Chapter Twenty Seven – Matt’s Big Day

There would be no winners today or medals, just an insight into what the end of year sports day would involve and a chance to have some fun. Matt and Jed made their way to the lunch spot they had settled on, a place initially chosen for safety, somewhere out of sight. But the fear of lunchtimes had slipped away, it was now just a quiet place to have lunch, somewhere their friends could find them.

“At least we don’t have to train with Ricky today,” joked Jed.

Matt raised his eyebrows. “This might be worse though.”

“Can’t’ be,” replied Jed, “Ricky’s training makes me puke.”

Matt nodded. “Ready to get changed? Warm up?”

“I suppoooose so,” lamented Jed, “I was kinda hoping that there would be an earthquake or something though.”

The boys saw Ricky with some friends on their way to the sports field and waved. Ricky jogged over.  “Hey, guys. All set? Just treat it like training, max effort. Don’t hold anything back. You’ll be fine. Besides we can just train harder next week if we need to.” Ricky put his arm over Jed’s neck and pulled him close. “Don’t look so worried, Jed. There’s a really good hospital in town.”

“Ha ha ha,” replied Jed dryly as Matt and Ricky laughed.

Matt felt a bit better when he saw groups of nervous-looking boys milling around the sports field. They didn’t know what was going to happen either. The teacher at assembly had assured them the only thing they needed to know was to tie up their shorts securely before running.

A blow of a whistle signalled for the boys to get together by year group. They were divided into smaller groups where a teacher explained that they would be racing three distances, four hundred, two hundred and one hundred metres. After each race, the groups would be divided into two new groups according to their place and these groups would each race again.

“Just to be clear you will run each distance twice. Got it?” asked the teacher to a wall of silence. “Don’t worry if you don’t understand, it doesn’t matter. Just run when you are asked to, or if someone is chasing you!”

Jed looked at Matt and shrugged his shoulders. “Think I’ll wait until someone’s chasing me.”

“Okay, this group line up please,” called the teacher. Then with almost no warning, “Once around the track. Ready, set, GO.”

The group of boys had hardly got going when the next group included Matt was summoned to the start line. The teacher waited until the first group were about one third the way around the track. “Okay, see how many you can overtake. Ready, set, GO.”

Matt soon found himself in the middle of the pack, surrounded and hemmed in. He didn’t try to get past anyone, but by the halfway mark he didn’t have to. Many of the boys started to tire, they had set out too hard and were falling off the pace. It didn’t take long for Matt to find himself in a group of three boys at the front. As they approached the finish line together a teacher held out an arm directing them to the inside of the track. As Matt turned to look back he saw the teacher directing the tail end of his pack to the outside of the track. He waved to Jed and smiled. Jed did not quite make the first group. When all the year groups had run the first years were summoned again, the first group to race was made up of the slower boys from the outside of the track.

“Okay, team,” yelled the teacher, “you are running for pride. It’s a bigger group this time, please take care not to trip over each other. Ready, set, GO.”

All the onlookers stood up and started yelling. As before most ran too fast and some were walking by the halfway mark. Regardless every boy was clapped and cheered as they finished, a couple of stragglers held up their hands in triumph to great laughter.

Matt’s group was called up. “Okay, team,” began the teacher, “you’re running for glory. Only in your own mind of course, but that’s just fine. Remember there’s no pressure, but half the school’s watching! Ready, set, GO.”

This time Matt did not let himself get hemmed in, he started from the outside and ran just fast enough to beat the blob to the first corner. He found the leaders from the first race and stayed close to them. Again most of the boys fell off the pace by the halfway mark. A much smaller group of boys rounded the last corner together, they spread out as they hit the straight. Matt ran as hard as he could, he could see the boys at the finish line jumping and waving, he could hear them screaming encouragement. He looked down as he crossed the line and put his hands on his hips, he was gassed. A teacher blew their whistle. “Okay, I think we’ll call this a draw.” He walked over to Matt and held his wrist and another boy’s wrist, raising them high. Matt looked at the cheering crowd and caught Ricky’s eye. Ricky gave him a double thumbs up, Matt grinned back. He turned to the boy next to him and shook his hand before walking over to sit with Jed.

Jed held up his hand for a high five. “Awesome, man. If you tripped that dude up at the start you would’ve won.”

