Go Forward Slowly

by Whitney Cannon

  “Let’s say you did twenty sit-ups and only eight push-ups. That is something specific you can concentrate on and work to improve over the semester. Set a goal for forty sit-ups and fifteen push-ups. Or, if running is something you struggle with, work on that. If your mile time was in the teens, work to get it down in the tweens or even the single digits.

  “If you’d rather focus on weight lifting, set your goals accordingly. Work on the number of reps you can do and then change the weight when that becomes too easy. Set a goal though, specific targets. Work with your partner. And be realistic. I don’t want to see you boys saying you plan to be benching two-hundred pounds when all you can do now is the bar. That’s not a practical goal and I’d come talk to you anyway to adjust that to something more reasonable.

  “Some of you ladies may want to focus more on flexibility and tone. That’s great and a perfectly good strategy, but decide how you’re going to chart those results. If you can only do a partial split, set a stretching goal to a time when you think you might be able to achieve full splits, or side splits, if that’s more challenging. Set goals for specific challenging yoga poses if that’s appealing to you. And remember, you’re always welcome in the weight room as well.

  “Okay, we’ve talked a little about exercise goals, now let’s talk a little about nutrition goals. How many of you had cereal this morning for breakfast?” Mr. Dunlap asked and more than half the class raised their hands, Patton included. “Okay, just quickly, call out what kind you had.”

  A cacophony of brands and types and flavors were thrown out, and Mr. Dunlap raised his hands to quiet the masses. “Alright, so Fruit Loops, Captain Crunch, Lucky Charms, Frosted Flakes… Those seem to be highly popular. How many had Cheerios or Raisin Bran?” Only one girl in the back raised her hand. “And those of you who didn’t have cereal this morning, what did you have?”

  The air was once again flooded with calls of waffles, Pop-Tarts, eggs, breakfast sandwiches from fast food places, pastries, and coffee.

  “Okay, so I think we have a good idea of what things our society has instilled in us that are fairly traditional breakfast foods. That being said, not all of those things are healthy for us or something we should be consuming on a daily basis. Those of you who had eggs, or even a breakfast sandwich, or a nutritious cereal, those are smarter choices. Lucky Charms, Fruit Loops, Trix, Pop-Tarts… Those things are loaded with sugar. Who said they had coffee?”

  Two girls and one boy raised their hands.

  “Brooklyn, where did you get your coffee? What kind was it?” Mr. Dunlap questioned.

  “Dunn Brothers,” Brooklyn called back.

  “What did you order, if you’ll share with us?”

  “Pumpkin-spiced latte.”

  “Okay, thanks. Did any of you others have coffee made at home?” Mr. Dunlap asked the other two kids. They both shook their heads. “Alright. You can still have coffee in the morning if that’s what you normally like, but these are the things I want you all to focus on when talking about your nutrition goals. Set a goal of replacing one Starbucks coffee a week with a glass of milk, or a cup of tea, or a homemade coffee with measured sugar and store-bought pumpkin-spiced creamer so you know exactly what’s in the coffee you’re drinking. Those chain brand coffee creations are delicious, I’ll admit, but also loaded with sugar and calories.

  “Replace the super sugary cereal with something with whole grains and sprinkle a little sugar over the top at home for a little added kick, not a wallop. Have a couple of eggs with some fruit or toast. One easy thing you can probably all change, however, is the amount of soda you drink. Every soda is loaded with sugar. Grab a flavored Vitaminwater or even a Gatorade instead. Simple things like that will be a good place for you all to start your nutrition goals. Work toward your fruit and vegetable intake, figure out how you can include more of those into your diet and make a plan to do so. Try to cut down on fast food and french fries. I know those options are super easy and budget-friendly, but also not the best option out there.

  “Alright, enough talk for now. Let’s break you guys up into your pairs. You know what to work on today. Start with where you are now. Write down how much weight you can lift, your mile times, your flexibility, weight loss or weight gain goals, whatever you’d like to see improve over the next few months and also what a typical few days of eating looks like for you. We’ll meet up again Friday to see some of your responses, and I’d like you all to start thinking about your goals. We’ll probably be doing something between five and seven specific goals that you can achieve before January.

