That seemed to push Brendon harder than anythingelse. His Drill knew he had it. He pushed out five morepush-ups.
Ryan let out a rebel yell. Kenneth cheered andPatrick just smiled.
The other three went through their push-upseasily, not coming close to Brendon's seventy-five but happy withtheir own scores.
They moved over to where Connelly wasstanding.
He didn't say much, just looked at Brendon andnodded. That seemed to do the trick.
Brendon was off doing sit-ups like a shot.Kenneth held his feet tightly, shouting encouragement at the littleblond.
“Seventy,” Connelly called. “Fifty-fiveseconds.”
“Come on, Furry. You can't fucking quit now!”Ryan snarled when it looked like Brendon was going to have a hardtime finishing.
Connelly looked down at Brendon and said theonly thing that would have made Brendon mad enough to finish.
“You gonna go back and tell that girl that youcouldn't fucking finish, Furry?”
Brendon growled and pushed out the remainingeight sit-ups with ten seconds left to finish.
Kenneth hated sit-ups nearly as much as Patrickhated the run. Ryan knew this. He patted Kenneth on the back andnodded. “Fifty-three, you can do it, Kenneth. We know you can.”
Kenneth snorted. “Thanks, mom. If I do this willyou have warm cookies and milk waiting for me?”
Ryan chucked him in the back of the head with alaugh.
Brendon was still breathing hard when he grabbedKenneth's feet. Their eyes met and a pact was made. No one,absolutely no one would flunk this fucker.
Kenneth finished with the bare minimal sit-upsrequired. He wasn't bitching, a go was a go.
They all flew through their sit-ups andpush-ups. That was the easy part.
The run came next.
They all hated the run, every last one of them.The monotonous circling was enough to drive anyone crazy. Patrick'snormally reserved demeanor was tense.
Ryan knew it was because this was his lastchance to graduate with this class. He had to pass this one.
Grabowski was the grader for this run. He lookedover at Patrick and nodded. Like the other two, he greeted Brendonwith encouragement. “Thirteen minutes, Furry. That's all you need.Do this and I'll personally give you a coin. You gonna do it,Furry?”
Brendon nodded. “Yes, Drill Sergeant!”
They were off with little fanfare. Ryan andBrendon were in the front. They kept pace with each other. Kennethand Patrick were behind them. Way behind them.
“If Patrick fails we all do,” Brendon saidsuddenly.
“He's not…” Ryan looked at Brendon, for thefirst time seeing the man behind the boy. He nodded and they bothslowed way down. People passed them easily.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Patrickbarked.
“A perfect three hundred will suck if you're notbeside us at Graduation,” Brendon said, dropping besidePatrick.
“We're finishing this together,” said Ryan. Hefelt the sudden urge to cry. He started to wonder if they couldsound any more like girls than they did right at that point.
“This is a bad fucking cliché,” Kenneth said,but grinned at the other two.
Patrick growled and pushed himself a littleharder.
