Blood Relatives

3. Track Practice

"Alright – it's 3:15! Everybody at the line!" Coach Danby announced. Carmine and Luke moved towards the starting line. They'd both been on the track team since freshman year. Of course, that was before she knew about what Luke was.

Carmine had always known Lucas Volk was fast – he'd been a runner since they were in elementary school. And even though she wasn't bad herself, she'd always been a little jealous of him. It was just that he was so good, and he hardly seemed to put any effort into it.

Of course, her dad told her that Luke worked just as hard as she did. Just because he didn't look like he was going to collapse at the end of every race didn't mean he wasn't tired. But her dad had never seen Luke in practice. He was barely winded after sets that left her wondering if she was going to throw up. It had always frustrated Carmine to no end. But last year she found out why he was so good. It didn't help much with the jealousy, but at least she didn't have such an overwhelming feeling of it not being fair anymore.

The team took off in waves – fastest in the first group, then next fastest, and so on. Carmine always thought Luke would go in the first group; after all, he was the best runner on the team. But he never did. Instead, he took off in the same group as Carmine, keeping pace with her. Carmine was just glad she was in the third group. What would Luke do if she went last? Would he really try to run with her then? Carmine grinned at the thought – there was no way Coach Danby would let that happen. She already thought he was slacking by running in the third group.

"You don't have to wait for me." Carmine told him. It was a nice gesture and all, but she knew it couldn't be much practice for him. Besides, it made her feel kind of slow. How could she ever hope to keep pace with someone like him – he wasn't even human!

"It's ok." Luke told her, grinning. "I like running with you."

"Really? Why?" Carmine would have thought it'd be boring.

"Couple reasons." Luke shrugged.

"...Like?"

"Well, I don't have to pretend to be tired for one – I can kind of relax, you know? Plus, it's good to keep pace with someone else."

"What – so you don't outpace the whole team?" she asked, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Luke laughed a little sheepishly.

"Something like that." he admitted, looking away for just a minute.

"Must be nice." Carmine said, doing her best to keep the bitterness from showing. She could only imagine what it must be like to be Luke – having to worry about going too fast. If only her problems were more like that!

"Actually, it's not as nice as you'd think." Luke told her, reading her face.

"Why's that?" she asked.

"I almost didn't get to join the team at all."

"How come?" Carmine panted. Luke might not be winded, but Carmine was starting to feel it.

"A lot of people thought I might attract too much attention."

"What changed...their minds?" Carmine managed to ask after a minute. How was it possible that Luke wasn't even a little tired?

"A three-month debate before freshman year." Luke said, grimacing a little at the memory. "And I pointed out that everyone else was playing football. Seems like a bigger risk to me."

"Yeah?" Carmine managed to say.

She wanted to ask him why, but she didn't really have the air for it at the moment. Fortunately, they'd been doing this for long enough that Luke was used to it by now. For the most part he kept up their conversations, and Carmine only had to contribute a little.

"Having like half the team being made up of extra-fast, extra-strong guys?" he asked. He looked at her, and she nodded.

She could definitely see Luke's point. Still, she couldn't help but wonder how he'd actually managed to win that argument. She was pretty sure that if everyone she knew thought she'd end up exposing their biggest secret, there was no way she would have gotten to join the team. Even if his argument was airtight, how had he gotten them to go along with it?

Carmine wanted to ask, but she was getting pretty tired; keeping pace with Luke was always hard. The only way she managed to struggle through it as long as she did it was by convincing herself it made her a better runner.

"Anyway, they decided to let me – obviously." Luke said. "But a lot of people weren't happy with me. Still aren't." Luke added darkly. He glanced behind him, making sure no one had snuck up behind them. Carmine would have laughed if she had the breath to spare. Luke had great hearing – wouldn't he know if anyone was about to pass them?

"Sorry." was the only thing Carmine managed to say.

She would have thought whoever had a problem with Luke would be over it by now. Sure, he was definitely the best runner on the team, but he wasn't abnormally good. At least, not that he'd ever shown. Was there something else going on?

Carmine thought back to that conversation at lunch. She wanted to ask about it, but she was too tired by this point. Besides, they'd almost made it back around to the beginning of the track. Coach Danby and a few students were already there, and Carmine knew it wouldn't be a good time to ask. And she had to ask herself: did she really want to know anyway? She already had more than enough problems of her own without taking on Luke's too.

They finished their set and Carmine grabbed her water. Luke did the same, but he didn't look nearly as winded as everyone else.

"Don't get too comfortable." Coach Danby told everyone. "We're going again in thirty seconds. And Volk, you're in group one this time."

Luke grimaced.