Gladiators of the Gridiron

That Monday, school couldn’t end fast enough for Ty. There wouldn’t even be a team practice that afternoon … but he did still have something to look forward to, which only made the day drag on longer.

Once that final bell rang, he was the first out of the door. He hadn’t been able to focus on anything any of his teachers had said the whole day.

When he was out in the halls, he made a beeline for the front gate, realising one flaw in his plan. He didn’t know which class JJ ended his day with, and he could only hope to catch him at the gate.

As he waited by the gate, watching the other kids stream by, his thoughts drifted back to where they often found themselves since the loss.

He was right back in the middle of the game, Denzel was running him over—running them ALL over—repeatedly. Again and again. Over and over. The King trampled all over the Dons, all over Ty on his way to victory, and their way to defeat.

He hadn’t been strong enough to stop Denzel. It was all HIS fault. Because HE was weak, they had lost. ‘Never again,’ he muttered.

People passing by gave him strange looks and went around him with a wide berth as no one wanted to get near the gloomy, fuming boy.

When JJ finally came into sight, Ty stepped forward, approaching him quickly. ‘JJ.’

‘Yo! What’s up, hermano?’ JJ smiled, clasping a hand on Ty’s shoulder. He looked at the people he had been walking with, a couple girls and another boy, though none of them even came up to his broad shoulders. ‘Hey, I’ll see you guys tomorrow.’

The trio waved goodbye, though the boy slowed down, looking back at Ty and JJ with some concern. ‘You okay, Julius?’ His eyes darted back and forth behind his glasses, constantly glancing at Ty and then back at JJ.

‘What are you looking at?’ Ty snarled. The glasses-wearing boy flinched.

‘Hahaha, come on you guys.’ JJ smiled wide, defusing the situation as he squeezed Ty’s shoulder. ‘Thanks Bernard but I’ll be fine, this is my teammate, Ty. Best freshman I’ve seen. And Ty, this is Bernard, we’re working together on a science project.’

‘A-Alright.’ Bernard cleared his throat and scrambled away from the two.

Ty huffed and shook his head.

‘Now, what’s up? What did you need to talk about?’ JJ asked.

‘You workout, yeah?’ Ty looked JJ over, the answer should’ve been obvious.

‘Of course!’

‘Are you going to the gym now?’

JJ raised a brow. His smile grew. ‘I might be.’

Ty looked away, nodding, staying quiet for a moment. ‘…Can I come with you? I need to get stronger.’

‘Of course! You ever been to one before?’

Ty shook his head. ‘Not outside of team lifting.’

‘Well, you’re in luck. I’m always happy to show a rookie the ropes. Come on.’ JJ headed for the nearby carpark, bringing Ty along. ‘I can give you a ride.’

‘I came on a bike.’

‘Oh… uhh, maybe it could fit in the trunk?’

Ty went and brought his bike over to JJ’s car, an old Buick LeSabre that was still in good condition.

‘Mierda.’ JJ stood at the back of the car with the trunk open, staring at the bike. ‘I don’t think it fits.’

‘I’ll just ride behind you.’

JJ frowned but nodded, shutting the trunk. ‘Yeah. I mean, at least you’ll get an extra warm up.’ He flashed a smile.

Aside from that initial mishap, they didn’t run into any further trouble, and the journey didn’t take too long before they pulled up in front of the Silverback Fitness.

JJ walked right in, carrying a sports bag that he’d retrieved from his back seat over his shoulder; Ty followed behind him after locking up his bike.

The gym wasn’t overly large, but it was still bigger than what they had at the school. It was dark too as the lights were dim and it didn’t have any windows. There were only a couple of mirrors, both stretching from the floor to the high ceiling. Metal rattling, heavy grunting, and rap music pouring from the speakers set up in the corners, underscored everything. An earthy aroma like that of cedarwood mixed with the salty BO and scent of sweat that filled the air.

JJ made his way straight towards a large man who was bulging with muscles that looked like a mixture of The Hulk and Blade. ‘Yo! Monty.’

‘JJ!’ The large man turned and the two muscle heads embraced in a hug that could’ve turned coal into diamond.

Ty looked around the rest of the gym, a few other of its members were watching the interaction between JJ and Monty as the two held a conversation in Spanish.

Soon, JJ pointed out Ty and Monty strode over, extending one of his bear-like hands.

‘Welcome, welcome. A friend of JJ’s is a friend of mine.’

Ty shook the man’s hand, the grip was surprisingly gentle.

‘The first day? On the house. I’m sure JJ will take good care of you.’

‘Oh, thanks.’

‘No problems, friend. Just be careful, don’t want anyone getting hurt, but, like I said, I’m sure JJ will look after you. If you need me, I won’t be far away.’

‘Thanks again, Monty. Come on, Ty. We’ll get warmed up over here.’ JJ put an arm around Ty’s shoulders, leading him away.

Ty followed JJ over to a few stairmaster machines where JJ began stretching, gesturing for Ty to do the same.

The two limbered up, then hopped onto the machines, taking things slow and easy at first.

As they steadily climbed the infinite steps, JJ looked over at Ty. ‘So, why the sudden interest in the gym? I know you go hard after practice… but you don’t seem thrilled to be doing stuff like this.’

‘Of course I’d rather be on the field, honing my skills.’ Ty shrugged. ‘But sharpening my body, that’s important too, isn’t it? There’s no reason. I just want to get stronger.’

JJ kept watching Ty, the other boy continued to stare forward. JJ shook his head then muttered something in Spanish.

Ty glared at him. ‘Say that in English.’

JJ met his glare coolly. ‘That’s a bunch of bullshit and you know it. You’re here because of what happened last game. Because we lost.’

