Little Miss Nosy

Chapter Thirteen: Obstacles

-Edited-

The weather gods decided to bless us with a heavy rainstorm this morning. To Coach Carter's dismay—and my pleasure—the obstacle course he planned for us to run during gym would be held indoors instead of on the usual field.

"Alright, listen up!" Coach Carter shouts, unnecessarily blowing his whistle and making the few students around him jump. "Just because it's raining doesn't mean you can get out of my course. Everyone get in groups of three and meet at each of the first obstacles."

He blows his whistle again, our cue to scram and group up. I immediately lock eyes with Trevor who's standing under a basketball hoop. His face lights up as he motions me to follow him, leading us to the first course at the far left of the gym.

"Ready to lose?" I quip. I'm not gifted in anything having to do with athletics and agility, yet Trevor continuously volunteers to pair up with me. I think it's because he felt bad about me getting picked last for team sports, but now he's gotten used to having me as his gym buddy.

No matter how many times he loses because of me.

"Please," he says with a wide grin, running in place to get his heart rate up. "We'll easily get eighth place." I size up our competition, taking note of the fact that there are nine teams total and scoff.

"We need a third," I comment. Most teams are comprised of all boys or all girls. All of the boys in this class are part of some sports team, so they'll be difficult to beat. Even the clumsy girls have teamed up with the sporty ones. There aren't many more people to choose from. "Any suggestions?"

"Looks like you're stuck with me!" a voice chirps behind us. "Tina and I were the last two people, and she merged with another team."

Macey bounces on the balls of her feet, glancing between Trevor and—to my surprise—me wearing a cautious smile.

"Actually-"

"Awesome!" Trevor cuts in.

"Adams," Coach Carter calls, breaking me out of my shock at Trevor's willingness to let her join our team. We didn't have much of a choice, but his lack of protest catches me off guard. "Can you lend a hand with laying out the hoops?"

I take the colorful stack of hula hoops out of his hand and copy how other students are laying them out in a five by two pattern near the end of each course—not like I had much say in the matter.

Laughter rips me away from my task. Trevor and Macey are right where I left them; the duo chatting and laughing like long time friends.

I finish setting up the hoops, this time at a faster pace, and scurry back over to them.

"Here are the rules," Coach's voice drifts over everyone else's, effectively silencing the class. "Three people on each team. Three sets of two tasks per course. One person for each set."

He points to the course, drawing our attention to each set marked with flags. "First person will jump rope twenty times, then carefully do a somersault on the mat. If you can't do a somersault then do a roll or something." He gets a chuckle out of that.

"Next person will do ten burpees before army crawling to the last checkpoint." There's an impressive makeshift setup of cones and yard sticks creating the space meant for crawling. Definitely not doing that section.

Coach concludes, "Finally, the last person will step in each of the hoops before climbing the rock wall. The first team to have a member reach the flag..." We all look up at the red flags placed carefully and evenly at the tops of the rock wall. Nine flags for nine teams. "...wins. Take five minutes to discuss who does what."