“Pinned”

BANG! The barbell hit the ground. 

“Jeez, Jordan” Tony yelled

“What?” Jordan replied 

“Be a little more gentle”

“What?” Jordan yelled back

“BE GENTLE” Tony screamed back.

Jordan paused the music “Sorry, I can’t hear you over the music.”

“Your reppin 150 on Clean, settle down a bit. We are at home not the weight room.”Tony said a little irritated 

“Why should I? I mean, wrestling starts in a week, I should be getting as strong as I can before that. That's what Coach W wants, right? He wants us as strong as possible during wrestling.”

“You’re right he does, but you don’t have any floor pads. The concrete is  gonna end up chipping. This isn’t the School’s weight room, you have to be more careful. Why don’t you wanna lift at school anyway? They have better, if not, the same stuff.”

“There are too many distractions, and they don’t play the music I like. And plus I can go right from the farm after here. It's more convenient.” 

“Yeah, you're right. Wait! Speaking of the farm, did you clean out the calf pen with the skidster yet?”

“OH CRAP, I forgot and dads gonna be home from buying that hay too.” As Jordan ran out the door.

He started up the skid loader and saw his dog running towards him, “Not right now buck, this has to be quick.”

He started to head to the calf pen and started working. When He got done he got a text from his step dad. His phone was cracked and chipped but it worked fine, he could hardly read the texts but it worked. That's all he needed, he didn’t use it much, he didn’t need a nice phone. When he read the text, it said

“You better have cleaned up that pen, boy.”

He replied; “yea it’s done.” 

The next day practice started after school, but he went to school early so that he could show the coaches that he had been lifting over the summer. And during football. 

“Hey Coach Brooks.”

“Hey kid, haven't seen you in a minute, how’s it been?”

“Pretty good Coach, What about you?”

“Oh you know aches and pains, but that’s not new news, But I do have some news, I don’t know how you’re gonna take it, but first how much are you weighing in right now?”

“Uh I haven’t weighed myself but as of last month I was 135-140, so about there. Why?”

“ Good, good, listen this shouldn't be a hard task but, you’re one of our best wrestlers, and you’re a Freshman, but one of our best seniors are 140 right now and another one of our Juniors are at 135. So I'm going to need you to drop to 126, can you do that?” 

“Yeah sure coach, I can do that.” 

“Perfect, thanks Jordan, see you at practice.” 

After practice he was worried about his team, most of them were beginners. But the next meeting will really show what they really know.

At the next meet, Jordan was warming up for his match when he heard his phone go off, he was mad, it paused his music, he looked to see who texted him. It was his step dad, it read, “ remember your basics, I won’t be there but I wanna hear the cheers from the house”

He didn’t reply. His step dad never came to any of his sporting events. It irritated him, it wasn’t his biological dad but it bothered him because Jordan wanted his step dad to see him win so badly, but didn’t come to see him wrestle.  He went into his first match. His heart hit the floor when he saw who he was wrestling against. He was in a all black singlet, with his team's logo on the front. Zane. He turned around and pointed at his team’s crowd, they went nuts and started chanting his name. 

“ZANE! ZANE! ZANE! ZANE!”

Jordan wrestled Zane last year, it was his only loss. But he had gotten better, Jordan thought, but so had Zane. He looked at the scoreboard, it was new, they just put it in last year. It was the last match, if he won this match his team would win the meet. But if he lost, he didn’t want to think about it. They shook hands, he noticed a spot of ringworm on his wrist, Jordan panicked, he was allergic to ringworm, and Zane knew this. Zane saw him look and smirked and said, 

“It's just a scratch.” 

The ref looked at them both and yelled Wrestle. Zane instantly went for an underhook, Jordan knew exactly what he was setting up, an over the top lat drop. He went for an over hook, but Zane was faster, he got in his other underhook, and before Jordan could comprehend it, his heels were above his head, in the air, BOOM, he hit the mat hard. He was hurting, but he didn’t care he went to get out and BAM, reverse Half Nelson. He wasn't getting out of it. Next thing he heard was the piercing sound of the whistle and the slam of the ref’s hand on the mat. He was angry. He got up and shook his hand, but like any good wrestler he put it behind him. After the match he instantly washed off and went to go to the locker room, hoping he didn’t get the ringworm.

The day before state finals he went to his coach’s room during lunch and asked if he could show him how to defend his lat drop. He took him and his brother to the wrestling room. But he made them eat their lunch first.  

“So, how do you defend it” Jordan asked 

“His lat drop? Well,  this its going to sound almost impossible, but you have to land it, when he flips you over, you have to land it and use his momentum, and throw him over you, he will land on his stomach so, you put him in a collar tie, you can land on him and but in a half when his in the air, if you do that he will be in so much pain he won't wanna wrestle anymore. Jordan called his brother over. 

“TONY” He yelled 

“What’s up” he replied 

“Lat drop me”

“Why?”

“Just do it”

He lat dropped him, and he did exactly what his coach wanted him to.

“Like that?” he asked

“Perfect.” 

Jordan and Tony practiced for an hour after practice. Tony was full of bruises. He got home and took a shower, when he got out of the shower he was relaxed, and he got ready for the meet tomorrow he got bored, so he texted his brother

“Ur Driving to state tomorrow  right?”

He replied, “Yeah I am”

“Let's leave at about 8:30. I wanna have time to warm up.”

“Fine with me” He replied

He woke up the next morning and took a shower. He got in his brother's car and started his drive there.He got to state and he was warming up and he heard the speakers, Jordan from Springfield  Highschool, and Zane from Omro Highschool.

He got onto the mat, shook Zanes hand, the ring worm was still there. 

Zane started to say”it’s just a scr-” trying to remind him of the match he lost at the beginning of the year, 

Jordan just cut him off and said “Shut it” 

The match started, He faked a duck under so that Zane wouldn’t go for his lat drop. Jordan then went off the  duck under, boom he scored, 2-0, but then Zne reversed him, and just like that it was 2-2, JOrdan got up and got the escape point. 3-2 going into the second period, it was Zane’s choice, he deferred, Jordan chose neutral, the whole second period nobody scored. It was still 3-2 going into the 3rd period. They were both gassed. But jordan saw that Zane still had fight left in him, it was Zane’s choice, he chose bottom, he couldn’t get up to tie the match, but with 2 seconds left he got out 3-3 going into OT,  In the first 2 OT’s nobody scored, and at the beginning of the 3rd OT he went for the lat drop, Jordan let him, he went up, JOrdan used his momentum, and boom he was on top, but when he landed he hear a pop, his knee blew up in a shooting pain, he kept wrestling. The whistle sounded, he tried to step up to celebrate, but he fell over, and he screamed in pain. The trainer ran out, told him he needs to go get an MRI.

His brother ran out and helped him to the car, they went to the hospital, they got an MRI. They got their results right away, and he tore his ACL, MCL, meniscus, and LCL was hyperextended. He went home with a pair of crutches and prepared for surgery.