The Strong Weak Heart
As I came around the corner, finishing my relays, I made my way toward the high jumps. As I jumped, Brian made his way right behind me. The announcer waits for Brian and I to finish our high jumps, and run toward and past the finish line before announcing the winner. Now we were,evenly,fast, catching up with one another. The announcer began to make the final announcement for the meet,

“The winner is…”

Before all that, let me go back to how I got myself into this mess. It started during my last class period, before winter break began when Cassidy Broheimer had asked if I was going to join the track and field team in the spring.

“I haven’t thought about it yet, but I might.”
“Well, let me know if you decide to join so I can tell our coach to get you a uniform.”
“Alright. See you later Cassidy.”
“See you John.”
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Brian, a student from one of our rival schools and my personal nemesis since middle school, had been listening in on the conversation, and after Cassidy left he came over and said,

“Hope you don’t embarrass yourself if you join. The first thing you got to be is fast, and I’m the fastest runner in the county.”

“We’ll see Brian. I intend to join the team and only do the best that I can.”

“That’s cute, can’t wait to see you’re “best.” With that, he left and everyone was on their way home to enjoy being lazy or busy bees during their Christmas break.

Me, I’m neither one of them. I chose to just go through my normal routine. Something came up; Cassidy came over and asked if we could go somewhere together. I didn’t have a problem with this. She planned for us to go to some theme park called Busch Gardens, I had never been because I never had a need to, nor wanted to. So as you can tell, it’s my first time to go to a theme park, especially with a girl. I kept asking myself,

“Is this two friends going somewhere for the fun of it, or is this my first date?”
Well this had me wondering, am I that good of a friend and that cool of a guy that Cassidy would actually want to spend time together outside of school?

When we got there, she took me to the three best rides in her opinion, the first was Kumba 2nd Cheetah Hunt, 3rd SheiKra. SheiKra scared me the most with it being my first time on it. After that, we went to a Smoke House Restaurant where we sat and hung out for a bit to relax.
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“So how do you like it so far?”

“It’s definitely thrilling and exciting.”

She didn’t say anything for a moment, only stared appreciatively.

“Is there something on my face?”

“Oh, no. Sorry for that I was just off in a daze.” We continued to chat for a while then headed for the fireworks show. As we sat in the field and watched the fireworks go off, I turned to look at Cassidy. Her eyes sparkled and glistened in the light of the explosions, and her hair swayed in the evening breeze. With that breeze, she began to shiver.

“Here, take my jacket.”

“Thank you John.” At that moment, our hands touched, and both of us blushed and jumped at this. Still we watched the show now with Cassidy resting her head on my shoulder.

Later on in December, Cassidy and I got together just before Christmas at Hollister at Wiregrass Mall. She asked me if I could help her with her Christmas shopping. We shopped for her brothers Garret and Sam, who had served in the military for five years. Then we’d gone to Macy’s for her mom and her aunt. Sadly, her father had passed away only last month. Cassidy had been too sad to share this with her other friends, because they all had admired her dad and wished they all had had him as their dad.

“Please don’t tell anyone about this, I don’t want any of my other friends to worry about me.”
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“Don’t even think about it, I won’t say a word to anyone.”

“Thank you John. That means a lot to me.”
This was the first time I’d heard about this, and I had asked her about her father. I felt stupid, but how was I to know, she hadn’t told anyone.

After the shopping, we stayed for a Christmas lightshow. The people there, including some of Cassidy’s girlfriends: Brouqe, Emma, and Mindy were serving hot chocolate to the public who were there to see the show and were surprised to see her with me. They had begun to ask a question, but Cassidy stopped them in mid-sentence. I wasn’t sure what that was about, but I didn’t pay mind to it. The lightshow began and then ended, and we went to our own homes. As I made my way to my car, Brian was waiting for me at my car with a few of his buddies.

“Sup scrawny. I had just found out something that you may already know, but I thought I would just tell you just in case.”

