Olivia Jensen is on her way to ʀᴇᴀʟʟʏ ғᴀsᴛ (sprinted) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2016-08-06 21:14:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | # past / backstory, nick choi, olivia jensen |
Who: Olivia Jensen and Nick Choi
When: April 2012!
Where: St. Louis Park, MN
What: A scout finds a scout.
April 2012, St. Louis Park, MN. Olivia is 15 going on 16, Nick is 22 going on 23. "Hey, that guy wants to talk to you." Olivia turned to face Sarah, narrowing her eyes at her teammate before she turned to aim her confusion towards the stands. "What guy?" she asked, crossing her arms protectively over the track jersey she wore and wrinkling her nose. (Girls who had never been kissed before didn't usually have guys wanting to talk to them.) "That guy, the one wearing the blue shorts in the second row." Sarah jabbed her thumb over her shoulder and grinned as Olivia's gaze sought the man out despite herself. "He's kind of cute." "I've never seen him before in my life. What if he's like, a creep?" "Aren't all guys creeps?" Sarah gave a good-natured shrug. "All he said was that he wanted to talk to the girl who won the 3200m. And then I said I'd get you, so don't let him think I'm a liar and just go over there already. Besides, if you don't, I'll tell him I won that race." "Oh, like you could ever. Not against me, anyway." Olivia tilted her head to look over at him once more, then decided it couldn't hurt to at least figure out what he wanted. (Girls who had never been kissed before didn't usually need a lot of convincing to talk to a cute guy.) Half-empty bottle of Gatorade in one hand and her duffel bag slung over a shoulder, she gestured to her aunt that she'd be ready in a couple of minutes before she walked over to the man in the blue shorts. "Hi. I won the 2-miler," she announced as means of introduction. "What's up?" Officially NIck knew he couldn't actually make any kind of offer yet, but when his sister had told him about Olivia Jensen he had been intrigued…and a little desperate to prove himself as a coach and scout. His first year had been a rocky one, almost to the point he spent most of it reconsidering his options. He wasn’t a quitter though, so instead of taking the easy way out he had stuck around and now it seemed like things might be looking up. Olivia was good, great even. Nick had seen his fair share of runners and she just had it. There was a level of relief in knowing his sister hadn’t been wrong and he hadn’t just made a trip to Minnesota for nothing. After asking one of her teammates to send her over, Nick waited patiently, well aware that this was a little odd - after all he wasn’t officially scouting her yet. “I just wanted to introduce myself,” Nick explained after Olivia asked him what was up. “I'm Nick Choi, an assistant coach with the University of Texas in Austin.” He held out his hand to shake hers as he introduced himself, and now that she knew who he was, there wasn't a bit of hesitation before she offered hers as well. “I'm pretty sure I don't need to tell you that you’re good, but damn, you are. There hasn't been a runner to come out of that regain of Minnesota like that since me, so needless to say I'm impressed.” "Yeah, I know." An obvious statement, maybe, definitely an egotistical one, but Olivia was nervous. It seemed silly; this was the reason why she'd even moved out of Mora in the first place, after all, even gone through that whole legal emancipation pain in the ass process. College track, on her own terms, had always been the light at the end of all that trouble. Still, she was only fifteen and -- Oh, right! She hadn't actually introduced herself yet. "I'm Olivia Jensen." She found herself studying his face as she withdrew her hand, wondering if this was a face she'd need to remember. If this was that moment that would make a difference, when everything would change or whatever. "I do the 1600, 3200, distance medley. 5000's my favorite, but I'm good at the other ones too." She was talking fast, hoping to impress, but the nerves were causing her to stumble over her words somewhat. "Do you want to know my PRs? Because I can -- Wait, are you from Minnesota?" Nick could understand her enthusiasm, he could remember a time when he would have rattled off all the same questions. Still, it garnered a faint smile and a chuckle from him. “Olivia, you don't need to give me all your stats,” he began, nodding as he continued in time to cut off a retort from her. “And yeah, I'm from Minnesota, Milaca actually, so right in your neck of the woods.” Nick was aware she had moved, but that didn't change the fact that she was from Mora and had spent her early track years in that area. “This isn't anything official, not yet anyway,” Nick continued, “But I thought I better come up this way and meet the track star who was challenging all my records.” Except not really since his records were all for boys track and field. Still, her successes rivaled his own and he was more than a little impressed by that. "Are you meeting anyone else?" The statement sounded cocky as hell, but she had to know: had he come up all that way just for her? How serious was this, anyway? He'd said 'yet,' after all. That had to mean something. A school wanted her; they'd sent a scout up all this way to meet her. It felt like her stomach was trying to claw its way out of her throat, like she was going to fall over if she didn't steady herself quick. Nick shook his head. “No, I just came to see you in person,” he would swing by his parents place for a day or two after this, just to justify having crossed the country. The trip itself was a success though, Olivia was a promising runner, one he was positive they would officially scout next year. “Honestly I hadn't heard there was anyone else up this way worth looking into.” Least nobody nearly as talented as she was. "Really?" She couldn't help the eager, proud grin that appeared on her face in response. "You guys think I'm good? I mean, I know I'm good, but not that --" Shit. Olivia had to get ahold of herself. She was starting to totally lose it and the last thing she needed was to make a fool of herself in front of this guy. (This cute guy.) Unsure how long she'd paused for, trying to get her nerves in check, she added, this time in a tone and cadence that was much calmer, "What can I do to make it official?" “Wait a year,” Nick answered with a the faintest of smiles. “And keep running like you're running right now and I promise you I’ll be back here to offer you a full ride.” It was a bold promise to make, but one Nick felt he could keep. “That is, unless UT Austin wouldn't interest you…” Now he might have been letting a little bit of his smartass tendencies seep through, because if he were to wager money he would say Olivia was very interested in running for UT Austin in a couple of years. "No, I'm very interested," she said insistently, echoing his thoughts without even realizing it. "I mean, I've never been to Texas, but if you're from here and you like it there well enough, I'm sure it'd be good enough for me." Besides, like, college. No one from her family had quite made it that far. "So I guess like…. I don't know, I can give you my contact info and stuff? Do you need that?" Nick wasn't about to tell this young girl how his first year in Texas had felt like the worst year of his life, he didn't need to chase her away from UT Austin before he’d even had a chance to actually offer her a scholarship to the school. “Texas has its perks,” Nick replied instead, grinning as he added. “Being able to run year round without snow is definitely one of them.” He was already pulling a business card out of his pocket (which yeah, he was still getting used to the fact he had business cards.) as he answered her last question. “Your contact information would be useful, yeah,” Nick held the card out to her. “And here’s mine.” She took it without hesitation, turning it over in her hand as though to verify its authenticity. Satisfied, barely able to suppress a grin, she nodded. "Okay. I'll text you my information." A quick glance around revealed one of Olivia’s coaches approaching them. “I should probably let you get back to your team now,” He remarked, waving at the coach who he had spoken with before the meet. “But I’ll keep in touch, Olivia.” "Good. Me, too." She looked over her shoulder at her coach, then reluctantly backed away a couple of steps. "See you next year, Nick." |