It was a beautiful sunny Friday at Central High School. The CHS boys cross country team had just finished their afternoon run. The team returned to the bleachers, drank some water, and waited to be dismissed for the weekend.
The team was very talented, but their coach didn't have any running experience. He was the school's biology teacher and volunteered to coach, more like supervise, the boys cross country team after school.
"Okay, boys, great run today. I will see everyone after school on Monday. Enjoy your weekend!" said Coach.
Coach left and the boys stood around the water jugs, discussing their weekend plans. The team always got along really well, but since their coach didn't know anything about running nor competing, they had to coach and lead themselves.
"I propose we name a team captain," said Chuck. Chuck had always had a bold and outgoing personality and wasn't afraid to speak up.
"I agree. We don't have any type of leadership. I think our team could become even more successful if someone was our captain," said Dan.
All the other boys nodded their heads and said yes.
"But... how will we decide who is team captain?" asked Nate. All the boys were great runners, students, and friends. The decision would be hard but would have to be unanimous.
"I nominate Chuck," suggested Eric.
"Chuck is too fierce," said Dan. The team all agreed and Chuck stood there with a smirk on his face.
"How about Jonathan?" suggested Nate.
"No, not Jonathan," said Erick. Erick had served as vice president of the student body last year under Jonathan as president. He claimed that Jonathan was very unforgiving if someone made him mad. Jonathan glared at Erick and Erick quickly looked away.
"How about we go to the 10K in the city tomorrow and whoever finishes the race first from our team will be named team captain?" said Aaron. "The team captain should be the fastest runner on the team anyway."
The team all unanimously agreed and went home to get a good night's rest before their 6.2 mile run tomorrow.
The next morning, the sun was out and shinning at 7 a.m. The team arrived early before the start of the race. Pre-race rituals are definitely a thing. Chuck wore his favorite running shorts with his initials embroidered on the bottom, Dan had his lucky laces on his shoes, Nate ate his favorite protein bar, and Eric wore a neon green hat and his lucky bracelet.
The boys stood at the start line, waiting for the start of the race. Joe walked up to the line last minute. Joe was last year's high-school State Champion cross country runner. Everyone knew that Joe was the fastest on the team. Joe was quiet, kept to himself, and was very humble for how talented he was.
"If only I could beat Joe somehow," Chuck murmured under his breath. Nate, overhearing Chuck's comment, thought of a brilliant idea. Nate knew that no one could ever truly beat Joe. It was impossible! Joe was always
at least a quarter of a mile ahead of his teammates during cross-country meets and practices.
"I'm going to the little Nate's room before the race starts," said Nate.
"Don't be too long. The race starts in 15," replied Dan.
Nate walked toward the restrooms until his teammates were out of sight. Nate then slipped away to his car.
Having already received a map of the course, Nate drove towards the finish line and parked his car a mile away. Nate pretended to be a spectator handing out water, standing along the rope that blocked off the course.
Nate waited. He finally spotted Joe in the distance, about a quarter of mile away from the finish line. Nate jumped out of the spectator crowd and into the course. He sprinted to the finish line and crossed it with a feeling of exhilaration. A minute later, Joe crossed the finish line.
Completely breathless and exhausted, Joe fell to his knees. He checked his Garmin GPS watch. He had just run his personal best time for 6.2 miles. His legs were numb and weak, but he smiled with a sense of accomplishment and joy. That is, until he looked up and saw Nate standing in front of him.
"What...what are...you... doing... here?" Joe asked breathlessly.
"I finished the marathon before you did. That makes me team captain," smirked Nate.
Joe, in complete shock, couldn't find the words to say back to him. Joe did not see Nate ONCE during the 26.2 mile race and knew for a fact that Nate cheated his way to winning. Before Joe could gain the strength in his legs again to get up and punch Nate in the face, his teammates crossed the finish line one by one. All were exhausted and surprised to see Nate all chipper at the finish line.
"Congrats, Nate," said Chuck. "We all know this was a true win."
"See you in practice Monday, team captain," said Eric.
The rest of the team glared at Nate with looks of disgust. They knew he didn't actually run the race, but they were all to exhausted to put up a fight.
Nate was at first happy about his brilliant plan to achieve team captain status. That is until Monday at school, when his team ignored him all day. After school, the team didn't wait for Nate to finish changing in locker room. They started their Monday run without him and continued to avoid him the rest of the week. Ashamed and embarrassed, Nate quit the cross country team at CHS and decided to transfer high schools.
A team captain is no leader without a team to lead.
Author's Note
This story was based off the original story,
King Chameleon and the Animals, from the West African Folktale Unit. In the original story, animals in the kingdom got along so well that there was no need for a King. One day the animals decided to name a king, but could not agree on one animal. The lion was too fierce and the wolf's nomination was refused by the sheep and goats. To solve this dispute, the animals decided to run a race and whoever reached the tree stump and sat down first was to be named king. The hare, the obvious fast one, was predicted to win. When the race started, a chameleon decided to hop on the back of the hare to "catch a ride." When the hare reached the tree stump, the chameleon jumped off and landed on the stool. The hare knew that the chameleon cheated but couldn't do anything about it when the rest of the animals reached the finish line. None of the animals were happy with the chameleon being named king. So they ignored him and the chameleon felt ashamed and decided to move away to the kingdom.
In my story, Nate resembles the chameleon, Joey resembles the hare, Chuck resembles the lion, and Jonathan resembles the wolf. I changed the kingdom of animals to a cross country team and decided to make the race a marathon. Of course, Nate being the chameleon cheated and his teammates were not happy with it and decided to ignore him. The chameleon was ashamed and moved away to the top of a hilltop.
At the end of the original story, the closing line is ,"A king without subjects is no king." I decided to create a similar line at the end of my story to create a parallel to the original. I had fun writing this story and recreating the characters as high school boys.
West African Folktales by William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, with drawings by Cecilia Sinclair (1917).
