Boot Camp

Cade whistled to his friends up ahead to slow down. Every muscle in Cade’s body was aching. The exercises from the day before had pushed every muscle in Cade’s body to its capacity. The five-mile jog this morning was almost more than he could handle.

“Pick it up!” yelled Brewster. Brewster was the captain of the boot camp, and he was as mean as they get. This boot camp was a prerequisite to qualifying for a high adventure trip in the Rocky Mountains. The camp was Brewster’s way of weeding out those boys that weren’t really ready for the long and strenuous hike.

With Brewster’s words, Cade picked up his pace and caught up with the group of boys ahead of him. The competition was pretty stiff.

As the group of boys rounded the bend on the trail, they fell out of Brewster’s sight. Jacob said, “Hey, guys. Let’s take that short cut just up ahead. Brewster will never know.”

Of the group of five boys, three of them motioned their heads indicating they would be interested. That left Cade. All eyes fell on Cade.

“What if Brewster catches us? You know that we’ll be out for sure!” Cade reasoned.

But the boys would have none of it. “Come on, you wimp,” said Jake. “He’s only going to find out if someone tells.”

The boys headed off in the direction of the shortcut, leaving Cade in the dust. Cade wondered what he should do.