Chapter Eight

Weightlifting was next on the schedule. Mulan, of course, knew exactly where the gymnasium was and kindly pointed me in the right direction.

I stepped inside and immediately grimaced. "Well this smells lovely."

"What are you doing outside of the locker room, Queer-Bait?" barked a gruff voice.

A brawny gray-haired man with a square jaw and a whistle hanging around his thick neck was looking at me as though he had caught me pissing directly into his bowl of Spaghettio's. This, presumably, was Coach Rourke, who was Milo's militaristic antagonist in Atlantis. He looked much angrier than I thought he had a right to be but, unfortunately, I was the only other person in the gym.

"Are you guys actually allowed to call us things like that?" I asked. "That doesn't seem very much like the warm and fuzzy Disney I know. Disneyland has a Gay Day and everything."

He stepped towards, me, eyes bulging. "You sassin' me, boy?"

"No sir! Sass is for girls and weenies, and boys who like weenies!"

"So you're some kind of smart-ass, huh?" he said in a quieter voice than I was expecting. I didn't like when scary people got quiet, not that I was fond of them yelling at me. (I was just more used to authority figures screaming at me.) "It's been awhile since I've come across a smart-ass…"

"I'm just looking for the locker room," I said.

"What's your name, son?"

"Shane Barrera, sir…"

"Well, Shane Barrera," Rourke said, "you are officially on my shit list. Congratulations. Locker room's around the corner."

Cursing my own prodigious knack for getting dangerous people to hate me, I trudged over to the locker room doors. Opening them, I walked inside and made my way over to where a group of mostly nondescript dudes were changing. I recognized LeFou and Mowgli among them.

"LeFou!" I exclaimed. "You little shitbird, Gaston's not in this class is he?"

The stumpy twerp looked a little nervous to see me. "Hey, I don't want any trouble, bro."

"You don't?" I asked with mock surprise. "I just wanted to say, you've been doing your very best to make my life a living hell and I'm not sure I appreciate that."

"You better back off, dude," he said. "You don't want to mess with me. I've got friends, all right, bro?"

"Yeah, I got you, bro," I said, glaring at him. "Just stay out of my hair and I'll stay out of yours."

"Whatever, bro," he muttered, waddling away. After he was out of sight, I looked over at the rest of my classmates, most of whom had paid no mind to our spat. In all likelihood, I wasn't the only guy who hated LeFou. All in all, I counted the shameless intimidation of my wimpiest adversary as a resounding success.

Young Mowgli was examining his shorts with disdain, which seemed to be a size too small.

"What's up, Man-Cub?" I asked. "You're in this class too?"

He stared up at me. "My cousins jacked your lunch today, dude."

"Wait, you're cousins with Al and Esmeralda too?" I asked. "Aren't you Indian? Isn't she a Gypsy? Those aren't the same things, are they?"

"They prefer the term 'Romani,' douchebag," said Mowgli.

"My bad," I said. "But to be fair, this place hasn't really been a shining example of political correctness. Coach Rourke is already slinging homophobic slurs at me and he hasn't even seen me in my leg warmers."

Which reminded me; I had no gym attire whatsoever with me. That could be trouble.

A shirtless guy with a brown-haired ponytail and a gold earring said, "Don't feel too bad. He's always doing that to everyone. Probably a closet case himself, in all likelihood."

He had round blue eyes, a little nose, and very expressive eyebrows. His haircut was a little strange, cut super short at the lower sides and sideburns, but long everywhere else. I noticed that he had a couple tattoos on his lean form, but they were strange black symbols that I found indecipherable.

"That'd be pretty funny," I said. "I think."

"Not as funny as it would be sad," said the guy, extending his hand. "Jim Hawkins. Any guy who is an enemy of LeFou and his crowd is a friend of mine."

"Treasure Planet!" I exclaimed. "I don't think anyone actually saw that one. I read it wasn't all that bad, though, although I don't know how anybody was able to review it if nobody watched it. Also, you sound like Joseph Gordon-Levitt."

"Hmm," said Jim, pressing his lips together. "I'm just gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you don't have Tourette's, so let's pretend you told me your name instead of a random string of words."

"Shane," I replied. "Shane Barrera. Nice to meet you."

We shook hands and Jim said, "You better hurry up and get changed or you're gonna be late. Rourke isn't very lenient on tardiness."

"Shit," I said. "The problem is I wasn't given any gym clothes."

"Sounds like you are royally screwed, dude," said a rail-thin black-haired guy with an obnoxious voice. "Can I have that jacket when he kills you? I could let my little brother wipe his ass with it. He could really use it; he's a lot fatter than me and can't always reach back there."

"Oh hey, wow, Kuzco, how about you just go away forever?" asked Jim in an annoyed voice.

