Higher (The University of Gatica #3) (11 page)

It sucked. Royally.

Jani met with her academic advisor, who introduced her to two tutors who were going to help her over the next three weeks, even help her study and prepare for her exams. She studied, trained, ate, slept, and repeated the process of studying before class, going to class, training, studying and then studying some more for the next three weeks. She had never poured over textbooks this much in her life. Her tutors helped her make flash study cards and quizzed her on information they had gone over yesterday and prepped her on new stuff.

It was crazy, and strangely satisfying each night when she went to bed exhausted. She didn’t feel like everything was over her head anymore. She actually felt like she might be okay.

With school, that is.

Missing Carter sucked. It took every ounce of willpower not to text him or call him. Every time she headed to the weight room, she debated just popping into the swim pool and see if he was training. He had a home meet and she checked his results online. He didn’t race as fast as a few weeks ago but he was going to make All-American at NCAA. She was happy for him, even though he made no effort to contact her or anything. She told herself she wouldn’t reply to him even if he did, but it still hurt.

At least she was buried in books and only came out of them to train. So it left little time to wonder what he was doing or if he was seeing another girl. She had the feeling he didn’t spend much time alone. Girls were probably constantly calling him.

She forced herself to get back to studying. She had one more exam to do, and it was after lunch. It was for the class she knew she wasn’t going to pass. The one with the unfinished paper. Except she had actually finished the paper, just to say she had done it. It wasn’t for her teacher or for anyone else but her. She planned on keeping it and handing it in next year when she retook the class. It seemed silly, as did studying for the exam, but she was determined to do it and if anything, prepare herself for next year.

After today’s final exam she had to stop by her academic advisor’s office on her way to track practice. She would find out her other exam results and grades.

All this before the opening season track meet tomorrow. Gatica always held a Winter Invitational the day after exams. Then everyone went home for two weeks before school started in January. Jani always flew home for Christmas and then came back before New Year’s Eve. This year she set her flight to coincide with Aileen’s. They would both be arriving on the second of January around the same time. The two of them had studied and hung together a lot the past three weeks. Aileen had even cancelled an evening out with Tyler to help Jani prep for her first exam. She owed her roommate big time and she had every intention of making sure Aileen and Tyler got to hang out when he came out for track.

Back to studying, Jani!

Two and a half hours later, Jani walked out of the academic office in a daze. She had to go see Coach Anderson. She grinned to herself, not caring what anyone thought as they passed her in the hall.

She had done it! Somehow, she had managed to get A’s, or near close enough on her finals. She didn’t know the result of today’s exam, but it didn’t matter. Even the surprised, strange look her professor gave her when she showed up to write it, didn’t matter.

She hitched her backpack up on her shoulder and made her way to tell Coach Anderson. He was going to be so proud of her! As she rounded the corner of the classes section of the building she headed for the small set of stairs to take her to the track office. Mr. Dab stood in the hallway with his briefcase in tow.

“Hello, Mister Dab,” she said cheerily.
Ain’t nobody gonna break me down.

“Jani.” He cleared his throat. “I was surprised to see you in the exam room today.” He gave her a single nod. “I’m glad that you came. Your coach came and spoke with me this week. I’m glad you have put your focus back into your studies. I look forward to seeing you in my class next year.”

“I plan on trying my hardest.”

“That’s all we, as professors, can hope for.”

She nodded and was about to carry on to the track office when she changed her mind. “Mister Dab?”

“Yes?”

“I know this is late, and I messed up, but I’d like to hand in my essay.” Her inner voice told her to keep it and save it for next year. She dropped her backpack off her shoulder and pulled it out before she changed her mind. “I’ll make next year’s better.” She made a face. “And on time.”

Mr. Dab’s mouth opened but nothing came out. He accepted the paper, slowly looked down at it in his hands and then back up at Jani’s face.

“I’ll see you in September again, sir.” She pretended to salute him and headed for the stairs. She should have kept the essay, but the surprised look on his face was worth it. She had done good. Not because she had to, but because she wanted to.

Her academic high flowed into the track meet the next day. She warmed up and marked out her approach. She had lifted Thursday morning instead of yesterday because of the exam and her legs felt slightly flat. She didn’t feel the usual pop that came with less volume of training and more concentration on competing. Coach Maves wanted to train through the Winter Invitational and Jani agreed. NCAA indoor wouldn’t be till March. If she slacked now, she would have nothing left to carry her through to nationals.

As she set out her approach and went through her run-throughs, she adjusted her markings accordingly. Aileen raced the sixty meter and won her heat. Coach Anderson had her running the sprint to work on speed. She would also be racing in the hurdles shortly. If she made both races, she would be running six times. Heats, semis and finals. Jani had no doubt Aileen would be doing all three in both events.

With school now finished for the semester, they planned on going out tonight and dancing. No matter how they did, they were going to celebrate.

Turning her focus back to the high jump pit, Jani waited for the other girls competing to practice their take-offs with the bar set at lower heights. She wanted to take a couple of 5’5” and 5’7” short approach or full approach, whatever Coach Maves wanted.

There were a lot of girls jumping today. Jani checked her watch as she sat stretching and watching the other girls. Four o’clock and twenty-five girls. This was going to take over an hour before she even started jumping. She would have to warm up again in half an hour.

An official set the bar on the ground and started to move the standards. Another official called the girls to come check in with him.

Jani jumped up and rushed over. “I haven’t had any warm-up jumps yet.”

The official gave her a hard look. “The bar’s been up. If you didn’t take your jumps, that is not our issue. It is your responsibility.”

