Today was Sports Day and Joshua was taking part in the cross country run. To any other competitor, this would just be a typical race but to Joshua, this was the most important race in his life as he trained very hard for this. It was incredible at how dedicated Joshua is towards this race. All those grueling hours of training be it shine or rain. I remembered Amy saying she saw Joshua running a 3-km jog at the school track when it was heavily pouring. I also remembered at how other people mocking Joshua for being putting so much effort in a trivial race. Why can't people just mind their own business? At least Joshua has something in his life that he deems as important unlike some people who never puts effort on anything other than carelessly mouthing on other people's lives.
Even from far away, I could tell Joshua was nervous. From the moment he had stepped behind the starting line, he had been fidgeting and focusing his gaze downwards - clear-cut signs that he was very much nervous.
"You can do it, Joshua!" He instantly whipped his head upwards, searching for the encouraging support. Once he had locked eyes with me, he shot me a confident smile and gave me a thumbs-up. I beamed at him and raised the cheering banner that I made myself. It was not a masterpiece but the main point was to display the words 'JOSHUA NO. 1' clearly for Joshua to see. Let the other competitors see it too. Let them be intimidated by the boy that is going to give Usain Bolt a run for his money someday.
Suddenly, the shrill sound of a blow horn was heard and all the racers started sprinting. Even only after a one minute, I could already see Joshua in the lead. A very huge lead. I always squealed at the huge gap between him and the second fastest runner. Soon, Joshua went out of sight and eventually other racers too. It would be around 30 minutes before we would see the runners running back to the ending line. The wait was agonizing that my friends and I stayed quiet throughout, too tense to even have small talk.
Before I knew it, the spectators started buzzing in excitement. Instantly, I leapt up and smiled so much that my teeth was shown. To my disappointment, the person in the lead was not Joshua and my heart broke when that person ended up finishing first in the race. A lot of questions raced through my mind. What happened to Joshua? Was he okay? Did he injure himself midway through the race? The barrage of thoughts in my head was put to a halt when the crowd started buzzing again. I looked and saw Joshua carrying another runner on his back towards the finishing line. The runner seemed really worn out and his face grimaced in pain. I then noticed that Joshua was careful in not touching the other's right ankle and that was when I connected the dots. The runner must had sprained his ankle somewhere during the race and when Joshua was heading back to the starting line, he stopped and helped him up. But why would he do that? Why didn't Joshua just ignore the injured runner and focus on the race? Won't the medic squad come to that runner's aid eventually?
Throughout the awards ceremony, the unhappy look on my face stayed. Joshua ended up being in third place. All I could of was how unfair that someone just happened to be injured and that Joshua had to help him out because that was just the person he was. When I addressed that to Joshua, he simply rolled his head back, laughing gleefully at me as if I had just told him the funniest joke he had heard in years.
Flicking me on the forehead, he looked at me and smiled. "Baby, this race is important to me. But I'm not the type to ignore a person in need. So of course I have to abandon the race and help him out. That's called 'sportsmanship', baby."
Hearing that explanation, I puffed up my cheeks before giving him a small smile.
"I guess winning isn't that important. Anyway, I'm proud of you, baby," I hugged him and he returned it affectionately.
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