“Just have to train harder,” replied Matt. He lay down on the grass and closed his eyes. “Let’s get a rest before the next one.”

Jed tapped Matt each time Ricky or Nikau were racing. Ricky all but won his race, the competition in his group was fierce. There were no winners declared for Matt’s two hundred and one hundred metre races, the groups were too big and the finish too close. Matt felt good though, he was competitive. When the running was finished the boys were given fifteen minutes to have a drink before heading to the gym for their indoor session.

Matt had only briefly been in the gym as part of his induction tour. It had been made very clear that access to the gym was by invitation only. The boys went in by year group and sat on the floor. There was quiet chatter as they looked around and wondered what was in store for them. When everyone was seated a teacher started explaining the routine. One half of the group would be doing the beep test at one end of the hall and the rest would be doing strength exercises at the other end. And, the students were told, they were very lucky to have an alumnus of the school to take them through the strength exercises. A previous senior sports champion. The teacher held out his hand to welcome someone who was sitting slightly out of view.

“DYLAN,” exclaimed Jed a little too loudly.

Dylan looked over to Matt and Jed. “Hi, Jed,” he said casually.

The teacher sent the three most senior years to start with the beep test and left the two junior years with Dylan. Dylan clapped his hands to get the students attention. “We’ll get the hard stuff out of the way then have some fun. First, everyone’s favourite, push-ups! Everyone down for five, let’s have a look.” Dylan walked around the students as they did their push-ups. “Not bad, not bad at all. You will be delighted to know though that most of you could do better. You, you and you to the front please.” Matt and two other boys walked cautiously to the front.

“Please do a few push-ups, guys. Now see how their backs are straight and they go all the way down? That’s what we want to see. Everybody, five more please, give that a go.” Dylan clapped again. “Right, we are ready to go. Groups of three, please. One person does push-ups at a time, the other two count. Only count the ones with a straight back and going all the way. It’s an honesty system today, please remember how many you do. Once your group is done please all stand up so we can see who’s finished. GO.”

There was a burst of excited chatter as the boys gathered in groups and set about doing their push-ups. There were eruptions of loud debate as to whether some push-ups should be counted or not. When they were all standing Dylan put both arms above his head.

“Listen up, please. Put your hands up if you did ten or more.” Most boys put their hands up. “Very good, not bad at all. How about twenty or more? Thirty or more? Forty? Fifty?” Matt left his hand up, he had managed sixty-five.

​

“Okay, you can put your hands down. You guys are great, quite a few of you did fifty or more. I’m impressed. Now at the end of the year, we are only counting push-ups like these.”

Dylan casually kicked his legs back and landed in a push-up position. “Listen please.” He started doing clapping push-ups. “Nice and loud with the claps. Once you have those sorted try these.” He started doing push-ups where both his hands and feet left the floor while clapping. He bounced up with his arms and landed on his feet.

“Okay, please give those a go. No need to count them. It’s just for fun.” There was a lot of laughter as the boys discovered just how hard the clapping push-ups were. After a few minutes, Dylan called for them to stop. “Now for even more fun, we are going to do chin-ups.” A few boys groaned. Dylan waved his arm above his head indicating the boys should follow him over to some bars.

“We’ve only got two bars and can fit four people per bar. So again get in the same groups. For a chin-up to count your chin must go above the bar on the way up and your shoulder beneath your elbow on the way down. No mucking around, get your chin-ups done and make way for the next group. Remember how many you do.” Again there was a burble of chatter and laughter as the boys tried to do chin-ups, many of them for the first time. Dylan walked from bar to bar offering encouragement and praise. Once finished the boys sat down, exhausted.

“Well, I have to say you guys are WAY better than when I was your age. I am sure in my year at least two guys pooped their pants. Hands up who did five or more? Ten or more? Fifteen or more? Really? Wow. What about twenty or more?” There were gasps as three boys put their hands up. Dylan nodded with approval. “That is tremendous guys. I’m very impressed.”

“Twenty or more, I don’t think I could beat that,” said Dylan as he shook his head. The boys started yelling and exhorting Dylan to do some chin-ups. “Go on, show us what you got,” yelled a boy. Dylan raised his hands above his head. “Okay, okay,” he said before facing the bar. “But I need complete silence. Everyone sit down please.” Dylan turned and put his finger to his mouth. When the murmuring stopped he turned, put his hands on the bar, looked down in concentration and farted loudly.

