Alice watched eagerly from the starting line and called encouragement to Bette and Dana. Shane had a smirk on her face from Bette’s performance and Tina just watched, quietly admiring Bette’s speed and strength and silently appreciating the golden body.

“She’s quite fast, isn’t she?” She whispered, only half aware of the other presences.

“Oh, she’s been known to last a long time” Alice said with a smirk similar to Shane’s.

Bette and Dana were ahead of their entire set on the run back from the farthest line. Dana dropped her speed when approaching the finish but Bette gave a last push and rushed over the finish line to Alice and Shane’s whoops of congratulation.

“Well done, Bette” Dana huffed beside her, “You had me” She admitted, smiling.

“Thanks for letting me win” Bette said with a wink and turned to face Tina and to see where Kate had finished. She saw neither, instead she heard Alice mutter something sounding like “Conniving Bitch” and point to where several girls were crowding. The four jogged over to the point and saw Kate on the floor clutching her ankle in apparent agony.

“What happened, Kate? Couldn’t handle losing to a real winner?” Alice quipped. Kate snarled but accepted Tina’s hand to pull her up.

“Thank you, Tina, but I really don’t think I can stand” she whined, throwing an arm around Tina’s shoulders. Bette rolled her eyes and stepped back so that Kate and Tina could move to the stands.

Tina set the girl down on the front bench and watched as she began nursing the hurt foot. Tina stood back; the rest of the group had followed them and she found herself in between Shane and Dana. She narrowed her eyes as the coach called instructions for two girls to fetch the school nurse. She looked around and saw a few disbelieving glares and decided to speak up.

“Wasn’t it your other foot you were limping on a second ago?” Tina said and the sceptical looks turned to smug. Kate looked caught and the coach was angry.

“I’ll speak to you after class, Ms Arden” he said before calling the group back away.

Bette was delighted, she drew up to Tina’s side and looked at her side-long, smiling but didn’t say anything.

“Nice running, I’m impressed” Tina said, grinning.

“You will be” Winked Bette before running to join the group.