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When he returned
, Alec he just shook his head at him.

‘I swear,
Tom, I’ve never seen anyone as bad at sports as you’ and he looked at him and just giggled away.

Unfortunately for Tom over the comi
ng months saw excitement building for many of those sports, as their annual school’s sports day was fast approaching.

Try as he might though, Tom’s sports teacher Mr Fellows just couldn’t
find any sport that Tom was even remotely good at.

In his attempt at the high jump
, Tom blooded his nose by running straight into the bar. At the long jump he tripped over his own feet on the run up and fell head first into the sand. Whilst looking at Tom trying to run on the track Alec just took one look at him and then laughed out aloud!

‘I’m not kidding you, Tom, but I reckon even my old Granny could run faster than you and she’s over eighty years old now’ he joked.

Inevitably, Tom ended up on the outside of sports day
. So rather than being a competitor, like most his friends, he ended up watching all the other kids from the sidelines instead.

With just a week to go to their school’s annual sports day, Tom and Alec found themselves as they often did, sitting in the school canteen, admiring the girl they considered to be the prettiest in the whole school.

Her name was Sarah Brown and the two b
oys along with most the others just sat there transfixed as they just stared at her.

Alec though just laughed
at Tom as he looked at her as did most their friends.

‘There’s no point in you looking at her
, Ellis, as Sarah only goes for guys who like sports, who can actually
win
something on sports day that is’ remarked one of their friends.

‘Well that
thoroughly rules you out then, Tom’ Alec just chuckled away.

‘She wins every race she en
ters’ commented another of the boys as he just sat there admiring her.

‘Beautiful and
fast, blimey, Tom, you’d never ever catch up with her even if she
was
keen on you’ laughed Alec as they all just looked at Tom and then chuckled away
.

Just at that moment,
another of their school friends came in and slapped a piece of paper down onto the table.

‘Sorry
, I’m late, chaps’ he smiled ‘but I was just reading
this
!’ he smiled as he pointed to the piece of paper.

‘What’s that
then?’ they all asked together.

‘It might be the answer to all your dreams
, Tom, if you want to stand any chance of impressing Sarah Brown’ laughed the boy as he noticed Tom admiring her.

‘What is it then?’ he asked as the boy then sat down amongst them and then began to explain.

‘Well o
ne of the teachers has come up with an idea to involve all the kids who aren’t any good at sports, in a separate sports day event all of their own’ the boy explained excitedly.

‘What sort of
sports day event?’ asked Alec curiously.

‘It’ll have to be something
very easy for Tom to be involved’ joked one of their friends.

‘Yeah
all right, don’t rub it in’ smiled Tom.

‘
No seriously, Tom, it’s going to be an obstacle course, nothing too difficult at all’ suggested the boy.

‘Blimey, this is
good news for you, Tom, it’s your chance to actually
win
something and impress Sarah’ laughed Alec. ‘All you’ve got to do is beat a load of grossly obese, unfit kids in that race, and she’ll be like putty in your hands’ he laughed.

‘I wish!’ smiled Tom.

A few days later
, they were able to inspect the new obstacle course as it had been set up on the school’s playing fields in order to test it out.

‘Blimey, Tom, even someone with a
‘sports dysfunction’ like yours can win something like
that
’ Alec smiled as he studied the obstacles and then encouraged his friend.

‘You reckon?’ queri
ed Tom.

‘Yeah
I mean, what’s so complicated or difficult about those obstacles? I mean, it looks dead easy’ smiled Alec as he pointed to the new obstacle course and just laughed.

During their dinner hour that day
they sneaked out so Tom could have a try at the new course and he was surprised at how easy he found it.

‘
Told you so, it’s
easy
!’ laughed Alec ‘it’ll be an absolute synch for you to excel at this. You’ll win the race for sure’ smiled Alec encouraged by Tom’s efforts.

Tom though, wasn’t so sure, he now just stood there looking quite thoughtful.

‘I’ll tell you what I might do’ he commented.

‘What’s that
then?’ asked Alec curiously.

‘I might
pray that I win, just to be certain’ commented Tom thoughtfully.

‘Blimey, Tom, don’t start going on about you
r dad again, that stuff you told me about you praying freaked me out enough the first time!’ remarked Alec.

‘This is different though, Alec, all I’
m doing is asking to win a race, where’s the harm in that?’ asked Tom confidently.

‘Umm, I don’t know, Tom, maybe you should just do your best on the day
the same as everyone else and see what happens’ Alec commented thoughtfully.

That night though, Tom ignored his friend’s advice and j
ust prayed that he would win the new race instead.

The school’s annual sports day soon came around and they all
watched as Sarah Brown won all her races as usual.

‘P
UT YOUR TONGUES BACK IN!’ shouted one of the girls as she watched all the boys just staring at her.

‘Gosh, Sarah’s
amazing!’ commented one of Tom and Alec’s friends as they all stood there watching her.

Soon Alec’s race came around and he secured a quite creditable second place.

‘W
ell done, Alec!’ Tom told him afterwards.

‘Yeah, I would have liked to have come first, but se
cond place is all right I guess’ smiled Alec. ‘Anyway, it’s your race next isn’t it?’ he smiled then changing the subject.