"Kiss my ass, Pretty-Boy," chirped Kuzco. "Try not to fall in love with greatness when you do it."

"I will gladly kick your ass any day of the week instead," said Jim, "Just tell me where and when and as long as it's off-campus, we can make it a date."

"Whatever, Dickface!" said Kuzco as he headed out of the locker room, along with most of the rest of the class aside from Jim and me. He made a very rude gesture as he left.

"The model Disney behavior continues," I said, watching him leave.

"You shouldn't expect much else," said Jim. "The majority of people here are assholes. You get used to it after awhile."

"So I guess I'm just gonna have to walk out there and let Coach Rourke tear me a new one," I said with a sigh. "Maybe he'll give me a pair of gym shorts after he finishes murdering me."

Jim grinned. "That won't be necessary. Luck for you, New Guy, I've got an extra pair of gym clothes you can borrow. No extra tennis shoes, though, unfortunately."

"Well this is just weight training, right? It's not like I have to go run around."

"True. We're lucky because Rourke doesn't really give two shits about this class. All the football players have it in sixth period, and that's all he really cares about anyway. Long as you're not late and don't catch his attention for the wrong reasons, this is a class you can skate by through."

"Well I already screwed that last part up," I said. "But thanks for helping me out, dude, I appreciate it."

"No prob," he said. "See you out there."

I quickly got changed and hustled out there to join everyone else. Most of these guys looked like they had never stepped foot in a weight room before. I at least knew my way around the assorted collection of weights and machines so I figured this class would be useful to stay in shape. Chances were, my 24 Hour Fitness membership would be worth nothing here.

Coach Rourke ambled out of his office and surveyed the lot of us. I wasn't surprised to see him shake his head with disgust.

"Well, you are a sorry collection of useless meat sacks if I ever saw one," he said. "I'm gonna be straight with you. Trying to mold all of you ninnies into anything of even remote value to the world is a task I could never get paid enough to try, so just go about your business in here and try not to kill yourselves. Your pathetic lives aren't worth the lawsuits, so do me a favor and stay away from the big boy weights." He glanced over at me. "Except for you, Barrera. You have my full permission to drop a couple plates right on your stupid face. Dismissed."

"Awesome," I muttered.

And with that, he spun on his wheel and went back to his office, shutting the door behind him with a loud slam. The rest of them all looked at each other, blinking.

"Was-was he serious?" asked Kuzco.

"He was serious all right," said Jim.

"Lame," grumbled Kuzco, rubbing one of his skinny arms.

"This is bull," said LeFou. "I should be in sixth period weight training, not slumming it with you dorks."

"Shut up, LeFou, you're the biggest piece of camel dung in this room," said Jim.

"Bite me, Hawkins!"

"I don't eat junk food."

"That's a stupid comeback."

"Your face is a stupid comeback."

I laughed. That sterling example of wit was something I would say. This Jim guy seemed all right.

LeFou waved Jim off and went over to go embarrass himself with some twenty pound dumbbells he struggled to do much of anything with.

"You look like you've actually exercised before at least once in your life," Jim said to me.

"This is true," I said. "Twice, actually. Tore a shoulder labrum both times."

He chuckled. "Wanna be workout partners?"

"Sure," I said.

We went over to one of the bench presses and started talking about my first day on campus and my impression of it all. After briefly going over some of the girls I had met, the conversation took a turn for the wicked.

"So far I've made a bunch of enemies," I said at one point. "Mostly with the faculty."

Jim laughed. "You sound like me and my crowd."

"Who's your biggest enemy at the school?"

"Well, I can't stand Gaston and most of the jocks obviously, because they're douchebags, but the real villains at this school are the head administrators. Have you met any of them yet?"

"Well Jafar and Frollo both hate me," I said. "Jafar's hatred for me may be justified but that Frollo guy is just downright horrible for no reason."

"Frollo's the vice principal," said Jim. "He's been trying to campaign to bring back whipping and other medieval forms of punishment for years now. The dude is seriously twisted. But I'm not half as afraid of him as I am of Ms. Maleficent."

"Who's that?"

"The school principal. She hardly ever interacts directly with us, but I'm telling you, there's something seriously shady about her. There are all kinds of rumors that she's involved with a lot of really sketchy things."

"Like what?"

Jim looked serious for a second before grinning and shrugging. "Aw, it's just a bunch of rumors. Don't worry about it. The point is nobody really knows much about her, but that doesn't stop her from giving me the creeps."

I chewed this over. "Huh."

Looking like he wanted to change the subject, Jim said, "So, uh, tell me more about the girls you've met so far."

