Just then a buzzing sound came over the intercom to signal the next period. "Damn, out of time," moped Alex. Ty returned them to their normal hunky little selves.
The boys hurried into some clothes appropriate for their next class, mental training: basketball shorts and those unnecessarily large, ratty tank-tops the school provided.
As they walked together though the hallway to class, they crossed paths with Clyde and his two cronies. Just as both groups were to enter the classroom, Clyde shouldered Ty out and made room for him and his buddies. Ty, taken by surprise, looked at Clyde in disgust, who just looked back and gave his signature bemused smirk.
Ty found in his memories that Clyde wasn't quite a bully, but was top of the class and often somewhat nasty about it. The thin, dexterous features of his handsome face made his pretend-confused smirk effortless, and let him get away with a lot. He was a bit bigger than all the other boys, more cut, and a whole 3 inches taller than the other boys, who were mostly of uniform height.
"Whatever," said Steve, ushering them into the room and past their shock.
The room was a large one without many desks, with padded floors and mirrors for walls. They all took seats on the ground.
Class began with the teacher claiming that "everyone should be caught up." /I hope that's true,/ thought Ty.
"Alright, meta-boys. After the last unit, everyone should be able to read minds by now. As long as you touch heads, meaning at a distance of 0 feet. And everyone should be able to construct and keep up their most basic mental defenses at all times. You should be practicing that all day long. So today we're going to start testing those defenses and our attacks the only way we can: by practicing with each other."
"So we're going to do a demonstration and then everyone is going to pair together and practice, switching offense and defense each time. At this level none of you should be able to do any damage, so even in the worst case all you have to do is back up, put some distance between each other and the process will have to stop."
"Let's see... Clyde and... Ty, two good students, why don't you come up and be the example." Clyde rose without hesitation, but Ty rolled his eyes internally. /Of course, it had to be when I have no idea what I'm doing./ Ty frantically studied his memories as he walked up to the front of the class.
"Clyde, I want you to be on offense first. Clyde will try to penetrate Ty and read his mind, and Ty must defend against it. You need to be very close, you both know that, come on." He put his hands on both their shoulders and faced them towards each other. He pushed the boys together despite a natural repulsion effect between them. They came to touch foreheads, Clyde looking down at the shorter boy and Ty looking up, first feeling the unusual feeling of a hard skull, their breathing on each other, their noses bumping, the uncomfortable heat. But then they had to grab each other's upper arms, feeling the other's positively squeezable muscles and enjoying how their protruding pecs brushed against each other as they closed their eyes.
"Eventually, when you do really well at this kind of thing, you may be able to control his mind! Ready? Begin!" His hands fall off their shoulders.