Competitiveness has never been a strong suit, Beverly, but when you guys started making playful bets on almost everything, like who can finish copying the lesson the fastest, or whoever gets to that tree first, things like that, she started to get a little competitive.

And every day, after school, you raced to the clearing next to the stream. The score was usually tight, sometimes you won, sometimes Beverly won, but now it was time to see her as a definitive winner. You gave your all, and managed to get there first by a little, of course Beverly didn't pretend to lose just to see you happy...

"Okay, you win!"

She laughs lightly, sitting down in the clearing. Both of your breaths were rapid, you really had just run a marathon