I want this! - Jenny's Life - Part 32

Jenny, Tara, Cindy Craven and the rest of the Reynolds Senior high track team are on their way to Jenny's date with destiny. Three contenders for the girls state track title in the mile are getting to be good friends as they learn more about what Jenny has been dealing with lately. Tara reveals her greatest desire while they are on the trip.

Jenny nodded as she answered Cindy, “He was serious enough to follow through!”

Cindy blinked several times, telling Jenny she was interested to know what she meant, but unable to draw a conclusion from the few words she had collected so far. She looked forward to see who was in earshot and deciding they had a sufficient buffer of space to allow her to talk freely; she began recounting the whole situation with Pete, Bobby and Martika. Tara jerked the ear buds from her ears as she listened to jenny lay out the story from the beginning. Although she had the gist of things in firm grasp, she felt like there would be more details in this recounting.

Telling the whole story, as Jenny knew it, required two hours of their trip. More than once an underclassman would turn toward the trio, interested in what engrossing tale their senior co-captain was weaving, but a nod to the contrary from Tara was enough to limit their curiosity.

When Jenny finished, she had brought both these girls up to the last bit of information, which was the encounter at the medical center with Pete Pertovsky’s mother. Jenny sighed with the last word, feeling all the fatigue, excitement, fear and exhilaration of each moment as she retold the history of her life over the last ten days.

“Oh my gosh Jenny, I had no idea this was going on as well as your knee injury. How have you managed to handle all of it? I would be crazy!” Cindy declared.

“She is just lucky to have me as her best friend,” Tara said with a huge smile.

“Yes,” Jenny said, “an unpaid hit woman is a great asset.”

“What are you saying?” Tara replied with mock indignation thick in her voice.

“I am saying I have to wonder if the “accident” was not a way to get you a chance to beat me before the championships to mess with my head.”

The smile on Tara’s face evaporated quickly, with a resulting look of wonder as she tried to decide if Jenny was still joking or further examining the freedom of speaking her mind. Cindy was as clueless, looking back and forth at both girls, wanting to see a smile on someone’s face. There were more than a few awkward moments as silence reigned supreme in the rear of the Reynolds High School track team bus.

“Well, this is awkward,” Tara said breaking Jenny’s stone faced silence.

“You rat!” Jenny said. “I had my best stoic expression ready for anything you could say and you had to pull that trick!”

“What gives?” Cindy said, feeling relief along with confusion.

“My honorable co-captain tried unsuccessfully, again I might add, to try to catch me off guard. I have told you repeatedly Drake it is not going to happen!”

“Well, you got me. Is this a normal thing for you guys?”

“Yes!” Coach Wendell said as she approached the trio. “Tara has always had the upper hand with her wit. I would have kept her on the team for the entertainment even if she wasn’t a top flight runner.”

“Thanks, I think,” Tara replied.

“I am taking an informal poll about supper. You have two choices: wait until we get to Peppers Ferry to eat or would you rather stop somewhere along the way?”

“Wait,” the three said at once, laughing when they realized it.

“Just like you would expect from team captains,” Wendell said nodding her head.

“We will not get a chance to see the track tonight will we?” Tara asked.

“Well, I had not planned to, but we could. Why?”

“I would like to take one lap around the track tonight. Just a chance to get some butterflies out of the way.”

“Now Tara, you are going to have to ratchet down the intensity. Have you not told her about getting too worked up this far ahead?” she asked Jenny.

“I have, but I have to admit I am beginning to feel revved up myself,” Jenny admitted.

“Guilty,” Cindy said holding up her hand.

“Ok, here is the deal. I will agree to this on one non-negotiable condition. You girls will promise me there will be no hot laps when we get there. I will not have any or all of the top three contenders for the state track championship pulling up lame the night before while they try to act all macho.”

The three girls looked at each other for a few seconds, holding their faces in the best respectful form they could manage. That was true until Tara began to snicker, with Jenny and Cindy following close behind. Even Coach Wendell’s serious visage failed in the face of their raucous laughter.

“I don’t know how to act macho!” Tara squealed loudly over top of her friends’ laughter.

The other girls on the bus could no longer keep their attention from the action in the back and someone scrolled down the list of songs n their iPod to find the YMCA song Macho Man and with a little shuffling they had some portable speakers hooked up and began to play the song in the direction of the seniors.

“OH NO!” Coach Wendell said as she heard the song begin. She ducked as the baton used for the relay races twisted through the air toward Tara’s hand. The most charismatic member of the team began singing as the first chorus began, with Jenny joining in with a pair of drum sticks she found tucked into the corner of the seat, obviously left behind from a band trip. Cindy scrambled to find an instrument of her own, finally settling on a pair of sunglasses as she stood and tried to mimic the moves Tara made.

