Classes were over for the day. Students were now required to go for their compulsory extracurricular activities. Aiden and Austin were both rugby players so they invited Jayden.
Before he could even answer, Aiden started dragging him with a "Let's go already!" which made Jayden wonder why they even bothered to ask him when they wee gonna force him anyway.
They got there and Jayden was shocked at the sheer mass of every single player on the field.
Each of them made Jayden feel less human and more mouse with each passing second. When he saw the coach, he was slightly relieved.
He looked like a nice, gentle guy who didn't fit into this environment. Jayden asked Aiden, " Why would they let someone this skinny become a coach? He looks like he could fall over any second."
At that moment, Coach Armstrong yelled out, "All of you, 200 Pushups, GO!"
Jayden couldn't help but yell "What!?" and everyone turned to look at him.
"You have a problem with that, kiddo?" The coach scanned him head to toe and asked, "Are you sure you want to play rugby? You don't look like a player."
Jayden, not wanting to lose face, answered, "I believe I can. There's always a first time for everything, isn't it?"
The coach smiled and said, "Everyone hold up. I want to see him prove himself. Perform a hundred pushups and run 3 laps around the field, then come back and perform fifty more.
Everyone had one thing in their minds.
'He's dead.'
"All the players you see here have done the same thing. This is how I weed out the bad talent from the good. If you feel like you can't do it, you're free to go."
Aiden expected Jayden to go, since he had practically forced him to come. Besides, what the coach asked was impossible.
'All of us did that my foot!'
To his surprise, Jayden refused to back down. "I'll do it!"
The coach was surprised as well and so were the rest. "Alright then, 3.....2.....1.....GO GO GO!"
Jayden got down and started his pushups. His rhythm remained constant till he reached eighty. At this point he slowed down a bit.
'Come on! Everyone here has done it before! You can do it!' He motivated himself.
Like magic, Jayden picked up speed, not stopping till 100, and immediately dashed off.
'I wonderful how long he will last. He seems promising.' Coach Armstrong thought to himself.
Austin was amazed by Jayden's performance. "He's something else, eh Aiden?"
"Yeah. Hold on. Austin, look!" Austin put a look of shock, as well as the coach.
To any random person, Jayden was displaying an incredible amount of stamina, as he had finished one and a half laps. But to the keen observer, Jayden was slowly pi king up speed with each step he took. "Impossible!" The coach yelled as Jayden pushed himself to the limits, becoming faster..... And faster...and faster...
Armstrong was shaking. 'That test was only to see his determination by giving him an impossible task. Now it looks like any random workout session. Who is this kid!?'
Jayden came back and repeated his last fifty pushups, but one could see that he was tired. He tried mustering the strength he felt before but failed. On his tenth pushup, he couldn't even make it halfway up when he fell to the ground, defeated.
He barely whispered, "I failed..." but Armstrong heard it. He knelt down in front of him and said, "To be truthful kid, I lied to you. Nobody's ever done that before. They all tried and failed before even finishing the first lap. But kid, you surpassed them all. I could see you struggle but you fought to the very end. Let me be the first to say..."
At that moment the entire team roared, "Welcome to the team!!!" which earned them the death glare from the coach.
They didn't care though and kept shouting.
Armstrong helped Jayden up and gave him a thumbs up as he walked to his new friends, albeit with much difficulty.
"Jayden, that was awesome!" Aiden was the first to speak. "Thanks for forcing be here, by the way."
Aiden replied with a stiff smile," You're welcome.
As the trio walked off, Coach Armstrong kept looking at Jayden.
"What a strange kid," he muttered and turned round.
As they were walking, Jayden felt his strength return at a rapid pace. Soon he didn't need the support of Aiden and Austin to walk.
"Okay guys, I'm fine now. You can let me go."
The two friends, thinking that Jayden just didn't want to weigh them down, refused.
"Don't worry, we still have quite a lot of energy left thanks to your spectacular display. We can carry you just fine." Austin weighed in," Yeah. And don't even think about fooling us that you've recovered from running more than 3 laps and 110 pushups in rapid succession after just two minutes. Cause we don't believe it."
Jayden gave up, realizing that no matter what he said, they wouldn't let him go.
A few minutes later.....
In the locker room
Jayden had just finished changing back into his clothes when a bulky guy walked over to him. He was a few inches taller than Jayden who was 1.83 m tall.
The guy then spoke," Good performance on the field today, noobie. I'm Ethan, the captain of the team." Jayden reached out for a handshake." Name's Jayden. "Ethan gripped his hand firmly and started to crush it. Jayden was sure he heard his bones break.
" Listen up. I don't know who you are, and I don't care, but I do care about my position. If you think you can show up out of nowhere and jeopardize my position as captain just like that, you're sadly mistaken."
Jayden's bones continued to shatter under Ethan's steel grip. All of a sudden, he felt this rage bubbling up, and he was slowly being overcome by a strange feeling.
As he looked at Ethan, he imagined sinking his teeth into his throat right there and then. It took him all of his willpower to resist the urge. Ethan finally let go.
"I'll make you a deal," he said." I want you to play above average throughout this whole season. You will not display one skill that surpasses my own. In return, I will leave you alone."
Ethan walked off as Aiden appeared. He walked over to Jayden, who put his hands behind his back.
"Hey Jayden, you okay?" " Yeah, I'm fine.
Aiden noticed a thick red liquid fall to the ground. "Is that.....blood?" He pulled Jayden and took his hand, which earned him a loud hiss. "This is bad! We have to get you to a doctor, ASAP!!" Jayden was refused the right to refuse as Aiden called Austin, telling him to meet at the school clinic.
Some time later, Jayden came out with a cast on his arm.
"Who did this to you?" Aiden and Austin were enraged.
"Its okay, don't bother yourselves."
"You're our friend. Friends back each other up! We want to help you, Jayden."
Jayden walked off." Don't worry about it," he said. As he turned around, he said, " I'll deal with him myself!"