Chapter 12

The next morning, Bree, Autumn, and Jared were back at Howie’s house. This was supposed to be a regularly scheduled study session; they’d agreed they’d try to get together at least once a week, preferably on the weekends, and maybe once a week in the evenings, although the latter might have to wait till the football season was over.

This morning they’d have the house to themselves. Jack and Vixen were out in some marsh somewhere looking for waterfowl; Howie’s mother was at the grocery store, and his father was at his hunting cabin, doing something although nobody was very sure what.

Autumn was the last to arrive; Summer had dropped her off on her way over to Alan’s house, where working on the game some more was at least part of the plan. Autumn suspected there was more on the agenda, but Summer hadn’t exactly gotten into specifics, which told Autumn about what she wanted to know anyway. “Sorry I’m late,” Autumn told the other three, who were gathered around the kitchen table with books already spread out. “For some reason the phone has been ringing a lot this morning.”

“I wonder why?” Howie grinned.

“You should know,” Autumn laughed. “After our little display last night, the Spearfish Lake gossip circuit has officially declared us boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“Well, we knew it was going to happen,” Howie smiled. “I mean, that was what it was supposed to look like, no matter what the real deal was.”

“It went a little further than that,” Autumn reported. “It seems Bree and Jared are now officially boyfriend and girlfriend, too. That was the right move for you two to make. I caught Misty taking a look at them, and I’ll bet she was thinking about latching onto Jared to try and make you jealous.”

“I don’t mind. In fact, I think it’s kind of nice to have a reputation for having a big, handsome, strong, virile, manly football player for a boyfriend,” Bree grinned, obviously laying it on a little thick for the fun of it. “It ought to do something about those ‘lesbian’ and ‘loner’ wisecracks I’ve heard.”

“Yeah,” Jared sighed. “And I don’t think it hurts my image to have a beautiful, talented pilot for a girlfriend, either. But you realize that now that we’ve set up this little act we’re going to be stuck with it.”

“So what?” Autumn grinned. “I’ve taken some of that lesbian and loner stuff, too. It doesn’t hurt my image to have the record-setting quarterback for a boyfriend, either. I know there have been some girls who have been jealous of Misty about that since school started, so it really does my image good to steal him right out from under her nose. In a way, it’s a little too bad it’s only supposed to be an act.”

“Big deal,” Howie said. “The intent of the whole thing was to get Misty off my butt. Like I said the other day, the one big thing Misty taught me was that I don’t have time for that kind of drama, at least not now. I’m perfectly willing to be just good friends, and leave it at that. Everybody else can think what they want to think. I’ll admit, it’s going to take some work to keep the illusion up for a while, but if we keep our heads on straight it’s not going to turn into any kind of possession drama like Misty wanted.”

“Well, you know where Jared and I are,” Bree said. “We agreed to go along with the deal but we can’t get serious about it. There’s almost no chance we’ll be going to college at the same place, but it was fun to let people think we’re boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“Right,” Autumn said. “It’s like we worked out last week. There are some advantages to having some boyfriend-girlfriend stuff even if we know we’re not serious about it. It really was fun to be snuggled up next to you last night, Howie. What was even more fun was to see Summer looking at us in total shock, like she never thought I’d find a boyfriend at all. I know we can’t let it get serious, at least not now, but maybe someday that could change. Maybe with you, maybe not. Call it having a practice boyfriend.”

“I really wish you wouldn’t use that term,” Howie sighed. “It’s what Misty was trying to do with me, although what she wanted out of it was something totally different. I told you about that.”

“It still seems hard to believe,” Bree shook her head. “But from what I know about her, I wouldn’t put it past her, either. I don’t think you’re done with trouble from her.”

“I don’t think so either,” Autumn agreed. “Like I said, there were a bunch of phone calls this morning. It looks like she went to every pizza place in town after the game looking for us, trying to figure a way to split us apart. That might be harder than she thinks, because there’s not much to split.”

“Yeah, but it’s all going to come back to me,” Howie shrugged. “I don’t think she’s going to give up easily. I don’t plan on letting it happen. I’ve learned my lesson. Besides, I think it says somewhere that a quarterback’s girlfriend is supposed to be a cheerleader, and Misty isn’t. I don’t want to break that rule.”

“I think it’s the same manual that says what a quarterback is supposed to be doing with his girlfriend,” Autumn teased. “But that’s not going to happen, at least not anytime soon.”

