When James woke up the following morning, he was feeling heavier and more energetic than usual. Not only that, as soon as he walked into the bathroom, he noticed a few things which seemed a bit unusual. His arms seemed a bit thicker than normal, and his chest appeared a bit bigger. It was almost as if he had put on a little more muscle! How did that happen?
When he raised up his right arm to confirm his thoughts, he saw that he was right. A small but solid bicep swelled up on his arm. It was as if he had spent several weeks doing arm curls with dumbbells in the gym! What was going on?
He had more energy than usual. He was always sluggish in the morning, but today, he jolted out of bed with a burst of energy. In addition, he felt hungry as a bear! He ran towards the kitchen right away, where he prepared two sandwiches, rather than the usual one.
“Wow! You’re up bright and early for a Sunday!” his mother said to him, as he walked around the kitchen without a shirt on. “What’s going on?”
“Uhmm… I just felt like I was wide awake. I wasn’t tired anymore!” he shrugged as he poured himself a large glass of milk and gulped it all down while his mom looked on.
“Two sandwiches today? And milk?” she wondered. “What’s with all the muscle? Have you been lifting weights?”
“No! Not at all! I guess that’s from all the warmups before soccer practice!” he replied casually.
His mother just accepted these changes as a sign that her only boy was having a growth spurt. It was in the nick of time, too. James had always been skinny and small for his age, and she was happy to see him finally grow a bit in size and muscle.
“Well, make sure you get all your schoolwork done before you go outside, champ!” she ordered.
“I will, mom!” he smiled as he ran back into his bedroom.
Once there, he opened his notebook and his textbooks for English and math. He usually struggled with schoolwork but for some reason, all the assignments just seemed easy for him today. He breezed through all his homework today and he got everything done in record time. It almost seemed as if he had become smarter. Everything just seemed too easy for him. He finished everything and he posted all his schoolwork online before he got dressed and went outside so he could ride his bike and hang out with his friends from across the street.
Nothing unusual happened for the rest of the day, other than James realizing that he was able to run, sprint and bike faster than before. He had all this extra energy, and he was loving it. Other than that, he really didn’t stop to think about where all this energy came from. Things didn’t seem all that unusual until the following day, which was Monday, when James had to go back to school.
One thing James really liked about going to school was the time he spent being with his friends from the soccer team. They were just about all in the same class, so they all knew each other. Being in the fifth grade meant being in the final grade of elementary school and being first in line to enter middle school next year. He was the oldest in grade school. Unfortunately, the school often got unwelcome visitors from the large high school, which was just down the street. The high schoolers, all of them being more than four years older and much bigger and taller than these kids, loved to come over and pick on the little kids.
When James strolled through the main gate of the school on Monday morning, he spotted Alvin, one of his classmates. The boy was shy and timid, just like him. Unfortunately, he was being harassed by Chad, one of the bigger guys in high school. Chad was poking fun at the younger boy for wearing glasses.
“Hey! Leave him alone!” somehow James felt he had the right to shout at the taller boy. James woke up that day, just like on Sunday, feeling a bit stronger and energetic. He had some more muscle in his frame that morning, and this led to him having some more confidence.
But Chad kept on teasing the younger boy, poking him, and trying to remove his glasses, which was easy to do since Chad had a longer reach and since he was much taller than the boy. But James didn’t want anything of it, and he couldn’t stand seeing his classmate get bullied by a big, overgrown thug, so he placed himself between the two and he stretched out his arms, separating the two forcefully.
“Stop it. STOP!” James shouted, pushing Chad away from Alvin. This surprised all three of them. James didn’t expect him to be that strong, and both Chad and Alvin had not expected to see that from another short and skinny kid like James, who was known for being shy and timid as well.
“You really think you’re a tough guy, huh?” Chad sneered. He curled his fists and started to approach James when the bell rang.
“We need to go inside. See you later, dude!” James said coolly, as he turned around and walked away, with his arm around Alvin’s shoulder.
“I’ll be watching you, little dude! I’m coming for you next time!” Chad warned him.
James heard his warning just as he entered the building along with all the other kids. No high schooler was allowed to enter the building where the classrooms were, so he was safe for now. But for how long?
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