Chapter 22: Sprint Training

"Is that too hard? Finish it now if you don't want to get a point deduction!"

"What do you mean, Mr. Smith? Didn't you say I could do it in installments earlier?"

"Yes, I did, but the gym time for jogging will be over soon, so finish it as soon as possible!"

"Alright."

I didn't expect that I almost got a point deduction.

Mr. Smith had said that I could do it in installments until the gym class was over, but it turned out that I was wrong.

The class time was calculated differently this time, so by the time they finished jogging, the time would be over and replaced with a new class time.

"How about it, Fisa? Are you up to it?"

I asked Fisa who was next to me.

"There's no problem, so let's get it over with now."

"Yes."

Since Fisa and I didn't want to get points deducted, we had to finish the punishment as quickly as possible before the others finished jogging.

I did push ups a few times just like before, and Fisa did star jumps.

We kept doing it until the last count.

"Good job... Fisa, Satomi! You can jog with them with a few minutes left."

"Okay!"

Now both of us had finished our punishment and completely avoided any point deductions.

Then Mr. Smith told me and Fisa to join the others for the remaining time.

"That's it everyone, please line up in one minute!"

Even though Fisa and I had just been jogging, Mr. Smith had already told everyone to line up.

At Mr. Smith's command, my classmates immediately lined up and followed his orders, including me.

"Thank you for gathering! As you know, yesterday, the athletics exam was postponed due to internal problems from the school, so instead you were given time to practice before taking the athletics exam. For today, we will practice running 100 meters one by one and I will record the time. But before that, we have to warm up first."

Finished with his explanation, Mr. Smith began to look at his students one by one, then shortly afterwards he began to open his mouth.

"Danna, can you come forward?"

"Eh? Me?"

Of course Danna was surprised to be suddenly called forward by Mr. Smith.

"Yes, come forward! You have to lead the warm-up for today."

"But I don't know the moves."

"Take it easy, you just need to follow me, so can you come forward now?"

"Alright."

Having no more reason to refuse, Danna finally followed Mr. Smith's words and started moving forward.

"Please follow the warm-up well so that no one gets injured!"

Just like that, Mr. Smith started moving his body to warm up which was then followed by my classmates.

If the next gym class was a 100-meter run, then I could guess what would be done during this warm-up.

For the initial warm-up, it's definitely what my classmate did.

Jogging or brisk walking, this is one easy way to do light cardio movements, running the exercise to be done but at a slower tempo.

Straight Leg Kicks, this movement is done by straightening both hands parallel to the shoulders, then kick one leg up and try to make the tip of the foot touch the tip of the hand.

Others include Butt Kicks, High Knees, Army Walk, Hip Opener, and finally Floor Sweeps.

By doing the seven warm-up movements, at least injuries can be minimized because the muscles of the body are ready to run.

After tens of minutes of warming up to the final stage of Floor Sweeps, Mr. Smith finally stopped his movements and started pulling out a stopwatch from his pants pocket.

"Since we're done warming up, you will now practice running 100 meters on this field. Starting from the end there to here, the count is 100 meters, do you understand?"

"Yes, we understand!"

To keep Mr. Smith from getting angry, they said that they understood quite loudly including Danna who was still in the front.

Did I do it too?

Of course not.

Him voice was already represented by most of my classmates, so I thought I should just keep quiet.

"It's good that you understand! Now, I'll call you one by one to run and record the time."

As Mr. Smith was about to call them to run, everyone fell silent and hoped as if they didn't want to be called first by Mr. Smith.

"Satomi."

As expected, I was the one he called first.

"Yes?"

"Since you arrived late, you have to be the first to run and be timed. For that, please do it properly so that you can set an example for them!"

"Okay!"

"When the whistle sounds, you can start running right away."

"I understand."

Well, what can I do, I can only follow him.

I got out of line, then I walked leisurely to the place where I was going to run.

Here I didn't use any signals and stood still while waiting for Mr. Smith to blow his whistle.

"PRIIITT!!!"

Soon the whistle sounded loudly and it signaled that I had to run to the place that Mr. Smith had determined earlier.

I ran while looking around.

If you look around, this sports field does look spacious and suitable for several people who want to do athletic activities, moreover the arrangement also looks neat and easy to understand.

Ah, right.

What is the average time for someone to run 100 meters?

