THE PRINCIPAL knocked on the class door. Mae was looking around. This school was to be twice as big as the one she used to go. Miss Lilja praised the school for 20 minutes before finally walking her to her classroom. It was the first day back to school after Christmas but for Mae it was also her first day at a new school, a boarding school furthermore, and to say that she wasn't stressed would be a lie.

      The woman opened the door and motioned for her to follow her inside. All the students stood up when they saw the principal and she motioned for them to sit down again while Mae entered the room, clutching the strap of her tote bag to give herself a countenance.

      "Class, this is Maeva Ström. She will be joining your class for the end of the year. She transferred from Engelska to join the athletics team. Please, do your best to make her feel welcome." the headmistress said and everyone nodded. She turned to Mae and held out her hand. "Welcome to Hillerska."

      The girl shook her hand. "Thank you."

      As the principal was leaving the room, Mae's eyes met a boy's. He had strawberry blonde hair and his blue eyes were staring at her. When he noticed she was looking at him, he grinned. She gave him a shy smile and turned to look at the teacher.

      Henry kept staring at her. Her brown hair was tied in a ponytail and she was wearing a black top with a long green skirt who was fell just above her Converses. She was really pretty.

      The teacher looked down at her sheet to check the name of the new girl. "Well, Maeva—"

      "Sorry." she interrupted her. "Just Mae, please. No one calls me Maeva. Sorry."

      "Well, okay, Mae, it is." the older woman nodded. "I'm Miss Ramirez. You may sit down."

      "Thank you." she quickly replied before going to the only sit that wasn't already taken.

      As she was taking out her stuff from her bag, the girl next to her leaned over and smiled. "Hi, I'm Madison."

      "Nice meeting you." Mae nodded with a soft smile.

      "I'll show you around if you want to."

      "Thanks."

★

      Mae tied her hair into a ponytail and put on the school sweatshirt before heading out onto the athletics track. Hillerska had a gigantic stadium with a football field in the center of the athletics track and some huge stands. Some students were in the stands to watch training, others to study or eat. The other girls on the team had already started warming up.

      "Hey!" one of the girls jogged over Mae. "I'm Britt, the captain of the team."

      "Hey, I'm Mae." she nodded with a smile.

      "I heard you were an awesome runner." the Ström girl shrugged with an embarassed laugh and Britt grabbed her arm. "Come on, I'll introduce you to the rest of the team."

      They joined the other girls and Britt told her everyone's names but to be honest, Mae didn't remember them all. She had to admit that she was quite impressed. There were girls from all classes, even third years, and they looked way much taller and more muscular than her. Thinner too. More perfect.

      Mae began to stretch. There were more and more people settling into the stands. As she leaned down to touch her feet, she turned her head towards Britt.

      "Are there always so many people coming to watch the training?"

      "No, it's because it's your first day." one of the girls answered. "The headmistress told us that you got a scholarship because you're a really good runner. She's been bragging about you for so long, I guess people are curious to see if it's true. We all are, to be honest."

     "Oh, okay."

      Mae was feeling anxious now. Were these people really all there to watch her run? Did the headmistress really count on her that much? It was a lot of pressure all of a sudden.

      She cast discreet glances towards the stands. She recognized a number of people from her class. She didn't know all of their names, except for Madison and her friends, but she recognized the faces. She noticed the boy with ginger hair from earlier. He was sitting with the prince Wilhelm and a bunch of boys.

      "Okay, girls, are you ready?" the coach approached the group.

      "Yes, coach." they all replied.

      "We'll start with a few laps of the track to warm up. Five laps for all, come on!" the woman exclaimed before blowing her whistle. The girls started jogging around the field. Even though it was just the warm-up, none of them were lagging behind. They were all very talented and knew how to keep the rhythm. Mae may have been the best runner on her team in Engelska but here she was like the others. Or even less good than them.

★

      "How was your first day?" her mother asked her that night.

      Since it was the first day, Mae had come home to tell what Hillerska was like, then she would only come home on weekends since it was more than an hour by bus between her house and the school.

      "It was fine. People seem nice."

      "What about the girls on the team? What do they look like?"

      Of course that was the only question that really matters to Louisa Ström. Mae shrugged. "They're all very good. I'm going to have to hang on if I want to be the best."

      Her mother nodded and motioned for her to step on the scale. She looked at the weight displayed and shook her head. "That's not how you're going to get there. You need to lose a little more weight. I think it's better that you don't eat tonight."

      "But I'm hungry." Mae exclaimed.

      "It will do you some good. Do you think you'll be the best on the team if you look like a whale? Stop complaining. Sometimes we have to suffer to achieve our goals." her mother replied in a tone that left no room for discussion.

      Mae put on her pajamas and returned to the dining room. Her father had just finished preparing the meal and was serving her little brother.

      "Why don't you come back every night?" Elio complained.

      "Because it's a long ride, honey." replied his sister, ruffling his hair. "But we'll see each other every weekend."

      Meanwhile, Louisa removed her daughter's plate and put it in the cupboard. Mae sat next to her brother and watched silently as her family was eating. Her parents asked Elio lots of questions, as usual. Sometimes Mae felt like she was invisible. Her parents were hoping that Elio would take over the company someday.

      Their father had worked very hard to start his own business and he had succeeded quite recently actually since it was only about ten years ago. So he hoped that his son would be at the helm in a few years. Of course, they hadn't offered Mae anything. Often, she thought she was only there to smile and make the family look good. "Be beautiful and don't talk." The only time their mother was speaking to Mae was to tell her to watch her weight. That was tough.

      Actually, she knew her mom wasn't wrong. She saw the girls at training. They were awesome runners and Mae was just one of them. They were all so pretty and thin. Her mother was right, she needed to lose more weight and gain muscle. That was the only way she could surpass the other girls.

— i'm so excited for this story i hope y'all will like it <33