Higher (The University of Gatica #3) (7 page)

As she rounded the corner of the hall that led to the indoor track, she had to blink rapidly to stop the sudden urge of tears that filled her eyes. She knew she had screwed up, but he could have been a little nicer about it. Just given her an extension or docked points or something. Thank goodness she hadn’t done that much work on the stupid thing. She swallowed back the ache in her throat and pushed her shoulders back as she opened the fieldhouse doors that led up to the track.

At least she could go see Carter after practice now. She grinned. Maybe she’d sleep with him tonight.
‘Bout time we had proper sex
.

Her grin widened into a smile.

Jani decided to put all her concentration into practice. Coach Maves wanted to work on technical stuff and Jani was all for slipping on her high jump spikes and working on her approach. Track offered the escape from the stupid parts of life. She didn’t have to feel bad about not finishing her paper or dropping out of Mr. Dab’s class. In fact, as she worked through her warm up and saw Maves dragging out the high jump equipment and she completely forgot about the incident ten minutes earlier.

“Jani!”

She turned to her right at the sound of Aileen’s voice. “Hey, girl!”

Aileen jogged over. “I got your text but didn’t see it till after I was here. Sorry.”

Jani waved her hand. “No worries.”

“You plan on swimming after practice? Or icing down in the athletic therapy room?”

Jani shivered. “No ice. Plus,” she said, pointing to Coach Maves carrying the high jump pole, “I’m high jumping today.” She fist pumped as they walked to the indoor marked track and began running warm up laps. She ran beside Aileen for four laps and then settled on the infield to stretch as Aileen ran another four or six laps. The two hundred meter indoor track always made warm up seem longer because it took twice as many laps as the outdoor track to hit eight hundred meters. Coach Maves required warm up to have at least half a mile. Jani hated long distance running so she always did the minimum. When Aileen moved in at the end of August, Jani had started doing a lot more running with her roommate but now she began falling back into her old habits. They would have their preseason meet in about a month and she wanted her legs to have a bit of freshness to them. Too much distance meant flat springs in the legs in her opinion.

Aileen dropped down beside her and immediately began hurdle stretching, one leg out straight in front of her and the other bent at the knee and behind her. She leaned forward and rotated her legs so they switched positions. “What time did you get in last night?”

Jani yawned and they both laughed. “It was late.” She sighed as she yawned again. “Carter’s addictive. Like a different kind of high.”

“Higher than HJ?” Aileen teased.

“About the same.” Jani raised her hand to a pretend level of a high jump bar. “He’s a close second.”

“Cool. As long as he doesn’t pass it, I won’t bug you.” Aileen brought both legs out in front of her and shook them to loosen her hamstrings. “By the way, did you get your essay handed in on time? I figured you worked late, or should I say early, since I couldn’t wake you up this morning.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. I didn’t mean to miss weights. How’d they go?” She veered away from answering the essay question.

“Good. Not the same as when we work out together. It’s better when you’re pushing me.”

Jani nodded. “I’m going to have to go after practice today, or tomorrow and lift two days in a row.” She never missed training. She might miss classes, but never track.

“Do it today. Otherwise Wednesday’s lifting will suck. The cycle’s meant for a rest day in between the lifting.”

They moved to the back straight-away to go through high knees, butt kicks and the rest of the warm up training drills. After accelerations Aileen headed to Coach Anderson to work on blocks and the first hurdle. Jani jogged over to Coach Maves who tossed her a roll of athletic tape.

“I’ve marked out your three-step, mid-step and your ten-step approach we measured out last week.” Coach Maves pointed to the three pieces of tape set out in a backward ‘J’ shape away from the high jump mats. “Start at the ten and do a couple of run-throughs. The tape is so I don’t have to measure it again.”

Jani nodded. Maves always did the first measurement of the year, after that it was each jumper’s responsibility to use their feet or a measuring tape to mark it out again. Jani only needed to know the point where her curve started and the ten-step where she started. She never paid attention to the rest of her strides. Her feet knew where they were going.

She moved to her spot. Maves liked working with one or two jumpers at a time. Any more and she complained of spending too much time raising and lowering the bar. Jani preferred it because it meant one-on-one coaching.

Her first run-through with no high jump bar felt close. She jogged back and ran the approach again focussing on accelerating and letting gravity pull the left side of her body toward the ground as she hit the curve. Her take-off location was better.

