Brains & Brawn

John stood momentarily, reached up and grabbed the bar as instructed; sat back on the bench and pulled the bar down to his chest.

"Good, now give me four more, and let the weights back down."

John completed his five reps and did as instructed.

"How did that feel?"

"It was easy."

"OK; let's increase the weight by ten and do five more."

John did the next five reps and rested.

"It was a little harder, but I can do more."

"OK; let's increase it by ten more and this time give me ten more reps."

John started again; this was a lot harder than before. By the time he reached his tenth and final rep, Katie could tell that he had just about reached his limit. When he was done, he sagged back down onto the bench and rubbed his shoulder. Katie marked down the results as they moved to the next machine.

This process was repeated over and over again on ten different machines, some for his arms and shoulders, some for his legs and two for his core. When he was finished, John's shirt was soaked with sweat, his arms and legs felt like wet noodles, and he stood there praying to god that they were not going over to the free weights.

Katie laughed, as if she could read his thoughts. "Don't worry you're done for now, you're not ready yet for the free weights. You did really well for your first time and I have all the information I need. Tomorrow you have the day off to rest and recover; we'll start for real on Thursday. Go in and shower, I'm going back to my dorm, I have some work to do. See you in class tomorrow."

John stood in the shower letting the hot water soothe his tired body. Inside he beamed with pride. He had done it, his first day of exercise. He had survived and, best of all, Katie said he had done well.

'I just hope this doesn't kill me.'

After his shower, he dressed and made his way back to his dorm room. Eddie, his roommate, just laughed as John mumbled hello and crawled into bed and passed out. Katie, on the other hand was busy late into the night. She set up four month exercise program for John to follow. She set it up in an excel worksheet and attached it to an e-mail which she sent to Joan.

"Hi Joan,

How's everything going? Got any new clients? You should be swamped now that people are trying to lose weight after the holidays.

You remember that good-looking guy I was telling you about. He shocked me tonight; asking me to help him work out, to put on a little muscle and get him into shape. He wants to work out with me.

I put together a program, can you look it over and make any corrections or comments that you think are appropriate.

Thanks.

Love, Katie"

It took less than a half an hour for Joan to reply with her comments.

"Hi Katie,

Everything is great here. I picked up ten new clients so far this year. About half of them will be gone in less than two months once they realize the amount of work they have to put in to look as good as we do. (LOL) Oh well, I still have my day job.

I looked over your program; I made a couple of minor changes (marked in red), other than that everything looks good. Are you sure this is a guy? At five seven, 135 lbs I'm not so sure. I just hope you don't kill him. (LOL)

Stay in touch

Love, Joan."

Katie laughed when she read Joan's reply and couldn't resist one last reply of her own.

"Joan,

Thanks a lot for your help.

Yes, I'm sure he's a guy. Last semester I picked him up and held him in a bear hug until I thought he would pass out. The reason I held him for so long was because I could feel his cock growing through his pants and I wanted to see how big it was. Let's just say that I think I found out where at least five of those 135 pounds was hiding. (LOL).

Good Night.

Katie"

John opened his eyes the next morning, realized he had to pee, and tried to get out of bed. That's when he found out that every muscle in his body, other than those in his face, was stiff and sore. He hobbled over to the bathroom, dropped his underwear, and relieved his bladder.

'That was a mistake; how am I going to pick them back up?'

He didn't; he just kicked them over to the corner and shuffled back out to his bed. John reached over to his dresser, got a clean pair of briefs and, with a deep breath, reached down and pulled them up.

It took him almost ten minutes to fully dress himself.

'Oh God, this is only after the first day, which according to Katie was just a light workout. How am I ever going to survive this? Is she really worth this?'

He knew the answer was yes -- and more.

He picked up his books for his first three classes and hobbled down the stairs. As he exited the building, there was Katie, two containers of coffee in her hands.

She laughed when she saw him walk over to her, the pain he was experiencing etched on his face.