  “As I’ve said, I’ve paired up with your English teachers, and they’ll talk to you about the writing portion of what will occur over the coming term. You’re going to be doing a sort of documentary-style journal, kind of like a diary, and at the end of the term, you’ll work on a report of some kind documenting your progress from start to finish. Now, I’ll call out your pairings and to be fair, I’m only pairing boys with boys and girls with girls. Take some time to talk with your partner and make some notes. This is going to be a sizeable chunk of your grade so go forward slowly and get a feel for where you can both help each other out the most. If one of you is better at running and the other is better at pull-ups, make a note of that, use it to your advantage.

  “I’m not going to be grading you on how well you write your goals, but I am going to be looking to see that those goals are appropriate and attainable. I’m going to do regular checks with you, and once a month, you’ll bring your journal to me and we’ll go over your progress and work out what modifications need to be made and where. So, let’s get started.”

  Patton wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole.

  His sentence—and that was how he saw it, his death sentence—had just been handed down, and as the chubby kid, he already knew people were crossing their fingers not be paired with him.

  What a nightmare. Any confidence Patton had had from his weekend and choir practice before lunch, had vanished in the first few minutes of the lecture.

  As if his PE experience wasn’t horrible enough, now he was going to have to have some poor schlep tied to him and have to tell them all about his shortcomings and faults. Anyone who got paired with him was going to cringe immediately—

  “—Patton Dean, you’ll be paired with Wesley Brooks—”

  — and the tall skinny kid was now his partner. Great. Freakin’ fantastic… What could he possibly have to work on?

  The boy was looking around like he had no idea who Patton was, and he probably didn’t. No one knew who Patton was.

  Sighing, Patton figured there was no point in delaying the inevitable and made his way over to the tallest boy in their class. Even standing next to him, Wesley didn’t seem to notice him. But Patton took those few precious seconds of oblivion to catalog the guy and get a sense of their differences.

  Where Patton was almost six feet tall, Wesley was over over six feet and where Patton had broad shoulders and what some might graciously call “big bones,” Wesley was slight and lanky, almost too skinny, his clothes hanging on him like a shroud. But his dark brown, closely cropped hair was a contrast to Patton’s shaggy, dirty blond locks and extra-large gym clothes. Wesley’s cheekbones were quite pronounced and if Patton was seeing correctly, he was even wearing a hint of makeup? His dark eyes seemed to have a little bit of extra pop, and his lips looked red and shiny.

  Shaking himself out of creeper mode, Patton cleared his throat and forced his voice not to crack. “Hey. You’re Wesley, right?”

  Wesley’s head snapped down, and for some reason, a smile spread across his face, causing a weird but not unpleasant sensation to tingle in Patton’s belly. Wesley had a great smile.

  “Yeah. I’m Wes. Are you Patton?” the other boy asked with a deeper voice than Patton had expected, though he was still smiling at him. Patton nodded mutely. “I saw you yesterday at the lake, driving your boat.”

  Oh. “You did?” he squeaked, then cleared his
throat again. Idiot. “I didn’t see anyone else around. I try to only go when there aren’t a lot of people around. People usually complain about the noise or that I’m scaring the fish away or that I’m too old to be playing with ‘kids toys’. I hope I wasn’t bothering you. I didn’t see anyone close by—” Patton clamped his mouth shut. Wesley was still smiling at him and looked about ready to laugh. Stupid. He should have just nodded and not gone spewing all that nonsense. Wesley didn’t care about any of that.

  “You were fine. I trail run around the lake on Sundays and saw your boat on the water. I didn’t want to bother you and didn’t know your name anyway,” Wesley replied.

