"Of course I remember. Aris almost killed us with his driving." I say, trying to lighten up the moment even a little bit.

Leona shakes her head and laughs, looking to the ground. "Not what I was going for, but I'm glad you at least remember that," She says. "You were pretty drunk." She laughs and lays back on the couch and kicks her feet up on my legs. "So, he didn't go into the hospital for drug overdose."

She confirms me and Cor's thoughts. "I pretty much knew that already." I say.

She narrows her eyes at me. "Smarty," She says, before continuing on. "So, he actually went in there to get a chip surgically implanted in him, but he didn't need people suspicious over why he went in. So, he decided a plan to have gone in there over drugs. Guess who coordinated it all?"

"The Elders?" I ask, figuring most of this much earlier. "But what chip?"

Leona points to the inside of her wrist. "A voice recorder chip. It tracks everything said. Why? I don't know. Neither does Arius."

Glad I've never talked to Cor around Arius besides a few homework questions.

"So why did he get the chip in the first place. Not why does it record voices, but why does he have it?"

Leona widens her eyes. "Oh, this is the best part.  He works for the Elders."

Oh. I majorly dumped a major person for a guy I'm not supposed to like over stupid things. Like not remembering dates. I overreact. But I also don't care, I was being petty.

"Arius works for the Elders. How long has he known? Who beat him up and why?" I start asking questions I'm not even sure Leona has the answers to.

"He got beat up because he couldn't stay with you. He's supposed to stay with you and not just because of the Zodiac relationship. The Elders wanted it to be so." She clears her throat and stands up. "We have school tomorrow and I'm tired. I'll see you in the morning." And with that, Leona gets up and walks out my dorm.

I shut my eyes, just thinking about all the new information that I learned today.
***
Cor didn't show up to school today, and nobody seems to know why.

Cance asked around, but nobody seemed to know. Of course, she grew super worried and immediately went up to Mr. Isaac.

"Has Cor called in today?" She asks.

Mr. Isaac looks at her like she's insane in the membrane and nods. "Yeah, Cance. He called in sick. Everything is okay."

She breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. "Just checking." She goes and sits back in her seat.

My morning went pretty normal, just learning basic useless math sections, English words I'll never use in my life, how zodiacs respond to stress, and even health.

But my day never really lightened up. I might not be like Cance, but I'm still worried about Cor.

He seemed fine last night. And he told me some pretty valuable stuff. So why wasn't he at school?

And then Mr. Isaac closed down the projector. "Alright, you can go to your extra classes and sports. Finally I get a break." He laughs and lays back in his chair, facing the ceiling and closing his eyes.

I pack up my stuff and make my way to the locker rooms to change clothes.

"Wait up, Gem!" I spin and see Capri jogging up behind me.

Now, I don't get along with most of what Capri has to say, but I will admit that I like running with her. She's a good running buddy.

"Hey, Capri." I say, taking steps towards the locker room. "You ready to get smoked at practice?"

"Totally, I'll be on fire and I'll be so hot— I'll start smoking." She winks at me, as she pushes open the locker room door.

We walk in and I set my bag down, going to my locker and grabbing the clothes I bring specifically for track.

"Yes! But did you see his abs! I'm pretty sure he works out on the weekends." A girl walks in the locker room with a couple of her friends.

I stare at her a moment too long and if I don't say anything it'll be awkward.

But she beats me to it. "Hey, Gem right? I rode the Sling with you, remember?" The girl holds out her hand and I shake it, weirded out by the formality.

But I do recognize her. She's Chancler's girlfriend.

"Oh yeah, hi!" I exclaim, spraying on a crap-ton of perfume.

Capri stands at the door, waiting for me to follow her out. "Are you coming?" She taps her foot impatiently and I nod, following her out and to the track field.

We jog together around the track a couple of times, waiting for coach to show up.

Taria showed up moments later, joining us on our jog.

We might not like each other out of track, but during track it's like we don't have any problems .

"Coach is going to go hard, today, Gem. He was super pissed you missed so many practices." Taria says, panting.

I shrug. "Oh well, guess I'll just have to push a little harder."

Ten minutes later, coach Sam finally showed up. "Ah, Gem, I see you decided we were worth your time."

I hold back an eye roll and grab one of the watches from the black and white adidas bag that held everything we needed for track, besides hurdles of course.

Coach claps his hands together and everyone, meaning all fifteen of us, gather around him. "Alright, today we have something a little harder." Coach glares at me and I try hard not to sink under his gaze. It's always a bad thing when coaches are mad. They have the power to ruin your life. "We're going to run two six hundreds, two four hundreds, two two hundreds, and two one hundreds."

Six hundred meters were a lap and a half around the track, basically around the football field. Four hundred meters were just a regular lap around the football field. Two hundred meters were half a lap. And one hundred meters were only one strip down the track.

To run two of each? That's— 2600 meters making a whopping one mile and a thousand meters!

Holy crap!

It doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but we have to basically sprint four hundreds and everything below.

"Two minute breaks. As usual, every finish line you pass first in, that's two less laps you have to run in the end." Coach says, smiling menacingly.

At the end of every practice, we have to jog eight laps to "cool down".

To me it seems more like "here, here's your daily dosage of extra pain".

Because why wouldn't coach make life hard?

"Alright, line up." He blows his whistle and we separate into four groups, mostly sticking with people around our speed.

"On your marks." He holds up his hand, "six hundred" He smiles. "Go!"

Taria, Capri, and I start running as fast as we can, which is a terrible thing to do on a six hundred, and are completely out of breath half way through.

"Come on, Gem." I pump myself up, knowing I can keep myself in front of Capri. I split my watch at the first 200 meter mark, and check it at 26 seconds.

Not to shabby, not to shabby. I might have energy later, towards the end.

I hear Capri breathing hard behind me and I struggle to stay ahead, but I have to. I have to stay ahead.

I split my time at the second 200meter mark and smile. 27 seconds. I'm dying, but I'm dying on a role.

I know that on the last 200 meters, you really have to pump your arms. Your legs are dead yes, but it's your arms you have to watch.

I pump them as fast as I think I can and cross over the finish line, clicking my split and checking. 31 seconds to run the last 200meters.

"Overall time of 1 minute and 24 seconds, good work, Gem. 9 seconds faster an you'd beat the world record." Coach laughs, hitting my shoulder lightly.

I throw my hands behind my head and breath in through my nose and out my mouth, no matter how much I want to suck in a large gulp of air.

"And a total of five more laps to go. Times can only get better." I pant as the other groups come in, having started at different times. "Plus the laps you'll have to run to cool down..."

"Coach, I'm so tired. I can't—" I pant.

He looks at me like I grew another head. "Gem, don't let a hurdle block your path to success, jump over it like it was never there."

And for some reason, that piece of advice seems like something I could use throughout life and not just in track.

Since when did sports advice become more than sports advice?

"You okay, Gem?" Capri asks, panting next to me.

"Totally fine." I reply, only stating the truth. In fact, I felt better than I have in forever.

The only obstacle between me and Cor is the law.

I'm going to jump over it like it's not there.

How do we like the new cover??? Hmmmm hmmmm???? I like it, it seems more romancy. This wasn't a huge chapter, but it did kind of reveal a little bit. It reveals the determination in Gem, and also how she's completely not going care about the rules anymore.

It's a shorter chapter, but it's two in the morning and I had an idea and was like "must not sleep until finished".

Hope you like it and...

As always, stay happy, stay gold,
-Dani_Kail