Summer Days

by Alex The Lone Wolf

Day 2 - Training

The day after, I was really surprised to find you up before me. You had apparently been "working out" outside, such as running whatever laps you could and performing pushups to the best of your ability. I honestly didn't expect you to be exercising the moment our official break started, but when I asked you, your answer surprised me even more.

You had been warming up for the competition. Now, it wasn't like any kind of bodybuilder competition where you see massively pumped-up ponies flexing their muscles and lifting impossibly huge weights, but it did require some sort of physical activity.

By what was stated on the flyer, there was supposed to be some sort of scavenger hunt across town, and those who finish at the top would then compete with some other kind of event that required "strength, agility, and endurance" from the competitor. I guess it was meant to be a surprise, but you strangely didn't take it too lightly.

I was really puzzled at first. When we heard about this competition, you didn't seem so interested in it to begin with. Yet, on the next day, you were out early in the morning training for it. I had wondered why you had had such a sudden change of heart. At first, I thought you were planning to just impress Coco, should she be there. However, I wouldn't have guessed in the next few days of what your true intentions were.

---

I obviously wasn't going to be able to keep my preparation for the competition a secret from Athena, so it was only a matter of extremely short time when she'd see me exercising a little too fervently the next morning.

"What are you doing up so early?" Athena asked, rubbing her eyes a little. She must have just woken up.

"Working out." I briefly responded, having just finished a sprint and trotting back to where I had started.

"That's weird. For what?" She only watched me from the sidelines.

"The competition. We want a chance of winning, right?" I tried to say between short gasps for breaths.

"I guess." Athena surprisingly didn't share the same enthusiasm. It was almost as if our thoughts about the competition had completely switched around. "But I don't think you have to go too far into working out for it. It's in what, five days?"

"Hey, if it increases our chances, then why the hay not?" I so didn't sound like myself. Even I couldn't ignore it. "Besides, I could probably use the exercise."

"Well then." It appeared Athena wasn't really going to question it any further. She lightly hopped over to me with a smile plastered on her tilted face. "Why don't I join you then?"

I was pretty taken aback by her suggestion. "You? You want to work out too?"

"Hey, just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I can't make a little muscle too, y'know?"

"Fair enough." I decided. After all, it wasn't like I was against it anyway. "Come on, I'll help you stretch."

From then on, seeing as we still hadn't had anything planned for the summer, we decided to start it off with some training for the competition that will hopefully award us our ice cream prize.