A physical exam.
Human physiology expert and part-time teacher Winston Moss had careened through the lecture room doors and declared that we were becoming part of an experiment. He adjusted his glasses and smiled as he launched into an explanation as to the purpose of the forced exercise. I recognized this as one of the early ‘special events’ that contained unique dialogue depending on which romance track you had taken. It still surprised me that even this had been translated into ‘real life.’ Depending on what stats you trained Samantha in, there could be several different outcomes. Generally, those stats didn’t have much of an impact on the game besides gating certain events from the player.
“As part of my tenure here at the royal academy, I’ve been conducting research into the effects of exercise on younger people. It’ll also provide us with a fine opportunity to talk about the human body.”
There was a groan of protest from some of the non-active class members, but they could not go against the orders of one of our teachers without incurring penalties and detention periods. I was suffering under a completely different dilemma. I had been training my body for years at this point – resulting in an enhanced level of stamina, strength and speed that would be sure to elicit many questions from those watching in the peanut gallery.
“I always say that a healthy body is a healthy mind. I won’t ask you to do any more than what you are capable of, but I want some earnest effort from all of you. We’ll be recording times,” he said, holding aloft a brass stopwatch and piece of paper. “Let’s go. We only have an hour together.”
Everyone dragged their feet as much as possible as we were led to the sporting grounds on the extremities of the campus with spare clothes in hand. Sports like football and a modified version of baseball were popular forms of entertainment, and formalised sports leagues were starting to congregate and host competitions to see who was the best. The academy also had its own internal teams for each. Most participated without any expectations of turning it into a job. It was a social event designed to keep fit more than anything else. To accommodate them, there was a selection of facilities designed for sporting endeavours – including athletics like running and long jumping. They were rather anachronistic additions to the setting, but I wasn’t the original writer. I’d have to reserve my complaints for the next life.
The girls and boys separated into the changing rooms and started to switch into more appropriate clothing. I found a nice, isolated spot in the corner and attempted to do the same without anyone drawing attention to me. It was going to be tough. I couldn’t contort my body into the correct position without flexing my muscles, and the clothes I had with me exposed my legs and arms much more than the uniform. The whispers started to circulate quickly about my choice of underwear and my build.
“Woah, check out Lady Maria!”
“She’s so pretty, but she has such a muscular body...”
My eye twitched as yet another bullet point was added to the increasingly lengthy list of urban legends about me. I did my best to change quickly and get out of sight before anybody else got funny ideas about why I was so ripped at the age of thirteen. Not that it was possible for a young, pubescent girl to build muscles like I used to have in my old life, anyway. The difference was still loud and clear. Anyone who took their health seriously stood out from the crowd. Samantha was not spared the observational comedy thanks to her height and robust build. She was the very image of a girl who ate well and worked hard.
We left the changing room and lined up at the edge of the track. Since I was the one who had left first, I was also the one who had to wait the longest for everyone else. It was a nice day, but it was still cold when I was standing there in a shirt and knee-length pants. Professor Moss was beside himself in anticipation. This was one of the concessions that the headmaster had given away to earn his spot on the rotating roster of tutors we had to deal with.
Unethical? Perhaps. A convenient excuse to have Samantha, Maria and the love interests interact? Certainly.
Adrian was already limbering up behind the line. He smirked and flexed his arms in a poor attempt to intimidate me. “This is going to be a rare humiliation for you, Maria. There is simply no prospect of you getting one over on me in athletics. It’ll be my victory!”
I stared at him, “This is not a competition.”
“Running scared already! It is okay. I will accept your surrender without conditions attached.”
I wasn’t going to stand for that kind of talk. Adrian had activated my competitive side. Initially, I was going to hold back and avoid making myself stand out, but he pissed me off by running his mouth again. I was going to crush him and his pride into little pieces, and everyone would get to see it happen. I did some stretches to warm up my muscles while the rest of the class filtered out into the yard.
Moss was rambling his way through some factoids about the human body; “The muscles that we use to move are made of fibres, long connected strings of cells that can be broken down and rebuilt. By moving today, you’ll reconstruct them in a few days’ time to be stronger than before. I’d like to go through some exercises that will work every part of your body! Let’s begin with some shorter challenges, before moving to the longer ones.”
He had already retrieved a basket filled with baseballs from the field shed. The first task was to throw one as far as it could go. He’d measure the distance travelled and make a leaderboard so that we could compare our scores. Samantha was up first. She took one of the balls from the basket and wound up, releasing it with a fairly powerful throw that carried it halfway across the field. Moss unwound a long tape measure and travelled from her launching point until he had a firm estimate of how far it had gone. The audience was impressed with her initial effort. A lot of the boys struggled to get close to her record. She was only pipped for the top spot ten contestants later by one of the athletic kids.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Adrian was up next, and there was a collective eye-roll through everyone present as he started showboating before he even stepped up to the mark. He took his sweet time selecting the ‘optimal’ ball to throw too, hoping that every little edge would allow him to finally win a contest versus me after years of acrimonious meetings. He wound up, kicking his leg into the air as he went, and released it at a poor angle. It lacked both velocity and height, skipping off the ground and coming to a halt some distance behind the rest of the top quadrant. Regardless, he believed that it was enough to beat me judging by the cocky smirk on his face as he returned to the line.
