Survival Of The Fittest

((Conrad Timothy Harrod continued from Aurum Fuscum))

Yesterday, all of Conrad's trouble seemed so far away. Jokes.

Yesterday, Conrad was not at school. He was sick. He still is, a bit, Conrad had to admit. But just a little bit, nothing contagious. Just the nose was sick. The other parts of his body were perfectly fine.

After exiting the boys cabin where he changed his clothes to sport clothes, he was inside the hall, the gymnasium.

While he was at it, he could ask somebody from his class to know what he missed yesterday in class.

But who should he inquire?

One foot on the wall and push off, simple physics applied to allow him to perform something that looked more impressive than it was.

"Lynch!"

At least it was for some people.

((Travis "Trav" Lynch: Pregame Start))

Trav turned to see Coach Parkinson striding towards him from across the gym. He was an imposing look man, standing at six two and clearly packed with muscles. Being a proud former military man added an air of legitimacy to him as well. Despite that he tended to have very relaxed classes, as long as people actually put in the effort.

It was that point that made the relationship between the two of them complicated. Trav was a gifted athlete, he knew that much himself. As far as Trav knew he was the only person at the school who had professionally competed in a sport. He was also in great shape and had a passion for competing. On paper they were all things that meant he and Coach Parkinson should have had a very friendly relationship. Unfortunately Trav's chosen sport wasn't one that was taught at school and he didn't want to be part of any of the teams that were on offer. He could have joined the wrestling team but he already learned some basic wrestling and was applying it in a less restrictive setting, so there was no interest there. One of the wrestling team had tried to recruit him once but he'd declined. He could have tried out for the football team but he had no interest in actually taking part, he just preferred to watch. It all helped make things more difficult between them then they needed to be.

"I don't know how many times I have to tell you, but stop showing off during my classes." Coach Parkinson's voice was calm; it helped Trav take more notice. "We all know what you can do, there's no need to keep reminding us."

"Alright Coach, I'll do it after we finish." That got a smile and a laugh.

"As long as it's not in my classes Lynch, and try not to break you neck for god's sake." Parkinson wandered off after that, obviously spotting something else that required his attention. It left Trav to stretch off and wait for the class to being proper.

Conrad cracked his bones when he looked around in the hall.

His attention got directed into the direction of Trav Lynch, who performed an impressive-looking stunt, but was warned by Parkinson to not do it again. Conrad himself never was interested in wrestling and wasn't a fan of people showing off their tricks, especially in basketball, but as Trav seemed to confidently do that stunt, it was once again evidence of the fact that Trav was in the group of wrestlers that were good.

As Parkinson got distracted by something else, Conrad approached Trav. Class hadn't started yet, so it was perfect timing.

"Hey, Trav, do you know what we've done yesterday in Biology?"

Trav tended to have a specific routine when he stretched out. It was normally legs followed by bugging Noodle then arms. Unfortunately Noodle wasn't around, so he was left with no other option but to skip one of his most important steps. He was managing to cope with the heinous disruption to his regime but it was tough. He was only managing to live with it one day at a time. Trav smiled to himself, he had some stupid thoughts running through his brain on a daily basis.

He went back to focusing on making sure his legs were stretched out properly. Trav only had one real fear and it was that one day his ACL, MCL or Achilles was going to tear or snap. He shuddered unconsciously at the very thought of it. A bone could heal, sure it hurt a lot but eventually you could come back and if you rehabbed it properly and got physiotherapy you could be fine. A muscle tear on the other hand, that was an altogether scarier prospect.

Straightening up at the sound of the voice Trav saw Conrad Harrod standing there talking to him. He was asking about what they had done in biology the day before. It was a question Trav actually knew the answer to since that was one of the classes he put any real effort into; if Conrad had asked about Math he would have been screwed.

"We did Chlorophyll a and b, differences between them, like what wavelengths of light they absorb and their different jobs within plants." Trav said as he stretched one arm out across his chest. "It's not that difficult, so you'll probably be able to catch up."

"Thank you!", Conrad exclaimed. Chlorophyll a and b. Hm, he'll probably be able to learn that until the next biology lesson. Probably, though biology wasn't one of his favourite subjects.

He smiled.

"Is it hard to do pull off that stunt you did?"

Not that Conrad had planned to use it. Well, it's not something useful.

"What the wall flip?" Trav grinned and shook his head He had no idea why Conrad was calling it a stunt. "Not at all. It's just one foot on the wall and back flip." Trav remembered that he had been practicing the flip before the training camp for his first MMA fight started. He'd half pulled it off on time but had never properly landed it. Once he went into camp he had put it on the back burner but it had always been in the back of his mind. After he won the fight in the first round Trav got swept up in the moment and tried it off the corner of the cage, landing successfully. He'd been pulling it off regularly ever since.

