Gym Rat, Day 3

Much to Cody’s delight—but moreso relief—Annie wasn’t at school the next day.

“Heh, looks like that little idiot burned herself out,” he remarked to Roddy, elbowing his friend. “I kept telling her not to overextend herself, and that’s what she gets for not taking my advice.”

Roddy rolled his eyes once he was sure Cody wasn’t looking his way.

“Anyways, I think we’ve earned a celebratory trip to the gym, what say you, Rod?”

“Yeah, now that this whole prank business is over, I’m eager to get back to working on my actual gains,” he deadpanned, which Cody seemed to miss. Honestly, thank god for Mariah’s equally excessive lengths to humiliate her enemies, she finally took Cody down a peg. Maybe he’ll think twice about doing these excessive pranks in the future.

Unfortunately for Roddy, the drive to the gym after school was awash with Cody firing off idea after idea of how he could get back at Annie for that humiliating display. Perhaps Roddy had spoken too highly of Mariah too soon. Cody certainly didn’t get the hint that there could possibly be a third party plotting against him, his overzealous hatred towards the nerdy dork only fueled further by her sudden boost of energy yesterday.

Roddy couldn’t help but feel bad for Annie. She had been an unwitting pawn during a match of chess played by farm animals. All he could hope was that she’d recover from whatever exhaustion afflicted her today, if Mariah’s fate was anything to go by.

The jock was so lost in his own head about it, he didn’t even notice Annie waving to him and Cody at first once they entered until she shouted their names. She was already at the gym, excitedly running on the treadmill at a much quicker pace and with a much more expert form than anyone around her, and without even breaking a sweat.

“Cody! Roddy! Hiiii! I’m just doing a bit of extra cardio to wind down! I’m about to leave soon!”

The little nerd practically launched herself off the treadmill to meet her gym buddies, rushing up to the two of them with a speed that outpaced even the one she was just flaunting on the stationary belt. From a distance, the details were hard to discern, but up close, it was obvious that Annie looked different.

A lot of the fat that had made her rather rotund form the way it was had been shaved off, with the exception of her breasts, which retained all the previously hidden supple mass. At least, that was what Roddy and Cody assumed was the case. They both could’ve sworn that her breasts were basically nonexistent, but that would imply the only explanation for her body was that her fat somehow redistributed itself overnight.

Is she… taller? No, it can’t be. She probably just fixed her posture. That has to be it. She’s always been five feet of height, right? There was no way someone could’ve grown nearly five inches overnight. 

Such thoughts overwhelmed Roddy and Cody’s minds as they tried to process the surreal situation. But a specific pertinent thought broke through the miasma of confusion.

“Did you… skip school to go to the gym!?” Cody asked.

“Um, yes I did. I mean, I didn’t want to at first, but then I was thinking about what you said about getting fit, and I took measures into my own hands! I know I can afford to miss a day or two, I’m a straight A student with perfect attendance, after all. Besides, being at the gym feels great! I don’t even feel fatigued!”

With each sentence, Cody’s face fell further.

“B-but how did you get in without us?”

“I got my own gym membership!”

“H-how did you afford that? It’s 120 a month!”

“I— I draw p-p-porn on the internet, actually…” Annie admitted, bashfully touching the tips of her index fingers together. “It's more than enough to afford that with all I’ve got saved!”

Cody didn’t even know his face could fall as far as it had at that point.

“Besides, I’m really starting to understand the gym! I did a lot of research last night about how to improve my form and… Well, I’m starting to wonder if our body types require different methods to yield the best results.”

That was the nice way of saying “your coaching was bullshit.”

Cody, despite knowing well that his training was deliberately designed to mislead the less-tiny nerd, still got defensive about the accusation. “Oh yeah? And just what have you learned about exercising?”

Annie was happy to answer, her smile growing wider. “I learned the proper order to exercise in, it’s like a sandwich! First stretching, then cardio, next arms or legs depending on the focus of the day, some core exercises, then stretching to end off the day. I was told to do about ten reps before breaking, but I like to squeeze in about five more just to really push myself, eheheh. Plus I’ve been spending a lot of time optimizing my route to make sure that I’m never overworking a muscle, and I’m drinking plenty of water. Oooh! And the Hack Squat! Heheheh, a bit of a side tangent, but I absolutely love it for my core and legs! Such a strange little contraption I’m only just getting the hang of!”

Great, now exercising is the next big hyperfixation for her! Roddy thought.

“And how are you so energetic!?” Cody asked, demanding an answer.

Annie scratched her head. “Um, I dunno, actually. My parents weren’t really athletic either, maybe I’m just unlocking my dormant Chakra stones! Hehehe, just like Naruto!”

Cody wished he had never asked.

“Anyways, I gotta go! I’ll see you two tomorrow, okay?”

Later in the day, Roddy once again stopped by Mariah’s place, once again being led to the sanctity of her Hello Kitty domain.

“Hey, wasn’t the stuff you had me give her only supposed to grant a temporary boost, what’s going on?”

“Um, I dunno, that’s what the scientist said, why?”

“Well, she’s still going. Her energy isn’t stopping at all.”

“Oh. Uh, well…” Mariah said, thoroughly spooked, her eyes darting every which way as she tried to think of some explanation. “Uh, maybe she… no, no no…”

Roddy realized what was going on about halfway through Mariah’s verbal thought process, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it immediately. If what he was theorizing was true, the natural order of their school would be forever altered. Eventually, he couldn’t keep it in an had to vocalize it

“Mariah, didn’t you say it pulls energy off of fat in the body?”

“Yeah, something like that, why?”

“You didn’t have a lot of fat for the biotic to convert, did you?”

“Definitely not! Are you calling me fat, Roddy!?”

Roddy rolled his eyes. Sometimes he couldn’t believe just how many morons he was surrounded by.

“No, I’m not— look, who has significantly more fat on her body than any of us?” He asked, spelling it out for Mariah.

“Uh, I dunno, Melissa McCarthy?” Mariah offered, somehow missing the point even harder than he thought was humanly possible.

“Oh Jesus Christ. It’s Annie! Annie’s higher body fat percentage is allowing whatever we put in that water to last longer in her body!” 

“Oh…”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“Well, is it still making Cody, like, really mad?”

“Yeah, like you wouldn’t believe.”

“...”

“...”

“Then maaaaaybe it’s not so bad after all, Roddy. Just as long as she doesn’t try and surpass my beauty, I don’t see why a nerd shouldn’t be thrown a bone every once in a while,” Mariah admitted with a prolonged smirk.

Roddy had a sneaking suspicion that Annie’s transformation was far from over.