“Jonah! What’s wrong with you?!?” cried Joe. “Don’t do that!” But it was too late.
There was this athlete named Jonah who loved to do parkour and freerunning. Competitions were his life.  His skills were admired by many and they all wanted to know his secrets. When asked about his secrets, he would always reply,”Hard work.” Jonah had this very good friend named Joe. Joe did not think it was safe to do parkour so he focused on getting better at solving Rubik’s Cubes. He also went to many competitions, but those competitions were for speedcubing and not parkour. Joe’s main cube was the Dayan Zhanchi, which is Dayan’s 5th 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube. He always used it in his competitions and would average between 9 and 13 seconds. That was pretty impressive. These two friends were the best competitors in their age group, with Jonah getting the highest score in the history of parkour and Joe setting a new world record for the 3x3x3 with a time of 5.36 seconds. When their competitions did not overlap, they visited each other’s competitions and cheered them on. Since these two were so good at their hobby, they were often featured in the newspaper. Sometimes it would say “Joe Sets New World Record” or “Jonah Places 1st Again”. These adults loved to help each other get better at what they do best. Joe would help Jonah get better at parkour and freerunning competitions and Jonah would help Joe get better at speedcubing. Since they started getting old of of doing the same moves over and over again and solving a 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube for the 500th time, Jonah decided to take his parkour and freerunning skills to a whole new level by learning new tricks. Joe also decided to start something new by working on 4x4x4 Rubik’s Cubes and 2x2x2 Rubik’s Cubes, Both got considerably better in a short amount of time. Joe quickly became Sub-5 in 4x4x4 speedcubing and Sub-3 in 2x2x2 speedcubing. This gave Jonah faith that he would be able to do his new complex tricks successfully. Jonah practiced harder and harder, and with Joe’s encouragement, he was able to do his tricks successfully and more consistently.
Joe liked to stay fit and so did Jonah. In order to stay that way, they would work out every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Jonah liked to take his workout to an extreme level while Joe kept it simple. It was Monday and Joe woke up at 5:00 am to go to the gym. It was not until 6:30 that Jonah came. Usually Jonah would come way earlier than Joe, so he thought something was up. “How’s it going Jonah?” asked Joe.
“Great. It’s just that I’ve been working a bit more to master my new tricks.”
“Good, I thought you got hurt or something.”Joe understood what Jonah’s life was like. Wake up, workout, and practice parkour. This would repeat every day except Sunday, which was his rest period. He also knew that parkour and freerunning was an extremely dangerous hobby. One missed jump and you’re screwed.
Five months ago, Jonah had signed up for the world-wide parkour and freerunning competition. There were limited spaces due to lack of room available so he signed up ASAP. As a young child, Jonah had always looked up to John. John was the 2000 World Championships of Parkour and Freerunning winner. Back in John’s days, he was the most famous person and everybody wished they were him. He was very fit and did freerunning in his free time. Ever since Jonah found about him, he immediately became his idol. Now that John was going to judge the parkour and freerunning competition, Jonah really wanted to participate in the competition.
When the time of the competition was coming near, Jonah started practicing even harder because he really wanted to impress the judges. Five days until the competition and counting. Jonah’s legs burned from the extra exercises he did. Four days and counting. Those marathons are really a pain. Three days and counting. I don’t think I can take it anymore. Two days and counting. UGGHH. One day left. Yesss, it’s finally here! Or is it?
Yes! The day of the competition had finally arrived. As Jonah arrived at Latitude Stadium, he noticed that John the man was getting out of his car and he immediately went to greet him. John was not too old, in his mid 30s and he was about 6 ft tall. Jonah was 5 ft 10 in and 18 years old. After meeting John, Jonah went to sign in for the competition. Latitude Stadium was full of spectators getting ready to watch the competition. There were specially arranged obstacles for the competitors to maneuver through. The stadium was exceptionally big. Jonah was surprised just by the outside of the building.  The competition started at around 2 pm and was set to go on for about 3-4 hours with 5 rounds in total. During the first round, most of the “not so good” people got eliminated leaving Jonah with some decent competition. With Joe cheering him on in the crowd, Jonah began to feel his confidence rise but did not let it mess up his focus. Round 2 ended about the same way. In round 3, Jonah began with some smooth jumps and got through the obstacles easy. He ended his turn with a 360 front flip. The Judges gave him a 46/50.  Jonah was currently 2nd place after one turn. On Jonah’s second turn, he did the same thing, except he ended with a backflip, not a frontflip. This earned him a 47/50. 2nd place. Man this is too easy. I’m not even trying. Jonah’s 3rd turn had arrived. He wanted to spice up the competition. Flip. Sprint. Jump. Win. Jonah earned a 50/50 from the judges. The competition was left with 8 people going into round 4. Four people would be eliminated this round. Jonah survived the round. Round 5 had 4 people left, including Jonah. One person got injured last minute and dropped out leaving the competition with 3 people. Jonah put his skills to the test. He did his cloud-16 double drop back front flip trick but felt something happen during his front flip.
