Epilogue: Gretchen

Some thousand miles away, in a much warmer state, Gretchen is pouring blood, sweat and tears into her usual Friday workout. Not the sharpest of her former friends, though certainly not dumb, she got into a prestigious university through scholarship. Her sheer determination and natural talent for running made her the perfect long distance athlete. Not to mention her hatred of losing. She'd been dominating all season long, despite just being a freshman. Once the gun sounded, she went on ahead and was yet to see the back of any other runner. Her coach, a young PT graduate and failed runner, was confident that Gretchen had the potential to be a future Olympic athlete.

The scorching heat of the sun still unfamiliar to the girl who'd been raised in a colder climate. It'd taken some getting used to, and a shift in her initial schedule. Back home, Gretchen preferred to do her running after school. She always worked up a sweat and didn't want to take more time out of her day to shower before class.
That simply wasn't doable here. The sun was much more intense, and despite her African-American heritage, Gretchen didn't handle the heat very well. The fact that she did as well as she did in actual competition was more indicative of her attitude and competitiveness rather than her good genes.

And so she did her running in the morning, when the sun wasn't as intense. This meant waking up earlier than she normally preferred so she could shower afterwards. She'd tried heading straight to school the first couple of times, only opting for deodorant, but that strategy had quickly proven itself flawed. The smell wasn't too bad, but the general discomfort she felt over the course of the day made it difficult for her to focus.

Gretchen's athleticism and good looks made her popular amongst the boys on campus. The girls on the other hand weren't too keen on being involved with her. She was way too competitive, and took up a lot of space in any group she was involved in.
Paired with how thin the line between herself and the friends she had back home had become, she runner didn't have too many friends. Of all the people in her life, her coach was the one she found herself spending the most time with. Not because he was such a charmer, or good friend, but because they spent six days a week training.

The last she'd heard from her friends, she understood that Alice was on track to become an accountant. They still had their group chats, but it was mostly used by Kitty and Rebecca who'd enrolled in the same local college. Normally it'd drive Gretchen insane to have the two of them use the group chat for matters that were best discussed in DM's between the pair, but it was nice to have a window to look through as a way of knowing how things were back home. Neither Rebecca nor Kitty seemed to interested in their studies, seemingly only attending it to please their parents. In contrast, Alice seemed much too invested with her studies. Turning down any invite to hang out over holidays because she had to "study". Who studies over Christmas break anyways!? Uni didn't seem to be treating the poor girl well. She'd always struggled to communicate and work with others, never really making friends. It didn't come as a shock to anyone that she had yet to make a single friend after moving. It was only a couple hours with bus from her home town, but that distance might as well have been a whole ocean. She didn't fancy getting on any bus just to hang out with her friends, even if they were the only ones she had.

In a sense, Gretchen could relate to how Alice must've been feeling. In spite of her more extroverted personality, she felt more isolated than ever. The girls didn't like her, and the boys only seemed to wanna get in her pants. Even her coach's motive to hang out with her was purely professional. It was painfully obvious how invested he was in her career, not because he cared for her, but because he wanted to come along for the ride. As a failed runner himself, the best he could hope for was the status and prestige that came with coaching an Olympic athlete.
Regardless of his motivation, it was an indisputable fact that he was good at his job. Never being late, even by a minute, and always paying attention to the little details. Be it Gretchen's technique or her habits. This almost made Gretchen forget about the allegation made towards him. Almost.

She'd heard a rumor that his last protégé had ditched him due to sexual harassment. This was however never confirmed, and remained just that, a rumor.
Apparently, in his short time as an employed coach by the school, he'd only coached females, ones of African-American decent at that. Some said he had a thing for black girls. One could on the other hand argue that this was purely coincidence, and that his interests solemnly lied with making his trainees as good and fast as possible. That argument was however weakened when he occasionally tried to invite Gretchen to hang out and do things completely unrelated to running. In the beginning she'd shut down all his invites, and he always took it well. But lately, his proposals seemed ever the more tempting. Taking into account her lack of a social life after moving, Gretchen could really use someone to hang out with, just for the sake of relaxing and enjoying her youth. The age gap was in her eyes not an issue. Sure, eight years were a lot when considering she was only eighteen, but it wasn't really noticeable. Considering he'd lost his best years training to be a runner himself, only to have that dream crumble from underneath him, Greg had lost out on valuable time and opportunities to grow in other ways. In some ways, he was still eighteen at heart. Wishing he could gain back those years he'd "wasted" and instead spend them just being young and dumb. He felt that he had more to teach Gretchen that just what went on on track..

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎The End

Hi! Thanks for sticking around for this journey of mine. It honestly went for much longer than I anticipated, but in retrospect, I wouldn't have wanted it any other way! As a game, I felt the length was sufficient and gave room for many exciting cards and opportunities for the lovely players. This is only one of many upcoming epilogues. I've already begun working on the epilogues of the other girls, as well as alternative endings where each character has the chance to seize the game for themselves, leading to all kinds of wacky wishes and endings. There should already be a few uploaded to my Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/Felixfalck). If you like what I do and would like to support me, or just want to get early access to new chapters, you can do it there. There's also regular updates on exclusive stories that aren't yet available anywhere else!

Also! while I have your attention.. Lately, I've had an issue where my stories don't appear on my account or on the site at all to people who aren't signed into an account. I've looked around at settings and found none that could fix it. If any of you can offer any insight into why this is, please let me know!