Find your faith

Chapter 4: PE angst

Chloe's POV
"Ah Crystal, finally you hit the round in 30 seconds," our PE teacher Mr Han said. "Go take a seat." She sighed and thanked the teacher before proceeding to take a seat. Now there was just me, John and Eunice.

"Are your bodies seriously made of jelly? Even Crystal hit 30 seconds before you." He turned around and asked, "Crystal, what's your CCA?"

"Girl Guides," my sister replied.

"See? Even a girl guide does better than you. Let's start again."
Xingqiu's POV
"Honestly, I don't get why Crystal can't do the timing runs Mr Han always makes us do," Ethan groaned. "She's a girl guide. Guides are supposed to be fit. They march in the sun for hours."

"That's so true," I replied, nodding in approval. "She's better at everything."

"Uh uh uh," Fiona responded, wagging her index finger. "That is a stereotype. Unless you're in sports CCAs, you can't measure someone's athletic ability by how many times needed to run this place on 30 seconds."

"Very strange because I'm technically in the same CCA group as Crystal," I admitted. Which was true, because I'm in National Police Cadets, and the teachers want me as company leader.
Crystal's POV
So Mr Joe thinks that I'm not a good runner, huh? It can't be that bad, because I was able to run 1.6 km in 8 minutes last year. But Mr Han really has his standards "up there." The only way from this point is if I can sneak out of my house at midnight to do timed runs so that I can stop embarrassing myself in front of 3 Faith. I've got a reputation to protect after all, so I spent the rest of the day plotting how to execute it.
Crystal's home
Getting my sports shoes, I gently placed them on the ground. I connected my AirPods to play music before keeping my AirPod casing in the ziplock bag. Since this was a timed practice, I got a timer on my phone to finish running around the landed properties nearby in an hour. I finally slipped the phone into my ziplock bag and into the pocket of tights before springing off for my timed practice.

The cushioning on my sports shoes made the supposed ordeal a lot more bearable. I sprung at every step of the way, only imagining myself at the basketball court doing Mr Han's round and doing less than before. Amidst the preppy music, I imagined the praises and cheers my classmates would make when I improved. I imagined the liberating breeze crashing on my body when Mr Han let me sit down before my sister. Running with all my 5 senses, I ran without a second glance, not even bothering to look out for traffic like I usually would.

When I got home, I was one minute away from the time limit I set myself. I stared at the timer that was still running, unsure what to think. I knew that if I wanted to prove myself to Mr Gan and be at the top in all areas, this wasn't going to cut it.