The day was proceeding much as it had been. Seth's mind was so prone to distraction that he couldn't function in school anymore. In calculus class he spent the whole period imagining little men skiing down the face of the teacher's function plots. The parabolas were like hills, and the tangent lines served as long jumps. He couldn't grasp even the most basic concepts of the material anymore.
His capstone research project class was the best. He just goofed off the entire period in the library creating a fantasy football team, until he fell in with a group of jocks. Then he just chilled with them on the beanbag chairs in the reading corner until the end of the period. He hoped he could at least keep this class, if not any of the others.
Now he was siting at his desk, staring vacantly into space with a dopey expression, waiting to start his final class of the day, British Literature.
Max trudged through the door looking like he bore the weight of the world. The moment he laid eyes on Seth, his entire body seemed to slump further into despondent anguish. Seth on the other hand was happy to see his friend after a long boring day of much-too-difficult classes.
"Hey Max." He said with enthusiasm, having forgotten their earlier unpleasant interaction in the locker room.
"Hi." Max said tersely, reluctantly sliding into his seat trying his best to source his breathing supply from as far away from Seth as possible. Max hated sitting next to Seth, he was the worst student in the class, practically illiterate. He had no business being in an AP course, but there were no official criterion for AP placement; college credit was only earned by passing the AP test at the end of the year so anybody could sign up if they wanted, and for some reason the brute sitting next to him had thrown his lot in with the literary geeks. He wouldn't mind it so much if he didn't have to sit next to the guy. He smelled awful and since he was so close they often got paired together for group projects.
"Did you finish your half of the David Copperfield essay?" Max asked Seth, already assuming the answer would be 'no'.
"Huh?" Seth said confused...
"Remember? Our paper and presentation that are due tomorrow? I was supposed to write about the themes and literary devices, and you were supposed to cover the structure, form, and semantics. You were meant to bring your half today so I could type up the final draft."
"Oh, yeah. I did that. Oh, shoot! I left it at home!"
"Typical." Max thought, growing upset. "Did you at least type it up this time? You know I can't read your chicken scratch."
"Uh, no I wrote it out... but It looks really nice... Don't worry." Seth said reassuringly.
Max wished he could just do the project himself and submit it for them both, but they were required to be equal contributors. Their grade hinged on them both knowing the material when they presented their paper, so he HAD to make sure Seth knew what they had written.
"I guess we'll have to meet up after school and type it up together." He said grumbling. "I'm not spending another night decoding your fever scribbles."
"Sounds great." Seth said excitedly. "I'll run home after school and then head over to your place."
"Oh no." Max said shaking his head amply. "My Mom is hypernosmic which makes her extremely sensitive to smells and she's not letting you come back to my house. Not ever. The last time you came over we had to have the floor steam cleaned from the smell your feet left in the carpet. They had to use a special enzyme treatment and everything. It was awful and expensive."
"Huh? But I just got these feet today..." Seth thought slowly
"We'll have to do it at your house. I'll meet you there first thing after school." Max said, eager to end the discussion
"Sure thing boss." Seth said, still maintaining his bright mood. "Oh, wait. I have to meet with the coach real quick before I go home."
"Fine. After that then." Max offered impatiently
"Oh, and I've got detention too..." Seth said uncomfortably
"Jesus Christ. Just call me when you're ready and I'll come over, OK?" Max said, succumbing to his frustrations.
"Hey, is there something wrong?" Seth asked, noticing his friend seemed unhappy.
"Forget about it. I don't want to talk anymore, I just want to get today over with." Max said in an anger modulated whisper as he seemed to flinch agitatedly.
"Hey. If something's wrong, you can tell me. We're friends." Seth offered genuinely
"Friends? FRIENDS? We are not friends!" Max replied furiously, becoming unstable. "You're a fucking worthless, brutish, intellectually bereft lamprey, parasitically extracting every ounce of my mental and physical vitality. You're a loathsome, festering, corpus of bestial thoughts and urges, shambling through life without purpose, without value, and without hope. And since I'm well aware of your mental deficiencies I'll reiterate in lingua franca... You are dumb.... You are gross... I don't like you."
Seth sat stunned unable to adequately absorb what Max had sad. He knew he was hurt deeply but he didn't know if he should be mad, or if he'd really done something wrong, or what... He sat in silent reflection for most of the class vacillating from angered and offended to sorrowful and penitent and back again.
"...What did that little shit say to me?.." "...I oughta beat his sorry ass..."
"...This isn't like him..." "Am I a jerk to him in this reality?.." "...Is his life so much harder without the old me as his friend?.."
"...I said I did the work; big deal if I didn't type it all nice..." "...If his mom can't stand the smell of a real man it's no wonder his dad abandoned them..."
"...He seemed so lonely in gym class, I should have pushed to get him on our team, he could have shared the win..."
"...I've done just as much in our class projects as he has..." "...At least I actually shower after gym class, little bitch boy..."
"...Maybe he's just had a bad day, I should have respected that he didn't want to talk. I pushed him too hard..."
Eventually the class ended. Seth had been able to get through relatively unscathed, suffering only a single instance of deep humiliation when he was asked to read out loud for the class and butchered the pronunciation of the word "chaos". Until that point the kids had been able to stifle their laughter at the boy's inability to read fluently... They were pretty used to it by now, after all.
As the students left, Seth noted that Max was making an effort to duck out without speaking to him.. He let him go, not wanting to provoke a confrontation, and proceeded to head back to the locker room to meet with coach before he had to report for his detention sentence.
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"Hey bro! I didn't see you all day." Brian said, catching sight of his son.
"Yeah, hey." Seth said, confidently initiating the customary dap on his own. "It's great to see you now though. Today kind of sucked..."
