Mrs. Case came over and her presence halted further bickering. But the rivalry of the two upper classes rankled.
Bobby took the hundred-yard dash from all competitors. Later she easily beat all the other entries in the quarter-mile race.
Interest centered after that in the broad jump and the shot-putting contest. Eve was in her usual good form and equalled, in her three trials, her best previous record. Just what that record had been the girls as a body did not know; but on this occasion the distance was made public. Eve had bested all competitors by a full inch and a half. Her nearest rival was Lou Potter.
“Favoritism!” was the cry among the seniors, but they were very careful not to allow their physical instructor hear it.
In truth, Mrs. Case, as she always had been, was opposed to inter-class trials on the field or track. It lowered the standard of loyalty to the school as a whole, and was frequently the cause of bickerings and heart-burnings, as in this present case.
But she was bound by the rules of a committee in which she had but one vote. She was glad to learn, however, that other instructors in other schools were having the same trouble. The Girls’ Branch Athletic League is truly against rivalry between classes of the same school.
In putting the shot the same unfortunate feeling arose between backers of Lou Potter and Evangeline Sitz. Eve carried the day; she put the twelve-pound shot far ahead of her rival. But the seniors were not satisfied. Their class would make a poor showing indeed at the meet.
“I’d just like to get square with that Swiss doll!” exclaimed Lou Potter, as she turned out of the gate of the athletic field, after it was all over and Mrs. Case had announced who would be the representatives of the school in each department of athletics, at the June meet.
“She is a foreigner, anyway. Laura Belding got her to come to this school. She’d much better have gone to Keyport, where she belongs,” cried one of Lou’s classmates.
They could not see that Eve’s presence at Central High was likely to give the school at least two points in athletics; that Keyport might have won had the country girl attended the Keyport High, as she had first intended.