Never Stop Trying

Chapter 4

My body is so stiff this morning. I didn't think my fall last night would be that big of a deal. I've been a zombie all day but at least I have PE now. Moving around always helps loosen my muscles. Plus it's the only class I have with Katie and Abbie.

"Hey guys," I greet as I walk into the girl's locker room.

"Hi," they both say in unison. One of the good things about our gym class, is we get to wear what we want. Abbie's wearing a periwinkle t-shirt with black, capri leggings while Katie's wearing white shorts with a black tank top that shows off her arms. It's not that noticeable but you can clearly tell who the athletic one is in our trio.

I quickly throw on a lavender shirt and some black shorts. The only bad thing about this is some girls will wear anything.

"What's that smell?" a squeaky voice says. Ah, here comes a perfect example. Samantha comes striding over to us wearing a skimpy, red sports bra and the shortest shorts I've ever seen. The Twiddles follow in step. "Oh, it's just you guys. Did a skunk crawl up your clothes and die?"

"Hustle it up ladies!" Coach Harvey yells. He's an older guy who was in the army. He's pretty tough but he does appreciate hard work.

We run out of the locker room, not wanting to piss him off.

"Hey shorty," says a low voice as someone starts messing with my hair. I turn around to see Kyle.

"Don't mess with my hair!" I say playfully shoving him. Kyle is pretty much my only other friend besides Katie and Abbie although he has no clue about me being a spy. He's only a couple of inches taller than me but insists on calling me 'shorty.' He has brown hair that's flipped up, matching brown eyes, and large, black glasses, I'll admit he's cute, but there's nothing going on between us. He's pretty much a brother to me. "And stop calling me that!"

"Nope, not gonna happen."

"Why?"

"Cause I like making you mad."

"I hate you."

"I hate you too." I can't help but smile at his stupid response. He always knows how to drive me nuts.

"Ok class! Today we're playing dodgeball," Coach Harvey says. Everyone groans while Katie, Abbie, and I smile at each other. Let's just say, we're pretty good at dodgeball. It's similar to one of our trainings we have to do. "You can go run miles if you want to do that instead. No? Then quit complaining and split into your teams." Half of the class goes to the right side which includes Katie, Abbie, Kyle, and myself (our team is known as Team Red) and the others go to the left side which includes Samantha and the Twiddles (Team Blue).

"This is going to be fun," Katie says with a devious grin.

"Play nice," I warn.

"No promises," says Katie with mischievous eyes. We usually have a strategy when we play. Abbie and I dodge the balls and toss them to Katie to throw since she's got an amazing arm. I like playing this but Katie can be a very competitive person.

"This game is going to have a prize this time. The winning team will get to skip this class for the rest of the semester." Exciting whispers ripple through the crowd. "I figure the only way to get you guys to really try, is to offer a prize. So I want to see some hard work today! Now get ready." We all take positions as he counts down. "3, 2, 1, begin!"

Abbie and I wait until the balls are picked up. The game seems to go on forever as we toss the balls to Katie. We work together like a synchronized machine.

Katie let's out a grunt as a ball hits her in the chest. She looks over at me with a shocked expression but quickly recovers. She rarely ever gets hit. She runs over to the sidelines after giving us a quick thumbs up.