“No, we’d be fools if we did,” Howie said. “I’m not saying that we couldn’t change our minds at some point in the future, but that doesn’t matter right now. But I wouldn’t put it past Misty to use it as a tool if she thought she could get me back with it. Look, I think we managed to put together what looks like a pretty good arrangement that solves a lot of problems for all of us. We’re all friends, and the boyfriend-girlfriend thing lets us stay a little exclusive from the gang as well as from Misty. While I like to hang out with the guys on the team a little, that doesn’t mean I like to hang around assholes like Wadsworth or a few others I could name. This gives me the perfect excuse to pull away from them, even if what we really have is a study group of good friends.”

“Right,” Bree said. “And let’s face facts; the other three of us have a reputation for being loners. It makes us look a little more human. Besides, I get what looks like a high school boyfriend out of the deal,” she smiled and turned to Jared and teased, “Isn’t that right, sweetie?”

“Sure is, cutie-pie,” he teased right back. “Mom and Dad have been on my butt to find some friends, maybe even a girlfriend. They ought to ease up a lot on that now, because I do have some friends.” He grinned at Bree, “And maybe even a girlfriend.”

“I have no problem with being your girlfriend,” she said, “at least a little. But like I said a couple minutes ago, we can’t let it get too serious. I won’t need the distraction if I can manage to go to college where I want to, and the odds are you wouldn’t be able to go with me.”

“You know,” Jared said, “you’ve teased us with that three or four times now, and you’ve never said where it is.”

“I know,” Bree said, eyes downcast. “I didn’t want you laughing at me.”

“I won’t laugh, I promise,” Jared replied gently.

“All right,” Bree said, taking a step of faith into the newfound four-way friendship. “Promise you won’t tell anybody, at least for now, OK?”

“I wouldn’t do that,” Jared said.

“Me, either,” Howie agreed.

“I may gossip a little, but I can keep a secret if I have to,” Autumn added. “This sounds like a big dream to me.”

“It is,” Bree said softly. “I want to go to the U.S. Air Force Academy.”

There was silence for a moment. “It sounds to me like you’re setting your sights a little higher than the rest of us,” Jared said finally.

“More than a little,” Autumn agreed. “I was thinking Michigan State seemed like it might be something of a reach for me. What’s your second choice if that doesn’t work out?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” Bree smiled. “The Naval Academy at Annapolis. It’s really a second choice, I don’t think I’d like spending all that time riding around on ships, and I’d have to learn a lot about them that doesn’t interest me because it has nothing to do with flying.”

“You know,” Howie said thoughtfully, “that makes an awful lot drop into place about you.”

“Yeah, no fooling,” Autumn agreed. “Do you think there’s a chance you can get in?”

“It’s very hard to say,” Bree told them. “It’s not quite like getting into a regular school. Except for a few special cases, admission is by a congressional nomination. From what I can tell, our congressman doesn’t get a lot of applications, but there’s no set way he has to choose which ones he makes. I mean, I have to be a good student, and have really good grades, along with good ACT and SAT scores. I figure it’s not going to hurt that I’m already a pilot, and by then I’ll have several other licenses to go along with my glider license. But Becca has pointed out to me that I probably need to be a little more well-rounded. I mean, in things like showing leadership ability and athletics. That’s what really has me worried, I’m not much of an athlete.”

“Well, you’ve got time,” Jared said. “It doesn’t mean you can’t go out for something.”

“I can’t go out for basketball,” Bree said flatly. “I don’t just want to say I’m no good at it, but I’ll never be as good as Becca. Besides, the way the program is set up now, I probably wouldn’t qualify for the girls’ basketball team anyway. They have years of experience before they get on varsity. I mean, I know that from Becca. Volleyball is pretty much the same thing. I went out a while ago to bat a volleyball around with Becca and some of her friends. Maybe if I’d started back when they did, I might be able to play at their level. But not now.”

“It’s still a ways away,” Autumn pointed out. “But you could go out for track.”

“Mostly it’s a lot of running,” Bree said. “And I know I’m slower than Becca there, too, even though she plays softball in the spring.”

“But you’ve never really tried it, right?” Jared asked.

“No, not really,” Bree admitted. “I mean, well, I really hadn’t thought about that angle of it till a few weeks ago.”