J
ust then, the school’s loudspeaker system announced that all competitors for the new obstacle race were to come forwards to take their place ready for the start.

‘Good luck, Mate!’ smiled Alec as Tom went to line up for
his first sports day race ever!

Looking over at his competitors all like him
, quite useless at sport, Tom began to feel quite confident as they all looked very overweight compared to him.

Standing on the sidelines however,
his friend Alec noticed a change in the final obstacle.

He saw Mr Fellows his sports teacher standing just behind him so he questioned him about it.

‘Excuse me, Mr Fellows, but why has that last obstacle
there been changed?’

‘Oh yes, that was
rather odd, Alec’ he explained ‘we went to do our final inspection on the obstacles this morning and we noticed that one had strangely broken somehow. So we were forced to look for a last minute replacement’ he smiled.

‘But it looks considerably higher
than the old one?’ queried Alec with a rather worried look on his face.

‘Higher
?’ puzzled his teacher ‘I can’t honestly say I noticed’ Mr Fellows commented before his attention was distracted away by some parents who wanted to speak to him.

Alec now bit his lip.

‘Oh dear, I’ve got a bad feeling about this
now’ he uttered under his breath just as the starter’s gun went off and the obstacle race immediately commenced.

His fears were soon dismissed however
, as he watched Tom immediately sprint to the front and quickly open up an enormous lead.

‘COME ON, TOM!’ he shouted excitedly.

Sure enough, Tom was now miles ahead of the pack and he sped through
the field of obstacles with absolute ease!

Arriving at the final obst
acle though, Tom immediately became stuck! It was clearly too high for him and his feeble arms just wouldn’t pull him up and over the top of it.

Alec now
just had his head in his hands.

Just then though, Tom seemed to have managed it and Alec shoute
d out to encourage him.

‘C
OME ON, TOM! YOU’RE ALMOST THERE!’

All
Tom had to do was get over the top of this final obstacle and he would be home and dry and passed the winning post!

‘KEEP GOING, TOM!’ screamed Alec excitedly believing his friend against all odds was about to actually
win
a sporting event!

Sudden
ly though, Tom lost his grip on the top of the new obstacle and he now slipped and he fell backwards onto the ground.

Alec was now wringing his hands nervous
ly as he could see the rest of the pack quickly closing in, as Tom attempted to scale the obstacle once again and just fell back down onto the ground once again.

Soon
, they all overtook him and Tom was left the only competitor still struggling to get over this final obstacle. He was quite exhausted and it must be said now looked pretty fed up. He took a deep breath and then with one almighty effort he finally managed to heave himself up and over the obstacle to then stagger forwards and finally cross the finishing line in rank last place!

Alec now
walked to the end of the course to consol his best friend.

‘Sorry, Mate’ smiled Alec ‘but that last hurdle just
did you in’ he concluded.

‘Yeah, I would have won by a mile if they hadn’t changed that
last damn obstacle, why did they change it anyway?’ moaned Tom.

‘Mr Fellows
said they noticed it had broken when they went to do a final inspection this morning’ explained Alec.

Tom meanwhile, just
stood there as he leaned on his knees as he tried to catch his breath back, he looked quite depressed now.

‘You didn’t bother praying to win then?’ asked Alec curiously.

‘Actually I did
’ answered Tom now looking quite annoyed.

‘Blimey that worked well then!’ laughed Alec.

‘I asked for the wrong thing, Alec’ commented Tom seriously.

Of course, what Tom hadn’t mentioned to Alec
, was that he had heard a voice in his head at the end of the race that told him clearly ‘don’t ever pray for yourself!’

Tom decided to keep
the voice to himself though for fear that Alec might think he’d gone crazy.

One thing Tom couldn’t ignore
though was that every time he prayed it seemed his prayer was always answered.

Only not always in the way he liked it would seem!

12
^th
February 2017

Elmbridge Secondary,

Little Compton,

Surrey, England.

B
y February 2017 both Tom and Alec had settled into their secondary school, Elmbridge.

Fortunately for them
, the majority of their friends including Sarah Brown, the girl they both admired so much, had also moved to Elmbridge with them.

They had been worried for a while that they might all have been split up and sent to separate schools, but that worry had proven unfounded fortunately for them all.

Both Tom and Alec
now fired up with teenage hormones were even more in love, or so they thought, with pretty Sarah Brown.

‘I sw
ear she gets prettier every time I look at her or is that just me?’ pondered Alec.

‘Na, it’s
just you’ laughed Tom.

Meeting up after schoo
l the two boys both chatted about her.

‘What I’d g
ive to be her boyfriend’ Alec sighed as they just sat in his bedroom.

‘I could probably make that happen
if I really wanted to’ pondered Tom.

‘
You, Tom, what do you
mean
you could make it happen? No you
couldn’t
, could you?’ asked Alec curiously. ‘What, have you a thousand pounds in your back pocket to ‘bribe her’ to go out with me or something?’ joked Alec.

‘No,
if I pray for it to happen, then it’ll happen’ replied Tom confidently
.

‘Oh blimey, Tom, don’t start going on about that praying business again, you know it freaks me out’ complained Alec.

‘But I
could
make that happen for you, Alec, if you really wanted me to’ smiled Tom.