Psych

17. Gym Class

She shook her head. ‘Sineas, you just sat there and took their insults. An hour later Justin even did worse to you here, on this same table we’re sitting at. Sometimes you have to just stand up for yourself or people will walk all over you and wipe their feet on you like you’re a doormat.’

‘Can we just drop it, this entire subject, please?’ he responded. An acute frown had formed on his face.

‘I’m sorry, Sineas. I’m sorry, okay?’ she apologized.

He shrugged and avoided her gaze. Immediately, the siren rang. Lunchtime was over.

Clarissa grinned as she wiped her hands free of the muffin crumbs. ‘I hope you’re ready to drip a little sweat, Mr. Murphy,’ she said as she looked at him sideways.

‘What do you mean? What are you talking about?’ he asked her looking bemused.

‘It’s time for gym class.’

When you walk through the school building of Malrich High, the first thing you would notice would be the many classroom doors on either side of the walls. To the right side of the wall, the first door leads to the kitchen where food for the staff and for the school athletes was prepared. The next door after that led to the indoor basketball court. The room was always neatly polished and the rays of the sun outside were willing to blind anyone who was curious enough to get to stare too close. To the left were the spectators’ stands. Although the room was mainly used for sports like basketball, netball and even volleyball, on Wednesdays alone it was reserved for the twelfth grade gym class.

When Sineas saw students from the Commercials and Arts classes swarm into the room, he began to feel like he was in a battlefield. The stares. The stares were back. Everyone probably now knew him. Sineas the freak! he thought. Or maybe something more creative like, “Frea-King”. He began to feel unsettled. His heart began to pound.

‘Don’t worry, It’s nothing serious,’ Clarissa said as she stretched beside him. She had noticed the dreadful look on his face. ‘Just the basics: push-ups, sit-ups and maybe some leg-touches,’ she assured him. To the far left of the entrance, just before the stands, there were two green doors. The first one led to the boys dressing and shower rooms where the boys could relieve and freshen themselves after gym class or sports practice. The door after was the girls.’ As soon as they had walked into gym class, Clarissa had excused herself and joined the other girls and changed into something more sporty: a white t-shirt and orange shorts, white socks and blue running shoes. Sineas had not been aware of the existence of gym class so he decided to improvise with his t-shirt and denims.

A heavily built man walked through the door just as soon as the last student entered. He was dressed in khaki shorts, a white t-shirt, white socks and black Reebok sneakers. He had a whistle around his thick neck. He blew hard into it whilst standing by the door as if he was trying to blow the house down. He dropped his whistle to his chest. He looked to be in a serious mood as he ran a hand through his thick, short, brown hair. ‘Okay, kids! Let’s all pair up!’ he barked.

Yup. A battlefield, Sineas thought.

Following the gym teacher’s orders, Clarissa grabbed Sineas’ hand and pulled him closer.

Her actions startled him.

‘Wow, Murphy,’ she giggled, ‘you’re as light as a feather.’

‘Good…!’ the gym teacher yelled again.

Everyone had found a partner of their own. Sineas felt glad that this time, someone was ready to make him their partner. He felt normal.

The gym teacher continued, ‘I want each of you to do forty push-ups; that’s twenty per partner. If a partner can’t reach twenty, the other has to cover the gap and boost their team to forty. The pairs that fail to hit the mark will sweep the court this week.’

There were groans of disapproval and nervousness sweeping through the room. Like soldiers, the half of each pair dropped to their hands and began attempting to do push-ups. Sineas had never attempted push-ups before but he was positive most of the students were doing them wrong.

‘You want me to go first?’ Clarissa asked.

Sineas’ eyes were still glued to the other students grunting and carping loudly. Some were even falling to their faces in exhaustion; before they even reached five!

‘Sineas!’ she shook his arm.

‘Yeah…yeah,’ he said finally turning his attention to her. ‘Be my guest,’ he added. She had been standing with her arms akimbo, waiting for his permission.

As if she was taking fire, Clarissa dropped onto her hands. She did not waste time. She was like one of those fitness models you see on TV…but on steroids.

Sineas was confounded. She was like a machine, heaving herself up and down like her life depended on those twenty push-ups. Eventually, the entire class began to take notice. Gradually, they began to walk towards this unusual team. They seemed to be mystified too. She had now gone way past fifty push-ups. She finally stood up. She had clocked sixty-five perfect push-ups.

The gym teacher clapped his hands slowly, making his way through the crowd of mesmerized and gawking students. ‘I think I speak for everyone, Miss Clarissa when I say, I’m impressed.’ He stood before her.

She was panting, but lightly as though this was a mere warm-up for her.

‘Where’d you learn how to do push-ups, Miss Sherman?’

She dusted her hands. ‘We have a gym at home, Mr. Gwarini, sir,’ she said smiling from ear to ear. She even sounded like a soldier.

Mr. Gwarini looked around at the crowd of watching students. ‘You see that, class? Now, that’s how you do push-ups. Not those obscenities you were performing on the floor. I want you to do push-ups not get the floor pregnant!’

The room echoed with applause for Clarissa from the students. She smiled at the floor whilst brushing the tip of her shoe on it. Only two girls in the room did not clap for her. Both of them were wearing matching blue shorts, white sneakers and blue t-shirts with the words “…But you can’t touch”, written in black, spread across the chest. These two, of course, were Sabrina and Doreen and they pouted hard in Clarissa’s direction, their arms folded impudently. Perhaps they disagreed with Mr. Gwarini.

Mr. Gwarini threw a quick glance at Sineas. He smiled. ‘I thought your friend here taught you, Miss Sherman. I’m sure he must have spent half his life ducking bullets and child support.’