Everyone rushes over, Elijah has a bloody nose and he is holding his leg. Everyone was there, everyone but Levi. They were playing kick ball, Levi was as still as a statue pretending like he didn’t know Elijah was hurt.
Levi lied a lot so he wouldn’t get in trouble. Usually they were just white lies like, you look great when they really looked like they were just camping for a week. Sometimes he would tell a lie, to cover something up such as when he was in fourth grade, he tripped a kid playing kickball then an ambulance came, and the kid found out he broke his knee. But now that he was an adult, he still told lies. Levi is a climber now so there’s not much opportunity to lie and cheat that’s why it was the perfect sport for him.
He was training for 2020 summer climbing Olympics, but the problem was they were basing it on who was the strongest with the best technique. He was extremely strong with extraordinary technique. He couldn’t quite nail the one arm pull up though.
He was training at his coaches’ gym when he had an idea.
He was so good at lying and cheating why not cheat the one arm pull up? He was going to sneak an elastic band from his shoulder to his foot so then the resistance would help take weight off his forearm. It was an ingenuous plan.
He arrives at the USA climbing headquarters, where all the equipment is set up.
He greets the judges Margo Hays, Kai Lightner, Kyra Condie, and Tommy Caldwell. They give him his uniform, La Sportiva pants and a USA climbing t-shirt.
They call him up, his stomach flipped, he starts pouring sweat, his legs start to tremble. Despite all of this he walks straight up to the hang board.
The spotlight on him, everyone watching, he’s live for everyone to see.
He chalks his hands, grabs the hang board with one hand. His plan is working his almost three quarters of the way up, when all of a sudden he hears a buzzer go off. He falls to his feet. The judge is yelling. It all feels surreal. Maybe he’ll wake up from a nightmare. Maybe the judge hit the buzzer on accident. Why does he look so mad?
The audience is giving looks of extreme judgment. He doesn’t know what’s going on.
The judge is zooming in on the replay, he’s zooming in on his ankle. He’s wondering how he could have possibly seen the exercise band.
He’s watching intently with the other contestants. It still feels like he’s one horrible dream maybe a movie.
All he can think is thoughts of regret. Regret about every lie he told. Regret about every time he cheated. Regret about letting everyone down.
He sees on the replay his pant lag snagged on the band it is clearly exposed. He’s face gets flushed he just stands there. Standing there with his head down feeling everyone’s eyes on him.
They come over tell him to pull up his pant leg and they see it. They tell him to explain himself and all he says is I cheated I’m sorry.
Now the whole word knows he’s a lying cheat.
Teen Wordsmiths 