It’s a freakin’ invitational!
“I’ve been waiting for you to raise the bar higher.”

The man pressed his lips and huffed through his nose. He glanced down at her UofG t-shirt. “Fine. Two jumps. That is it. We need to get this thing started. We’ve got twenty-six girls competing. I’d like to be home before Christmas.”

Jani bit back a smart remark and pointed to her name. “That’s me.” She hurried over to the other official and looked around for Coach Maves. She was with the long jumpers in the far pit. It looked like someone had gotten hurt or something. She couldn’t tell from where she stood if it was a Redcoat or one of the other six schools competing.

“One height, Jani. You can have two jumps, but at one height.”

She gave him a
Really?
look but didn’t argue. “Five seven,” she called out to the other official and moved to her five step approach mark. She’d do one short approach to get her form over the bar and use one long approach and hope she could get it in one go.

Pressing her left foot into the mondo so her track spikes stuck, she visualized herself over the bar and took a deep breath. As she forced an exhale she ran her curve trying to force a lean and drove her knee up. She felt her calves brush the bar but shaking, it stayed up.

She hopped off the mats and moved to her full approach. She had to ask three girls to move because they sat right on her approach marking. Tall girl with extra-long legs, she was always furthest back from the standards.

Finally a clear approach, she drove out of the back. “Watch ou—”

She ran straight into the official holding the clipboard. He hadn’t been paying attention and walked straight across her approach as she was running. She hit him hard, unable to stop and sent him flying, the papers with the list of girls competing went flying everywhere.

The great feeling from yesterday was slowly dwindling into an irritated one.

“Are you alright?” she asked. “You have to watch where you’re going.” As a high jump official the guy should know that better than anyone.

“I’m okay.” He accepted the hand Jani held out to him. “You are one tall drink of water.” He rubbed his thigh.

“Did I Charlie-horse you?”

He nodded and shook his head. “Sorry about that. I forgot you were doing your run-through.” The other official handed him the sheets from the ground. “What height did you want to come in at, by the way?”

“Five six or five seven. I’ll see how long it takes before I start jumping.”

The official nodded. “I know who you are now.” He smiled sympathetically. “It’s going to be a while. After an hour, I’m allowed to let anyone who has not entered the competition to have a run-through. I’ll let you know when an hour’s up.”

“Thanks.” Jani walked back to her ten step approach and let the official clear the track this time. She ran through and easily cleared the height.
Good to go!

The bar started at a very low height. Jani switched back to her runners and put her warm up clothes back on. She watched Aileen race from the inside of the track and hugged her after she came a very close second in the sixty meter. She easily qualified for the hurdle final forty minutes from now.

It was nearly an hour before the bar finally reached 5’6”. There were six girls left, not including Jani. She decided to pass and went to speak to Coach Maves as two of the girls struggled to get over the bar on their second and third attempts.

“How are things?” Coach Maves asked.

“Just about to come in.” Jani stretched her hamstrings. “What happened at the long pit before?”

“Chrissy got hurt.”

“Is she okay?”

Maves checked her phone. “Not sure yet. One of the assistant coaches took her down to the athletic therapy room and he sent me a message a bit ago that they are going to take her for X-rays to rule out everything.”

“Crap. That sucks. I hope she’s alright.”

“Me, too. We need her this season.”

The officials dropped the bar down to raise the standards up to 5’7”.

“That looks like I’m up.”

“Good luck. I’ll be over there.” Maves pointed to the other side of the apron so she could watch Jani’s approach and take off without any distraction. “Take it easy on the lower heights. Concentrate on your approach. Just treat it like practice.”

“With a Gatica uniform on?” Jani teased. She saluted Maves. “Will do, Coach.”

There were four girls left and all three names were called before Jani’s. She tied her high jump shoes back up and pulled off her sweat pants and top. By the time her name was called, she was ready to go.

Hard drive out of the back, she felt her body naturally lean into the curve and popped up to easily clear the bar. She looked at Maves for confirmation she had done it right.

Maves nodded and pointed to her marker just before her curve. She turned her hands over and over each other to gesture that Jani needed to speed up over the curve.

Three girls made it to the next height so the bar went up two inches. Both girls ahead of Jani missed the bar. She took her place and moved her marker back half a shoe length so she could accelerate without crashing into the bar when she pushed through on her curve. She accelerated at her curve and felt her body stay too tall. She tried to make herself lean, which she knew wouldn’t help. You couldn’t fake it in high jump. It was too technical.

She managed to drive her right knee up high and clear the height. Not very prettily, but the bar stayed up so it didn’t matter.

Only one other girl cleared the height on her third attempt. The officials asked the two of them to come and speak with him. “What height would you girls like?”

The other girl requested 5’10”.  Jani would have preferred 5’11” but this meet was a training one so the more jumps she took, the better. Plus, after the last botched approach, she needed another run-through.

Jani visualized her approach and form over the bar. She ran through her approach and nailed it perfectly, flying with inches to spare between her and the bar.

The other jumper did not clear the height so Jani set the bar to 6’ and moved back to her approach. She heard Aileen cheer her name. If she made this height, it would pretty much guarantee her a spot at NCAA indoors.

The noisy track quieted as she stood at her approach marker. She drove out of the back, pushed her left leg over her right as she rounded her curve and drilled her knee up. She wanted this height. It represented a big thing by American standards. She floated over the bar and as she lifted her head to create the snap to get her calves up, she saw how much space was between her and the bar. A lot. A freakin’ lot!