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Izzy Barr retied the laces on her running shoes. Once the laces were nice and tight, she finished her jumping jacks. Mr. Tipton, the Franklin School P.E. teacher, wouldn't let Mrs. Molina's third graders start running until they had done some exercises to warm up. Izzy knew this was important, but it was hard to wait.
"All right, Miss Izzy," Mr. Tipton finally told her, grinning. "All right, everybody. Now it's time to run."
Izzy took off around the track that rimmed the school's athletic field. Two of the boys in her third-grade class-Simon Ellis and Cody Harmon-were only a bit behind her. Izzy's two best friends, Kelsey Green and Annika Riz, were way behind them. Kelsey loved reading, not running. Annika loved math, not running. But in Izzy's opinion, everyone should love running-or at least like running-especially on this cool Friday morning in May, with its gentle breezes urging them on: Faster! Faster!
Then someone pulled ahead of Izzy. It was the only person in Izzy's class-girl or boy-who was faster than she was: Skipper Tipton.
Skipper Tipton: Mr. Tipton's daughter.
Izzy picked up her pace.
Skipper picked up her pace, too.
Finally, on the last stretch of the school track, Izzy pulled ahead of Skipper.
They finished the lap with Izzy just one step ahead.
Whew!
Maybe Izzy would be the fastest runner on third-grade Field Day at the end of next week. And then maybe she'd be the fastest kid her age in the citywide 10K race held on Memorial Day, just three days after Field Day. A 10K race was long-10K meant 10 kilometers, which meant 6.2 miles-but not as long as a whole 26.2-mile marathon. Still, definitely a very long way.
Izzy had been training hard for the 10K race for almost two months now in the Franklin School Fitness Club, coached by Mr. Tipton, as well as doing longer runs on the weekend at home. But Skipper Tipton was training hard with the Fitness Club, too. And she had a P.E. teacher and running coach as her father.
Izzy's father wasn't a teacher or a runner; he was a foreman in a factory just outside of town. And sometimes he didn't even come to her races or softball games because he was too busy attending the sports events of her half brother, Dustin. If only her dad would come to Field Day and the 10K race to see her cross the finish line bothtimes first-ahead of Miss Skipper Tipton!
At least Izzy had come in first today. She couldn't keep herself from grinning.
As if to show how little she cared, Skipper tossed her long blond ponytail.
Then Skipper's face brightened with satisfaction as she stooped down and made a big show of retying the laces on her shoes.
Izzy stared at Skipper's feet. "You got new shoes!"
Skipper's new shoes were the coolest, most beautiful model of running shoes: bright blue with silver arrows along the sides. Izzy had wanted a pair exactly like them forever.
"They cost a hundred dollars," Skipper said. "My dad bought them for me last night at the mall. He said they'll make me run even faster."
Izzy looked down at her old, scuffed running shoes. Well, they weren't that old or that scuffed. But they were discount-store shoes bought on sale. They were dingy gray, not bright blue. They didn't have any silver arrows.
"Your new shoes didn't make you run faster today," Izzy couldn't resist pointing out.
"They're not broken in yet," Skipper said. "But they'll be broken in by Field Day. And definitely in time for the 10K race."
Skipper smiled smugly and retied her already perfectly tied laces one more time.
Annika and Kelsey finished their laps, walking at the end, not running. Izzy was grateful to have an excuse to leave Skipper and go over to join them.
"Skipper has brand-new running shoes," Izzy told her friends as they plopped down on the grass to rest before practicing some of the other Field Day events: long jump, high jump, softball throw. On Field Day there would be other just-for-fun things, like a goofy race with kids bouncing along on huge hoppy balls, but Mr. Tipton didn't have the kids practice for those.
"You're still a better runner than she is," Kelsey said, pushing her straight brown hair back from her face.
It wasn't true, but Izzy was glad Kelsey had said it.
Annika fanned herself with the end of one of her long blond braids. Annika's hair was even longer than Skipper's. "I bet she'll brag about her shoes all the time," Annika said.
That was true.
"Look at Mr. Boone!" Kelsey said then.
Izzy could hardly believe her eyes. Finishing the lap around the track last of all was their school principal.
He must have joined the lap partway through; Izzy hadn't seen him at the start of the run. Mr. Boone was chubby, and he was wearing his regular principal clothes-suit and tie-so he looked silly puffing along behind everyone else. But Mr. Boone never minded looking silly. He had shaved off his big, bushy beard once for a school reading contest. He had let himself be dunked twenty-seven times at the school carnival. Now he was pretending to train for Field Day.
When he puffed across the finish line, far behind even the slowest students, he clasped his hands together and raised them high in a victory cheer.
The kids all laughed. Everyone loved Mr. Boone.
"Keep-on-running!" Mr. Boone gasped. Izzy knew he was acting more winded than he actually was. He mopped his brow with his handkerchief. "Go-Mrs.-Molina's-third-graders!"
Then, giving a final wave, he jogged off slowly toward the school building, his tie flapping.
Izzy planned to keep on running, even with her old, uncool shoes.
The only trouble was that Skipper Tipton was going to keep on running, too.
And Skipper had brand-new, bright blue shoes with silver arrows.
Text copyright © 2015 by Claudia Mills
Pictures copyright © 2015 by Rob Shepperson
