Chapter 11

Coyote POV: Levi

       Physical Education had always been my least favourite subject in school and I was hoping attending Tabia Academy would at least make it more enjoyable since the other classes we had were quite unique.

       That was not the case.

       Physical Education was still the same old, boring class with nothing but running and participating in useless sports that I definitely wouldn't do any time in the future. Why did this class have to be a requirement? I could get my exercise some other way. Like walking to class. Or running after the ice cream truck.

       It was even worse that when we were separated into teams, we just had to stick with our house the whole time. Don't get me wrong, I loved my house and everyone in it but it was kind of unfair when they kept the athletically inclined students together on one team.

       Then again, us Coyotes did but the Tigers in the dodge ball tournament.

       Well, Uriah did claim that he threw the game but I was choosing to ignore that just so I had a tiny bit of confidence that we could beat the Tigers again.

       At the start of the class, we had to each run ten laps around the whole gymnasium and I hadn't even reached my fourth lap when I was starting to feel exhausted. And I was trying my best to keep a steady pace.

       I was tempted to just collapse onto the ground and tell the P.E. teacher that he could continue the class while I die. He probably wouldn't appreciate that, though. I tried sitting out once by saying I had a nasty headache.

       He told me to suck it up and get over it, and then made sure to slam the basketball as harshly as he could against the wooden floors.

       But that was probably because one class, I sat out anyway without his permission.

       Once I got to the fifth lap, I slowed down, almost coming to a complete stop before someone gently rested their hand on my shoulder. I looked over to see none other than Uriah. "I wouldn't give up if I were you," he said. "Mr. Powell gives anyone who stops an extra lap." He gave me a gentle push for me to start running again.

       I groaned. "But I'm tired. What lap are you on?"

       "This is my last."

       "Your last? I'm only halfway down. How the hell are you almost done?"

       "Speed. Stamina. A glorious combination. It takes a long time for me to lose my energy."

       "And it takes a short time for me to lose mine." I couldn't handle it anymore. I stopped in my tracks to catch my breath, and it definitely didn't help with me talking to Uriah as I ran.

       However, almost immediately after I stopped, Mr. Powell called out, "Levi! You got three seconds to start running again before you will be given an extra lap!"

       I sighed and started running again as Uriah gave me an amused smile. "Told you."

       "Yeah, I get it, you think you're better than anyone else," I said.

       "That wasn't the reason behind me smile," Uriah said. "But you're right. I do think I'm better than anyone else. And to prove it, I'll run your final five laps with you."

       I furrowed my eyebrows. "Why would you do that? Wouldn't you want to finish as soon as you could?"

       Uriah snorted. "If I wanted to finish as soon as I could, I would have already been done by now."

       "So..."

       "So I clearly like spending time with you, even if it involves running and you complaining about running."

       I was trying not to blush at Uriah saying he liked spending time with me but I didn't have to try too hard to hide it considering I could play off the blush as me being flustered from all the running.

       Uriah decided to be a pest anyway and asked, "Is that a blush I see creeping on your cheeks?"

       "No, my cheeks totally aren't turning red from all this running," I said sarcastically to play it off.

       "Or because you're deeply infatuated with me," Uriah said.

       I mean, he wasn't wrong.

       "Keep telling yourself that," I said.

       I thought Uriah was only joking when he said he would run my remaining laps with me. He wasn't. He just kept running with me the whole time and honestly, it was slightly motivating me to not just collapse on the floor.

       Even after I finished my final lap. I just sat down on the bottom bench of the bleachers, trying my best to catch my breath. No collapsing whatsoever.

       Uriah reached into his backpack, pulling out his water bottle and drinking out of it before tossing it to me. "You look like you could use some water."

       "What if I don't want your germs?" I asked.

       "Oh, relax, it's just drinking out of my water bottle," Uriah said. "There are worse things out there than sharing a water bottle."

       I shrugged and opened the water bottle before drinking out of it. I just liked teasing Uriah since he was always teasing me.

       After everyone else finished their laps, Mr. Powell gave everyone only one minute to catch a breather before we were going to get started on today's sport that I wanted to desperately sit out from.

       Basketball.

       This was actually going to be horrible since we had to be on the same team of our house. It shouldn't be too bad though. While my house wasn't athletically inclined, there was a dancer or two in here so at least they would have the stamina that I didn't have.

       The games were similar to how we played the tournament; two teams would play and then the other two. The loser of the two games would play and then the winner. And then other games to decide who the overall champions would be.

       Which would probably be the Tigers.

       Especially since Wayne was playing dirty and Mr. Powell wasn't even noticing. 

       Uriah was noticing and I could tell he was starting to get really annoyed by his house's captain.

       I didn't understand how Wayne could have been picked over Uriah for Tiger captain.

       Physical Education ended with, not surprisingly, the Tigers winning. Us Coyotes put up a pretty good fight but in the end, it wasn't enough for Wayne playing dirty against every team and Mr. Powell not noticing.

       Or maybe he did notice but he didn't care.

       When the final game ended, the bell to end the class was going to ring very shortly and I decided to spend my time lying on the gym floor because I was too exhausted to move. Even when the bell rang, I stayed there.

       Uriah walked over and crouched down beside me. "You do know the bell rang, right?"

       "Yes, but this was the final class of the day so I'm in now hurry to go anywhere," I said. "I'm way too exhausted. I still don't get how you were able to run fifteen laps without a problem."

       "Levi, I'm in the Tiger house," Uriah said. "We're athletically inclined. A lot of us have been participating in sports at a very young age so we're used to running for a long period of time. The trick is to pace yourself."

       "Pace yourself?" I asked. "I was pacing myself. How fast is your pace if you can run double my speed?"

       "Well, I'm simply that amazing," Uriah said.

       "And very conceited," I said.

       "Hey, what's right is right," Uriah said. "You still too tired to get up?"

       "Nope, I had enough relaxation," I said as I sat up.

       "Good," Uriah said. "So want to go make out somewhere?"

__________________

lmao uriah is one of the most forward characters i have

i hate how i say i'm going to update this more frequently but then i don't :( curse me for having way too many books. I PROMISE I ACTUALLY WILL TRY TO.