A Tale of Blood and Sweatsocks

[MK Kilmarnock]

Eight...

Nine...

Aaaaaaaugh, fuck...

TEN!

The metal bar was set back on the two hooks of the weightlifting rack, and Cody Patton sat up to stretch himself out. Football season was already up and running and just like every year, the amount of training Cody put into himself was nothing short of hell. His regimen had been like this ever since the later parts of summer when training began, and it would continue up until they all played their last game. Then, just for the hell of it, he'd continue his workouts for the winter seasons and spring. That was just the kind of person he was, and this was the sort of thing he did for fun. Shit, if everybody else at school did this sort of thing for fun, then maybe those geekier kids would have an easier time standing up for themselves.

Cody looked back to the weights that he had been lifting. Technically, he wasn't supposed to be bench-prenching anything without somebody spotting him, but nobody else was in the weight room at the time. So on one hand, there was nobody around to spot for him anyway, and there was no way in hell he'd use the butterfly machine. It just didn't feel right, the way it worked the pecs. It wasn't so much that it was the easy way out (which he totally thought it was), but that the range of movement didn't seem to compliment the pecs as well as just straight benching. And besides, on the other hand, nobody being around meant that nobody was there to bitch about it.

The varsity quarterback got up off of the bench and dabbed at it with a tower that had been resting on his gym bag next to him, cleaning his sweat off of it. He set it back down and took a sip of gatorade, capping off the bottle and walking towards the center of the weight room. The chance to sneak a look at himself in the mirror was a bit much to resist. He was cut, no doubt about it; when he put this much work into improving his body, Cody felt there wasn't much wrong with taking a minute to admire it. It probably would've come off as a little vain to somebody else but hey, again, nobody else was around to see it.

Working out alone did have its downsides though, Cody felt. In his experience, he felt the best burn came from working alongside somebody else, one encouraging the other to push foward past the pain. One more rep, one more set of ten... he could almost hear the chants in his head. Well, there was always the chance that somebody might stop in. Somebody from the team, somebody from another team, who the hell knew? If they willingly stepped foot into the gym after school hours, then they were probably the sort that Cody would get along with anyway.

He turned away from the mirror, setting his eye on the treadmill. Finishing off with a bit of cardio was never a bad idea.

[KamiKaze]

Once school had gotten out, Lana knew where she was going.

The gymnasium was her favorite hangout, so to say. Well, she was an athlete of sorts, so of course she'd want to hang out there and exercise. It was like expecting to find fish in water, or bears in the woods. A habitat, if you will. And there was a bit of exercising equipment in a segment of it, so what would you expect? Of course she'd be there, and quite frequently at that.


So, like a creature of habit, Lana found her way inside, as what was usual for her.


It was practically close to empty, the weight room. In fact, the only person, as far as she could see, was one of the footballers standing in front of the mirror. Patton, that was his name, right? Lana never particularly liked or hated him. On one hand, he was a fellow athlete and she could respect him for that. On the other... seriously. He was, to put it plainly, a bully. He picked on people for no really good reason, just to make himself feel good apparently. That had to be the only reason. In short? Lana never really cared much for him. To be honest, she barely knew Patton, beyond a few classes here and there.

What was he doing now? Staring at himself in the mirror. She didn't know. Perhaps he was admiring his virility and ability to harass people. Perhaps. Lana was suddenly reminded of a story in Greek mythology they had to read once in... sophomore year, was it? The guy who fell in love with his own reflection. Narcissus. Oh yeah, that was the guy's name. Patton was Narcissus. Kind of humorous, if you ask her.

Anyways, business. Patton can do whatever. He was looking away from it now, but still.

Lana walked deeper into the weight room, and as she passed him she couldn't help but let out a token:

"Hey Patton."

Now what could she do first? It was a good idea to warm up first, of course. Obviously. Lana thought of what she could do. Maybe some light cardio for today? Nothing too extreme to start off. Just enough to... you know. Warm up her muscles a bit. So she made her way to the treadmill. Ten minutes of light treadmill use. Then she could start lightly with the weights and then move up to heavier ones. Lana placed her water bottle and towel gently on the ground, and adjusted the settings on the machine.

[Aura]

(Adonis Alba: Start)

Adonis hadn't been to the school gym in a long time.  The last time he remembered going there was right before he got kicked off the football team.  For bullcrap reasons, he might add.  That stupid ref couldn't call a game right to save his life.  Adonis just called him out, and what did he get?  A chewing-out from the coach and a banning from the team.  He was the best damn player they had, but they still cut him loose.

