Dolbin School for the Extraordinary-Chapter 17-The Mile Run

 I am publishing my middle grade novel, Dolbin School for the Extraordinary, chapter by chapter.

You can download the whole book for free on Amazon.

Click here for the previous chapter-Chapter 16: A New Introduction

Or if you wish, you can go back to the beginning with chapter 1-Jake Cooper.  

Chapter 17: The Mile Run

The next morning Jake got up, showered and dressed, and then came back into the room and woke his new roommate up.

“Mark, get up!”  

Mark stirred, looked around and then shot up out of his bed.  

“Don’t forget you’re at Dolbin,” Jake said.

Mark ran his hands over face. “Nope. It wasn’t a dream,” he said.

“I did the same thing after my first night here,” Jake said. “When I woke up, I wasn’t sure where I was. I had to tell myself that it wasn’t a dream as well. Luckily, they make a good breakfast. Get dressed so we can go. We don’t want the RA getting onto us for being late.”  

Jake swung his towel at Mark in an attempt to be playful.  Mark got up, showered and dressed.  He was ready for his first full day at Dolbin.

Jake and Mark sat with the rest of the boys from the hallway at breakfast. Mark enjoyed sitting with other boys. It was a relief to not have to make friends on his own.

The first class that morning was gym with Mr. Banner. After getting into their uniforms, the students lined up in the gym. The teacher approached the class.

“Well, as all you know we have a new student with us today. Welcome, Mr. Daniels,” Mr. Banner said, bowing to Mark. “Today looks like a good day to go outside to the track.”

“YES!” Henry shouted and pumped his fist into the air.

“I thought you would like that, Mr. Cho,” the teacher said, unable to contain a smile. “You, Mr. Daniels and Miss Brackett can stay behind with me so the rest of the class can run a mile together.”  

The whole class groaned in unison. 

Kaitlyn Brackett was a fifth-grader. She had short blonde hair and light blue eyes. Kaitlyn caught Mark staring at her. She rolled her eyes and turned away. Mark blushed.

Embarrassed, Mark turned and looked at Henry with wide eyes. “What does this mean?” he asked, a look of panic on his face.

“Mr. Banner is holding back the three gifted runners, and letting the others run a mile,” Henry explained. “The run for everyone else is a warm-up. Afterward they will do something else.” 

The rest of the class took off running. They looked like a regular class of students. Some were athletic in build and ran well; others were out of shape and quickly fell to the back of the pack. There was no sign that any of the students were special.

“Okay, Miss Brackett and Mr. Cho, you will both be running with Mr. Daniels,” the teacher said.  “He has never had someone run with him with his speed. Plus, if he stumbles, I want you there to help him.” 

Mark raised his hand and asked, “Umm, why would I stumble?” 

Kaitlyn and Henry looked at each other and smiled. Mr. Banner took a step forward to Mark, who immediately took a step back.  

“Mr. Daniels, running at a high rate of speed is much like driving a race car,” Mr. Banner explained. “There’s an art to knowing how to handle the turns and figuring out how to brake is an important part the process.”

Mark interrupted “But, I didn’t ..”

Mr. Banner held up his hand and nodded. “I know, Mark. You didn’t fall when you first discovered you could run fast. That’s because your instincts took over. You were running from a threat. You didn’t have to think about what you were doing. Today there will be no imminent threat, but you will need to begin running fast when you choose to run fast. That’s what you’re going to learn here. I am going to have Mr. Cho and Miss Brackett go first. I want you to see what it looks like when someone goes around the track that fast.”

Mark began jumping up and down to warm himself up and the get the jitters out. Back at Kane Elementary School, he would have never done that. He had never thought of himself as an athlete. But now he was an athlete, and apparently a fast one.

Henry patted Mark on the back and said, “Don’t worry about it. Most of us don’t show our Extra skill the first time we try to use it on purpose. I plodded along this track like an out-of-shape old man when I first got here. The speed isn’t what takes practice. It’s focusing on the skill itself that takes practice. When you can do that, then you become faster. Focus first on the skill.”

The first of the students came running in from the mile. Two boys who were sprinting at full speed collapsed when they hit the finish line. Bruce finished third and then stood over the two worn-out boys, shaking his head.  “Why do you all do this to yourselves?”

Kaitlyn and Henry turned to Mark. “Okay, our turn is coming,” Henry said.

As the rest of the students finished their mile run, Mr. Banner said, “Okay, go get a drink of water, stretch and keep loose.”  

Then the teacher turned and looked at Mark, Kaitlyn, and Henry. “Okay, Miss Brackett and Mr. Cho, I want you both to do a warm-up lap first. I don’t need for either of you to pull a muscle, but I do want Mr. Daniels here to see how different it looks when you two run. Get to your marks.”

Mr. Banner pulled out his stopwatch. Kaitlyn and Henry stood on the starting line and leaned forward.

Mr. Banner raised his hand and then dropped it. “Go!” he shouted.

