ZACK’S POV
The stadium was filled with athletes, their family and friends and the huge crowd of audience who were deadly excited to see their beloved athletes perform their best. They all were hell bound on cheering for their favorite athletes at the top of their voices. Various announcements were being made about the sports venues and finally, after a long wait, the championship trophies were brought up to the stage for display.
The Championship trophy was a huge golden colored one which was similar to the Zonal championship’s symbol. It was the symbol of unity, sportsmanship and victory. Winning this trophy could become an athlete's honor of earning what he deserved!!!
Under the great influence of Dash and Will, I had finally decided to participate in the zonal championship with Coach David as my mentor. It was the first time I was going to run through the tracks under the guidance of a mentor other than my dad. But that didn’t matter anymore because whatever life had shown me in my near past, I had found myself and overgrown from my fears. He had finally learned that it wasn’t dad’s presence in my life that made me, me but his teachings and upbringing. Along with his memories, the lessons I learned from Zoe also had a huge impact in me and now I’m not the old I anymore, in fact, I kind of love this new version of I. What to do, this I is so fresh, alive and charismatic that the cold bad boy her was!!!!
As of Caroline, we had no contact with her until Zoe took the initiative to send her a mail. And in return, what came was her therapy reports. Caroline didn’t feel embarrassed to let us know how it was going for her and we were sincerely happy for how her life was going with her new avatar.
Apart from all that, the 3 of us were very happy to be back on tracks together. Luckily, Zoe and Mike had also come to cheer for us. It had been months I had seen her after I started concentrating completely on my training and she, on her recovery. And these 3 months was the best time of my life after the big storm had ended!!!!
Zoe had also turned into a new version of herself which she said was influenced by me. She had cut her hair short which made her look so damn gorgeous and most importantly, cute!!! And she now no longer needed to be on stretcher anymore as she had made full recovery from her PE and the aftermath of the surgery. That was the biggest relief I got before the championship started. And Mike, he was just the same as he was. Nothing about him had changed and no one wished to see such a big disaster because he was the perfect combination of everything he needed to be!!!
“I see that you boys are on form today. All the best to set the tracks on fire” Zoe teased us and wished us good luck. Her tone had a kind of hidden trigger to it and seeing the opportunity, I took some steps closer to her. That move of my perplexed her and she looked at me blankly.
“What would I get if I do set the tracks of fire?” I asked her in a seductive tone and bit my lips.
“Shut up I” Zoe nervously laughed and pushed me away from her with a heavy blush.
“Did you just blush??” Dash accidentally popped up from nowhere and asked Zoe.
“Nope. She's burning in wrath” I couldn’t hold my laughter as I teased her.
Me and Dash broke into a heavy laughter seeing her turn redder in embarrassment. And to her rescue came Mike and Will or so we thought!!!
“Now whose teasing our sis here?” they snarled at us with a teasing tone directly hinting at Zoe.
“Oh, you it's me against the boy gang huh?” Zoe frowned with a cute pout and once again, we all laughed our hearts out. And in between this one crazy hearty moment, I pulled Zoe towards me and have her a tight hug as the boys adored our love.
To be honest, this was the very first time I had seen Zoe live her moments so freely. Even though she had fully recovered from her medical emergencies, her therapies were still going on. Now, after letting go of her broken and shattered past completely, Zoe was ready to return back to the tracks and continue with her training. I couldn’t help but reminisce the happiness I saw on her face when her doctor had given her that news. Oh my god, she was on cloud nine when she got that news and had squeaked and cried her heart out for finally being ready to live her dream life.
Stella was also there with them. I joked with Zoe and asked her to learn from them so that she could participate in the next championship with them to which she happily agreed and they laughed on. Months had passed since their life inthe town and the championship had finally arrived. It was the championship for which his dad had struggled for. It was his dream. Now it was his. All three of the boys were dressed up and were warming up for their respective events. I had overcome all his fears. He had got a chance to understand life and learn from the two most important people in his life, his dad and Zoe. He was back to the old I mode. Dash and Will were at the extreme point of happiness as their brother’s life was finally settled. Their events were announced. The very first event was the 400m race. They were amazed on their fate. Stella came to them with a watch in her hands. Three of them looked at her. She told them that it was Grover’s. She wished to give it as a reward for the athlete among them who would win the race their coach had dreamed of. I was at the peak confidence and challenged his brothers on who was going to win. Winning or losing never bothered these brothers. They had their friendship out of tracks. In tracks they were rivals as always.
“let’s see about it” Dash and Will smirked at me as they told me in a challenging tone!!!
As the old times, we were placed on the consecutive tracks with me in the middle, Dash to my right side and Will to my left. We looked at each other with a confident smile for one last time and took our positions. My heart raced as just like it was the first race of my life. And whilst all these, I closed my eyes as I sat down to get ready. For a second’s time, everything around me froze and all I could think of was one person and it was my dad. Reminiscing our beautiful times together, I gave out a deep sigh and opened my eyes. And there he was, on the finishing line, like a blurred hologram figure, smiling at me with a proud eye.
“Dad, I have redeemed myself and this race......it's for you” with a moist eye, I whispered to dad in my head and was ready to slay the track down.
A few seconds later, the mic from the announcer’s desk bawled......
“GET…...SET…… Go” the gun was shot with all of us runners shooting like bullets towards the finishing line. For me and my buddies, this wasn’t just a dream race but rather, it was a race that welcomed new beginnings in the life of all of us, our dreams and to my beautiful love story…
And back on the beaches of Beverly hills, as usual, the lighthouse stood like a proud warrior who had given yet another beautiful ending to a love story. It still shone bright at night waiting for many other new stories to be heard of…...
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