"Don't worry, you'll get over it. It only feels like this for the first couple of workouts, then your body will get used to it. Here's some Advil and some coffee. Let's go, we don't want to be late."

Walking a little more slowly than normal, they made their way to their first class. Once again this semester they were in three classes together, all of which were scheduled this morning. The Advil helped and, by the end of their third class, he felt almost back to normal.

'She's been doing this almost every day since she was fifteen years old. No wonder she looks like she does,' he thought, his mind wandering back to that first night that he saw her in the gym.

Chapter 8

Katie had problems of her own. It was now time for her to earn her scholarship. She attended her first mandatory meeting for all potential players for the upcoming season that evening. The practice schedule was handed out, as well as the upcoming season's schedule.

"For you first years, please note that practices are scheduled for all day Saturday and, before the season, on Tuesdays and Fridays from 2:00 to 5:00. It's up to you to attend these practices and maintain your academics as well. The varsity squad will be cut down to fifteen by February 15, the day before our first game. Any questions?"

As she walked back to her dorm, Katie thought, 'Welcome to the world of the student athlete. This sure is nothing like high school. I guess there's no such thing as a free ride. I'm going to have to work my ass off to pull this off and I'm going to need John's help more than ever.'

As they had previously planned, John and Katie met in the SU. Over coffee, they compared her class schedule to her practice schedule and the season schedule. Thanks to the luck of the draw, she would only miss one class on Friday and no classes on Tuesday. Since most of the games were scheduled on Saturdays, it appeared that, for the most part if she made the team, she would have minimal disruptions to her school work.

"Katie, I can take notes for you in Western Civ and we can review them on Sunday, don't worry about that. If you find that our working out together takes up too much time, I'll just stop."

"Not a chance buddy. You're not going to get off that easy. You wanted to work out to improve that body of yours and I'm not going to be your excuse to stop even before you start. We have a standing date, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 8:00; and don't make me come looking for you."

Friday evening they met for dinner at 5:30, ate, hung around until 7:45 and walked over to the gym.

After changing they started out on the treadmill to loosen up, John walking for a mile, and Katie running for two. Then it was over to the circuit machines. On first machine, the lat pull, they alternated, John starting out at 40 lbs. for ten reps. He got up and let Katie have her turn. He stood there stunned as she did twelve reps at one hundred forty pounds -- the entire stack of weights. Before she got up she reached down and reset the load to his forty and moved off the seat.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

"Sorry."

He sat down and did his next set. As he reached his tenth rep he had to press out that final rep.

"Good"

He got up and watched as she repeated her twelve reps, her back and shoulders expanding to their maximum.

'Good Lord! Look at her; she looks like she could keep it up all night. I am such a wimp. I can barely do forty pounds. She could probably break me in two if she wanted. I'd better not ever get her mad at me.'

"Alright, one more set, John; push it as far as you can."

John got as far as eight reps, and then he got half way on the ninth. His arms failed and he was forced to stand to ease the weights back down.

"Good job, John."

Katie took her turn and completed her twelve reps with no problem.

They went around the complete circuit the same way. By the time they reached the end, John was exhausted and felt totally humiliated by his performance.

"John, why the long face? You did great tonight."

"Katie, I feel so inadequate compared to you."

"I told you before, you can't judge yourself by me; I've been doing this for over four years, you've been doing it for one day. Besides, I think you'd better get used to the fact that I will always be bigger and stronger than you. Don't you see we are built differently; no matter how much you try, your body is not going to build enough muscle to be as strong as me. It's not your fault, it's in your genes. I guess you got the brains from your parents and I got the brawn from mine. Now get yourself into the shower; I have about a half an hour more work to do on the free weights. See you tomorrow."

Somewhat appeased, John headed for the shower. Afterwards, as he was leaving the locker room, he glanced over at the free weights, looking for Katie. He spotted her on the bench press. There was a guy there standing behind the bench, his hands under the bar as Katie pushed the bar up until she could re-rack the weight. The guy's shirt was so tight around his arms and his chest that John was sure that it would ripe to shreds if he even took a deep breath. His arms looked to be bigger than John's thighs.