As Jonah was doing the special move he had been working very hard on, he heard a crack and felt a stab of pain. He immediately dropped to the ground grabbing his leg. The audience was very concerned and worried about him. They got up from their seats to see Jonah. People started whispering to each other and craning their necks to see what was going on.  Joe immediately called 911 and went to see if Jonah was okay. He was shocked at Jonah’s condition Jonah dislocated his shoulder blades and broke his spine. This was not good. When the ambulance had arrived, Jonah was immediately rushed to the hospital where they performed surgery. The operation took 6 hours. Joe was notified by the surgeons that Jonah was to stay in the hospital for 3 months. When he received these news, he became very distressed. Every day, Joe would make some time to visit Jonah and see how he was doing. Things went very well and before he knew it, Jonah was out of the hospital. Being unable to do intense workouts and even permanently handicapped Jonah was depressed. Without exercising, he could get fat. If he gets fat, it would be harder to do his tricks. Jonah had never been injured so he did not know how to use his crutches. After Joe’s encouragement and help, he was able to get it down in one afternoon. Eventually, Joe would help Jonah with rehab and hope that he would be able to do things like before. Jonah thought he was able to do things like normal and took a big jump. One that he would do in a competition. He crashed to the floor and made his injury even worse. This time, the pain was too much to bear. He was rushed to the hospital once again, and Joe became miserable and depressed. The surgeons did not know what to do because their hands were not fast enough to do the set up. They had to be quick and swift or else it would be cut off because they need to remove something from the blade. Jonah heard them talking and told them about Joe. The surgeons went and got Joe to get the object out of the blade. It was a success. When they wanted to do the operation, they kept Joe by their side in case they needed him again. As they feared, they had a problem. Jonah was passing out. They needed somebody to click the button on his oxygen tank to keep it going, or else Jonah would not get enough air. Everybody was needed for the operation, and even if they wanted to do it, their fingers would not be fast enough. Joe was called up again. With his Rubik’s Cube skills, clicking the button was a piece of cake. He clicked the button even faster than they expected. As the operation was nearing its end, Jonah whispered, “Thanks,” and blacked out. Joe took these words very seriously and he knew Jonah really meant his words.
3 months later, Jonah was out of the hospital and trying to recover from his injury. He took it day by day, hour by hour. Slowly, his bones became stronger. His legs were strong enough for him to take jogs and everything was well. It had been one year since the original injury at the competition and Jonah wanted to make a comeback. He worked on his tricks to see if his legs could take it. They could.
Round 1 of the 2014 Parkour/Freerunning World Championships. Everyone cheered as Jonah took the stage. He managed to edge out his opponents by ½ a point. The audience just kept getting louder and louder. Jonah enjoyed his Parkour and just decided to do it for fun this time. Round 2 began with Jonah at 1st place. The course was a struggle for his opponents but he was able to get through it with only one fall. One opponent beat him, though. His name was John. The last and final round began with Jonah getting a 50/50 on his first turn and John getting a 49/50. Second turn. Jonah got 45/50. John got 50/50. Everyone sat quietly awaiting Jonah’s next move. Last turn. Jonah gets a 50/50 and John gets the same. Not a bad score. When the judges handed out the awards, everyone stood up cheered. The roar of the crowd could be heard from blocks away. Joe screamed with all his might, knowing what hardships Jonah had been through. John gave him a pat on the back and said, “Good job Bro.” Hearing those words, Jonah knew that Parkour was just the right sport for him.
After the intense competitions and all, Joe and Jonah decided to take a break. They paused on the competitions and decided to try out each other’s hobbies. Their friendship would not separate them. Ever.