"Oh great! Only 10 min left to eat" Ty sounded annoyed.
"Relax...I've seen you inhale larger amounts of food in less time." Tristan said with a giggle. "Maybe if you weren't such a gym bunny, you'd have time to sit and enjoy your food." Tristan smirked, knowing what buttons to push.
"Just look at you little man. You all cozy with Marco but just wait until soccer is done for the season. Your twink ass is gonna get complacent and you gonna gain 10-15 lbs...maybe a little belly..." Ty laughed.
Park looked at Jae who seemed to be deep in thought. "Where are you? You look a thousand miles away."
"Did you see that short kid drawing over there?" Jae asked. Park just shook his head.
The bell rang and all 6 got up, talking about maybe getting together later. As Jae headed to class, the short boy had come out of the bathroom, sketch book in hand. Jae got a quick look and saw he was drawing Natsu from Fairy Tail and it look damn good. Then someone bumped into him and he dropped his bag, some of the contents spilling out. Jae stopped to help the boy.
"Hey man, people really need to watch where they're going." Jae said as he gathered up the contents of the boy's pencil box, slipping a piece of paper in it. "I'm Jae btw." The boy stared down, even as he got up, mumbled a thank you and quickly walked off. As Jae stood up he estimated the boy to be about 5 feet. This gave him a few more ideas.
Jacob was a loner. He really didn't have any friends at school. Really the only time people talked to him was to ask to borrow a pen or see his notes. The friends that he had in elementary school slowly grew distant for any number of reasons. He had always been a little shorter than them but as they hit puberty and got growth spurts, they made other friends and he had thrown himself into his art. By all accounts, he considered himself to be a pretty decent artist. For as long as he remembered he loved to draw and paint. Today in class he stared out the window drawing the large magnolia tree outside. It was simple work for him so he focused on the flowers and their individual beauty. He hadn't been paying attention but the teacher told the class to form groups. Jacob continued to draw until a pair of twins sat down at blocked his view of the tree. He got up and moved to get his view back. He didn't notice but the guy who helped him earlier sat behind him. As he finished the drawing, he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched but every time he looked up, everyone was talking amongst themselves. He shrugged it off.
The bell rang and he got up and went to art class. It was the one class he looked forward to because it was an escape. He got there just as the bell rang. As the students got situated at their easels, the teacher arrived. She was definitely a remnant of the 60s, very laid back with a peace/love type of attitude.
"Alright class, we are going to switch things up. Until now we have been focused on realism. Most of you have done beautifully. Now we are going to do something different. Many times in art, artists will exaggerate aspects of their work. The main subject of your piece will be you, BUT I want you to exaggerate features. Now I'm going to have you pick a location at random from this bag. Use the location as an inspiration."
It was a small class, only 15 students. They each went up and picked a location, which varied from the local park to famous locations around the world. Jacob reached in the bad and pulled out a strip of paper that was folded in half. He walked back to his seat and opened it. It had the one place he hated: School Gymnasium. He raised his hand:
The teacher walked over, "Yes Mr. Levinson?"
"Can I please have another location or trade with someone?"
"I'm sorry Mr. Levinson. The assignment is meant to challenge you and challenge your perception of yourself. The location is meant to stimulate that. I've seen some of the drawings in your other sketchbook. Lately it looks like a lot of Japanese anime and it looks wonderful. In this medium you see a lot of exaggeration of features - hair, big eyes, sometime the nose is exaggerated and even others the musculature. This should come easy to you."
"But..."
"Mr. Levinson take a deep breath and close your eyes. Count to 10. Now while Mr. Levinson finds his center, I will tell you this, those of you who have locations at the school may go to that location for the rest of the period to get started. If your location is elsewhere, you can go to the library if you want, to research your spot. I suggest you take advantage of the time."
Jacob finished counting, grabbed his bag and stormed out. He had no intention going to the gym yet that's where he ended up. The gym was completely empty. He walked around and looked up at the championship banners hanging for a number of sports. He noticed that the gymnastic rings had been lowered. He never had seen them down before, he didn't even think they were used. He jumped up and his finger touched on, giving him a shock. He made his way to the weight room which was also empty. He had no idea what anything was used for but at least he could sit and draw. He decided to use the rings as his inspiration. He then got to work. He furiously sketched out the gym as the background and then sketched the rings. He then sketched out a quick sketch of what he looked like, thinking about what he should exaggerate. He hated how he looked so anything was game. He erased his body and then redrew it, taller than before. He then started with the arms, those would have to be big to support the body on the rings. The hands would also have to be larger to hold the rings. He then switched to the torso. He drew in nice sized pecs (for a teenager) and made sure the abs were prominent. He finished with the legs. He realized that the period was almost over so you quickly made his way to the locker room to where the mirror was so he could get an image of his face in his mind. "I can get this bs assignment done in time and do something I want to do." He then held up the sketch and compared it side by side with how he looked and sighed "As if..." He then sat down and decided to go all in, changing his nose, chin, then his entire face and head. Satisfied, he signed his work and headed out before the football team would get there.
It was the end of the day so Jacob made his way back to the art room, taking the long way to ensure that the teacher would be gone when he got there. As he walked he thought about how incredibly bad he was at sports. His parents had signed him up for little league which was just a disaster. Kids being kids had been cruel making fun of him. This contributed to his becoming a loner. He never really let it bother him because he had his own skills.
