3 Chapter 3

Coach Hedge, the man, the myth, the legend, stood not that tall with his voice booming through a megaphone, scratching the shadowed goatee on his face as he watched the rest of their class arrive at the gymnasium.

Alex and the rest were all dressed in their P.E. uniforms, some clearly not washed since the last class. The kids quickly fell into line as Coach addressed them with the manner and attitude of a drill sergeant.

"Now, I know some of you were hoping for a fun game of dodgeball. A game where you can just relax, have fun, team up with your friends and throw balls to hurt each other."

A couple of snickers broke out among the crowd.

"But today is not that day," he continued, ignoring the giggling. "Today is about perseverance, thinking on your feet and pushing your body to its limit… I'm looking at you, Andrew."

"Yeah Andrew," someone mocked.

"Quiet!" Coach Hedge ordered, adjusting the cap on his head as he hushed the chatter. "If you look before you, we have graciously set out today's course."

They all gazed upon the relatively complex layout that their teacher had set up. First were the hurdles, then the makeshift monkey bars. Afterwards were what looked like a set of quintuple steps (the thing you jump on from side to side like on American Ninja Warrior). Following that was a gauntlet of tyres on the ground which Alex could only assume was meant to be a tyre run. Then, to top it all off, it finished with…

"…a rope climb."

While Alex was excited, the rest of the class groaned in anguish.

"And to give you some… motivation, you'll also be going against a partner in a timed competition." A smile crept on Hedge's face. "And the loser has to do 50 pushups, followed by 5 suicide runs."

Okay, that was a little bit cruel.

"But sir! I can't even do 10 pushups!" Another voice cries out.

"Then don't lose!" Hedge replied. "Now, I'm going to assign your partners."

Everyone was set into panic mode, praying to get a partner that they could have a chance against. One by one their names were called out. Some were happy with the choice, some dreading the coming puke storm. Alex waited anxiously until he finally heard his name.

"Alexander Sinclair!" Hedge called. "You'll be paired with Hunter Vasquez."

Alex could hear a couple of 'ooo's' from the surrounding students. From what he knew, Vasquez was on the football team. Now that was your classic jock. Varsity jacket and all. Fancied himself the top dog of the middle part of the school and all that, despite being held back a year.

He looked at Alex from across the crowd with a smirk on his face. He began walking towards him, his close-cropped hair matching the rough skin as his buddies followed behind.

"The new kid, huh?" he looked at his friends, who laughed.

Standing closer to each other, Alex could see Vasquez had a few inches on him. Alex decided to be polite, reaching his hand out.

"Hey, I'm Ale-"

Hunter laughed, cutting him off and leaving the outstretched hand in the air.

"Yeah, I heard." He sneered. "And it doesn't matter, because I'm about to show you how WE do stuff around here." His friends broke out into... lion roars.

Wow. Alex was stuck between choosing either to cringe or break into laughter.

"Um, okay," he said. "Good luck then, I guess-"

"Hah!" Hunter exclaimed. "No no. Good luck to you."

He then walked off, high-fiving the rest of his group. Alex could see him push people out of the way as he passed through the groups of students. And Alex just stood there, confused. Not mad, not even irritated, just confused.

He thought those kinds of people only existed in movies.

The class began, as each pair of students went on for their run of the obstacle course. Some of the runs were neck and neck, while others held a clear winner. The closer and closer it got to Alex's turn with Hunter, the more and more the light brown-haired boy was getting pumped. He would occasionally glance at Hunter who would sometimes make faces in return.

Alex hated to say, but he was extremely competitive, and since it was an obstacle course, he wanted to win.

Finally, he got to hear those words he'd been waiting all class for.

"Alexander, Hunter. You guys are up next."

The both of them immediately got ready for the line-up. Alex started stretching and warming up as Hunter did the same. It looked like Hunter was eager to go first, probably to show how he 'gets it done'.

"Step aside, pendejo." Hunter uttered.

Christ, what an asshole. Alex wished he had something witty to say back like… uh… he didn't know — but something devastating.

"Alright, Vasquez first. Ready, kid?" Hedge started.

Hunter nodded.

"Okay, on my mark…"

All of a sudden, the sharp sound of a whistle cut through the air as Hunter bolted forward. Alex couldn't lie, the dude was pretty fast. He was an asshole about it but you couldn't deny he had some skill. He blazed through the hurdles and swung through the monkey bars.

The quintuple steps looked like it almost got him but he recovered. When he got to the tyres, he had a slight trip-up at the end but managed to save time on the rope climb. He ascended the rope at an impressive speed, smacking the bell that dangled at the top.

"27.12 seconds!" Hedge called from the side. "So far that's the fastest time we've had."

Hunter's football gang were cheering from behind, throwing in a couple of roars here and there.

Alex stepped up to the starting line as Hunter walked past not even paying him attention. As Alex looked around, it seemed that nobody else was watching him either. They probably thought it was game over.

'Here we go, Alex. Let's show them what a Sinclair can do.'

Coach Hedge looked at him. "Ready, kid?"

He nodded.

