After dinner, I headed to my room with Chang. The closer we got the more I started to freak out inside my head. I’m going to get caught. How am I going to change in front of him? When we got to the room Chang unlocked the door and we went in.
“Well, I’m headed to bed. Been a long day.” Chang said. He started pulling off his shirt and pushing off his pants. He threw them into a corner on his side of the room and climbed into bed. I sat on my bed trying not to look at him, but it was so hard. The way his body moved when he reached up over his head and pulling his shirt off; the muscles in his chest and arms rippled. I waited until I heard his deep breaths of sleep before changing. I usually wear a nightgown to bed but now that I’m a boy I couldn’t do that. Mushu said that a large t-shirt and basketball shorts were the best things to wear to bed. He was right they were so comfortable. Climbing into bed I kept thinking about Chang’s rippling muscles, his hard abs, and smooth tan skin. I laid down thinking that I will never be able to sleep tonight, but as soon as my head hit the pillow I fell fast asleep.
My first day of school was strange. Guys were nice to me and girls flirted with me. I had fun in fencing and archery club, but the martial arts club was hard. Their training was excessive and straining; I had a hard time keeping up. We held positions longer, practiced them over and over again, we fought against each other. I’m used to it being hard, but I never thought about how much harder it would be here. Chang being the captain led us in a series of punches and kicks. We kept up with the one sequence of movements for what felt like hours. I was ready to fall over when Chang finally said that we were done. I dropped down and downed a bottle of water.
“You did well today.” I looked up to see Chang standing over me.
“ We never trained this hard back home.” He smiled and ruffled my hair.
“Well welcome to the united states.” He held out his hand and helped me up. “If you want some side help with training just ask. I’ll help you.” With that, he turned and walked away. I could feel my heart beat a little faster. I met up with Mushu outside the club room.
“How’s it going?” he asked throwing an arm around my shoulders.
“I’m tired. That was a lot harder than I’m used to.” Mushu shrugged
“You’re used to a small town gym where they didn’t push you very hard. You’ll have to work harder if you want to advance.” I nodded in agreement. We stopped in the dining room for dinner before heading up to my room. I was so tired I didn’t bother to change. I just plopped down on my bed and passed out. Shoes still on and one of my legs hanging off the side of the bed.
Someone’s shaking me. I rolled over taking my sheets with me.
“Dude wake up. We’re going to be late for class.” I peeked open my eyes to see who was yelling at me. When I found Chang’s face not even in inch from mine I freaked and sat up real quick. Bumping our heads in the process.
“Ow.” We said at the same time. I looked up at him.
“I’m sorry,” I said as he waved his hands in my face.
“No, no it’s fine just get dressed were going to be late if we don’t hurry.” He sat down on his bed to put his shoes on. I quickly grabbed my clothes and started to unbuckle my pants when I froze. What am I going to do?
I grabbed my clothing and ran for the door.
“Bathroom, I’ll meet you in class just tell them I’m coming.” I didn’t wait for an answer I just opened the door and ran. Once in the bathroom, I changed as fast as I could, dropped my dirty clothes off at our room and ran to class. When I got to class it had already started. Mr. Pacha had his back to the class and was writing on the board. The moment I stepped in he spoke.
“Nice of you to join us, Mr. Ping. Please take a seat and open your book to page one twenty.” And just like that, I knew today was going to be a bad one. In the mixed martial arts club, Chang pushed us even harder. By the time, it was over I was laying on the mat pinned by Hercules. He lifted himself off me and reached out a hand to help me off the sweaty mat, Chang walked over to us.
“Good work. But you need help, meet me here every day after dinner.” Unable to argue I nodded and grabbed my water. Herk patted me on the shoulder.
“You should take that as a compliment." Herules said. "He sees potential in you. When I first started here last year I was a scrawny little thing. I was strong for my size but hadn’t reached my potential. Chang took me under his wing and trained me. Every day we would meet up after dinner. Over that time, I built up. Learned to control my strength and movements. Now, thanks to him, I’m very confident in myself.” I smiled up at him.
“Thanks.” I checked the time and freaked, I only have an hour to shower eat and do homework. I booked it to the showers and then ran to the dining hall. I ordered my food to go; which I thought was really cool, having never heard of a school where you could order food to go. Books and food in hand I ran to the garden. There is a small area behind the rose bushes that is hidden behind a wall. The place was covered with rose vines. Making you feel like the only person in the world. I don’t think anyone knows about it when I first found the small area it was covered in dead leaves and sticks. I cleaned it up and decided this would be my space, where I can relax and be myself. I opened my homework and started on my dinner.
I was struggling with my math when I heard a rustling and looked up. Chang was walking into my secret place. When he noticed me he looked surprised.
“What are you doing here?” We both said at once. I told him how I found the place and he nodded.
“Yeah, the same thing happened to me when I first started here last year. This is the first time I’ve been back here since school started.” We both got quite, I went back to my work while he bit into his pizza. I was still struggling with a math problem when he asked if I wanted help and leaned across the table to look at the problem. He studied the problem and took a piece of scrap paper to work it out. He explained as he went.
“You have to break the problem into sections.” He did it in a way that helped me understand. We worked on more problems together going over them step by step so I understood everything. I looked up and found his face really close to mine. I jumped and backed away breaking the spell we had woven around ourselves.
“Ah,” Chang said when he looked at his watch. “We should head up to the club room if we’re going to get any work done today.” I nodded and we headed up. He helped me with my stances, positioning my arms and legs then slowly showing me how to do the movement. This went on for hours, every time he came up behind me or touched me in any way my chest got warm and my heart fluttered. I’m not sure what I’m feeling and I can’t decide if I like it or not.
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