The Program

7

— Jack, You Should Be There Too —

Alana Peters.

That is her name. I made sure to listen closely during the role, and when I heard the gentle voice of the blond girl, I knew it was her.

I walk through the hallways, heading my way to the front office. I have to choose and extracurricular.

I hold on tightly to the note I wrote in Algebra.

It's addressed from Alana Peters. To Jay Reed.

Two can play at this game Mrs. Simmons.

Jay's charm is irresistible, so having Alana framed for wanting it is the perfect plan.

Jay is leaned on his locker talking to some of his friends as I slip behind him, placing the note in his bag.

Perfect. And I didn't even get noticed.

I walk the rest of the way to the front office and open the brown door. A large desk is in the middle of the room where a woman sits.

"Um, excuse me," I say to her.

"Yes sir, can I help you?"

"I'm here to pick an extracurricular activity."

"Oh, you must be Jack," she says, smiling.

"Oh um, yes ma'am. I am."

"Perfect. Your mom called by the way, so I'm not like a stalker. Here, pick one these," she says, handing me a paper.

I can check a box with many sports and musical activities. Basketball? Maybe, but Jay is there.

Wrestling. Sounds nice.

"I'll do wrestling," I say, marking it with a pen.

"Perfect, head there now. They are in the back room behind the main gym."

"Thank you, Mrs—" I say, not knowing her name.

"Smith. Basic, I know."

I laugh and turn away, walking out of the office. I head to the gym where basketball is practicing.

I watch Jay as he runs the court. He shoots and he scores. He's too good.

I quickly make my way out of there, pushing open the door in the back.

Teenage boys in wrestling gear surround the mat, watching two people fight.

One guy is pinned, and just like that, the match is over.

A tall, dark skinned man walks over to me wearing an Adidas, black, collared shirt and khakis. He has a whistle tied around his neck. He blows in right in my face.

"You got five!" He screams. They all scamper around, getting water and wiping off sweat.

"And who are you?" The man asks me, raising one eyebrow.

"I'm Jack. I'm new here."

"Yeah, I see. The gear bin and outfits are over there," he says, pointing off to the side by some benches. "You can change out here, there's no shame."

"Oh, ok," I say, walking over to the containers of clothes and pads.

"You're next up. Hope you know how to hit kid. I'm Coach Jameson by the way."

I nod, and then turn to open the clothes bin. It's a Montcreek wrestling shirt and some black shorts. I look around. No one is watching me. They're all socializing amongst each other. I quickly pull of my khakis, replacing them with the shorts. I remove my shirt, putting on the shirt. It barely passes my waist. Oh great.

I take the padding and wrap it around my body.

"Alright, five is over!" Coach Jameson shouts. "Carter you're up and Jack you too."

We both step up to the middle mat. He's blond, like me. He has bright blue eyes, but he's huge. His muscles bulge out. His shirt barely fits him, but for a whole other reason.

I start to worry. Hopefully my training comes in handy, but it may be no match for him.

I just have to tire him out, then, I shall take advantage.

"Fighters ready?" Coach Jameson asks.

"Yes sir," Carter says.

"Oh, yes sir," I say, confused.

"Go!" Jameson shouts.

Ok. Biggest guy in the room against me. Cool, I guess.

His guards go up and so do mine. He inches forward as I step to the side.

He lunges in immediately. He lands a punch right away in my gut. I shake it off as murmurs around us start to sound.

"It's the same thing every time. Parks takes out everyone."

Oh, so his name is Parks Carter. And Coach put me with the beat dude first. What a bitch.

Parks kicks at me but I side step, getting behind him, only to land a knee to the chest from behind. He turns, punches, but I swipe his hand out of the way. I swing my other hand, landing a punch straight in the head.

He shakes his head and comes in again. He swings and uppercut and then a punch. The uppercut hits me in the gut again, but I block the punch.

I kick him in his stomach, barely moving him back. I then shuffle behind him while he's weak, punch his side, then grab him from behind.

Everyone is impressed. Everyone's eye are wide, even Coach Jameson's.

I feel myself slowly pushing Parks to the floor as he struggles to fight me off.

All of a sudden, I'm swept off of my feet, punched in the stomach, and pinned.

Jameson counts.

I lost.

Parks gets off of me, scowling as he walks away. I pick myself up from the floor, embarrassed by my performance. After all of my training, I still lost to some school wrestling captain.

"Oh, don't forget! Wrestling tournament tomorrow! It's here! Jack, you should be there too!" Coach Jameson shouts.

I walk off, following the rest of the team to another room. A bathroom. Most of them are refreshing themselves by putting on deodorant and splashing water on their faces. I do the same.

We all walk out as the bell rings. Time for lunch.

I exit the gym and once against, push myself through hallways to the large open cafeteria. Hopefully Monica packed me a lunch. I spot Jay across the way, sitting with all of his cool basketball friend.

And he's sitting next to the perfect person. Alana.

Score. I smile and walk to a table to sit by myself.

I look through my bag to find a sack of food. Peanut butter and jelly with potato chips. Thank goodness I don't have to eat more slop.

Just as I pull out my food, Jenna plops down next to me.

"Oh, hey Jenna," I say, getting excited.

"Hi," she says, sounding miserable. "I never thought Jay would get a girlfriend before I got a boyfriend. Literally never in my life."

I laugh. "Hey, you're way more beautiful than he is," I say, lying straight through my teeth. I just don't feel the same way as I do for Jay towards Jenna. Jenna is just a friend.

"Well, thanks I guess. I'm starving though."

"Same. I just got ass whooped in wrestling though," I say, comically.

"No way. You signed up for wrestling?"

"I mean, yeah."

We spend the whole lunch sharing about our days and then the bell rings.

Time for the last class. English, which I suck at.

•—•

Sorry for the boring chapter! I promise the next one is pretty good!

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