Chapter Four: Icy Needles and Benchpresses
Sora
I woke up again at eleven in the morning. I really slept in today. I looked at the alarm clock near my wall. That stupid thing woke me up at two in the morning! I got out of bed and walked to my closet.
"Let's see... Uniform... Okay, that's there... Shirt... Pants... Swim trunks... That's close enough to pants. Okay, now... Where's that shirt!" I asked my closet. I began rummaging in the piles of clothes on the floor. I had seen this shirt yesterday when I was looking for my flip-flops! That's when I pulled up my other purple and green flip flop.
"You have got to be kidding me," I muttered. I tossed it over where I had put its match yesterday, and kept looking. I ended up settling for a pastel green shirt and slipped on my light blue swim trunks. My red ones were currently in the dirty laundry hamper and my green ones are MIA. I slipped on my purple and green flip flops and went downstairs.
"Sora, your pancakes are in the microwave... Here, I'll heat them up for you. I need to go to the mall for a few things... Do you want to come? Riku has to because I'm buying to fill his closet," my mom said, stepping into the kitchen doorway and then going right back in.
"Speaking of, where is he?" I asked suspiciously. Maybe he was out poisoning our water... Or rather, mine.
"He is out in the shed. Your dad is there, too. He just got home about ten minutes ago and took Riku to 'pump some iron'," she said, quoting with her fingers.
"Huh?" I asked.
"They're lifting weights. After we go shopping we are going to haul the stuff back, wait for the deliveries, then I'm going to take Riku and get him registered for school."
"Wait... What school is he going to?" I asked cautiously.
"Sunset Hill High. You guys are going to get along great. You can help each other with your homework, and Sora, you can introduce him to some of your friends," she said cheerfully. I felt like my heart had stopped. No... Not Sunset Hill... Anything but that. He will totally find so many new ways to torture me there! I stood there, internally screaming that this could not be real. This could not be real! The 'ding' of the microwave brought heavenly smells of pancakes, butter, bacon, and eggs to my nose and pulled me right out of my shock. Being angry can wait- there's food to be eaten! Mom put it on the counter island and I shot onto one of the stools and grabbed the syrup. I smeared the butter all over the both of the pancakes, and poured an ocean of syrup on it. Then I started chowing down. I greedily snatched up one of five strips of bacon and twirled it in the runoff syrup from the pancakes, which were now partially eaten. I helped myself to the eggs, as well. Honestly, with the way this woman feeds me I'm surprised I'm not three hundred pounds. When I had finished the large plate my mom had given me she hugged me and took it to rinse. I trotted over to the cookie jar in the corner of the counter. It was in the shape of a cat, and it was light blue with a pink nose, a white face, and white paws. I reached in and grabbed a cookie. Mom made sure she had this thing full of chocolate chip cookies since I robbed it often. I bit into it. It was one of the hard ones. I didn't mind- it was all good either way. I walked to the back door, which was made of glass and was surrounded by glass. I think mom referred to it as 'French glass' doors and windows. Upstairs it was the same. I twisted the shiny gold-colored knob and went outside. I walked towards the shed, which had an awning next to it that had the mower and the watering hose along with other lawn maintenance tools. The shed itself had all my dad's weights in it. I noticed that music was coming out the door, which was wide open and I could hear the clanking of the weights as the were used. I peeked in the doorway and was surprised to find that my dad was the one counting the reps and not doing them. Riku was on the bench press with one of my dad's tank tops on and he had a pair of my dad's work-out shorts on, too. He was hardly even sweating and he was bench-pressing 125 pounds!
"Oh, good- Sora, you're here. Keep counting the reps will ya? Riku's at 90 now," he said, getting up and patting my back as I counted a 91 and a 92. I took dad's seat and kept counting until I reached 100 but Riku kept going. I kept mental count in my head.
"How do you do that? I mean, aren't you tired?" I asked. 104, 105, 106...
"No," he said, grunting as he lifted it. 108, 109, 110...
"What's your goal supposed to be, anyway?" I asked. 112, 113, 114...
"One-fifteen," he said, lifting it onto the rack and sitting up. "What's the deal- all of a sudden you're my work out partner?"
"Dad left me here and I'm not allowed to act up in his shed... Last time he was making me use that thing," I said, pointing to the bench press, "I started getting mad when I couldn't lift it and I yelled about how hard it was. This is the first time I've been let in here since then, and that was four months ago."
"Oh... Well, since you can't act up in here, I gotta count for you. Cloud said he needed me to count chin-ups when he gets around to it but since you sorta replaced him- to the bar!" he said, snapping and pointing to my worst enemy- the chin-up bar. I had never been able to do a proper chin-up, and if there was one thing I hated more than Riku, it was chin-ups. "Well, go," he said. "The chin-ups aren't going to do themselves," Riku added. I got up reluctantly and stood before- insert dramatic music- the Bar. I reached up- Dad would kill me if I said 'no' to a work out. He is such a fitness geek minus the healthy food- the guy eats whatever he wants. But once 'exercise' is mentioned, he is all up on that like he was superglued to it. I reached up and flexed and pulled and stuck my chin out. While I struggled for about two minutes, Riku just laughed until I gave up and let go. I landed on my butt.
