"Wooooooh. Wow, Alice, I haven't laughed that hard in quite some time!" Mel gasped for air on the phone, after Alice asked if Mel knew of any good places to run around campus. "Do I really strike you as the running type? Sheesh, half the time my Senior year I barely even waddled my fat butt to the lunch room, I'd just get someone to bring me something! Ah, I'm seriously crying right now, thank you Alice..."
Alice had quite the sour look on her face as she listened to her sister crack up at what she thought was a reasonable question- but in hindsight, of course it wasn't. It was a stupid question. Mel got winded walking from the car to the front door... Why would she know about this? Alice frustratedly twisted the cord of the pay phone around her finger as she waited for Mel to relax a bit. But before she could thank her anyways, Mel suddenly recovered.
"Oh, Alice! I totally just remembered! There IS the old track..." Mel said mysteriously, piquing Alice's interest. A small portion of frustration seeped through her voice as she responded.
"Well you didn't have to make fun of me if you knew there was an old track!" She said with a pout, but this just got Mel laughing again- her older sister didn't tend to take many things seriously.
"I wasn't making fun of you!" Mel giggled, "I just thought it was funny that you honestly thought I would know someplace to run, you worded it weird! Anyways, yeah, me and a few of the girls used to sneak out there for some 'after-school activities'..." Alice didn't want to know, although she had a few guesses. "Anyways, I'll tell you how to get out there, you gotta go out the East entrance..."
-----
After Melissa had recovered from her large (well, moreso average for Melissa) lunch, which took about two hours- not that Alice was complaining, she had eaten almost as much- they both got dressed, Alice glad that her stretchy gym shorts still fit her... Although she was unhappy to discover that her old gym shirt did not, allowing about an inch and a half of her pale tummy to peek out no matter how hard she tugged.
Mel, of course, looked like she could be on the cover of a running magazine, her athletic wear fitting her the way it fits all the models in the magazine, her running shoes alone belonging to a brand that was endorsed by most triathlon runners who had way too much money on their hands. Alice lead the way (something she had almost never done in her life) instructing Mel where to go. As they walked across the school yard, Alice couldn't help but smile as the sun hit her skin. She was never a very outdoorsy girl but she had to admit, she hadn't been outside in a while... Possibly since she got to school, but she couldn't quite remember. They made idle chat as they followed the directions that Alice's sister had left them, following a dirt trail marked by a yellow path marker by the edge of the woods. The path was apparently paved at one point but had fallen into a small amount of disrepair- Mel had mentioned that she discovered the old track her Sophomore year, so it had been at least 3 years since it had been "officially" used. Finally, they came upon...
"Wow." Was all Alice heard from Mel, who sounded both shocked and excited. Alice was shocked to see Mel quickly run up to the fence surrounding the track before nimbly jumping over it. "Wow, Alice! This is amazing!"
Alice couldn't disagree.
While high school fields usually held multiple purposes- usually football, lacrosse, and a track field surrounding it, this field was literally only a track. Giant stainless steel bleachers towered upwards, which could easily hold the entire school if they needed to. Mel was already stretching- despite her gluttonous lifestyle at Buttercombe, she seemed quite eager to get back to running, and as Alice walked up she could see why. A giant statue stood in the center of the field, surrounded by a massive (albeit empty) fountain, and the track was colored vibrantly, much nicer than any track Alice had ever seen. Weary of jumping the fence, Alice searched for a gate, only to find one with a massive padlock around it. "How on earth did Mel jump this fence when she was here? She wasn't exactly skinny..." Still, the humorous image of her obese sister jumping the fence made Alice giggle a bit as she slowly climbed the fence, one foot at a time before less than gracefully tumbling down on the other side. By the time she was in, Melissa was already jogging in place.
"Come on Alice, get stretched, we're gonna have a lot of fun today!" Mel said, before looking at Alice sadly. "You... Don't know any stretches, do you?" Alice shook her head no, and Mel trotted over, not even slightly winded from her previous jogging. "Come on, I'll show you..." She said with a smile. Mel demonstrated several stretches, even helping Alice a few times as the now slightly-almost-kinda-pudgy girl struggled. After about ten minutes, however, Mel sprung back up and offered a hand to Alice, who was still sitting on the ground. "Alright, normally I'd say let's do more, especially since you haven't run in a while-" Alice had never run a day in her life other than a few times in gym, but she ignored Mel's comment. "-but for now, let's just get going and see how you do, okay?"
-----
The overwhelming answer on how Alice did was, unsurprisingly, not well. Mel had initially been a little too eager, breaking out into a full run, but after seeing how red Alice had become at the modest running speed, she had toned things down considerably. However, the forever unathletic Alice was still unable to complete even one lap around the quarter mile track at the bare minimum speed required for something to be called a "run" before she was about ready to collapse. "Okayyy... How about we just walk a lap now?" Mel suggested, but Alice shook her head no, panting for breath as she doubled over, very aware of the paunch her belly formed as she did so. "Hmm... We really gotta work on your stamina girl. Go take a seat on the bleachers, and wave me down when you're ready, okay? I'm gonna run a few more laps, I haven't felt this good since... Well, I mean, I felt pretty good after lunch, but this is a different good, okay?" Alice just wheezed as she slowly trodded over to the bleachers, planting her butt down and watching her friend sprint around the track. Normally, Alice would've been frustrated about doing so poorly at something, but right now, all she wanted to do was rest. It was a shockingly warm late summer/early autumn day, and the sunshine didn't help how warm and gross Alice already felt.
As her gaze followed Mel around the track, she noticed several somethings shimmering in the fountain in the center. Hopping up from her seat (after almost ten minutes of resting, she felt much better) Alice made her way over to the fountain to investigate, only to hear Mel call out as she passed, "They're beer cans! I guess this place isn't completely unheard of!" She wasn't even winded.
"That explains what my sister was doing here..." Alice mumbled to herself. She wasn't surprised in the slightest to find out that Mel's friend group had access to beer, or that they came out here to drink it- after all, Mel was in very high standing at Buttercombe, there's no way she had ever been caught with alcohol on campus.
Alice turned around only to spot Mel coming to a stop in front of her. While Mel's face was red, she spoke as though she hadn't been running for several minutes as she spoke to Alice. "I have to say, this is literally the nicest track I've ever run on. I wonder how this school can justify spending this much money on a track this nice and not even using it? I mean, this had to cost millions! They could at least use it for ceremonies... Anyways, did you wanna head back? I can be done, if you are..." Alice could only nod her head sadly, which Mel noticed.
"Aw, Alice, don't be sad..." Mel slung her arm around Alice's shoulder as they walked back to the gate- Alice couldn't help but notice that she wasn't even sweaty- Mel was much better at running than she first let on, it seemed. "Seriously, I've been doing this six days a week for years. We'll figure out a good pace for you and then we'll work on improving it, if that's what you want. I mean, I know I'm gonna be coming here every day..." Alice nodded again, very aware of how much her stomach was hungrily grumbling. "Let's talk about it at dinner." Mel said, laughing as she hopped the gate.
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