On Kindness

Chapter 8

The next couple weeks passed slowly, as Brick continued trying to adjust to Townsville life. It was definitely better than the first week, especially after he realized he was quite revered at school. He was the fastest runner they'd ever seen, he was acing his classes easily, and to top it off, he was damn hot. Even better was that Blossom had stopped glaring at him and had decided to resort to ignoring him instead– which suited Brick just fine. Buttercup had stopped throwing things at him, and they could occasionally carry out a decent conversation. He was also getting used to his job and found that Bubbles was quite easy to work with. Brick spent a lot of his free time playing video games, cruising around in his Porsche, working out in his training room, and eating.

It was the first Monday of March when Brick landed in front of the school. "Brick!" someone hollered at him.

"Oh, hey Coach Brown," Brick greeted his track coach.

"I've been meaning to speak to you."

"Yeah?"

"We have our spring sports assembly this Friday. Since you're new, you probably don't know, but at every sports assembly, we introduce the varsity team, so get out of fourth period early and be sure you're wearing your track shirt. Since you're track captain, they'll make you participate ins ome activity, so be ready and uphold the honor of our team!"

"Sure thing, Coach," Brick shrugged. "Oh, yeah, I wanted to let you know, that I gotta leave a bit early from practice today. I gotta get to my job a bit early. Not that I really need to practice anyway." He smirked.

"You know, kid, if you ran half a second slower than you do, I'd have kicked you off the team, and then just kicked you."

Brick smirked. "But ya can't. Cuz I'm your best bet to winning."

"You're one arrogant son of bitch, you know that?"

"More than you realize, Coach. See ya."

–––

"Hey, coach, I'm done," Brick said after jogging the mile. Second place was still a lap and a half behind him.

"Holy crap! 4:01!" Coach stared at his stopwatch. Brick had tried going a bit slow this time to let the others catch up. There were so many slowpokes on this team; no wonder the other school kept beating them.

"So can I go?"

"Dismissed," Coach said, still staring at his stopwatch. "4:01! We're gonna win this year," he snickered to himself, as Brick walked away shaking his head. He went to the locker room, changed into his work clothes, and flew to the café. Mr. Allen had told him to arrive early since the person with the shift before him needed to leave early. When Brick arrived, he found Bubbles already taking orders.

"Hey, go help that table," she ordered as he walked in. "And don't forget, be friendly." Soon, the café began to fill with the usual hormone-overdosed girls squealing over him. They kept calling him over for the most trivial things and giggling whenever he spoke. Frankly, it was giving him a very bad headache. And that none of them were attractive wasn't helping. He noticed that there were also a good amount of male students here, trying to get Bubbles' attention. How in the world did she deal with this?

"You're pretty popular now," Bubbles commented after they finished their shift. "Guys didn't start coming here for me until a month after I started."

"It's not like I'm enjoying this. How do you even deal with all these idiots?"

"Well you'll get used it. And honestly, a lot of the guys are here out of habit now. They're just messing around. And they tip pretty well, so I'm not really complaining," she grinned.