Empire High School

Students Battling Each Other In Gym Class

After several periods of work, most of the class yawned.

"Gym with Mr. Pershad starts today. Ladies, you're on the fifth floor, gentlemen, your room is upstairs. Don't do anything to get you all suspended or worse."

Felice suddenly pulled Simon's cheek. "I need a favor, when the bell rings, give me ten seconds, don't let anyone, especially the girls pass," not giving him a second to react. "Can you do it?"

"Surrrrree?"

Her eyes glared at the clock, and a second before the bell rang, she bolted out of the room. He could hear her panting all the way to the bathroom, closing the door.

"Hey, sore-eyes, move."

"Um," needing a few more seconds, "um, hey, what's your favorite sport, so we could ask Pershad to figure out what sports we're doing first."

Edith pondered the thought as he got poked from behind, turning around.

"Kirby? Wait, you just got here?"

"You forgot to wake me up!"

"I knocked on your door and played music. If you didn't wake up, what was the sound that came from your room?"

She scratched her head. "If dad asks about my lamp, say a rat in it so I threw it out, okay?"

"Right," now letting everyone pass as he reached the top floor first to meet Mr. Pershad. Though he had a round attire, his jersey, tank top, and strong legs made the cap wearing dark skinned professor didn't seem mean.

"Locker rooms at the end of the hall, if things get crazy, you sit out, change in front of everyone, or sent to the principal's office, understand?"

"Got it," gulping as he got into the rooms, changing near the doors, starting from the top to the bottom. As he finished putting on his shorts, Mince, Len, and Devlin came in first.

"Yo, these rooms are so big, they even got lockers in them."

"I'm not putting my stuff in there, there's probably going to be thieves."

"And I'm gonna be the one thieving," searching around and taking whatever was inside the ones without a lock.

Haejin kicked open the doors. "What's up losers? Let's talk about," interrupted by the door sliding back and smacking him down. Jarrod and Monte had to help him up.

"As I was saying, Devlin, Len, Mince....wait where's Simon?"

"Probably bathroom," Len asked.

"Either way, we have a propa-intituion?"

"You mean propulsion," Monte asked.

"I think he means proposal," Jarrod said.

Bennett joined them. "No, proposition."

"That. We'll help you score with the chicks, if you do our homework for us."

Len raised a finger. "If you want chicks, doesn't Burger King have chicken nuggets?"

Devlin shook his heads. "Like we need you guys, we already got game."

Mince laughed. "I don't even need you, I know which ladies are catching my eye."

"Oh so you refuse? Then we'll convince you by force."

Simon hid in the showers as the quartet turned off the locker room lights. The other guys screamed at the sounds of fists, people getting slammed into lockers and shoving. He turned on the lights: everyone else was on the floor in pain.

Mince was holding a mop at Monte. "Hey, I'm one of you!"

"You wish," shoving him onto the bench. The other three glared at Simon.

"Turn back off the lights or you're next!"

Gulping, he launched both his shoes smacking Jarrod and Haejin, who crashed into Monte like dominoes.

Haejin laughed. "You got nothing left. What, you gonna throw your weak socks at us?"

Underwear flew through the locker room, headshotting him in the face and making him fall on all three of them. They groaned, trying to get up.

"You're dead!"

He sighed. "No choice," wrapping his hands around his mouth, and reaching for the door. "COACH PERSHAD!"

"What's going on," sliding in.

"Bennett, Jarrod, Haejin, and Bennett stole my underwear and shoes."

"What? He's lying. We only turned off the lights to-" realizing too late he was pointing at all of their victims and his belongings.

"Principal's OFFICE! NOW!"

The others blew a sigh of relief as they left, while he came out, completely clothed to their shock.

"Back at my middle school, there were locker rooms underneath the gym so kids could also during drills. The guys turned it into Fight Club. I'm not dealing with that four years in a row."

The others were taken aback. Devlin approached him first. "Do you need a hug?"

"I've never not needed a hug," letting the chubby peer cover his body in his hands.

—

The four of them lined up with Felice, the only one there in a red-pink shirt and short combo.

"Alright, jog for five minutes, the rest will join when they arrive."

She sucked her teeth as they started running.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm not-good with running."

"Control your breathing and go nice and slow. You don't have to go too fast," striking his thumb at Devlin desperate to prove himself, "or flame out," as Mince lapped them, only to struggle to breathe later.

"Okay," going in and out until it was steady. "I think I got this."

"Why did you want to change alone in the bathroom?"

"I had some bad experiences in middle school. I'd rather change clothes alone, and the girls give me a bad vibe."

Can't blame her there. Bullying really is unisex. "Smart choice."

As they ran, Edith and the other girls arrived, clearly annoyed.

"Where are all the hot guys besides Mince? Not with geeks, freaks, and awkward meeks?"

Simon groaned. "Clearly they all wanted to get away from you," smirking.

"Bite me."
"Not even if I was a dog."

"Start running, late ladies!"

Kirby was the first to run. Nikia reluctantly joined her, blitzing past all of them, only for Arlene to catch up and slip past all of them with more stamina than Mince could reach.

"Out of the way," forcing Mary Kane to casually side-step away, while recording the other ladies. Edith was already sweating, Jenzie and Elize tripped over each, and Sharell jumped over them, confused.

"Do more Tik Tok dance challenges!"

"Too much work," Edith yawned.

"We're all going to pass the gym...right?"

Felice shook her head. "There's about a thirty to sixty percent chance."

Mr. Pershad sighed. "Tch, Gen Alpha."

Len fought the burning pain in the left side of his heart. "I'm gonna get girls falling for me."

Edith snickered, getting Elize to stretch their legs out to trip him, only to hit Arlene. She flew up, but Len's body broke her fall, catching her in his arms as he dropped.

"Ouch. Are you okay Ar?"

"Yeah," twitching, "I think so."

"Alright, take a break, your physical education assessment begins now!"