The Loneliest Caster

Chapter 4

Stacey doesn’t answer as she looks to the course in front of her. Tires line the ground, a high wall with a rope, obstacles to jump over, and many other things for her to conquer today. She steps up to the start and pulls her watch to her face. She takes a large breath then hits the stop watch taking off running. Her breath comes evenly as she zooms through the first few obstacles. Her heart rate starts to rise as she grabs the rope and begins to climb the wall. Sweat begins to bead on her forehead as she drops down the other side. Soon her shirt is sticking to her as she crawls on her belly under twine wrapped around sticks. Her breath starts to really labor as she picks up a paint gun and aims at a moving target. Shot after shot she hits her target as she moves between barrels getting closer to the targets. She calls her heart to slow and takes deep calming breaths as she wills herself to gain control. It becomes a dance for her, smooth graceful steps as she quickly moves through the course. Then she finds herself at the newest addition. She carefully stores her gun and takes a second to assess. Mark has installed wooden walls designed for her to hurtle over, each progressively getting taller.

“Cool,” Stacey says with a wicked smile. She stands for a second and takes a deep breath before taking off running to the wall. Short just a quick skip over it, the second just making her knee pull up, but the farther she goes the higher they get. She starts to labor in breathing and grunting with each leap. Her thighs start to burn, but she pushes forward. Then her calves start to sing, even her toes begin to protest. “Come on only three more, you can do this.” She barley makes the next one using her hand to vault her body over it. The second to last wall she has to use her finger tips to grab the top and use one foot on the side to thrust herself over it. The last wall stands a little farther away and she flexes her fingers at the height, I may not make this one. She decides she needs to get enough momentum to run up the front and grab the top, use her upper body strength to throw her foot up, and then pull her entire body over. She doesn’t skip a beat as she comes up to the last wall and plants her foot against it trying to grip and compel her body up. Her other foot goes to make contact with it and she throws her hands up to try to grab the top, but her first foot slips and she slams her face into the wall falling backward landing on her back. The little bit of air she has in her lungs is thrown out and she makes a croak as she tries to take a breath. She rolls to her side trying again to bring air into her chest.

“Breath! Slow, don’t freak out it takes a few seconds,” Mark yells as he runs up to her grabbing her under the arms and lifting her to her feet. Stacey nods as she is finally able to gasp air into her lungs. Mark checks her face grabbing her chin and turning it left and right, up and down. “That’s going to leave a black eye I think.”

“ARE YOU CRAZY?! Why in the high heaven would you install such a tall wall without a rope?! How am I supposed to get over it?!” Stacey yells yanking her chin out of his hand and bends over trying to take deep breaths.

“Well I guess I got a little over excited when designing this one. You zip through all of the other ones so fast, I wanted to give you a real challenge. I once had to climb over a brick wall this high to catch a would be robber,” Mark says putting his hands on his hips and looking to the wall, which Stacey just realized is actually two stacked on top of the other.

“Mark you are almost a foot taller than me!” Stacey pants begging her lungs to stop screaming.

“Meh I figured you could find a way. I’ll take it down tomorrow,” Mark says patting Stacey on the head as he heads back into the house. “I made some snacks they are on the table when you’re ready. I have to make a trip into town I’m going to be gone for a few hours. Take a break and watch a movie or something, don’t do the course while I’m not here. If you get hurt there won’t be anybody here to help you.”

“Ya, ya,” Stacey says waving him off as she finally catches her breath, but then her face suddenly throbs with pain. She groans and quickly follows him into the house. Mark leaves as Stacey grumbles making herself a plate of fruit. She sits down at the kitchen table facing the back window and looks at the course as she eats, holding an ice pack to her face. Her phone goes off and she checks her messages to find Amanda texting her.

Hey u ok?

Im fine. Mark is a big mouth.

I havent talkd 2 Mark rude, I just felt like u may need me.

O, well then nm, all peachy :)

Stacey…

I fell and hurt my face :(

And that makes u upset y?

Im not upset, what makes u think im upset?

O no reason u just soundd upset

My text soundd upset???

Shut up, ill leave u alone

No, no. I just havent come across anything in his course that I had real trouble w u know?

Ya, I know you dont think so, but its not a big deal if u dont make it over 1 stupid wall

……….how did u know it was a wall???

Amanda!!!!

Hellooooo

O sorry I just assumed it was a wall

Ok…..

U know u have been on a role here latly on guessing things

Dont change the subject, use this as encouragement that you now have something to train for, ya?

Ya youre right, I can work in more leg and arm exercises for this…

Theres the spirit ;)

Thx :)

Stacey smiles at her phone and her heart sings at how much Amanda means to her. No one in the world understands her like Amanda. Her phone goes off again and her heart skips a beat as the name James flashes on her screen. She quickly unlocks it and opens it to find a picture of him sitting in the driver seat of a brand new truck captioned “my parents trying to buy my love”. Stacey snickers and begins to over analysis the picture. The truck is black and she can tell that they opted for all the bells and whistles as a large screen is mounted in the dashboard. He hasn’t talked about what his parents did over the summer, but it made him mad enough that he abruptly left to his aunt’s house out of town. His text was short and he didn’t answer any calls that day. When he came back he did call her first. He refused to talk about it, just that they really hurt him by keeping a secret. Stacey’s mind came up with wild theories, but Amanda told her it wasn’t their business so Stacey dropped it. It seems he’s at least speaking to them again. Her heart stops and it seems like the room grows cold as she spots a hand in the corner of the picture holding on to the window. Perfectly glittered manicured nails, all of a sudden Stacey is hot, red hot and she throws her ice pack into the sink from the table. She zooms in on the hand and sure enough it’s gripping the window as if she was a part of the original picture but got cropped out. Stacey can’t help herself as she sends a text without thinking.

Nice nails

???

A weird sensation rolls over her body at his question marks, did he really think she wouldn’t notice? The sensation rolls over her face and she blinks as it tinges, but she ignore it as she again shoots a text right away.

On the window u jerk

She starts to huff then her stomach turns over and the sensation running through her body stops cold. James is not her boyfriend they weren’t even “talking” in that way. If he wanted to take another girl shopping for cars he can.

Thats the saleswomans hand…

Im just jealous im not with u to celebrate ha ha lol :)

O you scared me for a second, ill see u tomorrow at school maybe u can come check it out then?

Heck ya!

Stacey lets out a breath she was holding, that was close. James would never speak to her again if she’s going to keep acting like a crazy stalker. Amanda’s right she needs to tell him how she feels, and soon. Stacey stands up and shakes out her limbs, leaving her phone on the table she decides to try the course again. She needs to let out this pent up energy, she doesn’t notice that as she walks out the door her reflection in the mirror shows a perfectly healed face.