When he got to the art room, the lights were still on. "Mrs. Cornell are you still here?" He heard something in the back where she kept the supplies. He slowly opened the door to the supply room and walked in. He had never been back here before. He was pretty shocked by how much there was. Row after row of shelves. There weren't just paints but other things too. He had forgotten the bio lab was in the next room. He walked around looking at all the different colors of paint, pausing to look at a couple of colors that caught his eye. He put his bag down and tucked his sketch books under his arm as he reached for a bottle of cobalt blue. He thought he knew all the brands. As he looked at the bottle, he was startled as a baseball came through the window. The next thing he new had lost his balance and fell back as bottles of paint and chemicals spilt on him.
"Jesus Christ!!! Stupid fucking baseball players!" He yelled out. Drenched in paint and chemicals, he grabbed his things and ,add his way out of the supply room and then the art room. He tried to think what to do next. Obviously he didn't want to walk home like this. Maybe, while everyone was practicing he could sneak into the locker room and clean up.
Jacob crept into the locker room, checking to make sure it's empty. All he saw was clothes draped on the benches and bags. For a moment he considered wiping the mess off on their things by the didn't know who had hit the ball and he didn't want to get beat up. He walked to the sinks and saw himself for the first time. He was a technicolor mess. Until this point he had forgotten his sketch book. He took it from under his arm and let out a scream as he looked at it. Even though it was under his arm it still got caught in the mess, between the chemicals that had soaked through and the paint, he would have to start over. He a angerly slammed the book on the sink in frustration, causing some of the chemicals to splash back at him. "Damnit!!!" He then clawed at the sketchbook and ripped the assignment out. "Fuck this! If I looked like this, I could have whipped the ball back at that person." He ripped the sketch to pieces and threw up in the air. Several pieces landed on him. Defeated, he just ignored them.
He turned on the water and tried to start washing everything off. As he did this, he watched, awestruck, as everything disappeared. No, wait, not disappear, it looked like his body was absorbing everything...the paint, the chemicals...even the paper. Thinking he was seeing things, he splashed some water on his face. His hands seemed rough, he looked at them and saw they had some callouses and seemed bigger. His forearms grew, both longer and more muscular, veims becoming visible. His biceps and triceps then started to growing, as the grew his deltoids kept pace. The image of a balloon filling with air filled his thoughts for a minute. The sleeves of his Pink Floyd now clung to his upper arms, skin tight. His muscles and body felt achy. He felt like he had been working out in then weight room, doing bench presses, inclined cable flies, even push ups and sit ups. "How the hell do I know those things?" Jacob thought. He watched, slack jawed as his chest grew to 2 impressive pecs. He felt his stomach tighten as 6 well formed abs emerged. The development had stretched his shirt to the point that if he moved it would rip.
As his upper body finished, he cried out. His voice deeper than before. It felt like someone had broken his legs. As quickly as the pain started, it had stopped. He looked up in the mirror and saw he was definitely taller...maybe 5'8 or 5'9. He pants started to get tighter. He ass grew out. When people thought of the perfect bubble butt, the would picture his. He quads grew out and then has calves, followed by his feet. Again his muscles felt tired, like he had just finished squats, lunges, leg presses and leg curls. He jeans had basically been destroyed. Then, it dawned on him,
"Oh...my...god!!!! All of this is happening in the order I drew it! I'm becoming my drawing!" At once he was excited and terrified. Excited because of his body was becoming amazing but terrified that he would lose himself, his art. Then his face changed. His blemishes disappeared, his eyes became a brilliant, almost unnatural blue. Then he watched as his became black and grew out to his shoulders, tying itself into a pony tail. As he went to reach to touch it, he heard his shirt rip. His terror then started to become reality as he grabbed his head, screaming. His memories changing. Memories of a talentless, miserable little league experience changed to his mother discovering him doing handstands and cartwheels and enrolling him in gymnastics. Within a couple of years he was a phenom, placing with medals. In his spare time he still loved to draw but his love of gymnastics far surpassed it. He was no longer 5' 110lbs. Now he was 16, 5'8, 180lbs, black hair, and stunning blue eyes. His specialties were the rings, the pommel horse and the floor routines, but the rings were his favorite. Not only did they show off his strength and skill but he felt like he could fly, even if only for a brief second when he launched himself in the air. His talent and success had allowed him to travel the world. At each place he found a spot - a landmark - he loved and drew it as a souvenir. Sure his hands were calloused and he had photos, but there was something relaxing about sitting and drawing.
As his memories and identity took shape, so did his clothing. On his feet, a pair of checkered vans old school lites. His jeans started to feel lighter as the material became nylon/spandex. They stayed navy blue as the finished turning into a pair of gk elite pants. His now skin tight Pink Floyd shirt, that had rips and had given him a midriff turned black as it covered the midriff. The shirt became an under armor compression shirt, clinging to his torso, pecs, and now bulging biceps. Then a red superman logo appeared across his chest. His book bag became an adidas gym bag. The very last thing to change was his identity as Jacob Levinson. This was Luca Monterelli. A gymnast who was destined for Rio this summer. He was proud of his accomplishments, proud to be gay, and not afraid to flaunt it a little. He was new at the school. He looked down at the sketch book and saw there was a drawing of a sexy Asian guy and a folded piece of paper attached. He picked it up and opened it. It read simply "Hey handsome...come find me after school!" Luca folded it and put it his pocket, glancing at the drawing again and then gave himself a once over in the mirror, he then said with an impish grin "You look sexy as hell and its only your first day here. Time to solve the mystery of the sexy Asian drawing." He picked up his gym bag, walked through the gym, saying good bye to his trainer and left the gym to begin his search.