The bus driver was a ten year veteran of the track team’s antics and knew it was coming. She looked in the mirror to see the hilarious scene forming and simply shook her head as she smiled. How she wished her daughter had been old enough to be on this year’s team and a part of all of this. Without Tara and Jenny the team would be totally different.

The girls sang, danced, laughed and joked non-stop through the remaining hours of the trip. When the bus rolled to a stop at the stadium where the track championships would be held the next day everyone was surprised.

“Are we there?” Tara asked, looking out at the fully lit field. There was a few runners on the track, getting in some time just Like Tara wanted, reassuring her that it was a great idea.

“We are!” Coach Wendell replied. “Girls we are going to spend about twenty minutes here then head over to eat. Make it count, but no speed stuff!” She said looking specifically at the last two rows of seats.

Jenny, Tara and Cindy moved toward the start/finish line together, with Tara seeming to take in the scene with particular emotion. She was uncharacteristically silent, looking around at everything as they approached the track.

Jenny and Cindy watched as she approached the start line alone and bent down to touch the painted line. Jenny smiled as she knew Tara was approaching this race with a totally new perspective. For the first time in her life she looked at a race as a chance to be the winner.

“It can be yours,” Jenny whispered when she quietly slid up behind her.

Tara nodded as she swallowed hard. She couldn’t speak for a moment, instead just looking down the track into the first turn. She tried something she had learned in one of her psychology classes, which was imagining herself leading and winning the race.

“I want this Jenny! I want this more than I have ever wanted anything in my whole life,” Tara said as a single tear rolled down her cheek.

“I know my friend. I know.”

Cindy shuffled uncomfortably as she listened from a few feet away. After all she was here for the same purpose; just like Jenny was and certainly like Susan Blake would be. She could see the special bond of friendship between the Reynolds co=captains and realized jenny was honoring that bond. She decided she would as well, advancing to add her sentiments.

“I thought I just had two girls to concern myself with, but now I know you are going to be the third. I wonder if they would consider adding more room to the platform,” Cindy smiled.

“Can I pray with you guys?” Tara asked.

Jenny looked at her with raised eye brows, not so much that she would pray Tara had done that before, but that she wanted to do it right now. She nodded her acceptance of the idea as Cindy moved close so they could all take each other’s hands.

“God I am not good at this, but I just want to thank you for this time. You have been so good to me brining a friend like Jenny into my life and for the friendship we have built over these years. I ask you to prepare the three of us for what I hope is the race of our lives. I ask you to keep us all safe in the races tomorrow and give us the strength to be all we can be. I guess I should ask you to do the same for Susan and every other girl who will be here. You know what is in my heart, please let it come true. Amen.”

Jenny quickly wiped the tars off her cheeks when everyone opened their eyes. Cindy did the same, watching Tara as she jogged off down the track before smiling at Jenny. Jenny was glad her phone rang just then, saving her from ruining the moment with some pointless words.

“Hello,” she said.

“Hey kid. Are you there yet?” Daphne asked.

“Well, we are at the track. Tara wanted a little time,” Jenny replied.

“Oh really? Listen I won’t keep you long, I just wanted to share some news with you. Dad said not to tell you but I think you need to know.”

“Is it mom?” Jenny asked.

“No, nothing has changed with mom, this is about Bobby.”

“What is going on with that?”

“According to Papaw Hal Cassie Pendergrass’ family has decided to speed up the process. They have made some moves that changed the date of Bobby’s trial. Instead of a date in July it is going to start Monday.”

“What? How can they do that?”

“I don’t know, but they have. Papaw Hal has struggled all day to try to delay things, but he just left here and said there was nothing he could do.”

“Daphne, if the trial starts Monday there will not be time to come up with evidence that proves Pete was the one who raped Cassie!”

“I know!”

“What is Papaw Hal doing now?”

“Well I can tell you he was extremely upset. I am not sure if he was the most upset about the new start date or the recommendation of Bobby’s lawyer to enter a plea.”

“A plea? You mean the lawyer wants him to admit to something lesser to reduce the sentence?”

“Right now the crimes he is accused of carry a maximum sentence of twenty years. It is no secret to anyone that there is not enough evidence to prove he did not do it unless Cassie says it wasn’t him on the stand. In every interview with the police she was adamant that Bobby was the culprit. I am not sure Bobby has a choice.”

