Side By Side

4

Warnings:
-None

Clay's POV

~ A Few Weeks Later ~

My dad, mother and I stepped out of the car to walk to the area we had to be. Today I was going to do the test to see if I would get enough points to continue. I had been training so hard that I managed to be a minute before the maximum time so I knew I couldn't mess this up. I was never more motivated to do something than I was today.

We walked to the building and went inside, seeing multiple soldiers standing there already. One of them walked up to me with a smile on his face. 'Is your name Clay? You look young and I remember Clay being the youngest one this year.'

'I'm Clay,' I nodded, sticking my hand out to shake his. 'Nice to meet you.'

'Nice to meet you too, Clay! Welcome. There are already eighteen of the others, we are waiting for seven more. Take a seat and the sergeant will explain what's going to happen!'

'Alright, thank you sir,' I smiled as I walked to the others with my parents. We sat down and a few of the people who were already here looked at me.

'Hi,' I greeted them. They stared at me in a jealous way which made me uncomfortable. I looked away and waited for the sergeant and the other people to come.

~~~

After waiting for a while and then an introduction and an explanation of what was going to happen today, all the people who wanted to become soldiers had to warm themselves up.

I was running around while nerves rushed through my body. I knew this was my only chance and I didn't want to mess this up. I knew I could do it, I trained for this. I needed to give everything I had and I didn't care if I would pass out after that. I needed to show them that I was good enough.

I warmed up and breathed slowly to stay calm as the sergeant walked up to me. I didn't know if I needed to, but I immediately stood still and looked in front of me.

'Clay, come with me.'

'Okay, sergeant,' I answered, scared to say something wrong.

I saw him smile shortly and then he pointed in front of him. 'You're going through some tests to see if you're physically able to be in the army. We need to measure you and weigh you to see if you're too heavy or too thin. Next to that, I think you had a blood test a while ago?'

I nodded and grabbed the paper from my pocket. 'These were my results, sergeant.'

He nodded and looked at it. 'We will also do an eye test if you haven't done one yet.'

'I had an eye test too, sergeant. They are on this paper, sergeant,' I answered as I grabbed another one to give it to him. 'I also went to the dentist and tested if I'm allergic to anything. I'm not allergic and my teeth were fine, sergeant. My hearing was also good, it's on this paper, sergeant.'

He grabbed all of them and looked at the proof of my ears, eyes and all my tests to be alright. 'Alright, we are going to weigh and measure you now in that room. If you want to remove your coat, shirt, shoes and pants, please.'

'Of course, sergeant,' I replied as I went into the small room, undressing myself. He measured me first and I saw him write down 6,2 feet. Then he pointed to the scale and I stepped on it.

'201 pounds and fat percentage is eleven. That's great, you can dress up again.'

'Yes, sergeant.' I dressed myself back up and he pointed outside.

'Alright, there's three challenges you need to do. I'm pretty sure you've heard of them. The first challenge is to do as many push-ups as you can in two minutes, since you're seventeen years old, you need to do at least thirty-five in that time to score fifty points.'

'Yes, sergeant,' I replied as I stood straight up, looking him in the eyes to show him I was listening.

'Stand on your hands and the tip of your toes,' he commanded as I immediately did what he told me to do. 'START!'

I started doing push-ups as fast as I could. I knew I could do this. I did this countless times in under two minutes.

You can't do anything, you're just weak. You will never reach the army.

The insults that passed by in my head made me ten times as strong as I used to be. I kept pushing myself up and down without showing any signs of exhaustion. Even though my arms were burning, my body was wet from all the sweat and my breathing went quicker, I didn't want to give up.

I kept going and going until the sergeant spoke up. 'Time! Take a rest for a few seconds.'

He wrote something down on a paper and I wished he would have told me, but I didn't want to ask and sound rude or lose my chance to get into the army.

'Lay down, knees lifted up! You have two minutes to do at least forty-seven sit-ups. The time starts whenever you tap the floor!'

'Yes, sergeant!' I yelled as I laid on the floor, tapping it. He shouted for me to start and I started doing sit-ups as fast as I could. I kept going until he told me to stop and I laid down with my hands under my head to slow my breathing down.

He wrote something down again and nodded. 'After a minute, you're going to run from here to there and then back. That's two miles you have to run in under sixteen minutes and thirty-six seconds. Tell me whenever you're ready.'

'Yes, sergeant,' I repeated to make sure I wasn't saying anything wrong. I let my breathing calm down and then stood at the dot on the floor. 'I'm ready, sergeant.'

He nodded. 'START!' he yelled as he clicked start on the timer.

I started running harder than I had ever done, constantly hearing voices in my head scream at me.

You're just a pussy, do you actually think a gay boy can serve in the army? You're so incredibly dumb, you'd shoot yourself by accident!

You can't do anything, no one likes you anyway and the army won't accept a faggot like you.

'I can do it,' I whispered to myself, running even faster after that. Before I even realised, I arrived at the other end and I turned around, running back while I kept repeating the insults in my head. I was proving them so wrong today, I could do this. I knew it.

I panted loudly when I came back at the sergeant, letting myself fall down on the floor since I needed to catch my breath. The sergeant wrote my time down and then pointed to his left.

'You can go back and wait for the others to be done. You'll hear the results at the end of the day. Make sure to drink water.'

'Yes, sergeant,' I answered, nodding my head shortly, turning around to walk back to the others.

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