This choice: Time for football training! • Go Back...Chapter #6Time for football training! by: Kilbil   Speaking of, it looked like one of the mountains behind Jake - Bear Mountain, the jewel of the Hudson highlands and one of his favorite sitting spots at just over 1,300 feet - already had its shadow pointing towards the school. That meant it was already almost time for football practice!
He pushed himself back up to his full, sky-scraping height and brushed off some of the remaining debris from his knees. Naturally, he made sure he was in a nice, desolate area first so that people didn't get bombarded by a hail of think oakwood trunks and mulched-up bio-slurry. After hours of gazing down over a matchbox-sized campus building and squinting down at smudged scribbles of coursework that were projected to him as part of his "accommodations", he was more than ready to get to actually stretch his legs and do something active!
Not too active, of course. He still remembered how the last time he had actually attempted running, it had ended with him looking sheepishly down on an irate swarm of microscopic people as he scooped away the ruins of city hall with a single hand. At least he was able to earn their forgiveness by single-handedly transporting all the materials they needed to repair the building in a single roundtrip. If only they'd allow him to help with actual reconstruction, too; then, then he'd really earn their favor and then some! He was good enough with his hands, so it was definitely possible; everyone was just sleeping on the potential of having their construction projects done ten times faster!
Either way, it kind of sucked how he had to walk for miles out in the middle of nowhere just to be able to do anything more substantial than simple stretches, but really, he had nothing to complain about. Those "miles" took at most a minute for him to traverse; he just didn't like not being able to see home from anywhere he needed to go.
Just then, out of the corner of his eye Jake noticed that Bear Mountain's shadow had started to encroach upon the bottom of his sole. Whoops - looks like he spent too much time musing again. He really needed to get going, fast, before he was late for practice! Fortunately, the place where they had football practice almost never changed, so he could quickly make his way down the usual path. It wouldn't necessarily be quick - the routine was the same as always, follow the footprints as they trailed by York River and make sure to never let his feet get out of said footprints - but he knew that he would be able to make it on time. There were even iron-wrought fences that had been put in place around said footprints, just to make extra-sure that no one got in the way.
He was glad that everyone was so considerate of him and his needs relative to the world at large. Perhaps he shouldn't have been surprised - usually, giants weren't held responsible for anything that they did so long as they weren't actively being malicious - but it was nice knowing that he didn't have to worry so much about someone accidentally stumbling right onto his path without him noticing. Anything that made life just a little bit easier was something that he treasured to the bottom of his heart - lord knows he needed it.
His spirits lifted a bit, Jake carefully made his way through with the gentlest gait that he could manage, though it honestly didn't make much of a difference. At 2000 feet, each step he made caused the earth to shudder, and cracks to form at the site of impact. Several swaths of surrounding forest were totaled, the mighty oaks cracking at their trunks and toppling down like dominoes. Already, the land was being drastically altered by the super-erosive forces of his footfalls, as several tiny ridges had started to form around the outlines of his prints, and the York River was growing thinner and thinner with each passing day. Any nearby houses and settlements had little choice but to deal with the multiple consecutive earthquakes that would inevitably visit them, shaking them around like pebbles in a roaring car engine.
Jake wasn't too fussed about any of that, though. He had long accepted that there was going to be some collateral damage for every little thing that he did - that was basically a given when houses were the size of sugar cubes to you. Besides, it was a nice day outside; the wind was not too blustery nor too tepid, the temperature was cool and even, and there were all these huge, fluffy white clouds floating lazily above on the dazzling light-blue sky. He wondered if one day, he would get to know what it was like to hold a cloud in his hands - just reach up and take one and feel how soft they would be in his hands. It was almost enough for him to want to grow even bigger, just so he could finally know!
Almost, but not quite. His parents were having trouble getting him enough food for his size as it was, and he didn't want his chances with the other kids to be even more shot than they already were.
Before long, Jake found himself It looked like most of his teammates were already there, getting warmed up for practice. At least, Jake figured that's what they were doing; the most he could see of them from was some tiny little white dots. If he wanted to, he could get up closer to them and but every time he did that, his breath would inadventetly fling them away and he would be and-!
A-anyway, right now, it looked like they noticed he was coming and were giving him as wide a berth as possible, scrambling what had to be several yards away. Jake didn't mind that; for obvious reasons, no one wanted any "incidents" to happen, and they had plenty of room to do it, since their "practice field" was a vast, barren clearing with little to no landscape work done.
He supposed he understood why there weren't any goal posts or stands to speak of, given how likely he was to break them. What made less sense was why there weren't even any yard lines or indications of where the goals were. For 100 yards up and back, there was just pure rough terrain for as far as the eye can see, bordered by a wall of cedar trees.
Now that he thought about it, even though the Percy Badgers had become one of the top middle school football teams in the entire country, there was a lot that the school had skimped out on because of him. retractable roofs that barely worked half the time due to rust. Heck, when was the last time that they actually had a real pep rally?
His dad had complained more than once about how the administration took every excuse that they could to cut costs, and similarly had reassured Jake that he had nothing to do with the school's budget choices, but a part of him couldn't bring himself to believe that. If it weren't for him, there'd be a proper roof, at least - they wouldn't have to go break the bank trying to accommodate him with retractable glass roofs. There would also have the money to have a proper dedicated football field, one that they wouldn't have to worry about him accidentally tripping and falling over. None of his teammates would have to travel for miles down windings rural roads at the crack of dawn just to be able to practice. It may have been easy for him to make it, since he could cover more distance quicker than a bullet train if needed, but they didn't have the privilege. They all were forced to suffer needlessly, all because of him...
...maybe that was why he...
Jake aggressively shook his head like a bloodhound that had just been drenched in water. This was no time to get all sad and gloomy; he had training to do!
It looked like his teammates felt similarly, since they were now gathering around a microscope van that had pulled up in front of them. Looks like Coach Daggum (Dragem? No one could ever really recall what his name was) was here to get them warmed up!   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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