"Oh, dang... I wanna hear about it, but we gotta catch Coach quick. I really want you to meet him." Brian said enthusiastically
The two boys strode into the locker room catching Coach Chase just as he was leaving.
"Hey boys. What's going on?" Coach Chase asked, not seeming to mind staying a little while longer.
"I just wanted you and Seth to meet." Brian said excitedly. "You guys never get to talk without his dad around, and since he's out of town, I thought it might be a good chance to see how you two hit it off on your own..."
"Well, that's just fine." Coach Chase said warmly. "I always enjoy interacting with my students, but I do have to be going soon. I've got some after school responsibilities to attend to."
They started talking about things, in brief. Sports, the school's various teams and chances of success this season, Seth's interests and hobbies, etc. When it came to light that Seth was a giant sports nut, Coach Chase expressed his confusion why he'd never joined any teams. Seth said it might have been because of his Dad, not wanting to venture into his domain at his place of work...
"Well, I don't mean to push you or anything." Coach Chase said gently "But we could really use a man like you on the football team. Darren Tallow is moving to Alaska. Today was his last day. Military brats can be a real blessing if you can get 'em, but they never last long... Since your Dad's not around... Maybe this is the perfect time for you to be yourself. Get out there and play like you always dreamed! What do you say?"
Seth pondered the idea, feeling uncertain and looking hesitant.
"It wouldn't have to be permanent or anything. Just a trial run to see how you like it. If it doesn't work out you can be off the team and everything will be back to normal before your Dad gets back from Texas."
"You know what? I'll do it!" Seth said happily, feeling relieved that he finally took the plunge.
"Terrific!" Coach Chase said approvingly, looking down at his clip board "Lets see, we'll make you number 28."
Coach Chase wandered over to a seldom accessed locker in the far corner of the room and fished out a training jersey emblazoned with a large white '28' and handed it to Seth.
"There you go. It's a done deal. We'll have a proper one made up for you in time for the big game. There are going to be college scouts there, so we wanna make sure they know who you are. This could be great for your future..."
"Number 28, Danton" he said scribbling on his clipboard. "Say, that gives us a Danton pair! Numbers 28 and 82, how about that?.. That works out nice... The bash brothers! I can't wait to see you both out on the field... Listen I gotta go... Darren left his gear in his old locker, number 336, he already returned his padlock so it's just there for the taking. Brian, could you get Seth situated with Darren's old gear and show him a bit of how we do things? Maybe run him through a few drills? I'd really appreciate it."
"Yes Sir, Coach." Brian replied with conviction.
"Actually, I have detention right now." Seth said, shifting his weight and placing his hand behind his head in embarrassment.
"Not to worry." Coach Chad said happily. "As today's honorable detention monitor, I hereby grant you an official pardon. I only wish I could pardon myself." He continued with a sigh...
"You boys have a good time, and welcome to the team!" Coach Chad said, bidding them farewell.
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Seth felt strong and powerful kitted out in Darren's old pads. Someone had clearly done a half-assed (if assed at all) job of cleaning the pads up, but Seth didn't mind... Darren was hot, and if anything the raunchy pads were something of a secret turn on for him now. The way the smell seemed to penetrate deep into the pad's foam, the cool moist feeling he got when he first put them on. The growing field of odor that floated around him as his body heat reawakened the fragrance of Darren's deposited essence. It was intoxicating.
Brian was thrilled at the progress his son had made. At long last he was a jock on the football team. He relished the chance to drill the boy and put his new body through it's paces. He wanted to see what his son could do and he was not disappointed. Brian's relentless drilling lasted for hours but Seth's stamina seemed limitless and Brian couldn't be more proud.
"So what made this such a sucky day, Seth?" Brian asked as they walked back inside
"You know. It's gotten a lot better since then..." Seth said thoughtfully. "It looks like I'm going to be kicked out of most of my classes, but I guess it's alright. I get new easier classes and then I can get good grades... Plus Coach says there's going to be scouts at the big game. Maybe I can impress them and it'll get me into a good college! That's what I was really worried about... Plus I got detention, but then coach got me out of that... In the end things worked out really good."
"Hey, problems solved. Glad to hear it." Brian said, relieved.
"Only there was Max..." Seth said, going on to explain the bizarre interactions and unusual behavior he'd witnessed. "I just wish we could be friends again."
"Maybe I can help with that." Brian said. "Remember that jacket I let you wear... Well, it's magic."
Brian went on to explain the properties of the jacket and how he came to have it and even the fact that he had used it on Seth, though he left out the part about being his father. Seth was overwhelmed by the idea. He'd wanted answers, but he didn't expect anything like this.
"So you're saying you can change me back so Max and I can be friends again?" Seth asked, uncertain.
"No, I don't see how that would even be possible. I've never seen anyone stop being a jock after wearing the jacket or even get less jock-like. I was suggesting you get Max to wear the jacket and join you in jockhood." Seth replied slyly.
"If the jacket did this to me, why do I keep changing whenever I get off?" Seth asked out of nowhere
"Couldn't tell you." Brian replied honestly. "I haven't noticed any changes when I jack off. Maybe I'm fully changed?"
"Yeah..." Seth said falling into thought.
"Anyway, that's the only idea I've got. If you wanna be friends again, it'll have to be as jocks, but at least he'll be happy. If he's as miserable now as you say, you really owe it to him." Brian said convincingly.
"I guess you're right..." Seth said trailing off. "What if you put the jacket back on? Will you become a double jock? If I put it on again would I finish my changes, or am I done now?"
"I don't know any more than what I've told you..." Brian replied. "You're welcome to experiment though. I'll give you the jacket before you leave."