3. Axel
3
AXEL
A xel stepped into Principal Tucker’s office the next morning, immediately feeling underdressed in a track suit, though he was pretty sure this was the right thing to wear to teach a gym class. Somewhere deep inside, the eight-year-old version of himself squirmed a little at being in the principal’s office.
“Mr. Williams,” Principal Tucker said in a firm, gentle voice.
She still dressed like Jackie O , as Axel’s mom used to say fondly. Today she wore a moss green suit and a pretty strand of amethyst beads. She stood and offered him her hand, and he took it, impressed at her firm grip.
“Hi, Principal Tucker,” Axel said. He thought about asking her to call him Axel, but she’d called him Mr. Williams back when he was eight, so that seemed unlikely.
“We’re so glad to have you here,” she told him. “Thank you for making the time to help our students. Mrs. Higginbottom is expecting soon, and she’s especially grateful to be able to observe instead of getting into the action for this term.”
“It’s my pleasure,” he told her, relieved that it was the truth.
He’d thought it over last night and decided that he did have something to offer these kids, something that had made him a success on the football field, gotten him into college, and through his years of service, too. And besides, it seemed likely that he’d get to work with his nephew, Zeke, and probably some of the other Williams cousins, which made him feel a little less out of his element.
“I’m glad to hear you say so,” Principal Tucker said approvingly. “We’re very proud of you around here. You’ve done so much to support our nation. It’s impressive that the first thing you want to do now that you’re home is to support your community.”
“Community always supported me,” he said gruffly.
“Well, you completed your initial clearances yesterday, and everything else is underway,” she told him. “So let’s get you to the gym.”
She headed out at a brisk pace, and he followed behind her. Principal Tucker was older now, but she was still the energetic woman he remembered. Her heels clicked sharply on the tiles with every step.
“Here we are,” she said when they reached the gym. “Remember to keep that name tag on at all times.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said.
This time the ma’am earned him an approving smile before she left him .
He looked into the gym, where a large group of children waited.
Axel wasn’t sure what he had expected, but these kids looked awfully small. They stood more or less in a line, though standing might be a generous way to describe the way they leaned and lolled against each other. One kid was literally skipping in place somehow.
“Here’s Mr. Williams,” a loud female voice announced. “Let’s all say hello and welcome.”
He glanced over to see a very pregnant lady he assumed was Mrs. Higginbottom, who smiled and winked at him.
“ Hello and welcome ,” the kids yelled out, some right away, others hurrying to catch up.
“Hello and welcome,” one little girl echoed very quickly and softly right at the end.
“Thank you,” Axel told them, walking further into the gym and reminding himself what he was here to do.
Before he had a chance to open his mouth, two of the kids began giggling and a small group peeled off and formed a circle, presumably to chatter and giggle more efficiently.
“ Hey,” Axel boomed sternly, enjoying the sound of the word bouncing back to him from the rafters. “ Fall in. ”
The giggling stopped instantly, and they all turned to face him again. But they were no more lined up than before, and now they all looked confused.
“That means line up,” Mrs. Higginbottom called out. “Line up, kids.”
“An even line,” Axel added.
The children shuffled around and did a better job of lining up, almost all of them leaning out to look up and down the line to be sure it was even.
But the two little boys from before continued giggling and they were still back a step from everyone else.
He didn’t know their names, but one was wearing a Mega-bot t-shirt from the new movie and the other one was chuckling so hard he looked like he was practically wheezing.
“You too, Chuckles and Mega-bot,” Axel yelled to the boys.
They stopped giggling and moved forward quickly. But now the rest of the class was giggling, little voices muttering Chuckles and Mega-bot . They were lined up nicely though, and Axel knew just how to stop giggling.
“Now drop and give me fifty,” he called out.
“They can’t do fifty,” the gym teacher told him quietly, her brow furrowed.
“Drop and give me ten,” he amended, keeping his voice nice and fierce.
But the kids were still standing there staring at him.
“Ten push-ups,” Mrs. Higginbottom told them. “That means get down and do ten push-ups.”
The kids’ faces lit up with understanding and the next thing he knew they were all down on the ground, industriously doing something that bore very little resemblance to serious push-ups.
“Stop,” Axel called out after a few seconds. “Watch me.”
He dropped to the ground and knocked out ten textbook standard push-ups, then put one hand behind his back and did ten more .
“Whoa,” one of the kids murmured.
“Did you see what I did there?” Axel asked them, stopping and sitting cross-legged on the floor.
Some nodded, some shook their heads, some just grinned at him adoringly, which was sort of nice.
“My hands were under my elbows,” he told them. “And my elbows were under my shoulders, so there was a straight line between me and the floor.”
He flipped over to demonstrate.
“Not like this,” he said, spreading his hands too wide. “Or like this.”
They giggled when he put them so close together he couldn’t drop to the ground.
“What else?” he asked them, sitting up again. “Where were my feet?”
“Behind you,” one boy pointed out, nodding sagely.
“ Oh, oh, oh ,” one little girl yelled, hopping up and down with her hand up. “On the floor.”
“Right,” he told her. “Which part was on the floor?”
He got into position again so they could see.
“Your toes,” someone yelled.
“Right,” he agreed. “What about my back?”
He heard a shuffling of feet, but no one answered. So he let his back sway down so that his torso was sagging almost to the floor.
“Was it like that?” he asked.
“ No ,” they all yelled to him.
“Was it like this?” he asked, pulling up straight again.
“ Yes ,” they chorused.
“So, my back was straight?” he asked.
“ Yes ,” they all said happily.
“So, how do you do that?” he asked them.
But there was only more shuffling—no one knew.
