, "What do you think you are doing? That girl from another school is in the hospital because of you! Why did you have to pretend to trip, and you had to fall right on her hand?"

"She called you a bitch; that's why! Or do you think I didn't hear her insulting you? I don't care if all those kids say they are going to beat us or if they call me clumsy! Anyone who insults you is going to earn a few days in the hospital!" Sophia then approached Emma's face and said, "And if a stupid girl getting a broken finger worries you this much, wait for the Dodgeball tomorrow! I am going to send every single one of our opponents to the hospital! Because I am that clumsy!"

"I knew it! You were doing all that on purpose! You stupid moron! You are going to make us get expelled from this Competition!"

Sophia answered with a grin, "No, I am not. Haven't you heard? I am clumsy, and I am not at fault if someone gets hurt because of me. But on the Dodgeball tomorrow, I am going to aim at the faces of everyone who dares to step foot in the gym! And at the Boxing event the day after, I am going to send a lot of kids to the hospital! I might even end up killing Eliza because of all the beatings I am going to give her! So what? She deserves all that is coming her way! She and her two followers! And every kid in this stupid school who didn't do a thing to stop the bullying Eliza and her friends did to me! They call me a hero now, but they are all at fault! No one intervened when Eliza put my head inside a toilet in a packed bathroom! No one said a thing when she put me inside a rubbish can in the main corridor! Do you think I am worried if I hurt any of those losers? I want to kill them all!"

Emma put her hand over her mouth when she saw the strange glow in her friend's eyes and stuttered, "S-Sophia… What are you saying? Y-You were never like this… You were always sweet and kind…"

"I used to be, but I reached my limit because of all the bullying. And I am surprised you didn't reach yours!"

"I… I didn't have time… Eliza was picking on you, and she left me alone most of the time… and then you sent Eliza to the hospital… Where is my sweet and kind Sophia?" Emma grabbed her friend's shirt and shook her up while crying, "I want my sweet Sophia back! Who are you, and what did you do to her? Give her back! Give her back!"

Seeing her friend cry her eyes out made Sophia realise she had gone too far, and she held Emma tightly while saying, "I am right here, my cute Emma. I have always been. I am doing my best not to explode every time some dumb kid annoys me, and I am doing that because I don't want to worry you. I guess this Competition is bringing out the worst in me. The last Competition I entered, I ended up in a hospital, and it took me a few months to heal. I swore to myself that I would never end up in a hospital bed again. But I am still going to hurt every single one of them who will be dumb enough to face me, and I will make sure it will all look like an accident."

"That doesn't sound any better! You were supposed to say you were not going to hurt anyone!"

While looking straight into the wet eyes of her friend, Sophia continued, "I already told you. They have to pay for what they did and for what they didn't do. I am going to visit them in the hospital after all this ends, and I am going to tell them that if they ever bully someone, or they don't act when they see someone being bullied, I am going to send them to the hospital again because of some freaking accident. That should do the trick."

Emma hugged her friend again and said, "Despite your craziness, you are still, and you will always be, my hero." She then cleaned her face and said, "Let's get going because we have a few more teams to beat to earn today's medal."

"So, you also want a medal? By all means, give me the honour of taking care of that, my lady! I am your humble servant, and I will make sure you get a medal to decorate your room!"

"Yes, to put it right next to your photo, so that I will always remember you and everything you did today!"

"As if you could ever forget about me! Let's go because I want to give you a few more memories of this glorious day!"

They both left the changing room, and the boys outside wondered why they were smiling with tears on their faces, and Sophia asked, "What? Never saw two girls having fun?"

"We heard shouts, then crying, and we were about to barge in to see what was going on! You two were fighting, or what?"

With a shrug, Sophia explained, "Not exactly, but you should thank your god for being on my team because if you were on another team, you would be done for!"

"Yes… Thank you, God! Thank you!"