Gym Rat, Day 2

To the surprise of Cody, Annie showed up to school the next day full of pep in her step. All the soreness that should’ve been present in her body appeared to have vanished overnight, and she was eager to continue her streak at the gym.

Cody, not one to be satisfied with letting bygones be bygones, was determined to see his prank fulfilled.

“Very well then, I’ll come pick you up at your house and we’ll do a leg day,” Cody said, pacifying his anger into a not-so-subtle grimace, one which was immediately glossed over by Annie.

“I’ll definitely be there, Codes!” Annie exclaimed with genuine excitement, already trying to throw a nickname into the mix for good measure.

Cody could only hope that once Annie was properly humiliated for a second time she’d get the hint and stop talking to him. Unfortunately for him, the one-sided comradery continued as he and Roddy picked up Annie from her house after school, the visage of her buck-toothed smile burning a hole in the back of his head as he tried to keep his eyes on the road.

“I can’t wait to try out a bunch of leg stuff when we get there, I was doing a bunch of research last night because I couldn’t sleep!”

“You… couldn’t sleep? Did you get any sleep last night?” Cody inquired.

“Um! N-no, actually… I guess I was just too excited for today!”

Roddy swallowed a lump in his throat. Would the boost from that water I gave her still be in effect once we get to the gym? He speculated internally.

Meanwhile, within the mindscape of the driver’s seat, Cody smirked from ear-to-ear. Oh this stupid little fatty is going to be absolutely exhausted! Easy victory!

Once Annie got her day pass, however, she made a point to do cardio first, much to the surprise of Cody.

When she said she was doing research last night, did that mean she looked up what a proper routine was instead of trusting me to tell her? The golden-locked jock thought to himself. No, she forgot to do pre-workout stretches. She clearly doesn’t know everything!

Cody’s reassurance came back even harder once he saw Annie immediately shoot to a high pace on the treadmill, one that even outpaced his, as he liked to go for a gradual ramp up in speed. He knew that increasing by a full number every .1 miles was the way to go, as it prevented fatigue. It was good to start slowly, that way, he could get exactly what he wanted without cramps or soreness.

Any second now, Annie would be huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf, wheezing for air. Any second now. Aaaaany second now.

While Cody was still focused on his own workout, he became more and more surprised as he looked over every few minutes to check on Annie’s status. Despite her improper running form, she was already outpacing Cody even with her shorter legs. Not looking to be outpaced on the second day by an out-of-shape nerdy girl, he too began to pick up the pace, forgoing the usual ramp up to a full number ahead of her.

He launched into a determined stride, giving Annie quite the show as sweat began to perspire on his chiseled musculature, which only seemed to motivate her further. While Cody was treating this like a competition to uphold every value he ever believed in, Annie was just happy to be running with her new friend.

And who knows? Annie thought to herself. Maybe we could be more.

By the time Cody’s three-mile warmup was reached, his lungs were burning. Meanwhile, Annie just seemed miffed that she was out of water. He seized that opportunity to save face, salvaging the reputation that didn’t really matter to Annie.

“Let’s… stop to get… some water then… shall we?” He spoke, trying his hardest not to wheeze with every breath.

“Are you alright, Cody?” Annie asked, legitimately concerned. She walked over to where he was, not even an ounce of sweat on her body.

“Nnghh, yeah… I’m good… Just… forgot to stretch before cardio….. Cramped,”  he confessed, only a partial truth to hide from his overwhelming fatigue.

“Ohmigosh, I completely forgot about stretching too! Shoot, thank goodness I managed to dodge the downsides! Let’s go stretch right now!”

Cody watched in disbelief as this puny girl who just outran him at the treadmill was now struggling to touch her toes. What exactly had just happened back there? How did she seem to outpace him even at such a weak state?

The blond jock didn’t seem to notice his friend carefully observing the outcome of the impromptu race Annie didn’t know she had won.

While she couldn’t lift much more, her attempts to do so didn’t leave her as fatigued as he had assumed it would. Leg day ended in a triumphant victory for Annie, while Cody was still recovering from overextending during Cardio, effectively playing catchup against someone who was only just doing their first leg day, and with no sleep prior, for that matter.

Cody, Roddy and Annie drove home in silence after that, and he didn’t even muster up the courage to speak once the nerdy girl got dropped off at her destination and vanished from earshot into her house. All that changed was his expression, which turned from blank to determined.

When arm day comes back up tomorrow, I’m going to crush her. He thought to himself, already formulating another plan within his mind.

Roddy waited for Cody’s car to turn the corner once he was dropped off, instead of entering his home, he made a b-line three blocks over, knocking on the door of a completely different house. Mariah let him in almost immediately, anticipating his arrival. Her eyes darted around the dark house as she guided her partner in crime to the only area she could trust to have private conversations within—her Hello Kitty themed bedroom.

“So, Roddy, was the deed done? Did you do as I asked?” Mariah questioned, drumming her fingers together as if she were some sort of supervillain.

“Uh, yeah. I did,” Roddy replied, bluntly confused as to why Mariah was acting the way she did.

“Excellent, that’ll teach Cody to ignore me! I totally messed up his prank! Annie’s full of boundless energy, all thanks to me!”

“I know this might be out of turn, but where exactly did you get that powder that I put in Annie’s water?” Roddy wondered.

“Oh, it’s just some concentrated mixture for some experimental sports drink from my dad’s company. One of the nerds who works there is totally obsessed with me and he was able to get me an early release of the stuff. More than enough to make even an out-of-shape little gremlin like Annie strong and capable for, like, a day.”

“So she’ll go back to normal the next day, right?” Roddy clarified, nervously biting his lip. Mariah scoffed.

“Pshh, why do you care, Roddy? What, are you developing feelings for the girl who has a ranking for the hottest Star Trek characters on a loose-leaf piece of paper in her binder?”

“No, it’s—it’s not that…” Roddy defended himself, not wanting to admit that he was so much as sympathetic to Annie, lest that impact his social status with Mariah or Cody. “I just want to make sure that there’s not any other, uh, unintended side effects to the stuff, y’know?”

Mariah rolled her eyes. “Don’t be stupid, Roddy. I’ve taken the stuff myself, it’s like, just a better probiotic or some shit, meant to convert excess fat on the body to energy, I think…”

“Oh, so you took it already too? Maybe I should try some…”

“Ugh, don’t bother! It’s a total ripoff, if you ask me! It just gave me energy for, like, ten hours, then I was exhausted for, like, three days afterwards!”

Roddy hit Mariah with a look as if to say yeah, those were the type of side effects I was inquiring about, but once more said nothing about it. Poor Annie really was a mere guinea pig in the war between Cody and Mariah. The stunning blonde really just wanted to humiliate her will-they, won’t-they ex for a day.

“Damn, well, there goes any potential plans of mine, I guess that’s what you get with a prototype.”

“Yeah, but a prototype is definitely what that little loser deserves,” Mariah declared, crossing her haughty arms. “She wasted her life on nerd shit, she doesn’t belong in the upper tier of body fitness with gods like us!”

Roddy didn’t much appreciate the elitism, but he supposed that he could understand where Mariah was coming from. A natural order to various groups in school did feel right to Roddy, and he wouldn’t want an outlier like Annie to complicate things.

At least everything would be back to normal by tomorrow.