{"id":4935,"date":"2020-04-11T20:58:26","date_gmt":"2020-04-12T03:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harperkingsley.net\/blog\/?p=4935"},"modified":"2023-10-17T23:32:36","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T06:32:36","slug":"fleet-on-her-feet-news-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/fleet-on-her-feet-news-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"Fleet On Her Feet; News Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fleet On Her Feet<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was fast. She’d always been fast. She could twist and bend her upper body out of the reach of grasping hands while her legs kept moving<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was liquid mercury. No one could catch her. She liked to see them try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And they tried. Oh did they try.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their scuffed shoes barely seemed to touch the ground, laces near always up in the air as they lunged after her. She would have laughed in their faces if she had the time, but she was goal oriented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flag fluttered at her waist, cloth brushing against the back of her thigh as she dodged and sped, arms firm around the canvas wrapped book she clutched in her arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She could hear the shouts of the watching crowd. Her teammates were the loudest, calling out their encouragement from the sidelines. She was the last of her team left on the field, but as a flag-carrier she was not a hunter but prey. She needed to wait out the clock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She dodged and dashed. She forced herself to breathe even when the pounding of feet brought dust into the air. She moved to clearer parts of the field, but she did not slow and she did not rest. She wondered how much time was left on the clock, but could only focus on her legs and the hands reaching for the flag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She spun on her heel–letting a boy taller than her tumble by her knee–and leapt<\/em> out of the grasping crowd to land near four feet away. She used that bit of lead to carry her as far from them as she could go while still staying on the playing field. She could see how tiredness had them lag off the mark–they’d been much quicker when they’d first met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She’d trained hard for her speed. She’d watched her legs form muscle and definition from the baby fat and it had filled her with a fierce satisfaction. She liked the play of muscle under her skin. She liked the sense of strength, of capability, of pure physicality as she told her body what to do and it did it even as her thoughts formed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She felt like a streak of light. Their fingers couldn’t even brush against her. She was too fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She glanced at the crowd long enough to see her best friend jumping up and down, screaming<\/em> at her in sheer excitement. It pushed her to move faster, jump further, and, just when the referee was bringing his arm up to end the match…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She felt<\/em> him coming, sensed him more than saw him, and was moving before she caught the blur of motion approaching from her peripheral view. She’d attended four ballet lessons just to learn the “fairy princess spin” she’d craved<\/em>, and it was with a sense of glee that she used it now, twisting her upper body to the right, then pushing off with the toe of her left foot while spinning her upper body back around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She twirled in the air to land lightly on her feet. The boy that had nearly gotten her flag hit the ground with an audible thud and a puff of air. From his face, he was frustrated but unhurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She barely spared him a glance before her best friend was on her, arms closing around her shoulders from behind while joyous screams filled her ears. “You did it! You did it!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We did it!” She grinned and hugged back with one arm, her other still holding the book. She hadn’t noticed the weight while running, but her arms were telling her she would be aching later. She didn’t care. “We all did it. We worked together and we did it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We won!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\/END<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NEWS RECAP:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Day seven of lockdown, and all hope of getting any work done has now vanished, partly due to a widespread influx of highly distracting desk weasels… pic.twitter.com\/OAy2WatmVi<\/a><\/p>— Dick King-Smith HQ (@DickKingSmith) March 30, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote>