STUFFED

Gym Class

Courtney was one of the last ones to enter the gymnasium. Everyone was standing in a circle recieving instruction and she quietly slipped in with the group to listen.

The gym teacher explains the activities for the day:

"Alright class, today we need to get through three drills; agility testing, the beep test, and sprints. We're going to be splitting the class into three groups. One group will start with agility, another will start at the beep test, and there will be one group doing sprint testing."

The gym teacher goes ahead and starts numbering people off.

Courtney gets a two and her group starts with agility.

As she's standing in line, waiting for her turn, she looks across the gym at her peers starting the beep test. A knot of dread forms in her stomach and her tummy gurgles its displeasure. There's no way she's going to be able to run a beep test. The ominous tones of the test resonate through the gym. 

*BEEP*

The group runs from one side of the gym to the other.

*BEEP*

Then back again.

*BEEP*

Courtney's head slowly swivels from left to right as her eyes track the group going back and forth. The test starts off slowly but after several beeps, the pace quickens. 

She makes it to the front of the line and the person behind her has to prompt her to take her turn. Courtney makes her way through the agility cones. Forwards, then backwards, side to side, and then backwards again. Eventhough she's trying her hardest she's still going slower than everyone else. At the end of the pylon course a TA holding a clip board writes something down, looks up at Courtney and shakes their head before returning their gaze back down. 

Her hands sink into her hips as she leans forward to catch her breath. 

Courtney walks away from the course and takes a seat on the bleachers. Everyone in group 2 takes their turn and now it's time to swap over. They make their way over to beep test and stand on the line. The automated voice starts to play on the speakers overhead, carefully explaining the rules. They haven't even started running yet and Courtney's heart is already pounding in her ears. Her stomach feels tight and achy and it already hurts to stand up all the way. 

The chunks of poorly chewed food get fussy in her stomach and respond to her nerves with a disgusting sound. Two girls turn around and cast her appalled looks and then exchange the same looks with each other. Courtney holds her stomach with one hand, begging it not to make anymore sounds. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she catches a group of guys off to the side sitting on a bench. They're all leaning over one another and a phone is propped up in her direction. When Courtney looks over at them they quickly look away and the one guy puts his phone down. She shoots them a stern look. 

'They're recording me?' Courtney is angry now.

She looks around to see if any of the teachers witnessed this but no one is paying attention. 

"Ready?"  *BEEP*

Before she knows it, she's standing alone on the line. The test had started and she wasn't paying attention. Her group was half way across the gym floor before she started after them. Fuelled by the fresh rage, Courtney pumped her arms hard. She reached the line just as her classmates had turned and started the journey back. She wasn't going to fall behind. The old competitive Courtney kicked in and she made it back to the start line at the same time as everyone else. Maybe she could actually do this after all. She became determined to prove to herself, and everyone else, that she wasn't the fat slob everyone thought she was.