Kian walked through the door to his class, noticing the questioning eyes of people, but no one said anything.
Quick nods to acknowledge his existence was all he got and he send a few nods back.
Rumors had been circulating that he was gay, and he knew he had only told one person before this happened.
It was not that people necessarily avoided him because of that, it was just that he had started being targeted by bullying, and people slowly filtered away in his presence.
He found his seat and got ready for class wanting to focus on studying, still considering his backup plan.
The winning by becoming successful.
He hoped that was a thing at least.
'I wonder if that guy is in this school.'
His thoughts derailed from the constant monotone lecture by the teacher.
How long did he have to work out to get those muscles?
He blushed slightly, quickly looking around to see if anyone noticed, and sighed in relief.
Everyone was ignoring him as always, and in this moment he was happy that was the case.
He kept remembering those muscles and then the awkward conversation when he had tried to cover up his sudden outburst about it in front of Jaiel.
'I need to be careful next time, that was incredibly awkward.'
Kian hid behind his textbook, wondering why he had started to be so fixated on this Jaiel he barely knew.
Maybe it was because he was a prime specimen in his eyes, even he had to admit the guy was handsome.
The afternoon was snailing on. The lecturer had changed a few times, and he had a decent amount of notes taken from the different subjects.
It was not particularly hard for him to follow along, and he felt content with the effort he had put into it.
He looked past his seatmate who had been asleep, something he would normally have joined in, and he could feel his aching body screaming for a rest.
His thoughts went back to the toned back of Jaiel and found himself annoyed at how jealous he had become of those muscles.
He sighed and finally put down his pen at the end of the last class.
Now he just had to make it out of school without getting found.
It was like a constant game of Hide and Seek between him and his not-so-nice followers, and he was worried.
Because of the fear of retaliation, he had kept to his seat throughout the day, and he had brought a snack from home to eat at his desk, keeping the movement from the safe classroom to a minimum.
No one had bothered him.
But also no one had really talked to him.
It seemed the rumors of him being targeted had kept people away outside of the common necessary greetings.
They just didn't go out of their way to get to know him and neither did he.
The bell rang and he tried to blend in with a big group of people as students were leaving the school for the day.
He made it out of the school gate and instantly steered towards the gym instead of home, hoping to avoid any more encounters with chad and his posse.
His heart felt lighter when he saw the entrance to the gym and went in straight away.
People greeted him as he walked through the room heading to the backroom to change, and for the first time in a while, he lit up and smiled when greeting them back.
Somehow he felt more included already having been recognized after only a few days of coming here.
However, he didn't know it was because people kept being surprised this scrawny kid had the balls to keep returning, making them want to root for this kid.
No one was in the changing room, and as a note, to himself, he made sure the showers were clear as well before starting to change. He quickly opened the bag he had used earlier.
The smell of sweat came from his shirt that he had worn the same morning Being tucked inside of a bag all day, had made the old sweat pudgent.
He grimaced, he had sweated a lot more this morning than he thought, but he could not use his school clothes and reluctantly wore the smelly shirt and stepped out into the training area.
'What should he be doing?'
It didn't seem like they expected him to come until the next morning.
He didn't have to show up after school yet, but he had to avoid Chad.
The threat of a beating weighed on his mind and he was not sure what else to do. There was a high chance they were waiting for him on the way back to his home.
His body was aching and tired, and he thought maybe just hanging out and observing for the afternoon would be a lesson in itself, the thought making him eagerly look around the room.
The gym had a lot of loud noises. Several men were punching at sandbags and what he thought was, smaller sandbags connected to a string that bounced it back after impact.
He looked towards the center of the room, which had a big boxing ring as he had seen on tv, though this one was more worn out and rugged-looking from wear and tear.
Two people stood facing each other in the ring, exchanging blows on the headgear they were wearing.
Kian was fascinated by it. How did they not fall?... did it not hurt as much with headgear?
Of course it did, but somehow they kept standing brave to face each other.
Fists were flying and neither was backing down. Kian was engrossed in the fight, staring at the exchanges, hearing the blows, and was somehow mesmerized by the whole thing.
He held his breath as a fist was thrown connecting right under the chin, making the bigger of the guys finally fall to his knee, tapping with his glove on the floor.
"Would you like to try and spar?"
A pair of gloves was thrown at Kian and he looked back from where the voice came from.
An arm swung around his shoulder and one of the three guys he had met earlier in the day was slouching down with a big grin.
