Children's Draft

Chapter 4 (Part Two)

(Logan's PoV)

My arm was shaking under the weight of the ten pound dumbbell. I had no idea how guys like Connor and Aaron could be benching 'God knows how much' on the other side of the weight room.

"This is too hard," Clayton complained, setting down his dumbbell.

Daniel nodded. "And I'm agreeing with Clayton, so that's saying something."

My arm grew more and more sore with each flex.

"You know what workouts we need to do?" Trevor began. "Show choir."

That was the main reason the four of us became friends. Even though we all went to different schools before, we were all in show choir. We hadn't known each other before coming here, but it at least gave us something in common.

I wasn't sure if Trevor was kidding, but I went along with it anyway. "Yeah, I mean, it is a workout. It builds precision and stamina. Plus I'd love to see some of those 'tough guys' try to do a kick-ball-change."

"If those were our workouts, we'd be the best." Clayton picked up his dumbbell again and sort of bounced it in his hands. "You know what? I bet I could do show choir with weights in my hands."

Well it turned out that Clayton couldn't do show choir with weights in his hands. While swinging his arm forward, he lost his grip and caused the dumbbell to fall right on Daniel's right foot.

"What the hell, Clayton?" he exclaimed, clutching it.

"Good thing your boots were on," Trevor observed. "That thing could have broken your toes."

Daniel continued to wince in pain, which caused Sgt. Blake to get suspicious. "What's going on?" he demanded.

"Nothing. Daniel's just being a pussy," Clayton responded.

I turned to Daniel. "Should we tell him what happened?"

"No," he told me. "I hate causing trouble. And all four of us are gonna get in trouble if he finds out what we were doing.

I felt bad for him, but he did make a point. Cleaning bathroom floors did not sound particularly appealing.

"Let's just pick up a small weight and pretend that we're working," I decided.

"And be careful," Daniel added, glaring at Clayton.

Clayton ignored that comment and instead focused on mine. "Pretending to work! I'm great at that!"

(Daniel's PoV)

My foot ached as we ran laps around the gym. I tried to ignore the pain by listening to Sgt. Blake continue to bark orders at us, but that wasn't that much more pleasant.

Don't lose your balance, don't lose your balance, I kept telling myself.

Thankfully, Lt, Jason had called Sgt. Blake into another room. As soon as he left, I gave up and went over to the side to kneel down. Clayton, Logan, and Trevor all stopped too and crowded around me.

"How are you doing?" Logan asked.

I winced. "It just really hurts." I unlaced my right boot and took off my sock to get a better look. My foot had turned a disgusting purple color, and my toes were swollen.

Clayton made a face. "That's disgusting."

Trevor gave a small laugh. "You're lucky Daniel's a pacifist," he told Clayton.

Clayton furrowed his eyebrows. "I thought he was Catholic."

Logan kept staring at my foot. "It looks worse than it did yesterday. Are you sure you don't wanna tell somebody? I'd be willing to take a punishment if it means you could get better," he offered.