“Well, I’m sure you could have come to me without your little friends here.”

“Yeah, but I figured I might bring them along just in case, because you don’t know who you could run into.”

“What is you reason for coming to see me?”

“Your condition.” At that moment I froze.

“How do you know?”
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“Just know that that will get in your way when you join the team.” With that, he and his pals left.


I went on and enjoyed Christmas break, I wasn’t going to let myself get worried about what Brian said to me. I knew he’s right about it. I joined Cassidy and her family for Christmas Eve and morning. It was my first Christmas with anyone; it was the best time I ever had with anyone. Cassidy and I watched the starry night from the roof of the house, I was about to suggest we go back into the house, but Cassidy had something to say.

“Do you enjoy being here with me?”

“Course I do. What made you think I don’t?”

“You’ve seemed to of had your mind somewhere else, like you’ve been worried about something.”

“I’ve just been thinking of my parents.”

“What about them?”

“That it was just last year, on a night just like this that we all went out to join a Christmas party, but my parents and older sister forgot me. They had called the house to see if I was there and alright, but as I was talking to my mom, I heard an explosion and the call ended. They had been hit by a drunk driver, who hit the front of the car and the engine exploded.”

“Man, I thought that losing my dad was hard, but you’ve been living alone ever since.”
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“No. My uncle took me in, though we’re family, he doesn’t treat me like family. I guess he blames me for my sister and parent’s death.” Things were quiet after that, and we didn’t talk much either. We didn’t get together for the rest of our Christmas break; she hadn’t called, not once.


Our break ended and school began, and still Cassidy and I were distant after Christmas Eve. I’m not even sure why the two of us are being distant from one another. This didn’t last long, because on the first day back to school track and field began. We had our first meet in only three days, so for the next three days, we were conditioning for the entire time of practice. Everyone did well, and before we knew it, it was the day of our first meet. Everyone did what they were assigned to do in the meet, and now I caught you up to speed on how I got myself into the mess I’m in. Now I’ll tell you how it all ends. The announcer began

“The winner is … John Gates in first place, Brian Smith in second. Even I was in shock, so was everyone else. After a pause of astonishment they all cheered with pride in their hearts. The whole team came to congratulate me for finishing in first place; even Cassidy came to congratulate me. We went to celebrate because of me finishing in first place and because we had beaten our rival school who had always beat us every time we competed.
______________________________________________________________________________

With a sigh of relief and joy in our spirits, the team and I went from the sidelines over to congratulate John and his team, who just finished their relays. Now the team and I had something
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to be proud of, our rookie John who had just scored a first time win for us, even with our rival school’s best athlete, Brian Smith, right behind him. This was the first that we ever had a rookie become the rising star. Even with John having appeared to being healthy and in shape, something seemed off about him. After celebrating our victory, I had invited him to come over to study with me at my house, he had said that he was just to tired to study, but he said that maybe next time.

“All right then see you tomorrow John.”

“See you Cassidy.” But, John didn’t come to school the next day, but after school I went to his house to see if he was alright. What I found was something I wish could just go away like a bad dream, but the fact is that it wasn’t a dream. Next thing I did was call for an ambulance.

“The cause of death was from stress on his heart, which caused heart failure.” John had left a note for me that read:

“Thank you Cassidy for befriending me when no one else would and inviting me to your house on both Christmas Eve and morning. It meant a lot to me, and I could never forget the time we spent together. Though I never told you, I had fallen for you and everything about you, and I was never sure and I won’t ever know if you felt the same way about me. I hope you are able to forgive me for never telling you what was really bothering me on that night that we watched the starry night together. I knew what would happen if I had joined the team. I was born with a weak heart and there was nothing the doctors could do for me; this would have happened even if I didn’t join the team. My heart would have given up within a week, and I didn’t want to ruin the time I had with you by telling you this.
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Thank you for everything.

Sincerely,
Your friend, John Gates