Maybe around 13-15 seconds?

I don't know, the most important thing is that I should be able to cover my abilities.

I don't want to be serious just for training like this, so I need to be able to slow down my movements so that the time obtained can reduce the average.

Let's say the average time is 13-15 seconds, so I'll finish it in 20 seconds.

No, I think it's 18 seconds.

Then I figured out the pace I would take so that the time would actually be 18 seconds.

Once I found the right pace, I kept running while maintaining that pace all the way to the finish line.

"Satomi, finished in 18.33 seconds."

I thought I'd done it.

I managed to trick everyone into thinking I was slow.

This way my abilities could still be covered.

"Next up, Danna!"

I thought that Fisa would be next, but luckily she didn't run after me because the next one was Danna.

Since I had already done what I did, I just had to wait for the rest of them to run.

Well, actually I don't care about them.

I only cared about the person I loved and I hoped she could finish well.

"Satomi, good job!"

Fisa came over to me.

"Yeah, I hope you did too."

"Take it easy, running is second nature to being a basketball player!"

"Is that so?"

Because we were still waiting for our turn, Fisa and I talked about a lot of trivial things, and we even got to talking about shoe footprints.

As I had experienced before, I felt happy when Fisa was around me.

Normally, I would only speak one or two words, but when I'm with Fisa, I can talk about a lot of things, even trivial things.

Not only that, maybe it's because she always smiles when she's with me that I'm so enamored with her.

Honestly, her smile looks so sweet that it makes my heart skip a beat.

"Fisa, your turn!"

While Fisa and I were talking, Lina suddenly interrupted and said that it was Fisa's turn to run.

I don't know how many people have done it, but I don't care anyway.

"Fight, Fisa!"

"Yes, definitely!"

Before Fisa left to run, I had encouraged her and she returned the favor while showing me that very sweet smile of hers.

"Satomi."

Lina called out to me.

"What's wrong?"

"Are you dating her? You guys always seem to be close."

"For now, no."

"Uh, why?"

"I don't know, maybe because I feel unworthy of him. You know what? I don't have anything to be proud of."

I didn't want Lina to find out, so I lied to her.

"It turns out that someone like you can be pessimistic, huh?"

"So what?"

"Not why, but whatever happens, fight for it!"

"Yes, thank you."

When she encourages me, I can only thank her.

"PRIIITT!!!"

After a short talk with Lina, soon the whistle sounded and I could see Fisa running quite fast.

If Fisa could keep running like that, then she would finish in about 15 seconds.

But...

"AGHH!"

She fell down in the middle of the road.

"Whoa, Fisa's fallen! Satomi, save her!"

"Me?"

"We should go over and see how she's doing!"

That made many of my classmates come over, including me and Lina.

Lina looked worried, and I think I felt worried too.

I don't know if it's worry or not, but I definitely feel uncomfortable when I see her fall.

Seeing Fisa who was this popular, my chest felt tight.

Why?

Wasn't I jealous of seeing her surrounded by men?

Ah, that's right.

I should move ahead of that guy.

Then by breaking through some of the crowd of my classmates, I approached Fisa.

"Fisa, are you alright?"

"Sa-satomi? I don't know, but my leg hurts."

"Is that so?"

Seeing her sitting limply like this, my body unconsciously moved to pick her up.

"Sa-satomi?!"

Fisa looked surprised by this, but I ignored her and continued to carry her upright.

"I'm sorry if you feel uncomfortable, but I have to do it."

"You-you don't have to apologize, I should be the one to apologize for inconveniencing you. Sorry, I'm heavy, right?"

When I was already carrying Fisa like a princess, I couldn't feel the weight of her body at all.

I felt that Fisa's body was light, so there was no problem when I carried her.

No, there was actually one problem.

The moment our skin touched, my sanity almost disappeared, especially when I smelled her sweet body odor.

I need to calm down, and I need to calm down.

I must be able to calm down, that's what I thought for several times.

"No, you're very light. Then, let's go to the infirmary!"

The moment I regained my composure, I started moving with Fisa.

I ignored all the stares of my classmates and again broke through the crowd to approach Mr. Smith and ask his permission.

"Mr. Smith, I'd like to take Fisa to the infirmary!"

"Go, but please come back when you're done!"

"Okay!"

Once I got Mr. Smith's permission, I took Fisa straight to the infirmary.