“I’m going to put the bar up. Just low.” Maves set the hot pink bar up on the standards.

Jani moved back to her tape and waited for Maves to set the bar to the height she wanted. Maves never discussed height in practice unless you asked for something. Jani loved that also. As she continued with run-throughs, the stress and worry of the day evaporated. She forgot all about her paper or the fact she’d be flunking a class. Whatever happened, she could handle it.

Maves raised the bar to a height that looked somewhere about when Jani usually came into a competition.
Probably one-seventy, maybe one-seventy-five
. Five foot seven, or eight tops.

Jani set her tape marker the length of her foot up from its original spot. She watched Aileen blast out of the starting blocks and cruise over the first two hurdles. Her legs glided over the hurdles like they weren’t even there. She was fast. Jani’s old roommate, Linda, had gone out at the same time and had only hit the first hurdle when Aileen had already passed the second.
Faster than fast
. Jani grinned. Indoor nationals was going to be a riot this year.

“Anytime, Jani,” Maves called out from her usual position on the left side of the high jump apron. She liked watching the full approach, focussing on the curve and then half the time she lifted her leg as if trying to help her jumpers over the bar.

Jani visualized her run-through and her body position as she would coast over the bar. It was low so she wanted to concentrate on getting her approach spot on. She took a deep breath and forced it out hard as she drove her legs the first two steps of her run. Acceleration kicked up a notch as she leaned into her curve and counted; one… two… three… four-five. She then drove her right knee high, aiming for above the bar and floated over the height.

It felt like she had loads of time before her shoulders landed on the pink high jump mats and she rolled over into a back summersault.

“Good drive. I want you to squeeze your glutes tight as you’re over the bar.” Coach Maves used her hands to demonstrate when she wanted Jani to tighten. “At this point, the flexing will pop your hips up and force your back to arch. The bar’s too low so you are being lazy over it.”

“It felt easy.” Jani tightened her butt and noticed her hips pop out. If she tilted her head back at the same time, it would create even more of an arc over the bar. She would need that at the higher heights when coming down seemed to happen a lot faster than the drive up.

“I’ll raise the bar up a couple inches.” Maves moved to the standards as Jani walked back to her take-off point.

“How’s my knee drive?” she asked.

“Good.” Maves moved to the next standard to level off the bar. “Really good.”

Jani nodded. Maves only said what needed to be said. She never offered out information unless she wanted her athletes to concentrate on something. When Jani asked why she didn’t say something about each approach, Maves had told her that high jump was fifty percent skill, fifty percent mental. She believed if she filled the brain with too much information it got too confused. It worked great for Jani.

She stared at the bar and wondered how much higher Maves had set it. It looked ten centimeters higher.
About five inches
. She still had to translate her metric mind to feet and inches. Canada used the metric system but America refused to change their imperial one.

After her usual pre-jump routine, she visualized, inhaled a deep breath and took off. Counting as she rounded the curve, she said the rhythm in her head with a quick last two-step and drove into the air again. This time she shot her head back and hips up. She felt her calves brush lightly against the bar and quickly lifted them so they wouldn’t take it down. She landed and got off the mat. “Too far away?” she asked, referring to her take off point.

Maves nodded and went over to where Jani had planted. She mimicked her knee drive. “You’re a lot faster this year. Even compared to the end of last season.” A starter gun went off at the hurdle area and Maves glanced over. “I think working out in the weight room with your roommate is helping you.” She smiled. “Once you figure out how to control that speed, you are going to fly.” She leaned over to set the bar standard higher. “Again. This time move another show length closer.”

“Closer?” Jani turned around to double-check with Maves. “You mean away, right? If I’m going faster I need more room.”

Maves shook her head. “Faster means quicker, shorter strides. You took off too far away because you’re faster. Move a shoe length up. See what happens.”

Jani did as instructed and pushed out of the back again. She drove her knee high and noticed her hips where almost over the bar before she even began arching. That equalled high jumps. She only noticed that at the lower heights. She flew over the bar with lots of room to spare. She rolled off the pit mats and grinned as she walked over to Maves. “You love it when you’re right, ‘eh?”

