It's Like Running Away

Aiden watched as Dodger set himself up to run down the track and then continued to watch as he ran. And he couldn't help but note that Dodger was a very, very good runner. And fast as well. It nearly made Ai want to slink off somewhere, as he had no hope of running as good as that, ever. And he actually sort of liked to run. He was shaken out of his daze when -from a ways down the track- he heard Dodge yell, "10.2?"

Aiden looked over there, no longer dazed by the running. He walked over so that he wouldn't have to raise his voice any. "What's 10.2 mean?" he asked.

A little startled, Dodge looked up, remembering that he was not alone. "10.2 seconds on the 100 meters...I was so close that time." He saved the time in his watch's memory so he could show The General later. "Theres supposed to be this 10-second barrier on the 100...there are only like, 50 people in the world that have broken it." He shook his head and looked back up at Aiden, remembering what they were here for. "Anyway, did you see how I kept my arms low? It makes you aerodynamic. And you have to make sure you run full out the whole way. If you pull up even a little before the finish line, you're toast."

Aiden blinked for half a second. "Um," he muttered, trying to remember if he had seen. Ai had been so distracted by the running itself he wasn't sure he had seen Dodger's posture at all. "I don't remember..."

Dodge started to laugh, glad the guy was starting to lighten up, when he realized Aiden was being serious. How could he have missed that? All he had to do was watch! "Okay, lesson number one for you, Aiden, is observation. Always keep an eye on form: yours, your teammates, and especially your opponents. You can't get distracted. Understand?" He reached a hand up to clap him on the back before remembering that it wasn't such a good idea, and he pointed his finger at Aiden instead. "Now, do you want to try?"

"Right," Aiden said slowly, sounding almost skeptical. "And I suppose you want me to fall flat on my face in an attempt to run because I just know that I will. I always end up doing stupid things in front of people." He was probably mini ranting now, but eh it was just something he did at times.

"Oh, come on, man," Dodge said playfully, one eyebrow raised in disbelief, "you wouldn't have made it on the team if you weren't any good. The General isn't one of those guys who thinks everybody deserves a chance to be on a team. He only takes the talented ones, so let's see your talent." He gestured towards the track and backed up a few steps so that he was standing in the grass beside it.

"But that's different," Ai protested. "He's an adult, you're a peer." He really didn't want to do this, and was starting to think he was even crazier than he had before. Begrudgingly, he walked over to stand on the track. But, that's all he did. Arms crossed he looked at Dodger. "I really don't want to. I'm going to end up looking stupid."

Dodge shrugged. "Okay. I guess I'll tell coach you don't want to be on the team. Nice meeting you," he said, turning and beginning to walk away. He'd had to do Stevie this way too; break it down so that her choices were run or quit. It always managed to separate the kids who wanted to try and the kids who wanted to fade away.

Aiden's eyes narrowed at Dodger back, annoyed. He muttered something under his breath for a moment, before saying loud enough to be heard. "Now, Dodger, that's hardly fair," he said. "You're supposed to be showing me the ropes. Not just telling me to run. We established that I can't be observant this early in the morning, so maybe you should do your job."

Dodger stopped in his tracks. He felt uncertain of whether he should turn around and deal with things or not, but he did anyway. "If you can't pay attention to me, and I can't touch you, and you won't run so I can get some idea of what you need help on, then there's nothing I can do here."

Aiden thought it over for a second, before realizing that Dodger had a point and that he (Ai) had just been fighting it because he wasn't a morning person. "Okay, you have a valid point with all of that," he said, running a hand through his hair. "I'm just in an iffy mood because I don't like being up this early." He bit his lip in thought for a moment. "Fine," Aiden said finally, "I'll run. But, if I fall down I'm not doing it a second time until I know exactly what I'm doing. Care to show me the starting position again?"

Sunny mood returning, Dodge grinned in triumph. "That's the spirit! ....sort of!" he crowed. It was hard for him to understand what Aiden was going through, since he was definitely a morning person, but at least he had still managed to make him see sense. He trotted over to the track an dropped down low to the ground, pushing his leg back and lining his front foot up with the starting line. "Your arms should be far enough in front so that they're fully extended, but not enough that you're having to reach. Your back knee should almost touch the ground, and the front knee should be between your arms. Come try it, I'll stay down here until you get it."

Aiden sighed to himself slightly and position himself somewhere next to Dodger, trying to mimic the same position he had. Of course, Aiden didn't have a clue how to properly do it and nearly fell over a few times. Finally, he just sat down. "This isn't working," he said.

Laughing good-naturedly, Dodge shook his head and easily shifted his body so the he was crouched in front of Aiden. "No one gets it on the first time. I tried to convince the officials at my first meet to just let me start standing up." He tilted his head for a moment in thought and then said, delicately, "If you don't mind, I could move you around until you were in the right general position. It's a lot easier to learn it if you an feel being in it, instead of just looking at someone."

