Alex's father was a mean drunk. After a long night of drinking, he often came home and beat the crap out of his mother. This is the reason why Alex joined the wrestling team when he was freshman living in Iowa. The next time that his father came home and hit his mother, Alex took a swing at him. He never saw his father again after that night. Alex's mother moved him and his younger sister, Emily to Washington not long after that. Even though his wrestling had caused his family to split up, he joined the team at his new high school anyway.
Wrestling was the one thing that Alex had. It defined who he was. The jock. The fighter. But if he were to fail his history exam, he would be nothing. It still didn't mean that he had to like the way that he had to improve his grade. Even if it meant dealing with a crazed tutor wrapped in the disguise of a hot blonde.
His fists slammed in to the red punching bag. Denny tightened his grip on the bag as it started to sway from the force of Alex's frustration. Izzie had decided that studying for the exam on Saturday wasn't enough. She had somehow convinced Mr. Long that a ten thousand word essay on the improvements in warfare between the two world wars was worth fifteen extra credit points. He was convinced that she came up with this extra credit essay because she didn't want to go to the party. But as much as he wanted to shove the essay back in Izzie's face, those points meant that he could get a B on his history exam instead of an A to improve his grade to the C required to participate in extracurricular activities.
He threw one last punch, sending the bag flying in to Denny's face. They were in the school's gym, working out on Friday afternoon. His other teammates were practicing on the wrestling mats. He wasn't allowed to participate in practices until his grade improved. But that didn't prevent him from keeping his body in shape. He picked up a barbell and added forty pound weights to either side. He lied down on the bench and asked Denny to be his spotter as he exercised.
"What has gotten into you? I've never seen you train this hard for a match before," Denny said.
"Your girlfriend is a bitch."
Denny raised an eyebrow as he stared at his teammate. "Olivia?"
"No, the blonde one. The one who you blew everybody off for."
"Izzie Stevens?"
"Yeah. She's not the most pleasant person to be around."
"Tell me about it. There is something wrong with that girl. I think she must be allergic to fun or something. When we were going out, she hated going to parties. The one party that I actually convinced her to go with me to, the entire time she complained."
Alex laughed. He could picture Izzie standing around at a party, nagging about the loud music. "I can't dance to this," she'd say, probably wishing that it was classical music and everyone was doing the waltz. Her eyes would be wide as saucers when someone gave her a beer. She'd set it down on the table and run out of the room, terrified the police would come and arrest her.
He was determined now more than ever to get her to Derek's party the next day. He would stay up all night working on that essay if he had to.
Alex set the barbell down on the floor. He grabbed two fifteen pound dumbbells and sat down on the bench. He did bicep curls as he and Denny discussed Isobel Stevens.
"And she's just as frigid as her heart is cold. I thought that if I had to date this girl at least the sex would be worth the trouble. But no, get this; she's saving herself for someone special. Can you believe that?"
So, Izzie Stevens was a virgin. Alex would have been surprised but he had met the girl. She was a domineering, brown-nosing, goody two shoes who's holier than thou mentality was off putting, even to the most understanding of individuals. She's going to a virgin forever. There was no man strong enough to want to get to know her long enough to wait until she was 'ready' for that step.
He was going to pass his history test on Wednesday. And he was going to that party on Saturday. Izzie Stevens wasn't going to know what hit her.