Maves winked. “I love it when a plan comes together. Three weeks till the first meet.” She pointed a finger at Jani. “You’ll make NCAA standard before Christmas.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Really?” She turned to check what the bar measurement was. “Holy crap! That’s one eighty-eight!”

Arms crossed over her chest like it wasn’t a big deal, Maves nodded without showing any excitement. “Six-two. First time working on your full approach. I was going to have you move up to your three-step approach to work on your timing over the bar, but this seems to be working fine today.”

“Can we raise it?” Jani was totally up to seeing how much more she could do.
Imagine if I set a PB in practice? Six two in practice is huge. I’m lucky if I jump five nine at most practices!
She couldn’t believe how awful a day it had been before practice. She wished she could live in the fieldhouse forever. Screw school and just train. That would be awesome!

“Let’s call it a day for jumping. End on a great note. Go mark out your approach and write it down.”

Ahhhh!
Jani didn’t argue. Maves knew what she was doing. “You have a pen?”

Her coach handed her a permanent marker. She knew Jani always wrote the measurement on the inside tongue of her high jump shoe. “When you’re finished, you need to do a medball circuit and then finish with some resistance sprints.” She handed Jani a sheet of paper. “Here’s the circuit. Medballs are by the shot put area.” Coach Maves walked away and called another high jumper to start warming up and help her set up her approach.

Jani bounced and did a quick set of high knees on the spot. It was going to be an amazing year. Aileen, Carter and whatever other ingredients were working. She was going to blast this season! A new school record. Maybe a Canadian record were in her sights – in her heights!

“Want me to jog to the weight room with you?” Aileen offered. She stood beside Jani just inside the doors of the fieldhouse as the rain fell by the buckets.

“You have got to be the nicest person in the world. Or the craziest.” Jani frowned up at the sky. “This weather sucks royal poop.”

Aileen laughed. “Royal poop?”

“I’ve decided I need to keep my language more respectful.” Jani tried to keep a straight face, still on a high from her high jump technical practice she had just had. She put her arm around her roommate. “Thanks for offering to come, but I can’t put you through this. It’s November. With my luck, this’ll turn into snow by the time we get to the weight room and then ice when we’re finished. I’ll have you sick through finals and during your first meet. Coach Anderson would skin me alive to put his little freshman superstar near death.”

“A run in the rain isn’t going to kill me.”

Jani gave her a watch-it look. “You say that now.”

“I’m offering to cheer you on and keep you company while you lift.”

“Which is super sweet of you.” Jani hugged Aileen. “I appreciate it. I really do. But my tired-ass this morning is not your fault.”

Aileen laughed. “So much for the clean language.”

“My bad.” Jani covered her mouth. “Why don’t you go home, maybe make us some pasta for dinner? I’ll jog over to the weight room and bum a ride back from someone who’s got a car there.” She grinned wickedly. “Maybe the football team’s lifting and I can ask Tyler to drop me off. Maybe tell him you’re cooking dinner…”

Aileen blushed and waved her hand. “I doubt he’ll be there.” She tucked a blonde stray lock of hair behind her ear. “But if he is, you can offer to invite him. I make a mean meatball and spaghetti.”

“I know. It’s one of my favorite meals.”

Aileen smiled. “Thanks!”

“Do you mind taking my phone back with you? It has a less chance of getting broken if you take it back.” When practice had finished, she had raced up to Coach Maves’ office and left her laptop and school bag locked safely inside. Her phone needed to come home. Jani took a deep breath and pushed the heavy door open. The air smelled wet and the steady drumming of the rain they heard inside the fieldhouse turned up to full volume. “I’ll see you in an hour!” she yelled at they dashed out in opposite directions. She turned and waved once to Aileen, who was running like a rabbit, her backpack bouncing up and down against her back.

By the time Jani stopped to wait for the first street light, she was drenched. Thank goodness she had asked Coach Maves to let her leave her high jump shoes with her laptop. They would reek if they got this soaked. Maves had ordered new ones for her, they were just on back order from Asics. The school wore Nike but Jani could not compete in the Nike high jump spikes. They were too flat for her arched feet. She loved Asics and luckily, Coach Maves didn’t make a big deal out of it.
Probably because of the whole mental mind games she always goes on and on about.

Fifteen minutes later she stood just inside the doors of the football facility dripping wet. Her shoes squeaked and swished as she walked down the hall to the entrance of the weight room.