Whatever, their loss.

The ex-footballer walked into the gym and saw two people working out.  That chick from the wrestling team was on the treadmill.  Personally, Adonis never really cared about her.  She was just too muscle-y for him.  He didn't care much for girl aheletes in the first place.  Unless they were gymnasts.  Or cheerleaders.  Or hot.  This girl was none of these things, so Adonis didn't pay her any mind.  Instead, he turned his attention to the other person in the gym.

Cody Patton.  His old football teammate.  Or ex-teammate, more accurately.  Adonis and Cody used to hang out all the time, partying and picking on dorks, but after Adonis got kicked off the team, they didn't see each other much.  Adonis became a full-time partier and drinker, while Cody kept working out like a beast.  Just like he was now.  Pretty much the only things that they had in common anymore were their natural athleticism and hobby of picking on weaker kids.  Adonis doesn't even really know if Cody hates him after the ref incident or not.  A lot of the other guys on the team did.  Maybe he should talk to him and figure this out.

"Well if it isn't Aurora High's new football superstar!  Remember me?  You know, the old star?"

In retrospect, there are probably nicer ways of starting a conversation.

[umop-ap!sdn*]

Enter Joey Polpetta

Joey half strutted half waddled into the weight room. His chest swelled as he breathed in the gym stink. The smell of testosterone and hard work. Let's get big!

He leaned back to stretch his back, his ball gut jutting forward. He glanced around quickly to see who else was in. First he saw Adonis. Hey another exfootballer. I outta talk to him. That ref was a fuckin tard making a call like that.

He saw Cody walking toward the treadmil. He was checking himself out in the mrror as he walked by. Hahah a vain little pretty boy. I bet he's heading toward the treadmil cause he thinks he's getting fat.

Joey wasn't usually condescending, but this was his zone. It had been since sophomore year when he quit water boying for the football team. I dont know why the fuck I thought water boy would be fun Now he lived in the weight room, and lived to get pumped and big.

Already on the treadmil was Lana. Joey saw her in here a lot. Always working up a sweat, she knew what she was doing. Joey admired that. He stared at her latina butt for a little bit. She had a little weight on her, but not too much. And with how much she lifted she was no frail girl. He could picture her pinning down his arms and-

Perve it up later Joe, it's time to get pumped. Maybe he'd go over and talk to her later. But for now, he was here to lift.

[MK Kilmarnock]

Well, so much for there being nobody around. Of course the moment he looked into the mirror, somebody might show up... a girl, at that. As she had come in from directly behind, most of the newcomer was blocked by his own image, so he'd simply have to give her a look when he turned away.

That's when Cody saw that the girl who greeted him was none other than Lana Torres. He was willing to give mad props to any girl who decided to get a little physical, but Lana had gone all-out and joined the wrestling team, and that... well, it could be safely summed up to say that Cody had put some serious consideration into joining the wrestling team based on her alone. Maybe not a good deal of serious consideration anywhere close to threatening his place on the basketball team, but it was enough to have passed through his mind at least once or twice. But no, for now, he'd simply have to settle for sneaking the occasional glance at the latina's butt.

As luck would have it, Cody got the chance to do just that as Lana beat him to one of the treadmills. Fine by him, in all honesty. In a matter of moments, he stepped onto a nearby treadmill (leaving a berth of one empty one between them, no need to get pushy or creepy) and gave her the simplest but most appropriate response he could think of: "Hey."

There would be plenty of time for chatting when they were both running. Cody didn't really do too much talking when working out, since precious air was needed elsewhere in pushing weighted steel or constantly moving his body forward, but he found some sparse idle banter in some of his exercise to be good at practicing breathing paces. As an added benefit, maybe some intelligent, non-'desu desu kawaii' conversation would be helpful in diminishing the burn in his legs; anything would help, really, just so long as it wasn't the bullshit he had to put up with in gym today. How he got about half the nerds in his class, Cody wasn't sure.

As he began fiddling with the settings on the treadmill to start his own workout-ender, one more person entered the gym. Cody would recognize the guy's face, as well as his swaggering attitude, anywhere. Adonis Alba... the name made Cody question the same thing that he had been questioning since Freshman year: Who the hell names their kid Adonis? Seriously, Adonis? Regardless of the name, Adonis was an okay guy, being a decent guy on the field and a riot off of it... a shame he got kicked off the team, but them's the breaks when you lose your shit.