“Bree,” Autumn said, “what do you know about the girls’ track team here?”

“Not much.”

“You should really go out for track in the spring. Mr. Emerson has coached it for years. It’s not like the ball sports. He doesn’t go out looking for wins. He wants the girls on his teams to get into shape, have fun, and to get some satisfaction from competing. He’s not looking for a league championship. I’ve heard it said that his goal for a season is for every girl on his team to medal at least once in the season.”

“Yeah,” Jared said. “I’ve heard that, too.”

“Me, too,” Howie said. “I was talking with Glen Dollarhyde back last summer. His sister was on the team. They had a really good 440 relay team. There was this one girl who hadn’t medaled all season, so Mr. Emerson yanked one of the girls off the relay team and put her in on it. They managed a second-place medal and the girls were all cheering her on.”

“Wow,” Jared shook his head. “That’s team spirit, all right. It sure would be nice if we had a little more of it on the football team.”

“Well, yeah,” Howie said. “It would make things go smoother, but we’ve got guys like Wadsworth on the team who wouldn’t know what a team was if it bit them on the ass.”

“You really ought to go out for track,” Jared told her. “A handful of medals isn’t going to be quite the same thing as team MVP or something, but at least it’d show you were a halfway serious athlete.”

“I suppose,” Bree said. “But I, well, I never really have been an athlete. I think I’d feel out of place.”

“You’d better get over that feeling or you’re not going to make it at the Air Force Academy,” Jared said flatly. “I don’t know much about the place except for a few things I’ve seen on TV, but I can see you have to be a team player and at least something of an athlete.”

“Yeah,” Bree replied, a bit disheartened. “I guess I knew that, but, well, I just didn’t want to accept it.”

“Then we are going to fix that,” Autumn said flatly. “The whole idea of this study group was to help each other out in areas where someone is weak. I knew you must have one somewhere, but I didn’t realize that was it. Bree, if you want to go out for track in the spring and don’t want to feel alone, I’ll do it with you. I’m no real athlete, either, but we’ve got all winter to work on it and a couple of real good trainers to work with us.”

“It’ll be hard to get much running practice in over the winter,” Howie said. “But that doesn’t mean you can’t be aerobically fit when the season gets here. That’s half the battle right there. More than half.”

“Hell,” Jared said, “the boys and girls run together at most track meets. There’s no reason Howie and I couldn’t go out for track, too. We could probably use the training to get us ready for the next football season, and that’d give you a little extra support.”

“You guys . . .” Bree shook her head, at least a little bit in shock. “You’d really do it for me?”

“Of course,” Howie grinned. “Hell, we’re supposed to turn into the Four Musketeers, aren’t we? All for one, and one for all.”

“That was Three Musketeers,” Bree grinned.

“Three, four, what’s the difference? The point is we all get some good out of it. Good training for Jared and me, some experience and something of a record for you, and it gets my girlfriend off her dead butt reading those fantasy books all the time.”

“Howie . . .” Autumn said, a bit of threat in her voice. But she said it with a smile.

“Well, I’m right, aren’t I? Face it, Autumn, you could stand the exercise. Maybe you’d want to give up cheerleading in the fall, so you could run cross-country, too.”

“What, and not be able to cheer my quarterback boyfriend on? Not going to happen,” she grinned. “But that doesn’t mean Bree couldn’t run cross in the fall. Mr. Emerson coaches it, too, and you’re bound to get some good out of it even if you don’t medal then.”

“All right,” Bree said. “I’ll do it, so long as I have the three of you backing me up. I know the hardest time is the first time.”

“Good,” Jared said. “It’s not winter yet, there’s still going to be some nice days. Howie, what would you say if we give the Wisconsin game a pass and take our so-called girlfriends out running once we get done with our homework?”

“I’d say it sounds like a good idea. We’re not going to be all afternoon, after all. Half an hour or an hour probably ought to be enough for the first time. We won’t even miss much of the game that way.”

The four of them settled down to studying and got Howie back on track with his geometry, and Jared and Bree a little more understanding of their biology assignments over the course of the next couple hours. They were just wrapping up when Howie’s mother arrived, and they all pitched in to help carry in the groceries. Shortly afterward, the four of them were out running together, with Howie leading the way.

“We’ll keep it easy at first,” Howie said. “It’ll just be a jog for Jared and me, but you girls may think it’s pretty fast,” he told the two. “If it gets too bad we’ll just have to slow down, but the idea is to push you a little, too.”