“Stay there!” the weight coach called out from his office as he hurried over and tossed Jani a towel. “You’re soaking wet!”

“It’s pouring outside.” Jani wiped her arms and tried to squeeze the water out of her hair with the towel. “I jogged over.”

“Sorry, Jani but you can’t work out in wet clothes. It’s too dangerous.”

“I’ve got tights on underneath. They’ll be fine.” She pointed to her dripping jogging pants.

“Your shoes aren’t. You could slip and fall.”

“I won’t.”

“But you might. Sorry, kiddo. I can’t let you.”

Seriously?
She’d just jogged over here for no reason? “I could do it in bare feet.”

He shook his head. “Not allowed.”

“What if I just do the stationary stuff? Skip the cleans, snatches, and squats? I can do my arm stuff and core strength. I promise I’ll be careful.”

“I know, but I can’t.” He scratched his head as he stared down at her feet. “What size shoe do you wear?”

“Ten.”

“We don’t have any women’s runners here. What’s your size in men?”

“Oh, uh, maybe an eight and a half.”

“Shoot!” He shook his head. “Could you get away with a nine?”

“Probably with a pair of thick socks.”

“Give me a sec.” He stepped by her and opened the door to the weight room. “Wait right here.” He disappeared and came back a few minutes later with a shoe box in his hands. “You’re lucky.” He tossed her a pair of socks that were tucked under his arm. “Put those on and try these size nines.”

Jani slipped her wet shoes and socks off and sat down on a plyo box nearby. The socks were big and long. They came up to her knees. She slipped her jogging pants off, thankful her spandex capris were damp but not soaking. The shoes were brand new. A way better quality than the track team ever got. She put them on and gave the weight coach a thumbs up. “These fit perfect.” For once, big feet were a bonus. The runners were a bit large, but the thick socks stopped her from sliding inside of them. She tied them tight. “I’ll give them back to you when I’m finished.”

The coach laughed. “Keep ‘em. Nobody’s going to want them after they’ve been worn.”

“Seriously?”

He nodded. “You could have skipped the workout but you made the effort to come in, even jogging in the pouring rain. Get your workout in and I’ll make sure you’ve got a ride back.”

“Thanks!” Jani high-fived the coach and jogged over to the filing cabinet where the track team’s workouts were stored. She checked Aileen’s and marked down some of the weights she had used to try and stay about the same. Aileen had the strongest legs in the world, and Jani worked hard to keep up with her. The season’s workouts seemed to be paying off so far. Look how practice today had gone.

Jani pushed through her cleans and Olympic lifts before moving on to her squats. As she went through the cycle and was changing the weights for her last set, she remembered Carter. She slapped her forehead. How could she forget about him?

She turned to grab her phone and send him a message. “Shoot!” She had given Aileen her cell. Jani checked the clock on the wall. If she hurried, she might still be able to meet him at the swimming pool. After this last set of squats, she would be pretty much done. Just bench press, which for a high jumper was basically a waste of time, along with the arm stuff in her opinion.

Jani hurried through the remaining sets of weights and grabbed her wet stuff by the door that the weight coach had nicely put into a plastic bag. “Thanks, coach!” she called out as she pulled the glass door open.

“Hey, kiddo. You need a ride home?” The coach was working with the female rowing team. They all looked over at Jani. “I can get one of the footballers to drive you back.”

Jani waved. “I’m good. I’ve got a ride.” She ran through the door then suddenly swung around and slipped back through before it closed. “Thanks for the offer… and the shoes!” she shouted loudly. As she flew through the door again, she heard him laughing. It made her smile.

Until she got to the front door and saw the rain still falling without hesitation. She looked at her new shoes and dropped to the ground to change them. No sense in ruining two pairs in one day.  She pushed her feet into her drowning wet shoes and grimaced when they immediately soaked her socks. Pulling her hair tight into its ponytail, she took a deep breath and dashed out into the pouring rain for the second time.

It took less than five minutes to get to the pool facility on the other side of the large parking lot. It took half that time to get completely soaked again.

Wet cement, chlorine, and other pool chemicals filled Jani’s nostrils as she struggled to catch her breath from the sprint around the parking lot. The basketball coliseum and pool facility were joined. It was also at the same place where athletes picked up their monthly stipend checks. Thankfully there was an entrance on the west side so Jani could head straight for the pool area.