“Well, I tighten up my belly,” he told them, figuring they probably didn’t know what abs were. “If I tighten up my belly, I can hold my back really straight. See how straight that is?”
Several of the kids came up closer to him now to examine his back. Others joined them when they realized he wasn’t going to yell at them to get back in line.
“I’ll bet I could do a hundred push-ups with like three of you sitting on my back, now that my tummy is tight,” he told them.
“ Whoa,” one kid said.
“ Yeah ,” another one yelled.
“Hey, that’s a good idea,” Axel said. “Where are the three biggest kids in the class…”
“ Nope ,” Mrs. Higginbottom said firmly, stepping forward again for the first time in a few minutes. “No, we can’t do that.”
“Oh,” he said, regrouping in his mind and then leaping to his feet and turning to the kids. “Well, if we can’t do that, then it’s your turn to do some real push-ups. Drop and give me ten. ”
One or two of the kids groaned, but most of them eagerly scampered back into their line and got down.
He saw a couple of kids make a reasonable attempt at a good push-up. Others were just sort of flopping around like before. And there were one or two attempting the start position, and then peering down at their hands as if the knowledge of whether or not they were under their elbows might be written on them somewhere .
“That’s very good,” he told one boy who was making good progress. “Nice work, Chuckles.”
Mega-bot started giggling next to him and fell over.
“ Focus ,” Axel told him, and was glad to see the boy scramble up and get right back to work.
When they got this part right he would add the breathing.
But that might be a while…
“Okay, okay,” he said after a few minutes, realizing none of them were actually counting. “On your feet. We’re going to start with something simple.”
They all stood up, eventually, and looked at him expectantly.
“The line,” one little girl squeaked suddenly.
The kids all shuffled around again, making the line nice and even.
Axel nodded to himself. These kids might be a bit of a mess, but they wanted to get it right. He could definitely work with them.
“Okay, we’re going to run some routes,” he told them. “Anyone have a favorite?”
Suddenly all the kids were looking away from him—over at the walls, down at the floor.
“How many of you have played football before?” Mrs. Higginbottom asked quietly.
Most of the boys raised their hands, so did one of the girls.
“And how many of you have played on a team?” she asked.
All the hands went down.
Axel nodded, realizing that these kids might have thrown a ball around with family and friends, but he really was starting from zero with them. He figured he shouldn’t be surprised, since they were pretty little.
What am I doing here?
But they were all standing there looking at him, so he had to do something.
“It’s okay,” he told them. “Let’s run some laps to warm up and I’ll teach you some basics when you’re done.”
“That means run all around the whole gym,” one boy whispered importantly. “My brother runs laps in high school. ”
“You heard him,” Mrs. Higginbottom told the kids. “Run around the gym.”
The kids took off and the whole gym echoed with the sounds of sneakers squeaking on the polished wood floor.
Some of them were blasting, some trotting, and none were running with any kind of form. One more thing for him to help them with. And maybe that was good. It would give him a chance to get them doing things right from the ground up, so they didn’t have to undo bad habits later.
“These are second graders,” Mrs. Higginbottom said quietly, moving to his side as they watched the kids scramble around the gym. “Most of them aren’t very coordinated yet, and the main goal is to make sure they enjoy getting their exercise.”
“If it’s enjoyable, it’s not exercise,” Axel said, frowning.
“They already look up to you,” she went on, as if she hadn’t heard him. “So, encouraging them to do their best is great, but they also need a lot of praise to build their confidence, and that means you’re praising their efforts, not their results.”
Axel thought back to his drill sergeant at boot camp and almost laughed at the idea.
“Do you see what I’m saying…” she began.
“Hang on,” Axel told her. “ Chuck. Hey, Chuck, get over here.”
He strode over toward the little blond-haired boy in the Converse sneakers who was blasting around the gym at breakneck speed. The kid he wanted pointed questioningly to his own chest.
“ Yeah, you ,” Axel said, waving him over.
“Wh-why did you call me Ch-chuck?” the boy panted as he ran up to Axel.
“Because of your shoes, man,” Axel said, pointing at the boy’s sneakers.
“They’re Converses,” the boy said, his brow furrowing.
“We called ‘em Chuck Taylors in my day,” Axel said, frowning and wondering if the kid was just pulling his leg. “Anyway, see that little guy over there?”
“That one?” Chuck asked, starting to point at the scrawny little boy who was trotting along by himself, looking listless.
“Don’t point,” Axel said, swatting his arm down. “Yeah, him. Can you go run with him please?”
“Adam runs really slow,” the boy said, scowling. “I like to run fast.”
“Well, he’s running slowly now ,” Axel said. “But look how long his legs are. And he’s skinny too, so he’s got nothing to weigh him down. That kid should be able to run at warp speed. He just needs his teammate to challenge him to do better.”
“How do I do that?” Chuck asked.
“Just go up to him and tell him let’s go ,” Axel said. “He’ll run faster if he’s with you.”
“Okay,” the boy said.
“Thanks, Chuck,” Axel told him. “I appreciate it.”
“My name is Nick Cassidy,” the boy said with a smile as he ran off.
Axel turned back to Mrs. Higginbottom, who was shaking her head and clearly trying not to smile.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she told him. “We have about fifteen more minutes with them, if you want to think about what to do next.”
She sighed after she said it, but she had a friendlier look on her face now.
None of this was what he expected, and he still wasn’t really sure why he was here, but Axel had never been one to back down from a challenge, so he started to make a new game plan in his mind. He could do this, and so could the kids. And he was starting to think it might actually be kind of fun.
And on the plus side, he was so busy with the kids that he’d barely had time to wonder if he might run into Miss Wilder at some point.