Jake knew the location of the football team’s coach, taking quick strides to reach the office and respect the school staff’s working hours. Coach Mark Bradley would join the football jocks in the field after school to see the progress of the football team, monitoring them.
Coach Mark was already out of his office, locking his doors in his getup to join his football team and coach them. Slowing down, Jake greets the coach. “Coach Mark! Do you have some spare time for me?”
The big and burly coach, standing at well over 6’3 and now equally the same height as Jake, paused to look at the incoming student. “Jake, what are you doing here?”
“I have a request, I want to join the football team and quit the soccer team.” Jake poses to show Coach his impressive body, preening. “I’m too big for that now, and I think football is more interesting.”
“Oh? Changing teams huh.” Mark placed a thick and calloused digit under his chin, thinking of the pros and cons. Seeing nothing wrong with it, he agrees. “Alright, I’ll deal with your registration tomorrow. For now, I’m going to meet up with my team and get them some practice. Do you want to join us?”
Jake contemplates his choice here, but he was still inexperienced in football. Some further study and research, along with the use of the jacket could provide him enough that he could join the team with an advantage, or a better starting point. “I don’t think I can for today, coach Mark, I’ll first get my soccer coach to let me go.”
Mark smiled, liking how respectful Jake could be. “Alright then, I’ll wait for you to join our team. You already have the build for it.”
“Thanks, Coach, I’ll be going now, thanks, man!” Jake takes off sprinting with a smile on his face. If this works, then he’d be able to get something he wants.
“Take care, Jake.” Mark chuckles a bit as he walks the other way, towards the school’s football field.
Jake reached home a bit later than usual, though his parents are not yet home until ten. Deciding to take his usual routine, Jake starts an hour of workout with the new yet familiar weights in his room. Dumbell curls and pushups, along with a good set for today.
Right after the workout, Jake showers and jerks one out. His emission coats the wall in a splatter of virile white. Jake cleans it out and finds himself with post-coital clarity. With this routine in place, he starts doing his homework alongside reading up on how to play football.
While it takes only a good two hours, it felt much shorter for him. His parents arrived half an hour ago and told Jake of dinner in an hour.
Finishing his work and research, Jake went down to eat. His parents, Michelle and Bart Vandersteen seem to be the same and haven’t changed much, but their memories certainly did.
“Proud of you, son.” Both of them say to Jacob, a pat on his wide back and a kiss from a loving mother.
Jake goes to bed that night, desiring to be the best football player on the team. He wears the jacket and falls asleep.
It was common knowledge that sleep is when the brain changes short-term to long-term memory, depending on the subconscious choosing what information was deemed important.
Jake dreams, finding himself on the football field. He couldn’t move willingly, but his body moved for him. He had no control here, finding himself playing as a passenger. The moves his body did, felt instinctual and ingrained into his muscles.
Suddenly playing the center, Jake found himself throwing a ball, a voice like his own escaping his mouth to give commands and adjustments, blocking a defensive player. Each time the ball flew out of his hands and lands in another, he found himself instead be the one catching the ball. Or he had to bash through a few defenses, or pull someone. He switches around to all the positions on the team, finding himself understanding each of them as if the educational videos he watched were being downloaded straight into his brain.
Rather than resisting, Jake followed the flow and begins moving in tandem to the bursts of understanding in his head of the game. Calls, shouts, and each touchdown repeat themselves in his brain to make sure it was drilled into his head, his body remembering it all as muscle memory.
After what seems like hours, Jake finds himself in class and as he looks around, finds versions of himself in the seats, of different positions in the football team. Instinctively knows who each of them is, but one was missing. He notices that he was at the front of the class, and upon realizing that he was the captain of the team, he jerks awake.
“That was a wild ride…” Jake sits up, noticing his room slightly changed from last night. His books were left open on the desk, some of his football jerseys laying in a basket to be washed. What was once a tidy room now holds the tell-tale signs of a busy football jock. While the important things that he holds dear are neatly stored in the bookshelves, like his action figure collection, he could see the free weights on the workout mat placed without being a neat freak. There was this hidden smell of musk under the calming room cleanser smell, and taking a sniff of his body revealed that he naturally has it.
Remembering school, Jake takes a good shower and goes down to get breakfast. His parents prepared a meal for him already, a healthy diet that he somehow finds it familiar, as if he asked for it. Finishing his meal, he leaves for school, jogging there with his strong legs.
Jake feels excited to find out what changed overnight.