4/9/07—My day was boring. I went to school. I came home. I did homework. I went to bed. There! I blogged. Happy?

4/10/07—I'm sorry about yesterday's blog. A lot of you were asking me why I hadn't blogged in a while. I guess I got a little angry. April is always the worst time of year for me because our school has a physical fitness test, and there's this little thing that always haunts me. You see . . . um . . . it's just that . . . I can't do a pull-up.

No matter how hard I try, I can't do one. I hang on that bar, and everyone stares at me. I can't pull myself up even once. I've had nightmares about a chin-up bar taunting me for two months.

4/11/07—I worked out with weights today. We don't have any real weights, so I curled a ravioli can with each arm. It felt good. Tomorrow I'll try family-size cans.

4/16/07—Today was the test. I walked up to the bar, stared it down and lifted myself up. Suddenly I felt as if my feet had microwave ovens tied to them. But I wasn't giving up.

Ten minutes passed, then 20. After a while, everyone left to go take a shower, but I kept hanging there. The entire gym was empty. The walls echoed the sound of my grunts. The bell rang, but I didn't care. I was doing a pull-up. After 45 minutes, the gym teacher walked up with a piece of paper.

“This isn't an official fitness test certificate,” he said. “But I made it specially for you, Alex.”

He held it in front of my face. It said, “Presented to Alex Jefferson for a great effort.” I dropped to the floor and took the certificate. Somehow, this made my defeat a little easier. There's always next year.

—A.J. out!