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"I haven't done gymnastics in years," I replied. "That's still inthere?"
He smiled conspiratorially. "This is my own personal file of you. Some of this came from your high school transcripts, but for the group I represent and what we would like to ask of you, we decided to go much furtherback."
"Are you a college recruiter?" It was the only explanation that made sense. What could someone else want withme?
"Well," he tilted his head to the side, "you could say that I am a recruiter of sorts, but you still didn't answer myquestion."
"I lost interest," I said, a complete and utter lie. I had loved gymnastics, but it had been around the time my brother had gone away to college and I had to choose between gymnastics or a job. I had chosen thejob.
"Hmmm," he saidagain.
"If you're not a college recruiter, who areyou?"
"I never said I wasn't a college recruiter," he replied easily. "Perhaps I am your ticket into college. Would you be willing to answer a few questions for me, if that were thecase?"
"Even if you are," I replied, "it's too late in the year for me to get into college. I graduate in two weeks. I'll have to wait for the Spring semester." If I could even afford itthen.
"What would it hurt to answer a few of my questions?" He closed the folder and set it aside before folding his hands over hislap.
I fidgeted. "I guess it's fine. I mean, I don't have anything tohide."
Did only people who actually had something to hide say that?I asked myself. It wasn't like I was hiding anything, I just wasn't too keen on telling people things, especially about mymom.
"We'll start with the real reason that you quit gymnastics. You had quite a few awards. Only the dedicated go all the way to the statechampionships."
"I didn'twin."
He waved his hand. "Whether you won or not doesn't matter. What does matter is that you were good enough. You could have tried for nationals the next year, but youdidn't."
I shrugged. I didn't know what he wanted me tosay.
“Alright, then, what about college? Do you want to go tocollege?"
"I don't know." I paused, the words to explain flickering through my mind. "It might not be possible for me rightnow."
"You're not sure if you want to go tocollege?"
I tried to be as honest as possible. "College sounds interesting, but I don't know what I would want to study and it's kind of a moot point right now. The deadlines havepassed."
"What if it wasn't a mootpoint?"
"I'm pretty sure itis."
Bellamy closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling a deep breath. After a moment, he reopened his eyes and leaned forward, his torso straining under the light blue and white checkered dressshirt.
"Do you want to know what I think?" He didn't even wait for me to respond. "I think that you have the whole world in front of you, but you aren't sure what to do with it. From what I've been told, you're a brave girl, capable of doing bravethings."
"What have you heard?" I narrowed my gaze athim.
Instead of answering, he reached into his pocket and removed a black card. I took it from him. On the back, in silver lettering, was a phone number, and on the front was a name scribbled out in fancy cursivewriting.
“Iris?” I read aloud. Arching my brows, I carefully put the card on the conference table between us. He smiled as though he had expected myreaction.
"It's not going to bite you," heteased.
I pursed my lips and frowned. "You never said what you wanted to ask me or what you're herefor."
"I'm here because I'm interested in a girl that would risk her life for an animal. I'm interested in knowing why a candidate for the gymnastics state championships quit when she could have been ready for the Olympics in another ten years. I want to find out what makes hertick."