Ty went quiet, looking away again.

‘There’s nothing wrong with being upset about a loss. Own it. You’re here because you never want that to happen again … same as me.’

‘Huh?’ Ty looked over. ‘Didn’t you lose to them last year?’

‘Twice. Doesn’t make it any easier. I don’t think it ever gets easier, no matter how many times you lose. But that’s okay. It’s fuel, and it’s up to us that we use it to get stronger.’

JJ upped the intensity of his machine. ‘Besides, it’s my fault that we lost. I let the team down. You guys did your job of stopping the passes, funnelling Denzel towards me … but I couldn’t stop him. It was my job to bring him down and… I couldn’t. I failed.’

Ty looked down at his machine, soon matching the increased speed that JJ had pushed to. He wasn’t alone, his rage and despair was felt by JJ too. Did the rest of the team feel the same way?

‘I’d never lost a game before last weekend. Never. Not in PeeWee Football, not in Elementary, or Middle School. Not even flag football or anything like that. …I hate it. I never want it to happen again.’

‘Hah. Yeah. Se siente como una mierda. Feels like shit, doesn’t it?’

Ty ground his teeth stomping up the stairs harder and faster, almost going too fast for the current setting. ‘I WON’T let it happen again. I’m never going to lose again.’

‘WE aren’t going to lose again,’ JJ corrected him.

‘We’re going to make it to Nationals, and we’re going to WIN.’

‘¡Claro, carajo!’ JJ stopped his machine and hopped off, Ty soon joining him back down on the floor.

‘It’s gonna take a lot of hard work to get strong enough to stop that guy,’ JJ said.

‘I don’t care. I’ll do anything it takes to stop… to CRUSH! that fucker.’

JJ smirked. ‘Alright, let’s get to work.’ He slapped Ty on the back firmly and led him over to the dumbbells—today, he’d show Ty through some good upper body workouts.

Even though Ty was a novice, he pushed himself extremely hard, and while JJ made sure they weren’t going so hard that they’d hurt themselves, both of them pushed each other to the edge, testing themselves over and over, to the point of failure and beyond.

By the time they were done, hours later, their bodies were on fire even though they were both drenched in sweat. JJ had discarded his soaked-through shirt long ago, veins bulging along his pumped up arms as he lay against a bench, taking deep breaths.

Ty stared at his hands, the tips of his fingers were numb and tingling. A burning sensation was spreading along his upper body, reaching places and muscles he had never even known about before. A grin consumed his face as he panted heavily.

JJ got up, tossing his empty water bottle back into his bag, taking from it a large towel, beginning to wipe down the last bits of equipment they’d been using, before he directed Ty to the back room where they could hit the showers and get changed.

Only then did he realise that Ty wouldn’t have a spare set of clothes with him. ‘Ah, we need to get you a bag for next time. Always need to bring water, your towel, and a change of clothes.’

‘I can shower at home today. But… that means we’re doing this more? Hahah. Same time tomorrow?’ Despite his soreness already setting in, Ty felt like he could conquer the peaks of K2.

‘Hahahah I appreciate the eagerness, but aren’t you forgetting team practice tomorrow?’

‘Oh… right, of course. After that?’

‘Yeah. After that we’ll hit the gym hard.’ JJ nodded. ‘Oh, but, don’t go home just yet anyway, even if you aren’t showering. You need to eat after this kind of thing.’

‘I’ve got food at home…’

JJ shook his head. ‘Not the food you need after a workout like that. I’ll show you.’

After JJ’s quick shower, and his change of clothes, he took Ty outside and across the street to Mountains of Meat, his favourite burger joint.

They sat down outside, and JJ ordered for the both of them. While they waited, he had another bit of advice for Ty.

‘Since you’re new to this—but even so, when you go as hard as we did today it’s just good practice—you need to put some heat on your muscles when you get home. If you’ve got a heat pack, perfect. If not, a hot bath will do.’

Ty nodded.

When their burgers arrived, Ty’s eyes almost popped out of his skull. Both of them were huge. Almost the size of his head it looked like.

They were comprised of two massive, beef patties, with lean rashers of bacon squished between, above, and below them. topped with a jumbo sized egg. Then, piled next to each burger was a mountain of fries.

JJ rubbed his hands together, drooling at the sight of the burgers. ‘Dig in, hermano. It doesn’t get any better than this.’

Ty was wondering how he’d manage to get through all this in one sitting. He doubted if he’d ever eaten this much in ONE DAY.

‘How much does this shit cost…’

‘Hey, don’t worry about that. You don’t have a job yet, right? It’s my shout. Just eat.’ JJ picked up his burger and opened his mouth so wide Ty thought his jaw would unhinge.

Ty picked his own up and stared down at the burger. “Mountain of Meat is right.” He leaned in and took a bite.

It was good, but even one bite was filling, and there were still all those fries too. Looking across the table, JJ was smashing through his burger like he had somewhere to be later.

Ty kept eating quietly, shoving as much of it down his throat as he could, if JJ said this was what his body needed, he’d trust him.

Almost halfway through his plate of food, JJ slowed down and wiped his mouth. ‘Hey. You meant what you said before, didn’t you?’

Ty looked up, having eaten maybe only a quarter of his meal. ‘Meant what?’

‘About not losing again, until we’re National champs.’

Ty gulped and set his burger down, staring into JJ’s eyes. ‘I didn’t say that. Who said anything about being okay with losing just because we won Nationals once? I’m not going to lose EVER again.’

JJ felt a surge of adrenaline rush through him. The look in Ty’s eyes told him that his friend was deadly serious … and he felt like it wouldn’t even be that ridiculous to turn that impossible-sounding dream into a reality.