“Miss Walston-Carter.”
It was fate. I walked up and took a random ball from the basket, palming it to get a feel for the texture and weight. I stepped onto the mark and cracked my wrist. I wound up and threw it, using my reflexes to pick the best possible angle. It soared through the air as I put more strength into it than I had intended.
It kept going, and going, and going. I winced internally as it flew past the number one spot and landed at the other end of the field. The class was left in stunned silence as I leapfrogged the rest of the competition and took my place at the top spot. Moss threw up his hands and grumbled knowing that he had to walk the full length of the field to measure it, “I suppose that’s the winning throw!”
Adrian was silent as the other boys ribbed him for pouting about it.
----------------------------------------
Samantha, Claudius and Maxwell were regrouping away from the crowd after the first round of their impromptu sports day. Samantha had seen a lot of strange things through Maria, but this was a new high in terms of absurdity. She had destroyed the record of one of the boys who was a full-time member of the baseball club! She hadn’t even broken a sweat, and it was impossible to ignore the muscles that popped out from under her skin when she did it. In fact, her entire body was extremely toned and well-maintained. It was embarrassing to admit – but she had spied on her briefly while she changed.
“I keep telling you, there’s something going on with that girl,” Claudius gloated, “Do you think that a normal lady would be capable of doing something like that?”
“She’s good at throwing, so what?” Maxwell replied.
“Ah, don’t say that! She just made Johnathan look like an amateur!”
“He is an amateur.”
“You get what I mean,” Claude scoffed. Even if Johnathan was a new member of the club and he wasn’t particularly amazing at fielding, he still should have been able to beat Maria in a throwing competition. Maria had never indicated that she was secretly a huge fan of sports. It only acted to further inflame his curiosity. It also reinforced his mistaken belief that Maria had punched a tree to pieces to intimidate Felipe.
Samantha was similarly entranced with the young noble. She had a clear view of how her limbs reacted as they moved through the air, “I have to say that her body is very well trained. It looks like she has been exercising regularly.”
Max’s brow raised, “What did the professor say, a healthy body is a healthy mind? I guess it would make sense given how much of a perfectionist she seems to be.”
Claudius jumped back in, “Or perhaps it’s just training so that she can be a human weapon! She could kill us all using her bare hands!”
Maxwell laughed, “She might be athletic, but I highly doubt a girl that short could wrap her hands around my neck.” He always lavished in the attention that came with being one of the tallest boys in the first year. His admirers were numerous – though he did not often humour their attempts to win his heart as he had no interest in romance at the moment. If anyone, Samantha was the girl who interested him the most by virtue of being so different to everyone else. Out of respect for her decision-making, he had not revealed this small crush openly.
Though at the moment, it seemed to him that Samantha was more infatuated with Lady Maria than him. Was she starting to fall for her feminine wiles as well? Heaven forbid that one of the female students not become a rabid fan of hers.
The next challenge issued was a short sprint from the mark to the halfway line on the field, which would be recorded using a stopwatch. Moss travelled through the list of students once more. Adrian Rederro would not be deterred by his first defeat at Maria’s hands. He set off from a kneeling position like a bloodhound seeking its prey. He managed the full sprint in nineteen seconds. Maxwell, Claudius and Samantha could all feel the punchline coming from a mile away.
Maria lined up from the same spot, touched the ground with the tips of her fingers, and launched herself at full pelt. The girls cheered and squealed as her black hair waved in the wind. She dashed across the grass at a blindingly fast speed – skidding to a halt as she passed the professor. He pressed the button, his eyes bulging outwards at the recorded time.
“Fifteen seconds, very impressive.”
Adrian was furious, again. Though any words he could have offered as an excuse would only further his alienation from the class. Maria had smashed his record and didn’t even break a sweat while she was at it. She returned to the starting line without a single indicator that she had just performed an intense sprint. Her breath remained even and her skin was untouched by the cruel hand of perspiration.
“God above, she was like a bullet!” Claudius yelled, “At what point does this stop being normal to you? She’s strong, she’s fast – it’s completely contradictory to the way that she carries herself.”
“Even a noble lady might be interested in staying fit,” Samantha said.
The excuses continued rolling, as did Maria’s categorical dismantling of the rest of the class. Even at an age where the physical differences between the boys and girls had become more apparent with the onset of puberty, she ran rings around them. Every achievement would be undercut by her in short order, and every single time she returned to the group with the same expressionless glare. Adrian had made a serious error of judgement by challenging her. Claudius was feeling a similar sense of frustration as his friends continued to bat away his observations.
It didn’t add up! How could a lady like Maria have so much athletic acumen? Where did she find the time to study, train and practice magic all at once? There must have been a secret to it. Claudius wanted to know – and there was only methodology he could think of. Maria had spoken with him at length while tutoring him in biology a few weeks ago. If he could convince the professor that he needed tutoring again, then perhaps he could pry away some answers by making small talk. He smirked. That was it! A great plan that couldn’t possibly go wrong.
Claudius had to admit that he scared himself with his own genius sometimes.