They took off. For the first few steps, Mark thought they didn’t look any different than the other students. Then they hit their stride. They ran side by side, but their legs and feet began to blur.  Mark had never seen this before. They rounded each curve of the track without slowing down.  When they reached the final straightaway, they slowed down to regular human speed and crossed the finish line almost trotting. Mr. Banner clicked the stopwatch.

He handed the stop watch to Mark.

“Twenty-three seconds?” he said before looking up. “It took them 23 seconds to run a quarter of a mile?”

“They weren’t running. They were jogging,” Mr. Banner explained.

Mark did the math in his head. “That comes to just under 40 miles an hour!” 

“The report we got said you did 110 miles per hour when you ran,” Mr. Banner said as he reclaimed his stopwatch. 

Mark had never calculated how fast he ran. He looked at the ground a little stunned. That was hard to believe: 110 miles per hour.

“But we’re not expecting 110 today,” Mr. Banner said. “We just want you to begin feeling what you can do when you focus. Mr. Cho and Miss Brackett will run behind you. Hopefully, that will give you a little bit of a push. So you three line up.”  

Mr. Banner pointed to the starting line and stood to the side. After clearing his stopwatch, he raised his arm.

Mark leaned forward as Kaitlyn and Henry took their positions behind him.  

“Go!” Mr. Banner said and dropped his arm.

Mark took off.  Kaitlyn and Henry waited a second and then began jogging behind him. Mark began huffing and puffing. His feet were falling like bricks onto the track.

“Relax! Your feet need to be light, not heavy,” said Henry, who was right behind him as they rounded the first turn in the track.

Mark kept laboring along the back stretch. His feet felt like they were stuck in cement.

“Oh! Come on!” Kaitlyn said, her tone more annoyed than encouraging.

Mark began huffing and puffing even more. His chest hurt.

Henry ran to his side and said, “Stop!”  

Mark looked over at Henry, unsure of what to do. Henry repeated the command and Mark stopped. He could hear Mr. Banner shouting from the other side of the track. “What are you doing?” he barked.

Henry looked at Mark and said, “Ignore him for the moment. Let’s pretend I am the bad guy. I am the bully that was chasing you. Let’s get your mindset correct.”

“But Mr. Banner said I should focus on my skill,” said Mark, who was panting heavily.

“He doesn’t know everything,” Kaitlyn chimed in. “We’ll pretend we’re chasing you. You don’t like us. In fact, you’re afraid of us. We’re going to beat you up and humiliate you in front of your new friends.” 

She seemed to be embracing the role-playing a little too much, Mark thought.

“Okay, I think he gets the picture,” Henry said, holding up a hand.

The three runners stood together as Mark caught his breath. Mark leaned forward.

Henry whispered in his ear. “We’re coming for you, nerd.”

Mark began running. His feet plodded along, his arms swung at his sides.

“Oh, come on! This is too easy! We’re going to get you Mark Daniels!” Kaitlyn shouted as she ran up along Mark’s left side.  

Mark put his head down and focused. The fear he experience at Kane Elementary School came flooding back. His fingertips tingled and his legs began flying.

“Let’s get him!” shouted Henry, using his best bully voice.

Mark kept his head down and ran.

“Come on, elementary NERD!!” barked Kaitlyn, who was really enjoying herself.

Mark’s head stayed down and his arms swung at his sides. He focused on making sure he didn’t trip over his feet, which were now starting to blur.

“I’m gonna get you, you little freak!” Kaitlyn whispered into his left ear.

Mark actually felt fear. Kaitlyn no longer seemed like a friend who was trying to help. Mark looked down and saw his feet. They were moving fast and no longer felt liked cement blocks.

“Let’s go, Mark!” shouted Jake, who was jumping up and down near the finish line.

Mark looked up and saw the rest of the class with paper cups in their hands, staring back at him. Then he felt something grab his left foot. Suddenly, his face hurt and his vision went blurry.  His feet were now over his head, and then they came down hard onto the track. His head hurt and his ears rang. Something warm trickled down the left side of his face. He reached up and felt his cheek. His hand was covered in blood.  

Mr. Banner got to him first. “Stay still, Mark,” he said. “You tripped and fell.”  

Mark felt a towel over the left side of his face. 

“Can you hear me?” Mr. Banner asked in a calm voice.

“Yes,” Mark whispered. “What happened?”

“I dare say you tripped,” Henry blurted out.

“Was I running fast? How did I do?” 

Mr. Banner handed the stopwatch to Jake, who was standing over Mark. Jake showed it to his friend, whose right eye wasn’t covered.

Marked focused his eye and read the screen: 51 seconds.

“Fifty-one seconds is fast for a lap,” he said, “but that doesn’t seem extra special.”

Jake laughed.

“That’s 51 seconds for four laps,” Mr. Banner corrected him. “You ran a mile in 51 seconds. You learned today that keeping yourself focused and not falling is something you need to work on. Now just relax. I’m going to put you on a stretcher and we’re going to take you to the medical wing to have you checked out. Congratulations, Mr. Daniels. You can run fast.”

Despite the searing pain on his face, Mark grinned from ear to ear.