"Give 'em hell. On my mark…"

The whistle sounded again and Alex was off. His heart was pumping. He was in the zone. He launched himself over the hurdles at lightning speed. He soared through those monkey bars like he was floating in the air. It looked like he lost his footing at one point during the quintuple steps, but really, he just placed himself in a better launch position. His knees were kept high as he stomped past those tyres. Then the rope climb; a challenge… but an easy one.

Alex was so eager to start climbing that he didn't even think of using his legs to push himself up. Once he reached the top, he smacked that bell with satisfaction.

That felt good.

That's why he loved obstacle courses. He didn't have to think so hard about what was behind or around him. Just look straight ahead and overcome what's in front of you. It was as simple as that.

At first, Alex didn't notice the almost complete silence that followed the ringing bell. After he descended the rope, everyone around him just stared. Even Coach Hedge looked in awe for a moment. It took a bit, but he eventually regained his senses.

"Uh… the times, yes." His eyes blinked rapidly as everyone waited. "It's — well, Hades damn me — 20.93 seconds…"

Whoa. That's almost a whole re… wait, what?

Suddenly, a burst of cheers and appraisal erupted from Alex's peers. All except for Hunter, of course. Alex was sure a couple of the dude's friends started to smile, but they quickly diminished as soon as they met Hunter's gaze.

"So fast!"

"What is he? A car?"

Alex gave a couple of friendly high-fives as people patted him on the back. He could see Hunter begrudgingly begin his push-ups. He tried to at least shake his hand or something, but it seemed like he immediately avoided him. Alex was also tempted to go to that asshole and stick his win in his face but fine… he'd be the 'better person'.

As for the rest of the session, Alex felt like a celebrity. People started asking him his name, striking up a conversation. Even some girls came to talk to him, but he wasn't sure what to say. At one point, Coach Hedge pulled him aside and began to fire off questions.

"Have you been training?"

"Huh?"

"Have you been fighting?" He asked again. "Maybe some automatons, maybe some weird-looking monsters?"

"What the hell are you talking about?!" Alex exclaimed, confused.

The coach looked at him for a second with narrowed eyes, before shrugging. "Forget it. You should try to do some sports."

"Uh... nope. They don't have baseball here."

"Well, you got good foundations, Sinclair. If you're not interested in a sport like football or basketball, you could check out the track team. Hades, with a physique like that at your age you'd do wonders in wrestling."

That weird expression again… but if Alex was being honest, the track team sounded like it could be fun.

"Hmm, I'll take a look." He told him.

"Good," The coach replied. Alex thought he even saw some semblance of a smile on his face. "Well, gotta go. Class ain't over, and my movies won't watch themselves."

Coach Hedge gave Alex one final nod as he walked off, announcing the final sets of students to run the course. Just like that, things were starting to look up. The little outburst he had earlier this morning still lingered on his mind but at that point, he was feeling too good about himself to care. Maybe he could do this after all.

What was even better? Lunch was about to start.

==========

For the first time, he was sitting at a relatively full table in the school cafeteria and people were talking about his stunt during P.E.

"You should have seen him! He was like WHAM! And then ZOOM! And then WOOSH WOOSH WOOSH. Then he got to the tyres and it was like BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM. And the rope? He looked like he was flying!"

"Yeah, we were all there, Grover."

To be honest, Alex had forgotten Grover was even in the class because he was pretty sure he saw him sit on the bleachers the entire time with his notebook.

"Well, I'm just recapping with some flavour," Grover rebutted, "being Alex's best friend and all."

Did he just say he was his best friend?

"Alright, Underwood," said a rather rough-looking girl across from Alex. "You sit next to him in homeroom, that's it."

A small argument ensued around Alex's table, while he just really wanted to eat lunch. Today, he'd neatly packed a tuna salad sandwich. He knew - the smell. But when you make them as good as him? You just have to give your taste buds a chance to enjoy themselves.

"So, what's your deal, dude?" A voice interrupted his mealtime. "You're a fairly new face around here."

Alex swallowed his bite of the sandwich.

"Well, yeah," He answered. "I only moved to Brooklyn, like, a few months ago."

"Oh dang," another voice piped up, "where you from?"

"Queens."

He got a couple of mixed reactions, some in awe, some disappointed (or disgusted, he couldn't tell) and some who just found it interesting to talk to him.

"You don't happen to be a friendly neighbourhood hero, do you?" One asked. He stroked his blonde hair. "You know, my Dad was an actor and someday I will be too. Now I'm thinking I should start with a Spiderman movie."

"Yeah, maybe if you were any good."

Laughter consumed the table and after a while, got to Alex too. He didn't even know the names of most of these people but it just felt nice to be among them and laugh. For a moment, Alex even felt like he was with his old friends again.

So weird how things can change so quickly.

They continued the rest of their meals, sharing stories and experiences as well as more questions; some were interested in his ring, others were interested in his lunch, and others were wondering why he was a Yankees fan and not a Mets one.

They even helped him get caught up on the current school drama. He also managed to learn some new names. The rugged girl that called out Grover; her name was Lyra, and the guy who wanted to be an actor; his name was Warren.

It was all going so well…