Howie had been one of the few football team members to get in some running over the summer, a fact that had paid off handsomely for him once football practice got under way. Even then, there had been times he thought he was going to die when the coaches started putting pressure on the team to get their acts together. In the past, he’d had several routes he used that took him past Misty’s house, so she could see he was actually out training rather than just out screwing around with his friends, but now he avoided those like the plague. They wound up just going down side streets to downtown, along the beach on Lakeshore, and then back up other side streets to home, a total of a couple miles or so.

If Howie had actually been in training he would have gone farther and faster, but that wasn’t the point now – it was to get the girls used to it, show them that they could do it. Speed and endurance could come later. The girls weren’t all in when they finally got back to the Erikson house, but they knew they’d had some exercise. “Good grief,” Autumn puffed. “I don’t think I’ve ever run that far in my life.”

“Good warm-up,” Howie told her. “Once you get in shape, it’ll seem like nothing.”

“Are we going to have to do this every day?” Bree asked.

“Pretty much,” Jared said. “At least till the weather gets bad. Then you’ll have some idea of what’s going to be involved to get you trained up for spring.”

“I may not be able to stay in town after school,” Bree protested. “I hate to have to beg Becca to come back in to pick me up.”

“No big deal,” Jared grinned. “I’ll get Becca to make sure you run up and down the airstrip a few times when you can’t run with us. Hell, she might be willing to go with you.”

“Yeah,” Bree shook her head. “She’s bugged me enough in the past about getting out and getting some exercise. But I think I’d rather run with the three of you.”

“We’re probably not going to be able to do it every day,” Howie pointed out. “After all, Jared and I have football practice, and Becca probably has volleyball practice. Bree, you’re probably just going to have to do it on your own. But if you want to run around the track while we have football practice, it’ll probably be all right.”

“Let me think about that angle a bit,” Jared said. “I need to do a little investigating, but maybe you could go to Mr. Emerson now and tell him you want to run track in the spring. Maybe he could let you work out with the girls’ cross-country team now. That would give you the benefit of some coaching, and you might make a few friends along the way.”

“You guys are serious, aren’t you?” Bree shook her head. “I mean, about pushing me on this.”

“Darn right,” Jared said. “I don’t know much about the service academies, except that I know they work your butt off. You’re going to have to build the energy and the self-discipline to do it now, since we’re not going to be able to help you with that when you get there. But if my girlfriend is going to get into the Air Force Academy, I want her ready to meet the challenge.”

Jared’s inspiration about having Bree talk to Mr. Emerson turned out to be a winner in more ways than one, and sooner than Bree or anyone else expected.

Bree was still shy and nervous about the idea when after-school Monday rolled around, but Autumn agreed to go with her and be a little late for cheerleading practice, just to back her up. One of the reasons Bree was shy about the whole affair was that she didn’t know Mr. Emerson. It turned out that he wasn’t a teacher at all, but a rural mailman who drove a mail route out of the Amboy post office to the east of Spearfish Lake. He was a lean, wiry man with a salt-and-pepper beard, and it turned out he’d been coaching, just as a hobby, for a long time; long ago he’d been a Marlin track star, and was still an active runner. When Bree told him she wanted to work out with the cross-country team to get ready to be on the track team in the spring, he was all for it.

“It shows you want to be ready,” he said. “I’m always ready to work with kids who want to work to achieve something.”

“I’m pretty new at this,” Bree explained. “I’ve only been out running a couple times since I made up my mind I wanted to do this, and I’m afraid I’m not very fast.”

“It’ll come in time,” he told her in a gentle voice. “You want to learn to do this, so that’s the important part.” He looked around the small handful of girls doing stretching exercises and such, and said, “Laurel, I have something special for you to do today. This is Bree, uh, I didn’t catch your name.”

“Bree Gravengood. It’s actually Brianna, but nobody calls me that.”

“You’re Becca’s sister, then,” Mr. Emerson said. “That means you’re going to know a little bit about what’s involved. Laurel, do you and Bree know each other?”

“I know who she is,” Laurel said. “You’re the kid who flies the glider, right?”

“I guess the word is getting around,” Bree shook her head. She knew Laurel, at least a little; she was a senior and had played on a couple teams with Becca.

“Hey, I think that’s way cool,” Laurel grinned. “What did you want me to do, Mr. Emerson?”