The boys laughed uproariously, some even rolled over on the floor. Dylan shook his head and put his hands on his face, feigning embarrassment. He waved his arms to quieten the boys. “I just remembered,” he said, “I was one of the boys who pooped his pants. Now count these for me.” He then did thirty chin-ups with seeming ease. “Thought I better stop before my left nipple popped off again,” joked Dylan as he rubbed his chest. “Now some fun stuff. Who can do a handstand for more than five seconds? Great, up the front, please. Now spread out to avoid collisions. GO,” he yelled as he stepped into a handstand.

One by one the boys dropped out. When there was one boy left Dylan called out, “When there are only two left we do this.” Dylan spread his legs far apart and balanced on one arm. The onlookers cheered as the one remaining boy tried but had to drop out. Dylan stood up and shook the boy’s hand and gave him a pat on the back. “At the end of the year, there will be some fun competitions like how long you can do handstands and how far you can walk on your hands. So start practising.”

Dylan turned to the teacher and shook his hand. The teacher blew his whistle. “Okay, boys, well done. Could we please have a big hand for Dylan, he has come in on his holidays. Take a look on the honours board, you will see his name there.” The teacher blew their whistle again. “Five-minute break before we swap over.”

Matt and Jed watched the older boys completing their beep tests. “That looks miserable,” mused Jed. Privately Matt thought it looked like a lot of fun. All of his hard training for karate was paying off and the beep test might be the best proof of this yet. As Matt was looking around he saw Dylan, a teacher and Rooster standing together. Dylan was speaking to Rooster, he smiled and put a hand on Rooster’s shoulder in a comforting way. Rooster looked down and nodded. To Matt’s great surprise Rooster smiled when Dylan shook his hand.

The teacher blew their whistle. “All the juniors to the far end of the gym please.” Again they were divided into year groups and the beep test was explained to them. It seemed easy enough. A teacher came along and counted ten students including Matt.

“You’re up first. Remember there are no awards today but do as well as you can and remember your score to compare with your next attempt. If a teacher taps your shoulder you are out.” Matt looked along the line of boys, there was Rooster. Matt caught his eye and smiled, lifting his head in a sign of goodwill. Rooster smiled weakly back and looked down.

“Wait for the beep then run.” All the boys ran a bit too fast for the first leg, Matt took note of this and slowed down. Back and forth they went, the puffing grew louder. As boys started to fall off the pace the onlookers started to yell encouragement. Soon Matt was struggling too, he thought about his hill sprints and how he always seemed to keep going for longer than he imagined he would. He thought about Gary’s advice to never give up and he imagined being chased by dogs. He took a big breath at each turn and ignored everything around him. The boys either side of him dropped out, but Matt kept going. He could hear the other boys yelling, he looked down, trying to ignore them. His legs began to tire. “One more run, one more run,” he told himself. Then with eyes closed, he stopped and sank to his knees.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up, it was a teacher. “Take your time to get your breath back. Ten, six. That’s a very good result.” Matt nodded, stood up and went to sit by Jed.

“That was awesome, man,” said Jed excitedly, “you were all on your own for ages.”

“Thanks,” replied Matt between breaths.

Matt watched the rest of his year run back and forth, he cheered for Jed who certainly pulled the best faces and got the most laughs. When the last of the beep tests had been run they were allowed to watch the older students finish up with Dylan. Dylan was standing by the chin-up bar with three students, there was a lot of laughing and cheering. It appeared that three of the students had challenged Dylan to a chin-up competition. A teacher called for the boys to quieten down, he then called out, “Ready.” Dylan and the challengers grabbed the bar and the teacher started counting out reps.

The three students and Dylan bounced effortlessly up and down, they passed twenty. Dylan smiled at the onlookers and gave them a wink. The watching students clapped when one boy dropped from the bar, a second was slowing down and dropped shortly later to further applause. Dylan shuffled along the bar as he did his chin-ups until he was next to the remaining boy.

“G’day mate. What are you hanging around here for?” asked Dylan loudly. The students laughed and cheered.

“Wanna shake hands?” asked Dylan as he hung halfway down by one arm, the other outstretched.

“No actually,” replied the student to more raucous laughter. The boy dropped from the bar. Dylan immediately dropped as well and held the boy’s arm in the air, to much whistling and cheering.