  “You're a runner?” Patton asked, already sensing his complete lack of physicality compared to Wesley. “I mean, yeah. It figures. You have a great body.” Patton’s cheeks heated furiously and he immediately backtracked, bringing his palms up to try to placate the other guy. “I mean, not like that! You know, it’s just that, well, compared to me and all. Not that you don’t have a great body in that way, if that’s your thing, but, I’m not… Oh my God. I’m an idiot. I’m sorry. I’m just going to go off and die now. I’m so sorry you got stuck with me,” Patton muttered and turned to head off, hunching his shoulders and trying to turn invisible. Jesus, what was wrong with him?

  A large hand landed on his shoulder and he stopped. “Dude. It’s totally fine,” Wesley said from behind him. “I’m an idiot most of the time too. Just forget about it, huh?”

  Patton hugged his arms around his stomach but peered over his shoulder, and Wesley dropped his hand, looking back at him with a sincere expression on his face.

  “It’s no big deal. Really. And, yes, I’m a runner. Thanks for the backward compliment, by the way. It’s nice when someone says something nice about you, even if they were being an idiot and didn’t really mean it,” Wesley joked.

  Patton turned back around. “Oh, I meant it. I mean, just about everyone has a better body than me. I just didn’t mean to imply…” His cheeks heated again as he shrugged.

  “It’s cool, man. I know. And there’s nothing wrong with your body either.”

  Patton shot him a look. “Yeah, right. I know what I look like.”

  “Really? I’m not sure you do, but we’ll agree to disagree,” Wesley said easily enough. “Should we head over somewhere and get this thing started?”

  Shrugging, Patton nodded and they made their way over to a shady spot along the side of the building. They both slung off their backpacks and silently grabbed out a notebook.

  “So, where do you think we should start? I’m sure I have a lot more stuff to work on than you,” Patton commented.

  Wesley shot him a look. “How about we just start with our baseline scores from last week?”

  Patton nodded. “Sounds good. Um, for sit-ups I got nineteen. How about you?”

  Wesley wrote something in his notebook. “I got twenty-four.” He wrote something else and looked up at Patton then. “How about push-ups?”

  Patton looked away. “Fifteen.”

  “Cool. I got thirteen.”

  “What?” Patton exclaimed, not at all expecting that. How was it possible that he’d beaten Wesley in push-ups? Wesley made a face but didn’t respond to Patton’s comment. Okay… “How did you do on your run? I’m sure you killed it.”

  Nodding, Wesley smiled, obvious pride showed in his expression and the way he straightened his shoulders. “Six-oh-nine.”

  “Holy crap. That’s insane,” Patton blurted. “Seriously?”

  Wesley grinned at Patton’s praise and a hint of pink colored his cheeks. “Yeah. I’ve always been good at running. It helps that I have really long legs.”

  “I guess,” Patton returned in bewilderment. “I didn’t even double your time. I threw up after my third lap.”

  Wesley’s gaze snapped to his, concern marring his expression. “You did? Were you okay?”

  Patton nodded but couldn’t meet Wesley’s gaze. “I didn’t know we’d be running, and having PE right after lunch”—he shook his head—“is not a good thing. I’m not good at running any time, but it’s definitely worse after eating and drinking right before.”

  “Oh, man. I’m sorry. That totally sucks. It was hot that day too. That probably didn’t help.” Wesley sighed. “So, what time did you get?”

  “Fifteen twenty-one,” Patton confessed, hanging his head and using the aglet on his shoelace to prod at a dirty spot on his Nikes.

  Patton saw Wesley nod again from the corner of his eye as he made a note in his notebook. “Well, if running is something you want to work on for the project, I can totally help you with it. I know what you mean about having lunch right before PE though. I was hurting too and only able to do that well because I’ve been running for so long. My muscles just know what to do, but my side was totally aching.”

  Patton smiled a little at that. His whole body had been aching, but it was good to hear that as good of a runner as Wesley seemed to be, he’d been having some issues too. “Alright, what else?” he asked.

  They ran down a few more items of the torture they’d had inflicted upon them the previous week, including a few basics things they’d been tested on in the weight room.

