“I figured you’d run this morning and it would be the only time we could catch up today. You’re still meeting with Hall today right?”

Dana nodded and started to stretch to keep her muscles from tightening. “We are going to go over my workout reports from over the summer and come up for my training schedule for the fall until tennis tryouts in November.” After a small pause and a slight frown she continued, “Coach wanted me down to a six minute pace by this point in the summer. I’m not even close. I was over twenty-one minutes this morning. He’s going to be pissed.”

“So your not a goddamn runner… not to say that 3 miles in twenty-one minutes is anything to sniff at… he pushes you way too hard…”

“He thinks I could make a go at it. Go pro. He has my parents convinced… hell the coaches at camp this summer agree.” Dana wasn’t bragging, she just stated it as fact with a ‘what can you do’ type gesture.  

“What do you think,” Jamie asked bluntly.

It was one of the reasons Dana loved her best friend. She was always trying to make sure that Dana was living her own life and not always doing what other people wanted.

“Honestly? I think the only place I am truly happy and all this other shit fades away is on the court. It’s where I can be me.”

It was the way in which Dana said it, that caused her friend to tilt her head in question, as if to urge her to explain what she meant by “all this other shit.”

For her part, the brunette was afraid she had said too much. She was not ready to discuss her thoughts/feelings/actions/whatever with anyone, even her best friend.

She was saved from having to continue by her dad poking his head out of the front door.

“Good morning girls.”

The girls echoed their returned greetings.

“Dana you better hustle and grab a shower before breakfast. We are meeting with your academic advisor this morning before your training session with Coach Hall.”

“Are you coming to the meeting or just mom,” the teenager asked?