Nikau caught up with Matt and Jed as they left the gym. “What you fellas up to?” he asked.

“We’re going to get our bags and meet Dylan at the gate,” replied Matt.

“Cool, see you there,” said Nikau before running back to his mates.

Nikau and many of his mates were at the gate with Dylan. Matt watched Dylan joke and chat with the boys as he approached. Kiana was standing close by with a group of her friends, they looked like they wanted to join in, but were a bit shy.

“Hi, Kiana. Thanks for waiting,” said Matt in a carefree tone as he walked past.

Kiana kicked Matt firmly on the backside.

“HEY,” said Matt he as turned around with his arms held out wide and a big grin.

Kiana replied with a googly-eyed look while gently shaking her head. Matt shrugged his shoulders and walked over to Dylan, who was chuckling. “Good move, Matt. Getting kicked is better than nothing.” Then holding out his arm to Nikau and his friends declared, “I think we have half the rugby team here.”

Nikau pointed to Matt and said, “You should come play rugby, man, you were awesome.” The other boys nodded in agreement.

“Sure,” replied Matt weakly, though he was not sure at all.

“Really good effort today, guys, I’m very impressed. Keep up the training,” said Dylan as he shook hands with Nikau and his friends. “We need to get going.”

Matt watched as the boys smiled and shook Dylan’s hand. Dylan, Matt and Jed walked in silence for a while, once they were clear of the other students Dylan started to speak.

“What a big day guys, you both did very well. Gary wanted me to let you know he’ll be coming to the school on Wednesdays to do a karate class in the gym straight after school. Gary talked to the rugby coach and I expect the entire rugby squad will be there. You two will still train with him on the weekend, he’ll be in touch to sort a time. I expect you’ll be training together. Sound like fun?”

Matt and Jed nodded while wondering if training with the rugby team would be fun at all.

“It will be a good challenge for you both. You’ll be fine.”

After Jed had left to head home Matt asked, “Will Nikau be able to come to karate?”

“Yes, it seems the talk Gary had with his mum was surprisingly productive. The rugby coach is part of her whanau. By the way, Nikau didn’t really steal a car, he just took an uncle’s car for a joy ride. Lesson learned I understand. Also, his mum’s alright. She wants the best for her kids, but things are a bit tough at present.”

Matt looked up at Dylan. “Were you there?”

“Yes, but don’t say anything please.” Matt nodded and looked down his driveway.

“You did very well today, Matt. How many chin-ups?”

“Twenty-five.”

Dylan shook his head. “Don’t you dare tell anyone, but that’s more than I or Simon did at the first trial. It’s hard to believe I’m leaving on Sunday, it seems to have come so fast.”

Matt looked down and took a big breath. Dylan stepped forward and put his arms around Matt’s shoulders, pulling him close.

After a moment of silence, Dylan spoke. “You have one more challenge to consider. This is to make peace with Rooster, I was watching him today and he looked crushed. I know it might sound like a big ask but the power is in your hands now to make things better. If you want to talk about it just let me know.”

Matt took a big breath in and out, that was a big ask indeed. “You’ll be fine. You’ve made many friends today, you just don’t know it yet. Most importantly you’ve been kicked up the backside by a girl, that’s some achievement, pal. Things will go well for you I promise. You’ve got Art and Gary looking out for you too. Of course, we can’t forget Lola! Lola loves you heaps. And for sure I’ll stay in touch.” Dylan pushed Matt out to arm’s length and looked him in the eyes. “We’re brothers now, big brother and little brother.” Matt felt tears streaming down his cheeks as Dylan pulled him in again.

“Those better be tears of joy, Matt,” said Dylan softly.

Matt cried and laughed. “You just smell bad,” he said.

Dylan laughed and laughed. “Oh, Matt, that’s the best thing I’ve heard from you so far. Now I can be confident that you have learned something from me, bad jokes.”

Dylan pushed Matt’s face back and forth on his shirt. “There you go, eyes and nose wiped. Hill sprints or bike ride in the morning?”

“Hill sprints, I’ll bring Lola.”

“Great, seven at Art’s.” After a rub of Matt’s shoulder, Dylan turned and left.

Jane stepped back from the window as Matt walked down the driveway and wiped her eyes. She could feel a strong pang in her chest from watching Dylan hug Matt.