It was fun to him, just pulling off flips and jumping off things. It was why he enjoyed parkour, he also enjoyed the fact that he was six foot two and pulling off effortless flips all over the place. It was funny to him. He had to live up to his name, he was called Tekken after all. His nickname had been given to him when his one of coaches had asked why he wanted to learn martial arts in the first place. He had said it was because he had loved Tekken and wanted to do it in real life, queue a lot of laughter and his nickname for life in the KCC being born.

He loved his nickname though, it helped him remember how far he had come, from being the kid who wanted to learn martial arts because he thought it looked cool in a video game he liked to a legitimate 3-0 MMA fighter. MMA had become his biggest passion and he didn't see himself doing anything else with his life, even if people questioned why he wanted to fight for a living. It was an odd thing to want to do for a job sure, but it wasn't any different to boxing. There were a lot more elements and it was in a cage sure, but the base, raw reasons where the same.

"Why do you ask? You reckon you could do it?" Trav was grinning as he asked, making it clear he was joking around.

Conrad laughed in response. Oh hell no. He was not going to even attempt something like that. He'd probably break something in the process if he did.

"No, I was just curious!"

Conrad looked back at Parkinson and watched how other people came from the cabins.

"What do you think what we're going to do today in P.E.?"

Trav shrugged. "I don't know man. I'm not Coach." Trav continued to stretch out, making sure his body was ready for the physical activity that was about to happen.

It didn't matter to Trav what they were going to be asked to do. He just enjoyed doing any kind of physical activity. It certainly beat sitting in a class room and learning about Algebra or why the Founding Fathers went to war with England. He actually got to do something with himself, for some people Phys Ed. seemed like a chore. Trav would never be able to understand those people. Didn't they want to be healthy and like y'know not more likely to die of a heart attack?

"Not like I care anyway."

Hm. That was a good point.

Fortunately for them, the mystery about what they would do was soon to be revealed.

When Parkinson entered with balls, it was a good sign. Not basketballs, though. Aw.

It was volleyball. When Parkinson let the balls roll on the floor, Conrad went towards a volley ball to grab one.

Volleyball huh?

Trav couldn't say he had ever actually played volleyball before, it seemed like a difficult sport, a lot of communication, teamwork and co-ordination involved. So how Coach thought that a group of high school students would do anything but consistently fail was beyond him. Maybe it was supposed to be some kind of team-building exercise or maybe it would just lead to one team falling to infighting and eventually killing each other. Trav felt that either option had an equal chance of actually happening as for an actual game of volleyball taking place? No chance in hell.

Conrad had returned with one of the balls they were supposed to be using. Trav raised an eyebrow at him.

"Have you ever actually played volleyball before?"

Conrad let the ball bounce on the floor before it jumped back up to his hand.

He had in fact played volleyball before. Some time ago. But just beach volleyball. Fun times, though it was not in the gym and just for fun.

"Yes, I have!"

However, he cannot remember the rules anymore. What he did know was how to set and bump. Conrad then threw the ball straight in the air, so when it came down, he could set the ball to Trav with his fingers forming a triangle.

Trav watched the ball fly through the air. He could have been a tremendous show off and jumping kick it away somewhere. He could also have been a massive dick at the hit ball back at Conrad as hard as he could, he'd seen those videos on YouTube. In the end though Trav went with the simplest option and just batted it back towards Conrad.

"So what're we doing exactly?"

Trav had seen it at the Olympics (which straight man hadn't) but that was on a beach he hadn't paid attention to the rules really. Then he'd gotten bored and switched over to watch something else...probably the judo or wrestling. He knew you had to hit the ball over the opponents net and have it land on the floor.

That was fine and all but they lacked both a net to hit the ball over and opponents to actually play against. This was the main cause of Trav being lost. They could play volleyball sure, but it would work better if they had everything they needed to play it.

Conrad attempted to set the ball back to Trav, but the volley ball connected with the top of his fingers, resulting in the ball bouncing behind Conrad. Turning, he walked towards the ball and dunked it while replying and returning to Trav.

"I think we just have to warm up by playing the ball with a partner."

When Conrad looked for Parkinson, he saw how he and some other students were about to take a net to position it at the center of the gym hall.

"Should we help?", Conrad asked, before once again setting a ball to Trav.

Trav looked over at where Coach Parkinson was being assisted in setting up the volleyball net. He didn't even know the school had a volleyball net, so that was a surprise to him by itself. Raising an eyebrow when Conrad suggested going to help Coach and other students Trav hit the ball back to him in a high arc. He saw so many ways playing volleyball in the class could go wrong, the main one being some taking a ball to the face. That was the thing he thought was most likely. Not like it was the worst thing to be hit in the face with but the ball wasn't the softest.

"I think they have it under control." He shrugged. "May as well head over there to actually y'know have the lesson."

As it turned out Trav enjoyed playing volleyball, it was hectic and different but it was a good workout and a fun game.

((Travis Lynch continued elsewhere...))

Conrad soon rediscovered the fun of volleyball, as the rules came back to him. He was reminded of the day he played beach volleyball.

It wasn't as fun as basketball, but it was something new.

((Conrad T. Harrod continued in Small steps can take you great distances))