"Old star?" Cody gave one of his trademark antagonistic smirks, setting the treadmill in motion on one of its slower settings. "I dunno, man. I mean, you were a great opener. Reaaaaaaally softened the team up for my big finish, you know?" Cody's grin only grew wider as he turned his attention to the front of the machine for just a moment, then looked back at Adonis. "I'm just fuckin' with you, dude. What's up?"

Cody could see out of the corner of his eye that yet another person had entered the gym, but... eh, fuck it. They could do whatever, he had his own shit to be doing.

[Serpico*]

((Yoshio Sato: Start))

Yoshio peeked into the gym; he had hoped that when he arrived that there wouldn't be other people. He really only recognized Cody Patton, after all they both played football. Yoshio was one of the guys that backed Cody up on the playing field, as the offensive tackle it was his job to keep other players away from him. He just didn't know him personally and normally kept away from him. Cody seemed to be busy with another guy, this one Yoshio didn't recognize.

Yoshio hesitated to enter and bit his lip, part of him wanted to turn around but he knew that he would have to get used to company in the gym eventually. Back at home Yoshio would have walked into the gym without a single worry, but here he was pretty much one of the new kids. Still, he urged himself to go in there. He even reasoned with himself that perhaps he might meet someone friendly.

It is just a little anxiety, it will subside soon. It will be just like at home... only they speak another language.

After a moment of mental preparation he strode forward, putting on his most solemn expression subconsciously. He just really hoped that nothing would interrupt his routine. Every second afternoon was about exercise and Yoshio needed to keep in top shape, he couldn't bear the thought of slacking off because he would only have himself to blame if he failed. Besides, It was about pushing himself, working out until he felt good about himself and improving.

Some stretches, push ups, weights and cardio...

He glanced at his watch; he had an hour and a half before he had to make his way home. He didn't want to worry the family that he was staying with. He intended to make the most out of the time he had.

[ViolentMedic]

((Mallory McCormick continued from Sensational))

Mallory wasn't the strongest person out there, but it wasn't from lack of trying. She'd been using the school's weight room ever since she'd tried and failed to get on the football team, hoping that she'd eventually build enough muscle to actually make it on there. Try as she might, she could never get strong enough to compete with the gigantic hulks on the team. Probably because they were all doing their own exercise regiments.

Still, working out had a weird kind of peaceful... peace-thing going for it. Something that was throughly ruined when she stepped into the room and immediately saw two people that she really didn't want to be in the same room with. Cody Patton and Adonis Alba. Possibly the two worst people that she could imagine being stuck in a room full of heavy objects with.

Mallory's first instinct had been to flee. She had actually turned around to leave before mentally slapping herself and turning back, so that to anyone else it would have looked like she spontaneously decided to twirl. She was not afraid of bullies--yes, you are, who are you kidding?--and would not be thrown off her exercise routine just because of them.

There were three other people in the room, none of whom Mallory knew that well. She couldn't even quite recall their names. There was a girl from the wrestling team--Laura, maybe? Something similar to Laura--a big Asian guy that Mallory had seen on the football team--he definitely had some weird, foreign name, I know that much--and a guy who was well known for staring at female body parts--James? No... Joey! Oh hey, I actually know that one...' None of them worried her as much as the jerks, though.

Her mother's advice had been 'ignore them and they'll go away.' In Mallory's experience, this never worked. But she couldn't think of anything else to do. It was worth a shot.

Hm. She'd need someone to spot her during the lifting, though. The other girl was busy and she didn't really want to ask the guy known for perving. That left big, Asian guy. She tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey, er, guy. Will you spot for me with the weights? Or I can do it for you first, I mean you were here before me and all."

[decoy73]

((Debut of Mike Whaley))

Mike pulled on his workout shirt as he headed into the weight room. He had about an hour before he had to leave for Northwest - just enough to do some chest and shoulder exercises. He looked into the room as he saw the current occupants: Cody and Yoshio from football, some girl he didn't know, Lana Torres, whom he knew when they both did stuff at Northwest, as well as Joey Polpetta and Adonis Alba.

Alright, so long as I keep focused, I can get some reps in and hang out - assuming Adonis doesn't attempt to pick a fight or something.

"Hey, guys. How's it going?" Mike flung his towel over his shoulder and waved hellp to Lana, just in case she didn't hear.

[umop-ap!sdn*]

Joey grinned when Mike walked in. He held up his hand and make a "come here" gesture. Grinning the whole time, thinking his discrete sign language pun was funnier than it was.

Micheal was on three variety teams, and Joey considered him a true athlete for that. Then again Joey considered himself an athlete, and he couldn't do aerobics to save his life. To an extent, Joey realized he wasn't "fit." But his spiked hair and growing guns compensated enough.