“Bree thinks she wants to go out for track in the spring and wants to start getting in shape for it. Why don’t you run with her around the course? Just take it easy, but stay with her and push her a little. Show her a little about pacing herself for it. Don’t kill her, but challenge her a little.”

“Sure, Mr. Emerson. Glad to do it.”

Laurel and Bree took off around the three-mile cross-country course, taking what Laurel thought was an easy pace, and Bree was grimly determined to keep up. The distance was half again what she’d run with Howie, Jared and Autumn the last couple days, and she was pretty well beat when the two of them got back to where Mr. Emerson was waiting; she’d seen him at two or three different places around the course. “Not bad for a first try,” Mr. Emerson grinned. “In fact, not bad at all.”

“Other than the fact that I’m almost dead,” Bree puffed.

“Is that the first time you’ve tried to run that far?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she managed.

“Well, your time isn’t going to set any records,” he said, “but we’ve got girls on the team who aren’t much faster. Keep at it, and you’re not going to be ashamed of yourself.”

Over the next few days Mr. Emerson had her out running the course, or just running the streets with the other girls. Every day a different girl was assigned to run with her, to keep her moving and pace her, and in only a week he told Bree that she’d cut her time on the course significantly. “Are you doing anything tomorrow night?” he asked.

“Not that I can think of, except more practice,” she said.

“Show up a little early and we’ll get you a uniform,” he said. “There’s a meet down in Blair tomorrow night, and you might as well run the course as an extra. Only the top five finishers count for points, but you might as well learn what a meet is like.”

“Me? On the team?” she replied in surprise. “I didn’t think that was going to happen till spring.”

“You’re not the fastest kid we have on the team,” he said, “but you’re not the slowest, either. This sport is at least partly for fun and exercise, but it’s also about learning to pace yourself, set goals, and achieve them. You’re well on the way, so if you’re doing the work, you might as well get some of the rewards.”

Bree was still nervous as she got onto the bus on Tuesday with her running outfit on under her warm-ups. The boys’ cross-country team ran with the girls’, but the bus was still pretty empty.

There was a lot strange at the meet, things she’d never done before. There were several schools competing, and a mob of kids, both high school and middle school classes of both boys and girls. Just before the high school girls were getting set to line up for their race, Mr. Emerson got Bree off to the side a bit. “Just run your own race and concentrate on finishing,” he said. “You’re here to learn, and one of the things you have to learn is that you’re not as bad as you think you are. Go have fun.”

Bree was still a bundle of nerves when the starting gun sounded, and quickly a lot of the girls pulled ahead of her – but she wasn’t the last in the field, either. There were several girls behind her, and some were even falling back, not that she paid a lot of attention. While she knew she wasn’t going to win it, she didn’t plan on being last, either.

What really surprised her was when, half way around the course, she heard several people yelling, “Go! Bree! Go!” She was already tired and concentrating on trying to keep going, but the surprise of seeing Mark and Jackie, along with Autumn and Becca, standing there yelling almost brought her to a stop. Almost – but she wasn’t about to let them down. Grimly she reached down inside herself for a little strength she didn’t know she had, and concentrated on catching the next girl in front of her. Then the next . . . and then the next!

When it was all over with, she was sixth fastest among the Spearfish Lake girls, and in thirty-ninth place out of fifty-six entrants. That was a lot better than being in last place, and the cheers from her parents, her sister and her new best friend at the finish made it all the more worthwhile.

It was a while before she got to talk to Mr. Emerson. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I should have done better, but I will next time.”

“You know, Bree,” he smiled, “I don’t doubt you will. Not in the slightest. You seem to have made up your mind you’re going to be good at this, and it’s that kind of drive that makes a winner. You know the Frostee Freeze in Spearfish Lake is closed, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” she said. “I know Becca likes to hang out with her teams there after a game when it’s open.”

“Well, the Dairy Queen here in Blair is still open,” he smiled, “and you need to celebrate with the rest of your team.”

“My team?” she said in surprise. “You mean I’m on the team?”

“Might as well be,” he grinned. “You’re going to be scoring some team points before the season is over with, and I’d be willing to bet money on it. We have an invitational at home on Saturday, and you might do a little better there since you’re familiar with the course.”

“Sure thing, Mr. Emerson,” she grinned. “I’ll be there.”

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