first draft - Cleopatra surprises Alexander

Cleopatra loved to watch the boy and men train. She suddenly livened up when she said, "Oh, Alexander, show me how you work the bench." I looked at her quizzically and wondered why, but I said, "Come along then. Are you going to work out with me?" *"Sure!" she answered spryly, "Why not?"* So I took her to the benches which are quite large and overwhelming to see when you do not know how to use them. They are narrow pieces of wood covered with leather that are laid in v cut stands so that one can set them at any level to use to practice leg development. One can actually walk on them, jump on them, and sit on them. They are high enough that one can hang from them. I said to her, "Well, what do you want to do? Do you want to use them now?" * She had already beaten me before I got my words out of my mouth. She had suddenly jumped up onto a beam, and was skillfully walking across it, so that I realized as my mouth hung open, that she had been practicing the routine for months. She was so good at it.*"When did you learn that trick?" I asked her, awed by her performance. She was so happy she could burst. "I wanted to surprise you. I wanted you to see that I could do something as well as you so I learned it all by myself." she replied. She was delighted that I was so impressed with her talent at walking the beam. From that day on, I never underestimated my sister again. I jumped up on a beam beside her and said, "All right. Let's do it." That was so much fun that day that we forgot everyone everywhere. I learned to respect my young sister Cleopatra more than ever as I have always admired her, but her effort to match me made me more proud than ever before. What more would she do I wondered to myself.