Jenny closed her eyes and shook her head as thoughts of Martika and her family returned. Her promise not to tell Hal Brown all she knew about Pete and what he had done to Martika seemed like a really bad choice at this moment. AS she stood there and considered the matter more though, she knew nothing she could tell Hal would directly help Bobby. So at best she was chiding herself for no gain.

“So, you ready to run?”

“If I can clear my head,” Jenny said.

“I shouldn’t have called about this, I’m sorry sis.”

“No, I did not mean that” Jenny said. “I just have a lot in my head.” She looked toward the other end of the track to see Tara Jogging her way. Her friend had the look of a child on Christmas morning etched in her eyes. It was an awesome sight, one which Jenny wished she could save forever.

“I will let you go. I will see you tomorrow morning, okay?”

“Okay. Good night.”

Jenny worked hard to keep her latest news from affecting her mood. She felt a responsibility to her team mates to keep the mood light so they could all remain loose and ready for the next day’s drama.  Watching Tara at full comedic effect was great medicine to take her mind off the troubles that had seemed to gather in bunches lately.

Once the trio was in their hotel room for the night Jenny turned on her laptop so she could take a quick peek on the running girl site. Each girl checked their account and found a number of short messages of encouragement from friends. It seemed their upcoming title run was generating quite a buzz. In the chat room window eighty five people were discussing the race and who they thought would win.  Jenny lowered the screen of the laptop and looked at Tara as she said only five words: “This is not for us.”

Tara looked at her friend, and then smiled as she understood what just happened. Being a competitive runner was mainly your ability, but a certain amount was your mental state. Listening to people debate your ability opened up the possibility of someone touching on a sensitive idea that would hinder your confidence. It was likely no one in the chat room had anything positive to say that would actually make a difference.

Jenny knew Tara would not sleep much, but she was exhausted. All the events of the weeks before had totally worn her out and she quickly drifted off to a restful night of sleep in the surprisingly comfortable hotel bed. She looked at the empty side of the bed to her right when she woke and realized Tara was already out of the room, perhaps downstairs at the breakfast bar. She made her way to the shower, trying not to wake Cindy who still lay on her left side in the other queen size bed facing the wall.

She and Cindy made it down stairs just in time to grab a handful of cereal bars as the team was instructed to head for the buses. When she checked her watch she realized it was an hour later than she thought. She looked again to see the hands on her watch were not moving at all. Her battery had died sometime during the night.

Once they arrived at the track she followed Tara as they jogged over for the meeting of coaches and team captains where the rules for the meet were discussed and paperwork was collected. Jenny turned her iPod down so she could hear what was said and looked around to see who was collected in the mass of people. She saw the girl from Hayes High who tried to be the rabbit last year as well as Susan and her co-captain. Blake nodded, but kept her non-nonsense expression intact.

After the meeting she saw Susan hand everything to the other girl before turning to walk toward Jenny.

“Well you have your uniform on so I suppose you are here to race.”

“I am here to win.” Jenny said.

“Seems there is an epidemic of that idea,” Susan smiled. “I hear Kimbler beat you on your track.”

“When you are the best everyone wants to be the one to beat you.”

“Yeah,” Susan said knowingly. “I am glad you are here and are going to be out there.”

“Me too,” Jenny said.

“I am still going to beat you,” Blake said, sounding more like her normal self.

Jenny nodded with a smile as she saw the girl turn away.

From her right, Jenny could see three men moving her way from one of the bleachers. The two men flanking the one in the center looked particularly burly, like some kind of body guards. She blinked as she took in the appearance of their clothes. Each had on a silk suit, hardly the apparel you would expect from someone at a track meet.

She shot a look toward the officials’ tent to see that everyone in that vicinity had either track suits, team gear or khaki pants and the traditional red officials shirts on their bodies. She turned back to the trio approaching, this time focusing on the man in the middle. He was just under six feet tall, a broad man with his hair combed straight back over his head. She thought about the look of the man and decided he was definitely foreign born, due to the unusual features of his face.

His clothes were the most elaborate of the three, a very fancy suit with a silk tie and golden cufflinks. There was a matching piece of silk fabric carefully arranged in the pocket to the suit coat, which completed his look. Jenny scanned the collar of his jacket and saw something that triggered her thought process. Where had she seen that emblem before?

“You are Jenny Drake, yes?” the man asked.

Absent mindedly Jenny pulled the iPod out of her pocket and pretended to turn it off, jerking the cords from her ears after doing so. She worked to keep her breathing even as she swallowed hard with the realization of who was asking the question.

“Yes I am,” Jenny said.

“Ah, finally we meet. I have been looking forward to this. I am …”

“Oleg Pertovsky, Pete’s dad,” they said in unison.