Jenny's Life - Part 15

Jenny may be on the verge of uncovering a shattering secret, one that could forever change her family. She is finding more unexpected information that promise to make her life even more hectic if that is possible. The regional track meet reaches its final rounds and Jenny's chance to repeat her title hangs in the balance.

Jenny held the envelope in one hand with her thumb and forefinger of the other on the folded pages inside. Her heart raced as she thought about what might be revealed when she opened this letter. Was her dad having an affair with the coach? She wanted to know and didn’t at the same time. The suspense was killing her, but she desperately wanted to trust her dad. After all his job did require him to be away for long periods of time. Or did it?

She looked again at the fresh flowers on the desk, noticing the flowers she knew were Coach Wendell’s favorites. She wondered if there was a card anywhere that she could use to learn more information. Her heart pounded so hard she could hear it in her ears. Her breath came harder as she struggled to overcome the fine line between snooping and invasion of privacy.

Her dad had never done anything to suggest he did not love her mother and only her. Could the fact that she was no longer the woman he fell for twenty three years before be a reason for him to cheat? Jenny felt a little sick at the thought of having to deal with her mother not only through the sickness now but a separation and or divorce.

Jenny swallowed hard as she made her decision. She had to know. She sucked in a deep breath and began to pull the page out of the envelope. She threw it down into the drawer when someone burst through an outside door just to the right of the office. Jenny turned to see Ellen Hargrove and Kelly Carr, fellow team mates charging past the office.

Jenny swiftly backed away from the drawer as she slammed it shut, but she accidentally knocked over the trash can beside the chair. As she knelt to gather the trash the pair came back up the hall and noticed her in the floor.

“What are you doing?” Kelly asked.

“Ah, I knocked over the trash can. I was doing some research,” Jenny said.

“If you don’t hurry you are going to miss the last mile preliminary,” Ellen said.

“I know, I’m coming,” Jenny said.

She waited for the two girls to leave before finishing up, hoping to get another chance to look at the letter. Her resolve melted away when she came upon the card that had been taped to the flowers that was in the pile of paper trash she scooped off the floor. It read:

“I’ve missed you! So glad we get to be in the same city today. Are we still on for dinner? Love T.D.”

Jenny slumped into the chair with the realization of what she just read. Suddenly she had no desire to read the letter. She quickly finished cleaning up and exited the school just as the announcement of last call for the last mile semi-final echoed across the field.

She made her way back to the bleachers in a daze, not really seeing anyone. She could not take any more of this emotional roller coaster. She wanted to just turn left when she came out of the school and go home, but she knew that was not an option. Too many people depended upon her. Jenny wanted so much to wake up from this never ending bad dream but it seemed reality was what she had to face.

Her dad was still in place in the row of bleachers right behind her when she sat. She looked to the spot where Drew had been, but knew there was no help waiting there. In fact, looking on from that spot she identified the guy she considered a really good candidate for a relationship over in the New Finland fan section. When she found him he was leaning over the shoulder of Martika Kelly, giving her an earful about something.

Jenny regretted ever talking to Martika as she recognized a look of betrayal on the girl’s face. She noticed Martika’s eyes were focused on her feet and she leaned slightly away from Drew, which told Jenny he was not wishing her well in this exchange. Of the two, only Drew made occasional glances in the direction of Pete Pertovsky, which gave Jenny plenty of information about why he was there.

Jenny turned away before Martika’s eyes could find hers. She knew it was still the right thing to do if she could find a way to help, but any other contact here or with Drew’s knowledge was impossible. She wiped a tear as her ability to contain the swirl of emotions overcame her water source to send tears down her cheeks.

On the track the last group of girls moved toward the starting line. For these competitors the information on the digital scoreboard said it all. Records were falling in clumps today and the chance that more than three of them would advance was almost impossible to imagine. One positive was the fact that only one Crawford County girl was entered in this race, the true state title contender, Cindy Craven. Otherwise it was athletes with comparable times, but mainly excellent first round efforts.

Cindy looked extremely relaxed to Jenny, no doubt due to the fact her time still ranked in the top three on the scoreboard. Jenny squinted at the board as she noticed her position had shifted while she was gone to Coach Wendell’s office. Now she was ninth, one tenth of a second out of eighth as a Benjamin Jones runner’s time had been mistakenly typed a few minutes earlier.

Jenny wondered what should concern her the most. Was it the fact that her father was probably having an affair with her coach? Or perhaps the fact that her brother was facing a jail sentence; wait, could it be the issue with the spikes? It might easily be the chance her running career at Reynolds was over or maybe, just maybe, she should set all that aside and do whatever she could to rescue Martika Kelly. It was pretty clear that Drew was going to be no help on any problem that made her list.

