Mr. Hess was the math teacher.
When I showed up, he did not ask me about homework, he did not call on me to answer question or do work on the board. He counted himself lucky that I came to class and was not disruptive, and hoped that I might pick something up from what he was trying to teach.
About thirty minutes in a folded note was tossed on my desk. Mr. Hess was involved at the black board, so he did not see me open it.
Casey, my parents are gone from Wednesday to Friday. I have the house to myself. I want you to come by. Bradley won't bother us because of practice and homework on a weeknight. T.M.
Traci Moore was a pretty little popular rich girl that loved to look at herself in the mirror. She loved to fuck cowgirl, because it made it easier for her to watch herself. Bradley was her swim team captain boyfriend. He also, so I have been told by Traci, likes to fuck doggy because he likes to watch himself in the mirror too.
Traci was entertaining in small doses. The thought of over night alone with her in her parents empty house was not very appealing. She was at the front row of the classroom, kitty corner from me. She glanced over, tossing her long dark hair. I shook my head and crumpled up her note and tossed it in the can a few feet away.
She pouted, sticking out her lip and making puppy eyes, which usually got her what she wanted, except from me, which was one of the things that kept her coming back to me. She huffed and turned away.
Her friend, Julie Preston, leaned over and whispered something quick in her ear. They both giggled quietly, looked at me and then Traci wrote another note.
The new note said, Julie says that she can be there too...
That could change things, as then they could talk to each other instead of me, to leave me free to drink her father's expensive imported beer and single malt scotch.
I made a show of taking a big breath and letting out a deep sigh, as if she had worn me down in some intense negotiations, and nodded yes.
They had their heads together whispering when Mr. Hess asked Traci if she would please share with the class what they were talking about, or... come up to the board and solve the problem he had just finished explaining. She slowly got up and went to the board.
The weight room was not mine alone, though, when I wanted to be by myself I could usually find it empty except for 6th period, when the sports teams used it before practice. I wanted to get a quick couple of sets before I showered and got ready for my date with Mrs. Hamilton. Mostly I was left alone even when the teams were there, but today was a light crowd... only a couple of the track and field guys.
Reed was not unnoticed when he crossed the threshold, but he was not harassed as he tentatively made his way into the weight room. Stick legs and stick arms shooting out of gym shorts that would never be the right size and a tee-shirt that hung loose. I did a set of 10 shoulder presses with 90lbs. Reed watched, standing in the middle of some free weights. Someone had not cleaned up and there were a couple of low weight bars scattered about.
Reed was out of his element, casting about for how to start. Asking for help would have been risky... everyone knew he was new meat and unsure, so there was a better than even chance that he would have been set up to fail miserably. Sometimes you have to risk it and ask, take your lumps and earn your way in by not quitting, other times you take a chance and don't ask, you risk injury and being laughed at, but again, you take your lumps and don't quit, at least you don't if you want something enough.
Reed decided not to ask. Instead he bent down and picked up a 15lb bar with a 15lb plate on each end. 45lbs. He got it to his hips, then wrestled it to his shoulders. He should have stopped there, but he had watched me press and went ahead and attempted to get it up over his head. He off balanced himself, tried to step back and get control but tripped over one of the other bars. He went over backwards landing on his back across a third bar, in the small of his back, the bar he was holding landed across his neck. The plates held the bar up off of his neck, but, with his back arched across a bar, he had absolutely zero leverage and a less than zero chance of lifting that bar off of himself. One of the high jumpers doing leg presses started to point and laugh as Reed began to panic, until I stood up and walked over to Reed. No one else laughed loud enough to be heard.
His eyes were wide and his breathing was crazy. He was almost hyperventilating. I grabbed the bar and lifted it off with one hand then grabbed his arm with the other and pulled him to his feet.
"Fucking sloppy mother fuckers, leaving shit laying all about like this. Accidents waiting to happen. You have be careful about shit laying around."
I could see he was embarrassed, almost too embarrassed to speak, but he managed a "Thank you".
He turned to leave.
"Wait Reed."
"No... it was a stupid idea. I can't do this... I don't know anything about it."
He turned to run away again.
"Wait a sec." I said as I bent down and removed the two plates. I picked up the bar and turned around to face him. "How's your back?"
"Hurts."
"Good, it should, I would be surprised if it didn't, but you lucked out. It would have been much worse if it had been across your shoulders. Here, take this. By itself it is 15lbs and would be a good place to start."
I held it out to him with one hand.
"I don't know Casey... this wasn't one of my smartest moments."
"No... probably not... as smart as you are, I would expect you to learn something about what you were going to try before you jumped in, but hey, you surprised me once today, why not twice..."
He was still undecided and stepped back one step.
"Look Reed... it already happened. Tomorrow you are going to have to deal with everyone knowing what happened because someone saw it happen. So not doing anything more is not going to fix that, then you will just prove to everyone that their mockery is justified. Stay, and do a couple of sets with less weight, controllable weight, even after you got hurt and showed your ass, they can't laugh as long or as hard if you get up again. Find a way to laugh at it with them and it won't so bad, but you can't do that if you quit. Take the bar."
I walked back over to the other area and my bar.
"Bring it over here, away from all that mess."
He picked his way out of the tangle, balancing the bar.
I brought my bar up to my chin and said, "Technique is as important as weight. Learn to do it correctly and it will make every pound count more."
I went up and down once slowly.
"Now you."
"it's hard, not like before, but it hurts." He said as he brought it back down to has chin.
"Its going to hurt a lot more tomorrow, and you should feel some every work out or you aren't trying... one of the things to learn is what is too much and what is not enough..."
He opened his mouth to protest again but I cut him off.
"You showed me something about yourself today Reed, something, it sounds like you saw but don't really believe it yet. I can't make you do this, I don't want to, but you can do it, and it will be good for you. Will you look like me next month? Nope... but you will see a difference. Its no different than playing your violin. You start out learning notes and practicing scales, not playing symphonies. It takes work and time... and that takes discipline and that takes desire.