He'd spent enough time staring at himself in the mirror to tell himself he was a stud.

Anyway, Micheal was getting close. Joey couldn't wait to have another real man to lift with. And Joey would give him a rough time if he was just gonna run.

"Hey bud, need a spotter?"

[KamiKaze]

((So sorry everyone! I've been in a spot of writer's block lately. X_x))

After she had fiddled with the settings a bit, the treadmill awoke, the belt steadily gaining in speed, and soon she had started getting into a brisk walk.

Patton had replied back, and he had soon enough made his way to one of the other treadmills.

Well, at least he was relatively friendly, at least for the time being. Then again, Lana didn't know what worked as "friendly" when it came to him. Again, she didn't know him that well.

A voice loudly boasted behind them. It was loud enough for Lana to hear, so she turned her head and... Alba, was it? She was sure he had some kind of first name that was kind of ridiculous, but she couldn't remember what it was exactly. All she remembered was that when she heard it, she only had tilted her head to the side in confusion. It was something unusual, that was what she recalled. Well, she couldn't make fun of it, could she? Lana herself had plenty of inappropriate jokes about her name, so it wasn't like she didn't know how it felt. She did remember he got kicked off the football team or something, though, that was one detail she remembered.

Cody had replied back with some degree of antagonism. However, it was clearly the kind of "joking" antagonism. Lana was familiar with it. It was a bit like it was an "athlete thing", for lack of a better phrasing. What could she say? Lana was one herself, and she had seen conversations start this way all the time.

A few more people had piled in, as Lana noticed after she turned her head, her eyes scanning the room. Mallory McCormick, a girl she knew was on the soccer team. She didn't know her that well either. Joey Polpetta, that was the guy known for being a womanizer, correct? And...

"Hey" she called out, waving to Mike Whaley, who had just entered and said hi to everyone. "Going well. Same old same old."

They had ran into each other a few times. How couldn't they? They both did volunteer work in the same place, after all. So it was a given that they would know each other.

Oh, right. She should probably focus on the whole exercising thing. She turned her head forward, and focused on the treadmill. It probably wasn't a good idea to distract yourself with this thing, after all.

[Aura]

Cody seemed to be messing with Adonis.  Seriously, calling him an opener?  Adonis Alba plays the whole damn game, thank you very much.  Well, unless the ref gets snippy with him.  Or the coach benches him for "unsportsmanlike conduct".  Or he breaks his toe kicking a goal post.  Adonis still isn't sure why he did that last one, but he remembered it hurting like a bitch.

"Oh, sure.  I'm a great opener.  You're a real comedian, Cody.  I'll have to remember that one when I'm looking at my Freshman year rushing record."  He grinned, hoping ever so slightly that he was getting into Cody's head.  "But seriously, man, don't give up on the team.  We need at least one person that can get the job done around here.  As for me?  I'll be doing what I always do, and that's chicks and parties."

Adonis began to realize the gym filling up around him.  Forgetting about Cody for a moment, he began to examine the new arrivals.  Joey Polpetta was there.  He used to be the waterboy on the football team, if Adonis remembered correctly.  He seemed like an alright dude.  Some Asian guy from the football team also walked in.  Adonis didn't know the guy very well.  In fact, he never even learned his name.  Mike Whaley walked in and waved to the wrestler chick, for whatever reason.  Adonis didn't have any issues with Mike, and he didn't feel like starting any.  The last person that he noticed in the gym was Mallory McCormick, who headed for the Asian dude.

He grinned, Mallory was a girl, but she always dressed like a boy.  Adonis had made his fare share of gender-bender jokes in the past, and she was almost always the butt of them.  This was just too priceless an opporitunity to miss, but there was a slight problem.  If he just outright cracked a joke at her, then Mike, wrestler girl, and Asian dude would probably call him out on it, and Adonis hated being called out on anything.  If he was going to do this, then he would have to be smart about it.  He would have to be sneaky.  He walked casually past Mallory and Asian guy and made an offhand comment.

"So, you dudes likin' this gym, or what?"

That's it, Adonis.  Just drop the bomb and walk away.  I mean, it's not like she's gonna go off on me in front of everyone, right?

The bully smirked.  Now all he had to do was wait for his comment sink in.