Jenny watched as the girls in this semi-final burst out just like the ones in the last had, with two Benjamin Jones girls taking off on a breakneck pace. Jenny smelled the handiwork of Susan Blake who probably threatened the girls and maybe even her coach if they could not assure her of a state berth for her team. She quickly looked for her arch enemy of the track and saw her beet red face as she loudly urged her team mates on.

Jenny wanted to turn around and talk to her dad, but she could not think of how she would even attempt to do so. Of all the sneaky ways to do things she could not believe he was capable of something like this. What was going on in her world that everything had to fall apart at once?

With her sunglasses on she cocked her head just enough that she could look the way of Martika Kelly without anyone being the wiser. It had been about five minutes since she first saw Drew standing over her shoulder and he was still talking. There was no way to know how long he had been there. Jenny wished she had a phone so she could call his number to give Martika a break.

Sudenly a brilliant plan hit her brain. She would ask for her dad’s phone and see if anything showed up before she called Drew’s phone. She spun around with her best unassuming smile to address her father who, at the monet, was focused solely on her mother. She tapped him on the knee and waited for him to finish speaking to her mother’s friends and turn back around.

“Hey honey, what’s up?”

“Can I borrow your phone, I want to try Drew’s number.”

“Sure,” her dad said reaching for his phone, “what’s the number?”

“Uh, I can dial it,” Jenny said.

“Well, I hope so since you will most likely be the class valedictorian unless there is something you are not telling me.”

Jenny fought the urge to repeat her father’s words as she thought about why he was hesitant to give her the phone. Was there incriminating evidence or rather proof of what she suspected. As with the letter she was dying to know, especially after the card in Coach Wendell’s trash. She bit her lip as she waited for him to hand her the phone.

“Here,” he said tossing the device to her.

Jenny caught the phone, but felt something empty in her heart as she began fiddling with the keys. There was no numbers with either the local exchange number or a cellular phone of any major carrier in the area. Being a teen she had friends with almost every service that made her an expert on the different numbers, but none of these looked familiar.

While the phone signaled it was ringing on Drew’s line she checked the scoreboard to see another record pace. Fortunately there was only five girls in the running for the possibility to go on to state. Of these Cindy Craven was the only one guaranteed, so that mean four spots were possibly at risk. Jenny set this aside for the moment as she heard Drew answer his phone.

“Where did you go?” she asked, looking again at him out of the corner of her eye.

“I had to take care of something,” Drew said.

“Are you coming back?”

“That depends.”

“Oh, on what?”

“Look Jenny, you seem like a really great girl. I think you can be great for me and I can be great for you. I really would like to find out what is possible here, but…”

“But what?” Jenny asked.

“But if you are going to cause trouble for Pete I cannot get involved with you.”

Jenny did not answer because she had no idea what to say to this. Basically this guy she wanted to date was giving her an ultimatum concerning the boy she knew had perpetrated an awful crime. Not only that but he was as much as an accomplice for not stepping in to stop his actions. Also, he was a partner to the assault on Martika, whether it was just verbal or physical too.

“Then I guess you cannot get involved with me,” Jenny replied. In her ear there was silence for a few seconds, so she checked the display to see the call was ended. She rolled her eyes a bit farther to look at Drew and saw him make a bee line out of the stands and straight to where Pete Petrovsky stood sheering for his team mates completing their third lap. Drew moved close to Pete’s ear and said who knows what, to which Pete turned to look him in the eye and then looked straight at Jenny.

She just waved to both and turned back to the race. To her left she saw someone leave Martika’s side and make their way toward her. The girl, one of the two that flanked Martika earlier walked by, but dropped something as she passed. Jenny waited for the girl to return to pick it up, but when she never did, Jenny scooped up the folded paper to see what was in it.

When she unfolded it this was written, “online 10:45PM tonight.”

Jenny smiled to herself, not looking at Martika. She only nodded as she looked ahead, hoping Martika was watching.

On the track the last semi-final was coming to a close and Jenny knew the news was not good. Cindy Craven finished first shaving about two seconds off her season’s best. Behind her were the other four who had hopes of filling the remaining spots of the dozen to go to the state meet. Jenny watched nervously as the officials recorded the time on their notebooks and then moved toward the laptops to enter the times so they would display on the large scoreboard.

It seemed like forever between the time the officials entered the canopy and the scores juggled on the scoreboard. Jenny worried that her name would not remain on the scoreboard when this process was complete. Tara looked up from the field at her with a look Jenny rarely saw on her bubbly personality driven face. Her dad reached up to put his hand on her shoulder as she waited. As the numbers began to flash she scanned the board to see what had happened. Could it be, was what she saw really true?

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