"Great job Katie, he heard him say to her; 235 is a new personal best."

John turned and walked out of the gym. 'How can I ever hope to compete with him for her love?'

He never heard the rest of the conversation.

"I saw you working out with that guy before. You were working him pretty hard. Who is he?"

"That's John. He doesn't know it yet but he's going to be my boyfriend. I really like him a lot; I'm trying to help him get over his insecurity about being smaller than me. Are you going to be at practice tomorrow?"

"No, they don't use the strength coach for women's softball; but they should. I'll bet they reconsider that decision once they see you on the field and at bat."

"Thanks, Larry, and thanks for spotting for me. I don't get to try for personal bests very often. I won't do it unless I have a spotter."

"No problem. Good night."

John awoke the next morning with a splitting headache, in addition to every muscle in his body complaining about being overworked. Three Advil took care of the physical pain, but did nothing for his broken heart. He knew he shouldn't feel that way, after all he and Katie weren't really involved romantically with one another. She had said that he was her best friend. What hurt was that he wanted it to be so much more and now she was involved with that muscle-bound guy from the gym. What happened to "Brains and Brawn?"

He looked over at the clock; eight fifteen. 'Shit, I promised Katie I would meet her downstairs at eight thirty and go watch her practice.'

He got up, and as fast as he could, got dressed, splashed some water on his face, combed his hair and ran downstairs. Outside, Katie was sitting on the stone wall, dressed in sweats and sneakers, her gym bag by her side. She was sipping on her morning coffee; a second container sat next to her. As she handed him the coffee, he tried his best to be upbeat, but failed. Katie noticed his mood, but chalked it up to the early hour and his sore body.

They walked in silence across the campus to the smallest of three athletic stadiums that had been constructed on or near the campus. Women's softball is big at the University of Arizona. Not as popular as football or men's basketball, but it plays an important in student life. Every year the University fields an excellent team. They have finished first in their conference many times, and only UCLA has won more World Series Championships than UA.

This practice was very important to Katie. If she did well today she would be noticed by the coaches and that would be an important first step in making the team. If she did exceptionally well, maybe she could win a position on the starting team. It all depended on what she did today.

That was the reason John was there. She was his best friend as well and he just couldn't let her down.

When they entered the field area, John looked into her eyes and gave her a kiss on the cheek and whispered in her ear, "Good luck, Brawn. Go get 'em," and took a seat ten rows up behind the third base dugout. Katie went into the dugout, switched from sneakers to cleats and, carrying her glove, walked over to the group of other women standing around waiting for the coaches to arrive. They didn't have long to wait.

Promptly at nine o'clock, the coaches came out onto the field, instructed the veteran players to take their positions from the prior year. That left about fifteen women; these were the freshmen or walk-ons, looking to make the team.

"Pitchers and catchers, go with Coach Jones. The rest of you, if you played ball in high school or last year somewhere else, take your positions along with the rest of the women."

Katie had always played first base in high school, so she jogged over to first and introduced herself to the other first baseman, who basically ignored her extended hand. The coach started hitting balls to the infield. Each player was given several chances to field at her position. Katie noticed that Donna, the other first baseman appeared awkward and unsure of herself at the position. What the coach noticed was that Katie appeared to be completely at ease in the field; she was light on her feet and provided a bigger target for the other infielders. Defensively she just looked better.

'I hope she can hit as well as she fields,' the Coach thought to himself. 'We'll see this afternoon.'

The whole morning was devoted to fielding practice, the Coach yelling out instructions and teaching the players how to play their positions at the college level. Many of the newer women had never been taught the finer points of the game; they had gotten by on their athleticism alone. It was up to the coaches to mold them into college level players.