[MK Kilmarnock]

"Yeah yeah," Cody said in a somewhat rushed fashion. "See, I usually throw the ball, not run with it." The treadmill was beginning to pick up in speed, and there was only so much talking he could manage before his lungs ran out of air desperately needed for working out. Cody fell quiet in order to dedicate himself solely to the treadmill, pacing his breathing and focusing only on the goal he had set for himself. There was now nobody else in the gym, according to his brain.

Cardio wasn't his favorite part of any workout, but it was usually his favorite way to end it. His legs were usually the first things he worked out, both with his quads and hamstrings, followed by his arms and chest with curls and doing bench pressing. By choosing such a specific order, his legs would have had as much time as possible to rest before he went running. Cody remembered, with a bit of laughter and embarrassment, the time that he hadn't quite set his workout straight and decided to work his legs before getting on a treadmill. They turned to jelly almost immediately, and marked the only time he fell off of one of the machines like a dumbass in a Youtube video.

He'd have to be at this for about fifteen minutes or so, so Cody just continued ignoring the other happenings around him in the gym. He hated to admit it to himself, but he did have a minor inclination to look over and watch Lana run. Running girls tend to bounce a lot. There was enough of him focused on the workout to chastise himself for even thinking about it, however, and Cody continued with eyes forward. Though, the faster he ran, the quicker his running session would end, and if he ended early enough he might be able to just glance for a bit.

Yeah. That's some key motivation right there.

[Serpico*]

Mallory just asked him if he would spot weights for her. He searched for the words to respond but his trail of thought was interrupted by Adonis Alba.

Yoshio nodded in response to his comment, but doubted that Adonis had seen. Adonis' subtle jab at Mallory had been lost on him and Yoshio assumed that he was simply being friendly. When Adonis was no longer the subject of Yoshio's attention, his attention came back to Mallory. Yoshio now had strung together some words.

"Yes, I would be willing to spot for you." He paused and added "My name is Yoshio Sato by the way, what is your name?"

Just like how he learned in his classes, he was pretty happy with his introduction and he hoped that she might learn his name.

[ViolentMedic]

When Adonis walked towards her and Asian guy, Mallory couldn't help but tense up. Adonis was huge, dammit. Maybe it was because of her childhood habit of hiding behind her big brother whenever bullies were being mean, but Mallory had the sudden urge to hide behind the Asian guy.

Stop it, Mal, you're a big girl now. Enough with the cowarding.

It didn't matter. Adonis walked right by, only throwing out a casual remark.

"So, you dudes likin' this gym, or what?"

Mallory didn't immediately pick up on the plural in that sentence. Instead, she just grunted and hoped that would work as an answer before turning back to Asian guy. He'd agreed to spot for her. Woo. And apparently his name was Yoshio Sato. ...Mallory just knew she was going to forget that.

"Might have to ask again later, I'm not good with those Japanese names." Mallory pronounced the word 'Japanese' in a way that sounded like it had a question mark at the end, because she wasn't sure if he was Japanese. But there was a dinosaur in a game called Yoshi and it was an Nintendo game and Nintendo was Japanese, so...

"Anyway. I'm Mallory McCormick, nice to meet you and all that. Just need to, erm, remove some of the weight from the... yeah." Mallory glared at the rack. It always depressed her when she had to remove weights from the end of them. Stupid footballers and their muscles that they refused to share. "Just give me a moment to--wait, dudes?!"

The insulting plural finally hit her. She'd known that Adonis would probably let off some mean insult, and calling her variations of a crossdresser or gender bender was one of his favourites. That one had been more subtle than usual, but... goddammit, Mallory was not a dude. Was the bright blue eyeshadow not obvious enough?

Were she thinking things through, she might have continued ignoring him or found a similar subtle comment to reply back with. Instead, she just turned around and shouted, "Stick a ref's whistle up your ass, Alba!"

[decoy73]

"Hey bud, need a spotter?"

"Hey. Going well. Same old same old."

Joey and Lana both acknowledged Mike. Mike chuckled at Joey's clumsy sign language and nodded at Lana before noting that Joey was asking if Mike needed someone to spot him.

"Sure. Was aiming to get some upper body work done."

"So, you dudes likin' this gym, or what?"

Mike's eyes quickly went to Adonis as Mike went to Joey, who had asked Yoshio and the other girl how they were.

"So, I was going to start with ..."

"Stick a ref's whistle up your ass, Alba!"

Mike's head turned to the source of the voice - the unknown girl. Whatever had happened, this had the potential to end badly. She had just made a rather obvious comment regarding the incident that made Adonis the former star of the football team. Mike knew there was only one thing for him to do ...

"I was going to start with a bench press and then do some shoulders. You?"

Ignore.