21 Jump Street (Tom Hanson)

Hiking

I side-stepped to get around the person in front of me and began walking a little quicker. I was eyeing Tom and he picked up on this and stepped into the grass to get around them too. Then he said, "ready, go!"

Rocks crunched under my white tennis shoes as I began sprinting down the trail, with Tom just ahead of me. We left our coworkers in our dust, and I was pumping my arms to try to be faster than Tom. The air was hitting through my white sweatshirt and my green biker shorts. I was laughing as I tried to keep up with him, but his longer legs aided him in winning. He reached the boulder before me, but not by much.

"Slow poke," he said as he panted after I reached the boulder merely seconds after him.

"Yeah, yeah." I grabbed his hand and interlocked my fingers with his as we went back to walking. "You got lucky."

"With what?" He laughed.

"Genes. Those long legs." I looked down at his legs.

"Yeah, right." He rolled his eyes.

"If our legs were the same height, I would have kicked your ass, Hanson," I laughed and looked back up at him. We had drifted to walking on the side of the trail with the steep hill, but neither of us noticed.

"Quit being a sore loser."

"I'll rematch you."

"Bring it on, short stuff."

Just as we were about to run again, my foot slipped which made me stop. He stopped too and a wave of concern brushed across his face and he asked, "are you all right?"

"Yeah. It's going to take a lot more than that to—" I said but as soon as I took another step, the dirt under my foot collapsed which made me slip and I fell down the side of the hill.

"Mickey!" I heard Tom's voice call out as I slid on my back down the nearly vertical dirt hill. I closed my eyes to avoid getting any plants or dirt in my eyes, and I tightened every muscle. I could feel exposed roots and rocks tear up my legs and back as I scraped down the hill. I grunted when my feet finally hit the ground, and my legs gave out and I collapsed. The wind was knocked out of me. I lifted my head up and saw that I landed in a patch of tall grass, surrounded by thick bushes that grew alongside the hill.

I groaned as I rolled onto my burning back and looked up to see Tom's head peering down at me from the top of the hill. Fuller's face popped out too, following the rest of my cohorts.

"You all right, Gregg?!" Fuller called out down to me.

I took a moment to catch my breath. I wanted to cry. I sat up and shook the dirt and pebbles out of my hair. I ran my fingers through my hair, realizing that I lost Tom's hat during my fall. I brushed the dirt off my raw and cut-up hands before I called back, "yeah! I'm fine."

"You fell down the hill!" Doug enlightened.

"Thanks for the update," I deadpanned, but I'm sure he got the humor behind it. I was practically wheezing as my lungs tried to inflate again.

"Do we need to call you an ambulance?!" Judy asked in her natural caring and panicked tone.

"No, that's okay," I said back. My back felt completely scratched up, and I knew it was going to be very sore in the morning. I brought my knees up to my chest and gingerly touched the back of my thighs. They were bleeding a bit and a few layers of skin was scraped off, making the smooth and sticky inner layers of my pink skin burn from the dirt and air. Otherwise, I felt fine.

"Are you sure?" Ioki asked, "that was a big fall."

"I'm sure!" I yelled back. I extended my legs gently to make sure they weren't broken and I was just in shock. My knees both cracked at the joint, but that was normal.