At the lunch break, the coaches reviewed their notes. Each player was graded and ranked. The players sat around munching on protein bars and fruit and drinking bottles of water. Some of the women talked among themselves. The veterans mostly sat together, viewing the newer players as threats to their places on the team.

After the break, the coach sent one player out to each position, the rest would start off batting practice. The veteran pitcher was instructed to throw at three quarter speed. This was to give the coaches an idea as to how each player could hit. Katie, being a first year player, was third in the batting order.

The Coach started batting practice with a quick little speech.

"Some people think that hitting a softball is easy, they haven't seen fast pitch softball. The pitcher works from a pitching rubber forty three feet from home plate and delivers the pitch with a circular swing of her arm as she steps towards the batter. At that distance, the ball reaches the batter in a hurry. The batter has a fraction of a second to see the ball and swing her bat in order to make contact with the ball. To give you some idea of the how hard that can be, the average fast pitch speed at the collegiate level is about 63 mph; that equates to an major league baseball pitcher who at 60 feet and throws at about one hundred mph. A number of years ago, an exhibition game was arranged between an all-star team of professional baseball players and a touring softball team called 'The King and his Court'. After four innings the game was called off, because the baseball players were too embarrassed to continue. It seemed that only one player, Rod Carew, was even able to foul a pitch off. So, don't be discouraged if you have trouble hitting at this level."

When it was Katie's turn to hit, she grabbed a bat and walked confidently up to the plate. The first several pitches she missed completely. She hadn't swung a bat in over six months and was a little rusty. John sat there helpless; worried for Katie's sake. The next couple of pitches she fouled off; she was beginning to get her timing back. On the tenth pitch she saw she drove the ball deep over the left field fence. With each swing after that she hit the ball hard, including two more over the fence. After twenty pitches, Coach called for the next batter.

He called her over, asked what her name was and said,

"Great job up there, you looked really good, even when you were missing your arms were extended and your head was still. You looked like a hitter. I want you to go out to first base and tell Donna to come in and hit."

As Katie stood out near first base she could see Coach talking to Donna and she did not look happy. After everyone had had a chance to hit, Coach called Katie back to the hit again. He walked out to the mound and spoke with his pitcher. He returned to the dugout and shouted out to Katie,

"Get ready they're going to come in faster now."

Katie fouled off the first three pitches, she was a little behind each one. Determined to do better she swung hard at the next pitch and drove it into center field. The next three pitches she lined to the left fielder, and the next three over the left field fence.

"OK that's enough; come on in."

As the pitcher passed Katie she smiled and walked up to the Coach and said with a laugh, "You sure know how to take the wind out of someone's sails, I'm glad she's on our team."

Donna just looked at her with a scowl on her face, threw her glove into the dugout and sat at the end of the bench.

"Hi, I'm Maria. I'm the captain of the team; great job out there. Don't worry about her," nodding her head in Donna's direction. "She'll get over it, she's just upset that she's no longer the only power hitter on the team. I'm sure Coach is going to move her back to the outfield, where she played two years ago. And once she realizes that, with you hitting behind her the opposing teams won't be able to pitch around her and she'll get a lot more at bats. If Connie our third baseman can hit the way she did last year, they won't be able to pitch around you, either. We've always been good defensibly, now we'll have real power in the middle of the order. Believe me, nothing will make Donna happier than to win the World Series in Oklahoma this year, her final year in school."

"OK everybody, good work out there today. See you at 2:00 on Tuesday."

Katie changed into her sneakers, grabbed her bag and walked over towards the stands. As she did, she glanced over her shoulder and saw a heated conversation taking place between Donna and Maria. She reached the first row of seats just about the same time that John did.

"You did great today, Katie. I'm sure you'll make the starting team."

Katie threw her arm over John's shoulder and started to walk towards the exit. She felt John flinch ever so slightly as she did.

"What's wrong, John? Are you still sore from our workout?"

But she could see from the look on his face that something else was troubling him.

She pulled him back over to the stands and forced him to sit next to her.

"Alright, what's wrong? Something's bothering you; out with it."