"...Paula, who is in charge of the Argentinian events."
Corey looked around for a moment to try and find Paula, and sure enough he found her handing out information packets and booklets about her background, Argentine history, and culture in the modern day. Paula was a pretty girl, somewhat tall and lean, fit and with breasts that immediately drew Corey's eye, though he quickly turned his gaze away. She was dressed in a tight sports top and a skirt - and it was obvious that Corey was not the only boy who was joining the club who had his eye on Paula.
"Hey," Corey felt a nudge at his side, "She's hot, huh." Corey turned and was rather surprised to see Eric Mitchell, one of the biggest jocks at the school, at his side looking at Paula. Eric was a big guy, about six foot three inches tall and 220 lbs of muscle even, and Corey at barely 130 lbs could not help but feel small.
Even so, as she handed out the pamphlets to someone else, she looked at Corey and Eric, and she waved at them flirtatiously. Corey almost felt his jaw drop, and Eric clapped his shoulder, which almost made Corey topple over, "Dude! Did you see that? I think she's into...er, one of us. Maybe both..." Eric seemed to be excited by that - while Corey was still somewhat baffled she would be possibly into HIM of all people.
Before long Eric left to go try out some of the activities in the Argentinian section, and Corey approached Paula, who seemed to be waiting for something. Damn she was even better looking up close. Her light tan really set off how beautiful she was. Corey had to use every ounce of restraint to not act like a total horny idiot around her, "H-Hey uh...Paula right? I'm...uh, I'm uh..."
"Hey, "uh", I'm Paula. No need to be shy, Corey. I know how it is." Oh, so she...knew who he was.
Corey guessed she probably had a list of students who'd be in her group of events. He nodded, "Yeah, sorry about that. I get super nervous about these kinds of things. Like, talking to people like...like you. Just seems you're really outta my league."
Paula seemed to get an idea out of this, and shook her head, "I don't believe in any of that popularity / social circle nonsense. In fact - how about you and I go workout after this class together? My gym's really lenient about guest passes."
Wow, he just went up to her and she wanted to go somewhere with him? Granted that somewhere was the gym, but still, Corey was almost rendered unable to so much as say anything from excitement. A pretty girl, one of THE prettiest girls, wanted to go to the gym, with him, and him alone. Corey finally managed to say, "Yes! Yes, ah, yeah, that sounds awesome, thanks Paula."
"No problem, Corey. Just meet me out in the parking lot after school, and I'll show you where the gym is. It's local, trendy and I think you'd like it."
Corey nodded, and even though he had the fitness of a bunch of sticks glued together, he was still excited for the opportunity to get to hang out with Paula. Sure the gym would probably be kind of humiliating, but if he could do it right...
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"I'm not so sure about this." Paula's car had been way too impressive and neat for him to be traipsing around in, and Corey was already feeling out of place again. 20 Fitness was a 2 story gym just down the street from the school and out by some nice restaurants. There was a real sense of polished glory to the place.
Too classy for a nerd like him, using his PE clothes as his workout clothes.
And then Paula put something in front of him, what looked like some kind of drink in a water bottle. Corey looked around and asked, "...what's that, Paula?"
"Your pre-workout drink, silly. I figured you'd need one to get you up and moving." She answered, and Corey was put right into a dilemma. He didn't like that sort of fizzy drink, the thing bubbling with all those weird ingredients. He didn't know how the jocks could stomach that kind of thing. But now, he didn't want to look like a jerk refusing Paula's drink she'd made for him...so he had to...
Corey took it up and quickly guzzled it down after some quick thank yous that probably sounded a little more contrived and insincere. But the minute Corey drank the preworkout, even as it went down, it was like a blast of energy went off inside of him, a dynamite charge that left Corey whispering as he finished, "...what the fuck...?"
"Amazing, isn't it?" Paula whispered to him, and then guided him inside.
Corey had to sign off on a waiver, which he barely felt cognizant of, his usual fine cursive written in haphazard and messy ways even as he was for whatever reason excited to get right to the workout. He had so much energy right now he needed to use it for something, dammit! So once the formalities were out of the way, Corey joined Paula on the floor. He, having only had experience in the PE Weight Room, felt really lost in the tremendous ground floor of the building, which seemed to be more of a free weights area.
Paula put a hand on Corey's shoulder and guided him over to a bench press. From there, she oddly seemed to take on an almost personal trainer like intensity, urging him to complete "reps" and "sets". He didn't know much about this outside of the jocks babbling about it during PE, but Corey adapted quickly and learned what those words meant.
He started with a paltry 15 lbs on each side of the bench bar, his muscles screaming at him and straining with each exertion as he chased down 12 reps, and even then once he was done, Paula gave him a minute's break before piling on another ten pounds. Corey usually would have refused or complained, but he was so incredibly full of energy right now that he felt compelled to continue. Now lifting 25 lbs on each side, Corey grit his teeth tight as the sweat started to streak his clothes and make his tan seem deeper.
He barely saw anything but the bar going up and down, his chest tight and feeling an incredible ache with each movement. Corey fought through it, grunting and groaning deep and in tune with the rise and fall of the bar. And then he felt something pulse in his chest as he hit the last rep. And for some reason, Corey looked at the weight, looked at Paula, and asked, "...ten...more pounds."
"You sure you can handle that Corey?"
"I gotta!!" Corey let out as he watched her pile on another ten pounds on each side, and this time it felt like his arms, his shoulders, and even the further tertiary moved muscles were on fire as Corey hit a full 135 lbs bench the first time. He was almost feeling faint, but each time he did he saw Paula and was brought back to the pain and glory of his first real time at the gym.
He barely knew how many reps he was doing, at least until failure hit him at rep 10. He was covered in sweat, and Paula laughed at the sight of him, "Let's get you cleaned up and on to your next exercise, big guy."
Corey passed the mirrors on the wall and saw his tan looked...deeper. His hair looked slightly different somehow, the sweat staining it had slightly darkened the fringes of his hair, and his muscles...his muscles! His body looked different, definitely different. His physique looked tighter, stronger, bigger, and his tan only made it more noticeable. His arms had never looked like that before, both bicep pressing out and making an impression in his shirt and his tricep beginning to press out against the sleeve's back. His shoulders were thriving and broad, almost tearing his old PE shirt. And his chest...his chest! He'd never seen his chest jut quite like that before.
Corey wanted to just take his shirt off and get to know all these new peaks and valleys, see if he had some kinda six pack now, but Paula was helping him get the sweat off of him with paper towels and he knew he didn't have time. He needed to finish his workout, then enjoy whatever was going on with him.