She had been here last year a couple of times to watch Carter swim and was pretty sure she knew where she had to go. She took a short cut through the ladies change rooms. No one was inside it.
All probably gone to eat dinner.
She glanced at her watch; quarter past six.

The lockers led past showers and out onto the deck area of the three large indoor pools.

Empty.

Except for a custodian and a swimmer on the far side of the furthest pool from her, swimming laps. She smiled as she passed the custodian collecting towels. He stared at her soaking wet clothes and shook his head. Jani tried to peel the wet shirt away from her body but it clung back against it the minute she let go. She headed over to the swimming pool. It didn’t look like Carter, but she wanted to double check.

The boy popped his head up when he noticed her standing at the end of his lane. “Hey.” He wore a red cap and dark blue goggles that seemed to match his spandex swimsuit.

“Hi.” She smiled and shifted her weight, not quite sure what to say. “Are you on the varsity team?”

He treaded water and checked his watch.

“Sorry!” Jani realized he was timing his laps and she’d just interrupted him. “I’m sorry. I was looking for Carter Daily. I…” she let her voice trail off.

The boy returned to his laps, doing the backstroke slowly this time. “He’s in the sauna.”

“Okay. Thanks.”

She turned around and glanced for a sauna sign. She had no idea where to go.

“It’s over this way,” the boy called out, laughing. “You look like you could use it.” He dove under the water before she could reply.

Tempted by the thought of jumping into the water and surprising the swimmer crossed her mind. She smiled and held back the urge. She might find it funny, he might not. Her shoes squished and squeaked in protest with each step as she moved in the direction the boy had pointed. She hesitated outside the door, not sure if the saunas were male only or if someone might be in there naked. It always happened like that in the movies.

She tried knocking against the door, but the warm material just muffled the noise. Shrugging, she slipped off her wet sneakers and tossed them by a vent nearby. She set her plastic bag with new shoes down beside the door and then pulled it open.

A strange smell wafted over her, thick with the steam of the sauna and smell of cedar. She scrunched her nose, unsure if she liked the smell. It wasn’t pleasant, more peculiar and sharp, like an oily herb.

Jani stopped herself from walking in. It was
that
smell. She had never done it herself, but it was one of those things you just knew. Like when someone says it smells like a skunk, you know exactly what they mean without using actual words to describe it.

This was that pungent smell that could only come from one thing.

Weed.

If Carter was sitting inside the sauna on his own smoking pot, she had no interest in joining him. She would risk a paper for study hall, but she was sure as hell not going to risk her scholarship for getting high.

“Hey! Whoever’s at the door, either come in or close it! You’re letting all the steam out!” Carter’s voice rang loud and clear inside.

Jani inhaled again and pressed her lips tight together.
This is what he has planned for a nice surprise?
She crossed her arms over her wet shirt and stomped inside.

The sauna had two rows of large wood benches on each side. The steam hung heavy in the air but not enough to hide Carter from his location on the right side raised seat. He sat with his legs stretched out in front of him and his back against the wood wall. “Hey… Jani…” He waved to her.

At least no one else was inside the sauna. No naked, unsuspecting old man like the movies. “Are you an idiot?” she snapped.

His half-closed eyes opened in surprise. “Excuse me?”

“Only an idiot would smoke pot in the school sauna!” She leaned forward, trying to see if she could tell if he was high. She had no idea what she needed to look for. “Do you want to lose your scholarship?”

Carter shook his head and dropped his legs down to the bench below him, his knees at the level of Jani’s chest. “I haven’t been smoking.”

“Seriously? You think I can’t smell it?”

“It wasn’t me. Some of the other guys were in here earlier. They lit up.”

“And now you’ve got some contact high?”

He rested his elbow on his knee so he could lean forward and look her in the eye. His towel shifted open exposing a long muscular thigh, all four of his quad muscles clearly defined against his tanned skin.

Jani tried to keep her eyes averted but kept sneaking glances, her mind wandering to the question if he wore only a towel or something underneath. Her wet clothes grew warm from the heat of the moisture in the air.

“I’m not high.”

Did she believe him? He could very well be telling the truth. She had no clue about pot. Maybe he had smoked it yesterday and was now trying to remove it out of his system by sweating it out.