My Senior Year

    Coming into my senior year of high school, I was ready to take on the world. I knew I wanted to be good in cross country and keep my grades high. I wanted to stay in show choir one last year and do my best in everything I did. My close group of friends were not nearly as close as they use to be because my best friend, Abby, got a boyfriend and would spend most of her time with him. My other friend, Megan, got on my nerves a lot because every single thing I would share with her or tell her, she had to "one up" me. My other friend, Mary, who was in show choir with me also got a boyfriend and would spend all her time with him or her wannabe friends.
     The thing that bothered me the most about all my friends disappearing was that I tried all I could to make things work. Even with a busy schedule and a boyfriend at the time, I still put every effort into spending a day on the weekend with them, but they just were "too busy". I questioned what was wrong with me and what I was doing that was so bad that they did not want to be friends with me and I put myself down constantly.
 
  It all started in the summer when Abby and I went on a 13 day trip to Yosemite National Park, in California. It was with our Venture Crew group and we went backpacking, hiking, canoeing, and camping there. On the last day of our trip, we took vans out to Santa Cruz beach where we spent the day. We were all playing in the sand and water and having a good time and just as Abby always is, tried to skin board for the first time. In the end, she was hospitalized and a couple hours later came back with a broken fibula. She would not be running for a good eight weeks. That would put her at the beginning of August when our cross country team first starts practice. It was not that big of a deal at the time because I thought she would put in some good training the moment she got the cast off.

    When August came around, Abby showed up to few cross country practices. She said she had a lot going on and work was hectic. I believed her and told her that she should probably be running on her own or doing some kind of cross training. We were both team captains and had to set good examples for the team. When Abby finally came around to practice she was out of shape, obviously, but would not try in some of our easiest workouts. When school started, Abby always struggled in math and Spanish. At our high school, we had a study table twice a week where after school you would get help in your subject needed. Abby started missing many practices because she was going to study table. She would not tell coach and as I would be doing my warm-up I would see her leaving with her boyfriend, Andy, in his truck right after school. She never went to study table.

      I was furious and upset all at the same time because my best friend of almost six years was lying to me and not doing her best to get back into shape to be the number two runner again on our team. We needed her and she let our whole team down. I tried calling her and texting her many times and soon enough she turned Megan against me. I tried again and again asking if she could talk to me or spend the night one weekend so we could talk about all that's going on. I got rejected every time. After my last try, I started hearing rumors about me being obsessed with Abby and how I wanted to spend all my time with her because I was in love with her. I wanted to be just like her apparently. I was not only appalled about how she was spreading rumors, but the fact that she said all that about me, her best friend.

   I went home early that day she said all those mean things because I couldn't stand all the dirty looks I was getting in the hallway. All I wanted was the old Abby back who would help her team and coach get to the State Meet again. I cried when I got home to my mom because I have never felt so alone. All I had was Cody(my boyfriend) and my family. I would go to school alone, walk alone in the hallways, and I started going home everyday for lunch because I would have no one to sit by.

  Everything was a total blur after the Abby incident. I ended up getting hurt in cross country half way through the season and ended the season not qualifying for the State Meet. I was so upset and frustrated that I hung my head in shame. School was harder than ever with Composition, Anatomy, Stats, Spanish and Cultures through Literature every single day. I always had something going on. In the winter, I had show choir every weekend and Monday nights were rehearsal. Also, that is when I was having major problems with Cody. We were constantly fighting. Cody and I were on and off for our high school careers. We ended up breaking up in February and he left me with nobody to talk to but my mother.
     When Track came around, the weather was so bad that almost one-third of our meets were canceled or a rescheduled meet at a smaller school would be available with limited competition in the longer races. I ended up not being able to break any of my personal records because I never got the chance. To make matters worse, in March I lost the most influential person in my life, my grandpa Dean. He had dementia for the past seven years we just didn't know when it would get to its worst. My mother and grandmother were an emotional wreck and I did not know what to do.
      I qualified for the State Track Meet one last time in the 4x800m and the 1500m. We were 4A my senior year, so it was very difficult to qualify for state. I was seeded last going into the 1500m, but I did not finish last! Even with so many difficult, terrible things happening in my life all in one year, I'm glad I got to end it on a good note and coming to a school far away from my high school was a wonderful decision of mine.