“Sure, Bro, what’s up?” Drake asked, putting a hand on Chong-Hui’s shoulder in concern as he studied his friend's stern expression. However, just as Chong-Hui got up enough steam to try and talk about whatever was bothering him, he was cut off by an alarm sounding from Drake’s pocket.
“I don’t know about you, but when I woke up this morning-” Chong-Hui attempted to say as the alarm went off a second time.
Glancing at the clock out of the corner of his eye, Drake realized that his first period would be starting in a matter of minutes, and he would have to sprint if he wanted to make it in time. Turning back to his friend with a reassuring smile, “Shit, man, I’m gonna be late to class. Can this wait till lunch? My treat, I promise I’ll hear you out then.”
Drake was already in the process of moving away, watching his friend seem distracted for a moment before the fog seemed to lift from his eyes at the promise of free food. “Don’t make that promise lightly, man, you know I can put away a ton. As it is, I’m already staving!” the Korean boy smiled.
“You and me both dude!” Drake said, and as if on cue, his stomach let out a gurgling sound to prove his point. Both boys let out a good laugh, glad that the tension in the room seemed to evaporate in an instant. Karen watching off from the side, where she was organizing papers, she kept an eye on the two boys as Drake ran off a sense of relief at her shoulders.
---
As Drake made his way across the quad in a rush, he gripped his gut as it continued to rumble as if it was running on empty. He had only been half-joking about being hungry before, but he was starting to feel some serious hunger pains. Flipping off his backpack from his shoulder so that he could dig around to see if he had some kind of snack hidden away, he had a strange sensation that this was strange.
“I mean, I had a huge breakfast this morning, didn’t I?” He thought slightly annoyed at a sensation at the back of his head that he couldn’t place. However, that annoyance quickly moved to his stomach as it drew his attention away from his thoughts to his physical needs. That was when he found the large sports bottle of protein shake. He didn’t even remember making or packing the thing that morning, but his body didn’t allow him to dwell on the thought.
His stomach seemed to settle down at the mere sound of him popping the lid and took a glug. The satisfaction as his stomach settled down wiped any concern away. After all, with all the time he spent in the gym meant that his metabolism was off the chart. Without a heavy-duty protein shake, he doubted he could stay focused through class, let alone make it to lunch. Thank god Chong-Hui had suggested they each buy one of these massive bottles at the one day when they went from the gym directly to a study session.
"Wait, wasn’t last night the first night that they had worked out together? No, that doesn’t make sense, not with these gains.” Drake rationalized as he flexed his bicep, not noticing that his snug shirt sleeve was riding up even more than it had been this morning. He marveled at how effective those all-natural protein mixes worked.
With his increasingly larger strides, he made it to the classroom with mere moments to spare. The professor was already getting prepared to start the class as he slid through the door, the other students already seated. Drake on autopilot moved to sit in the back of the room to avoid too much attention. Yet he stopped when he saw the glances he got from various other guys and girls. He could feel them studying his form even as they tried to hide it as the pretended to prepare for the lecture. “Why should I deny them something to look at?” The sense of confidence was altogether foreign, but felt good, as he knew his work was showing results. He eventually slid into his spot at the front of the class.
As he got out the various books for the class, he had to admit that sitting here was better regardless of who got a view of his body, since it meant that he could focus a lot better. After all, he had to be responsible for his grades. If he let his GPA slip, he would be off his various sports activities. Drake didn’t have time to register the fact that he did not remember signing up for any sports time at that exact moment. After all, the teams were only just an excuse for why he studied so hard. After all, his parents had beaten into him the value of education ever since he was old enough to attend a cram school.
His fuzzy memories were quickly cut off by the teacher beginning his lecture. Today for our study of global philosophy, along with the homework from last week, we will be doing some public readings. At that, the entire class groaned. In this class, these readings were never just readings; they were always followed by some huge paper or project.
However, the teacher only seemed to gain steam from their pain, “Today we will be reading about the philosophies of East Asia, the section begins on page 326.” He paused for the moment as the entire class quickly flipped through their textbooks, obviously not having prepared for this surprise, “Now then, Drake, you get the pleasure of reading first so pick whichever one that interests you,”
Drake glanced down at his book with a start scanning through the list decided to go with something that looked familiar. He hated the sense of guilt when he felt unprepared. He eventually decided on-