  As is turned out, Patton had Wesley beat in just about every category in the weight room. Patton could hardly believe it, but then again, looking at Wesley’s almost too thin frame, maybe he shouldn’t have been all that surprised. Even though Patton wasn’t what anyone would consider physically fit, his size alone would give him more of an advantage compared to Wesley’s twigs for arms. Maybe, in this one instance, he was only slightly happier to be “big-boned” rather than wispy and just this side of frail like Wesley appeared to be.

  They ended their conversation and class period without really setting any goals, physically or in their diets.

  They’d gotten into their eating habits and as they’d both confessed they were basically addicted to cereal, they got sidetracked listing out the pros and cons of each of their favorite cereals. They’d both agreed that Lucky Charms were too sweet, and they didn’t like the way the marshmallows stuck to their teeth, but while Patton’s favorite cereal was Trix, Wesley preferred Fruit Loops, even though they were basically the same thing.

  They’d never made it past breakfast foods.

  As Mr. Dunlap reconvened the class and reiterated more of the same lecture about goals and starting points, Patton studied Wesley out of the corner of his eye.

  Wesley had surprised Patton during their discussion. Whereupon first glance Wesley seemed like this super-fit uber-healthy guy, he was more like an average guy with a side of stamina thrown in. And he was potentially as weak as he looked in the muscles department.

  But, he hadn’t laughed or snickered when Patton had confessed about his lack of athleticism and the fact that he’d thrown up during their run. He’d seemed genuinely concerned and empathetic to Patton’s situation of lunch before their class. It left Patton feeling better about himself than he had been when Mr. Dunlap had started in on what Patton had assumed would be a nightmare of an experience.

  It seemed to him, that maybe having Wesley as a partner wouldn’t be as bad as he’d first thought.

  Chapter 4

  After school on Monday, Wesley pulled his car into the garage and he and Calvin climbed out. His mind was preoccupied as he entered the laundry room and grabbed a package of microwave popcorn, setting the microwave as he passed on through to the hallway and down to the first room on the left.

  Without concern, he deposited his backpack on his bed and toed off his shoes, then crossed the hall to pee before going back to the kitchen to grab a soda and a bowl for the nearly popped popcorn. He hit cancel on the keypad as the popping kernels slowed and pulled open the door to the heavenly aroma, gently shaking the bag for any last second kernels that decided to reach their fully popped potential.

  Wes emptied the contents into the bowl and on his way back to his room, detoured through the living room t
o take a quick peek at the cats.

  Sunflower was the only one to perk up as he entered but Marigold, or Mari for short, rolled over on the carpet exposing parts of her shaved neck and belly including the still pink line of the incision from her recent surgical procedure. She’d been a stray, her long fur so matted down her rescuers had only noticed the large abscess on her neck once they’d removed some of her tangled and clumped fur. She’d been flead, wormed, vaccinated, and then her abscesses had been drained. It had taken a few weeks of gentle handling and regular attention to get Mari to come around and even though she wasn’t what Wesley would consider loving, or really even sociable, she didn’t run for cover anymore whenever someone entered the room. She would definitely require an understanding owner and they still had no idea how she would do with dogs or small children. They’d had lots of cats just like her over the years.

  Not seeing anything to warrant his attention, Wesley bypassed his room and poked his head into his mom’s room. Their own cat, Midnight, whom Wesley had named when they’d first gotten him when Wesley’d been five, slept in his usual spot at the foot of his mom’s bed.

  Ducking back out, Wesley finally plopped down on his own unmade bed and munched a few handfuls of popcorn before snatching his headphones off his overly cluttered desk and pulling up his favorite Spotify playlist via Bluetooth on his phone. Often times he enjoyed finding new artists and new songs through his browsing, but today he wanted something familiar, something he didn’t have to think about, and something he could just get lost in.

  He’d been having a fairly whatever day all the way up through lunch. Colt and Lizzy had all but made him gag at lunch. They were so disgustingly into their brand-new “we’ve been dating for a whole week” coupleness, that Wes had had to just nod along to their conversation about the amazing weekend they’d had together all the while trying to recite the lines to his favorite movie scenes and making up lines when he couldn’t remember what actually came next.