Boy Oh Boys! (Season 1)

Chapter 14-2

"What?" Charlie gasped in total surprise, but Pace only grabbed her by the wrist and began to pull.

"Come on," he growled as he dragged her down the hall and away from Printz.

"Are we seriously entering?" Charlie stared up at him, still in disbelief.

"I can't believe you like someone like that," Pace grumbled, ignoring her question. "Even after what he did to Rib at the match."

"Huh?" Charlie paused, finally breaking free from his grip. "How would you know? You weren't even th-" she began, when suddenly the image of Calli The Bear getting smashed in the face by Nix's kick came into the front of her brain. "Wait," she widened her eyes at Pace. "That was you in the bear suit? All those times? That was you?" she repeated, but Pace only reclaimed his grasp and began to tote her towards class once more.

"Come on," was all he said.

~~~

"Is this some kind of joke?" Rib demanded, jumping up from the sofa and even leaving behind his unpaused video game to gape at Charlie and Pace.

"Yeah. That's pretty cruel," nodded Apollo.

"Uh-huh. I mean, we'd expect something like this from Pace, but not from you, Charlie," added Demeter suspiciously.

"It's no joke!" Charlie shook her head. "We're really entering!"

The boys said nothing, still staring at the two skeptically.

"Honesty!" she tried again, to the response of more unsure glances.

"For real?" asked Rib at last.

"Yes," said Charlie.

"Seriously?" Rib asked again.

"Mmhmm," Charlie promised.

The dorm fell silent once more and Charlie went on.

"So... if you still want to enter..." she began.

"If we still want to enter?" repeated Rib exasperatedly. "Well, I don't know anymore. I need to wash my hair and- ARE YOU KIDDING?!?!? Of course we still want to enter!" he screamed and the others cheered in approval. "I've been waiting my whole life to whoop Bradford!" Rib grinned.

"You haven't even known Bradford your whole life," Demeter pointed out.

"What are we waiting for?" Rib loudly continued. "Let's go train!"

"Wait up," Pace crossed his arms as Rib was already half-way towards the door. "We need a plan."

"Right. A practice schedule," agreed Demeter.

"Yes. And what about the medal? We have not been planning for that," added Max.

"Yeah. We're really behind," frowned Apollo.

"Don't worry. It's all taken care of," said Pace firmly. "Now let's eat. You need your strength before we train."

"Woohoo!" Rib cried as he darted for the box of Scary O's despite it being dinner time.

"Hey, uh, Rib?" Charlie tentatively sat down beside him.

"Yeah?" Rib paused mid-pour to look up and a lone Scary O dropped into his bowl.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry for not believing you about Printz before," she said lowly. "I hope you can forgive me..."

"Forgive you?" shouted Rib. "You just told me we're entering The Olympics! That's the best apology ever! Bradford, you're going DOWN!!!" he roared, squeezing the cereal box and covering the room in tiny little O's yet again.

~~~

"Okay. So," Pace stood at the head of the table and pointed to the chart Charlie had made. "As you know, the events are- Swimming: Demeter. Discus: Apollo. Archery: Rib. Horseback Riding: Max. High Jump: Charlie. And the Marathon: Me."

Charlie filled in the names as he finalized their positions.

"There is a points system where contestants receive a score based on performance, but that's not all," he went on. "The team with the most points then has to attain the medal. It's suspended high above the field and they can use nothing but their own physical ability to reach it."

"So even when a team wins, they still don't really win unless they get the medal," added Rib grimly.

"So what do we do?" wondered Max.

"It's covered," said Pace, disappearing into his room and returning seconds later with a folded sheet of paper.

"Whoa!" the twins gasped as Pace held out an intricately pen-drawn diagram of a six-member pyramid-type formation.

"Who designed that?" asked Rib, looking impressed, but when Pace did not reply, everyone in the room instantly knew who was behind the drawing.

"I think it is going to be perfect," smiled Max at last.

"Yeah! Let's go beat some Spartan butt and win!" laughed Rib.

"For Casey," added Charlie.

There was a sudden pause among the entire dorm, but at last, everyone chimed in.

"For Casey!" they cheered.

"For Casey," said Pace.