Aiden was quiet and still for a moment, considering it. If he let Dodger do so, then maybe they'd get done with this faster. But just the thought made him want to tense up. The thought of anyone touching him made Aiden feel uncomfortable, because that was when they could manipulate his actions like a puppet, like his parents did (metaphorically). And Ai really hated that. But finally, he answered Dodger's request. "Go ahead."

Seeing that he was hesitant, Dodge made slow, careful movements. First, he gingerly took hold of each of Aiden's hands and brought them out in front of the starting line, making sure they followed a straight line from his shoulders. "Move your legs back," he muttered, focused intently on the angles of the boy's body. When he did move them back, he carefully lined his front foot up with the line. "It's the back leg that's always the trouble," he noted as he slipped around behind Aiden, taking him by the ankle and moving his leg back until it was in the right spot, then pushing down a little on the inside of his knee so that it nearly brushed the ground. "There we go," he said, sounding satisfied. He walked around to the side to check the line of his body. "Oh!" He leaned down and gently tilted the boys head so that he faced forward and slightly down, the path that his eyes should follow. "How's that feel?" he asked, pleased with himself.

Aiden focused mostly on not freaking out, and less really on what Dodger was actually doing, although once or twice Aiden nearly tensed up. When Dodger was done, Ai was pleased to see that he wasn't falling over. "This is really weird and somewhat uncomfortable, but at least I'm not falling over anymore."

"That's progress, wouldn't you say?" he asked, still grinning down at his work. "A lot of things you do in track are going to be uncomfortable. People weren't made to run efficiently and quickly, they were only made to run well enough. You have to go against your body to do this the right way." Of course, that was true for most people, but for Dodge, it had been a lot easier to adapt to. He suppsed that was just what was special about him, in the way that some people were good at calculus or excellent joke-tellers. "The good thing about the starting position is that you're usually only in it for five or ten seconds. Now then, ready to run"

Aiden nodded at Dodger, agreeing with the first bit of what he was saying. It made sense well enough after all. Then he nodded again when Dodge asked if he would try to run now. "I guess so. It's inevitable after all, isn't it? Now that I'm not fighting anymore."

"Great. I'm gonna go down to the 100 mark with my watch, and I'll count down for you to start, okay? Don't push yourself too hard, I just want to see your form and what needs to be fixed." With that he jogged a quarter of the way down the track and stopped, setting the countdown on his watch. "Starting gun in 4, 3, 2, 1!" Click.

Aiden nodded and watched as Dodger jogged down to the other end of the track. Ai readjusted slightly, as he had fallen over just a little from a prolonged stay in the starting position, having not moved a muscle since it was set in place. Couldn't have been more than a minute anyway. He listened to the countdown and then once it was time to he just ran like he always would.

Dodge focused intently on Aiden as he ran, watching him all the way through to the finish line. He checked his watch at the end of the run; the boy's time wasn't all that good, but he could tell that he wa naturally a bit faster than Reeve had been. That meant that it was only form that caused the problem, and that could be worked through and trained out. He hustled down to the finish line where Aiden was standing. His first instinct was to smile at him encouragingly, but The General would have scoffed at him for that, so instead, he looked back down at the watch and looked up again. "Time's not great yet, but you've got good natural speed. You've definitely got some form problems, but we can fix those. You straighten up a little too fast through the middle there, and I can see you pulling up short at the end. Don't be afraid to run past the finish line, there's no penalty." He saved the time to his watch so that he could keep up with Aiden's progress over time.

Aiden just sort of nodded at Dodge's comments, making note of them for later runs. He wasn't sure how to go about fixing things, but he figured that what Dodger's help was for. And Ai realized something. Once he started running, he didn't really want to stop until he was tired. "Can I go again?" he asked, way more eager about it than he'd been at the start. Plus, it would give him practice with the starting position, which he was sure to need.

Dodge was so pleased to hear Aiden's words that he almost didn't know what to say; he'd expected there to still be quite a bit of struggle going on, but here he was, ready to try again. "Sure. You can even run a bit further, if you want; it's not your event, but sometimes holding your sprint form longer can help you learn it." Dodge was in the mood to run as well, but he couldn't legitimately run and watch Aiden at the same time, so he would have to sit this out, it seemed. "Remember to keep your arms down," he added. He knew he was repeating himself, but there wasn't all that much form in the sprint to worry about, so he knew he should emphasize themost important points.

Aiden smiled just a bit. He really enjoyed running, as it was sort of freeing, speeding away from troubles and just moving forward, because running backwards would be hard to do. He nodded at the tip from Dodge that he seemed to keep saying over and over. Ai supposed that it was probably something essential. Still with a slight smile, Aiden went back over to where he had been, since that was the only logical thing to do that he could think and looked at Dodger, waiting for him to say get ready or something.