The man then put his fingers up to clench his nose looking down at Kian and with a nasal sound continued. "You sure have the smell of commitment on you." The guy laughed and let go of the shoulder and instead extended his hand.
Kian fumbled with the gloves to take the hand in his, looking up at the man confused.
"Names Arnie, we met this morning, the other two were my brothers, but I'm too lazy to introduce them, you will soon learn that they don't matter, they are just a couple of buffoons throwing fists."
As soon as the remark had been voiced, a loud yell came from across the room.
"Arnie, are you talking shit about Us again?"
Arnie just shrugged and grinned at Kian, who shook the hand that was clenching his.
"Kian." Was all he muttered, before the big guy Arnie pulled at his hand, starting to help Kian put on the gloves.
Kian didn't know what to say or do, this Arnie guy seemed silly, but also had a big presence as a fighter.
The brown hair covered a face that looked weathered. As if he looked older than he probably was.
Kian was confused since the Coach had said he was not ready to be taught anything until his body was ready, and wasn't sure how to mention it to this man, that seemed determined to help him.
"Don't worry kid, I'll teach you well, let's have a spar, the best way to learn is to be thrown into it."
The big grin widened more than Kian thought possible when staring back at the big guy.
"Wait two weeks, and I'll make sure he lands a nice one on your smug face." jaiel retorted back to the man, as he walked up next to them, looking at Kian curiously.
The guy lit up in a smile. "But my handsome face will be ruined" a swooning gesture was made and the man laughed and continued "alright, two weeks, then I want to see what that pup is made off."
Kian looked up and saw Jaiel smile back at the man.
"Yeah yeah."
Kian had been intimidated by the spar offer, but the atmosphere was not bad, and he ended up smiling at the bantering.
Jaiel grabbed Kian by the arm and strode off with him in tow, moving to an empty area.
The whole time Kian saw Arnie waving at him.
Other people were side-eyeing and peeking as he followed Jaiel, wondering what it was about.
Jaiel looked back at them as if he had felt their gaze on his back, all of them quickly turning and continued their training.
Kian whistled and smiled. Just what did they all think of Jaiel.
"Rivals" Jaiel suddenly spoke, as if he had read Kian's thoughts.
When he saw Kian still standing with a big question mark on his face, he continued.
"I am entering their weight class soon."
Kian didn't want to admit he did not know what that meant and just nodded.
He knew Jaiel was trying to become pro, and he assumed it meant the others would then become competition.
He looked at Jaiel, seeing the concentration already deep in the ice-blue eyes, the dark hair was slightly damp. Had he showered just now?'
A sudden thought filled Kian. He hoped that handsome face wouldn't end up looking like Arnie after becoming pro. That would truly be a waste.
Jaiel looked over at Kian, constantly seeing the changes in the expressions.
This guy was so easy to read. He cleared his throat, obvious to the stare, and pretended to look at the binding on his hands.
'Why did he help this kid, was it because they were the same age?'
Jaiel stood up straight and gently grabbed Kian's hand, ignoring the obvious surprised look placed on him as he did.
He slowly bandaged Kian's hand as he had done his own, but took, the gloves and place them aside on a bench. "You don't need these yet."
He got a nod from Kian and continued.
"I'll show you how to do a quick punch, so follow along, you can practice this even if your body is not accustomed to training yet."
"Here let me show you."
Jaiel stood close to Kian, slowly showing the movement of his whole body, arm, and hand as he made a slow-motion version of a jab.
Kian had been mostly silent, nodding every now and then as he stood close to Jaiel, trying to repeat the motion, with Jaiel's hands correcting his stance and posture.
He suddenly became aware of how he must be smelling like sweat, but every move he made to try and step away from Jaiel more, would trigger Jaiel's hands to catch him to put him back in the correct pose, and he finally gave up, looking at Jaiel with an apologetic look.
"It would be better to teach you to punch at least so you don't injure yourself again next time."
Jaiel referred to Kian's injured hand when Kian had punched Chad the previous night.
He had a rare smile, and Kian thought it was unfortunate that the only show of emotions he could get out of Jaiel, was when he was thinking of how Kian had apparently been horrible at punching.
"Just don't punch at anything while practicing, just repeat the movement slowly til your body memorizes it."
Kian nodded watching Jaiel, his cheeks slightly flushed with both embarrassment at his own smelly state and with awe at the person in front of him.
Unbeknownst to him, Jaiel was starting to enjoy the constant change of expressions and enjoyed it when he noticed the reddened cheeks, wondering if he could get him to make more embarrassed faces.