I shrugged. "Everybody was pretty nice for the most part. Mulan seemed a little aggressive, but she probably deals with a lot of crap. None of the cheerleaders have given me the time of day. But there's a lot of eye candy here all around."

"So are you into any of them?"

"You mean all of them?" I corrected.

He laughed. "Any of them into you back?"

"Hard to say. I haven't even finished my first day yet. I know that Belle was on the verge of hating me deeply but I think we've become friends now."

"Belle is a feisty one," said Jim, "for sure. Most dudes at this school have had their sights set on her at one time or another, but you can just surrender on that front. She doesn't give it up to anyone. I don't know if she even likes dudes, to be honest."

"Didn't she date Eric?"

"Well, yeah, but that only lasted a couple months, I think. She's just a hard girl to please, super independent. Also, I don't think she liked a lot of Eric's friends and that played a role in their breakup. He hangs out with the assholes and the snobs. I can see why she wanted to avoid that."

"Yeah, well, Belle's just one girl," I said. "I'm sure there are other chicks here with lower standards."

He grinned. "A few.

"I mean, this is still a high school, is it not?"

"Oh, they're out there…if you know where to look."

A sly look was on his face, which got me to smile.

"You seem to know a thing or two about the subject."

"Oh, I'm not saying that, I'm just saying it shouldn't be too hard for you to find some tail if you try. You're not a bad-looking dude, and you've got the novelty factor. Plus, you said people are starting to notice you because you got into it with Gaston."

"You know who really seemed intrigued by it all?" I asked. "That chick Meg. You know her? She's pretty hot."

At the mention of Meg, Jim's demeanor seemed to change. The look on his face was hard to read. I couldn't tell if it was positive or negative.

"What?" I asked.

A controlled little half-smile appeared on his lips. "Yeah, I know Meg. She, uh, she has a boyfriend though."

"Oh yeah," I said. "So I've heard. That Al dude. I keep hearing about him but I haven't seen him yet. Apparently he stole my lunch today."

Jim chuckled. "Yeah, you gotta look out for him. He'll do that. Not a bad guy once you get to know him, though."

"When he's not stealing your shit."

He shrugged. "There's more than one side to every person."

"Well, his girlfriend was all up in my personal space. I wouldn't have known she wasn't single if not for other people telling me."

"Did she, uh, did she say anything to you?"

"I dunno, she was sort of flirting I think. I'm not sure though. She might have been just messing with me. I mean, her and her friend Esmeralda…I don't even know how to act when they're around. Esmeralda is a girl I don't even have words to describe."

He laughed lightly, rubbing the back of his head. "You liked her too, huh?"

"Who wouldn't?" I asked. "But I don't know that much about her, other than she distracted me so they could screw with me. Looks wise, she's off the charts, but they both seem like they've been around the block a few times, if you know what I mean."

"They're definitely not innocent," he said. "I'll give you that much."

"Further investigation may be needed," I concluded.

We talked some more but mostly spent the rest of the period lifting. The change in Jim's behavior remained, however, and I still couldn't put my finger on it. He just seemed a little vaguer, a little more guarded than he had been when we first met.

After the period ended, we all went back to the locker room and changed back into our regular clothes. I tried to hand Jim's extra pair of clothes to him but he shook his head.

"You can give them back after you get your own," he said, "Or after you wash 'em or whatever."

"Oh, uh, thanks," I said, putting them into my bag. I didn't really have an idea of how I was going to gain access to a washer and dryer, but there was probably a Laundromat in the city somewhere. My more pressing need was finding more clothes and shelter.

"Well, I'll be seeing you, bro," he said. "Good luck navigating through all the crazy."

"Thanks, man."

I watched him head off in his own direction and stood there for a couple seconds. I still couldn't shake the feeling that I had said or done something to make him feel weird.

My confusion didn't last long, however, because Mowgli popped up next to me and gave me another withering look.

I was already annoyed with the little brat. "What?"

"You're so dumb, dude."

"Why?"

"Because," he said, looking at me like I was the biggest idiot on the face of the happiest place on Earth, "of the way you were talking about my cousin."

"Oh," I said. "Sorry if you heard that. I'm, uh, sure she's a real nice girl."

"Dude, I don't give a crap what you think about her. But Jim does."

"Why is that?" I asked, getting a sinking feeling in my stomach.

"Because, numb-nuts. Esmeralda is his ex-girlfriend."

"Oh," I said. "Shit."

Shit indeed.

{So there's the latest chapter in our lovely story. Hope you all enjoy it. Also, a side-note, sorry for my brother's trolling in the review section. Don't hold it against him, he was dropped on his head as a baby. (Shh, he doesn't know.) Just ignore him and carry on, but anyway, thanks for all the current reviews and don't forget to let me know what you think! I appreciate it all :) }