"Giving up already?" he asked. Then he stood next to me and pushed me aside. "Move over- I'm gonna show you how a man does things," he said as if I were seven. He reached up and, seeming like he only barely flexed one muscle to do it, his chin along with half his neck went over the bar. He kept repeating it as I watched the muscles in his arm flex under his firm skin.
"See, Sora? It's not hard. Keep working out and maybe you'll be able tor rise an inch, yeah?" he said, completing seven chin-ups in that one sentence. He dropped once my count reached fifteen.
"Why are YOU giving up? Tired?" I asked.
"No. I was moving over to give you another try. If you want, we can work on your strength with the hand weights... You are really weak, you know."
"Hey! I'm not that weak!"
"Puh-leaze, Sora- you can't even do one chin up, and your dad told me you couldn't bench anything." I knew he had me. I silently cursed my dad and again struggled to lift my chin over the Bar. Riku just laughed and laughed until I gave up.
"Alright, Sora- hand weights. If you can't curl ten pounds, then I know exactly what to do."
"What... What are you gonna do?" I asked, as he dropped the 10 weight into my right hand. Oh, man this thing was kind of heavy, and him dropping it didn't help...
"Let me worry about that... Just do the curls- five total." I looked at the weight in my hand. I sure hope I can do this... I pulled, but it only raised about three inches. I tried again and ended up pulling a muscle.
"Arrggh!" I squealed, dropping the weight and clutching my arm. "Oww! I think I pulled something!" Riku picked up the weight and put it on the rack.
"You really are pathetic- that was only ten pounds!" he said teasingly, walking back to me. He stood about a foot away, making me a little uncomfortable.
"Let me see," he said more softly, beyond his bragging. He took my arm carefully. I frowned. What is with this guy? He teases me and acts like a total jerk one minute, then the next he's all fake-friendly... Now he seems genuinely nice. He prodded around with his finger on my arm until I winced, then he pressed carefully in that spot, making me cringe a little.
"Just pulled. Relax your arm," he instructed. "Come on, it will hurt less," he said like he was talking a cat out of a tree. I slowly relaxed my arm completely. He went to the mini-fridge in the corner, which was where dad kept ice packs and Gatorade for working out. Riku grabbed an ice pack and brought it to me, holding it to the sore spot on my arm.
"Here... I got a better idea. Next time, you'll mostly count, but I'll expect you to at least take the elastic band and stretch with it, okay?" he said. For the first time since Riku got here, I felt really cared for by a man in the house. It was really creepy.
"Okay..." I said. I felt like a sissy, now.
"You didn't do your curls, Sora," he said, sounding like he had something up his sleeve.
"Huh?"
"You know what this means, right?"
"N-no?" I said nervously.
"Penalty."
"PENALTY?!" I asked. It was weird because my arm was still relaxed and going numb with the feeling of icy needles stabbing into the sore spot of my arm, but the rest of me was tensing up.
"Mm-hmm... THINK FAST!" he said, taking my limp arm and slapping my face with it.
"Ow! Hey!" I said angrily, tensing up and bunching up my fists, something I immediately regretted and stopped doing when pain shot through my arm. I growled at him while he laughed.
"I told you- penalty. There it was. You might wanna be able to do curls next time, yeah?" he asked, still laughing.
"Yeah," I said hatefully. He put the ice pack back on my arm.
"Keep that there and go take a hot shower. It has the same kind of effect as one of those IcyHot things. 'Kay?" he said, patting my back while I held the ice pack.
"Fine... Don't you need someone in here to keep you from getting hurt?" I asked.
"Nah. I'm done here. Since when have you worried about me getting hurt?"
"I'm not worried about YOU- I'm worried about ME. My dad would kill me if I left a guy alone to lift and something happened." I went inside, Riku following close behind. Before he started the stairs, my mom stopped him.
"Riku, you ought to take a shower so I can take you clothes shopping, okay?" she asked.
"Sure thing, Mom," he said. I continued on my way and went to the shower. I would keep wearing these clothes until my evening bath- I was going to go to the beach, anyway. I heard the mower start up and I knew dad was grooming the lawn. I turned the hot water valve, but something just didn't feel right... Wasn't the red sticker supposed to be on the other one? I brushed it off and got in, screaming at the top of my lungs and jumping to the back corner of the shower when the icy needles of spray came pelting me from the shower nozzle. The worst part was, I had trapped myself on the opposite side of the shower from where the faucet handles were. I tried to dodge around the spray and twisted the blue-stickered handle. I heard Riku laughing from his room.
"Hot shower, huh, Sora?" he called, choking back more laughter. So. Not. Cool.