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s i x the will
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two thousand eleven
WINONA COULDN'T THANK Pamela and Lawrence for too many things, but she could thank them for teaching her self-discipline; how to not waste her time, how to function off of just a few hours of sleep due to math homework, how to push her body farther than she thought possible in gymnastics training. She was once motivated by her desire to make them proud. But now all she had was hatred.
Hatred was what kept her from giving up on the set of sit-ups she was completing as punishment. Her knees hooked over a pull-up bar and ankles tightly crossed, Winona ignored the burning in her muscles and the aching in her lungs to touch her elbows to her knees, hang upside down, then curl herself back up again.
She got caught drinking on the roof with her friends, Ophelia and Oliver. They knew better — they rarely get away with anything at all, really — but it was Winona's 18th birthday, and sneaking out to buy alcohol was a rite of passage.
Now they were suffering the consequences, Ophelia to her right and Oliver to her left, struggling through their hanging sit-ups. Oliver had already thrown up, which seemed to be their drill sergeant's goal; it was cruel, really, making them hang like that with a few beers in their stomach.
Winona felt the acid creeping up her throat every time she went upside down, but then she thought of Godspell and of Pamela and of the burning sensation on her cheek, and she forced herself to breathe and keep going.
"God, I think I'm gonna be sick again," Oliver mumbled, hugging his knees and screwing his eyes shut.
"Oh, fuck, please don't," Ophelia replied, looking up at him as she hung upside down. They were all having trouble keeping their beverages down.
"Pick it up, you two, or I'll give you ten more," their drill sergeant told them. Honestly, he wasn't a horrible person; he didn't shout like the others, and he had a bit more humor. But he never gave them a break no matter how many times they proved their punishments didn't do all that much.
Oliver groaned as he let go of his knees to fight through the last of his workout. Ophelia could barely reach hers at this point, but she got some strength from Winona, who's pace remained steady.
After just a few more, Winona finally grabbed the bar, unhooked her ankles, and dropped to her feet, sucking in deep breaths and wiping her forehead. Ophelia followed soon after, falling to her knees rather ungracefully. Oliver joined soon enough, too, letting out a loud, drawn-out groan as he collapsed on his back.
