It was time for PE

John took a deep breath, rolling his shoulders back one at a time, then walked into the changing room. The conversation stopped and a group of guys stared at him, some with hostility, some with pity, as he, seemingly undisturbed, walked to the corner of the room and started to change. Frank and his football friends were glaring at him, their conversation picking up once more as they were huddled up together, already changed and now obviously discussing how they were going to show John his place in life. The less sportsy guys were instead looking at him with pity. It seemed that the conversation now held in hushed whispers had not been as quiet before John had walked in.

In the corner, John was taking his shirt off, the pangolin and leopard tattoo on full display which got him some mocking laughter. “Oh look, Noobman has got some ink. What, did they run out of unicorns?” Frank’s roaring laughter filled the room as John just silently endured. It was no use falling for an idiot’s taunts, at least that is what he kept repeating to himself.

However, Frank decided that not getting a reaction was bad for his MO and not half as fun. The guy walked over to where John was now in full gym gear and placed his hand on John’s shoulder, causing John to look up annoyedly.

“There is one way you can get out of the trashing you are about to get, dweeb,” Frank said with a shiteating grin. “Me and the boys will let you off, and all it will take is that you invite that little whore of a girlfriend of yours to spend a night over at our place… We will show her exactly what happens to those that decide to humiliate Vanessa.” Frank’s hand went to his own groin as he cupped it the moment he said what. “I promise you she won’t enjoy it, but hey, that’s part of the fun, right?” The hideous face started laughing harder as he patted John’s shoulder. “Of course we will still beat you up, but that sounds a lot better right?”

John who was looking quite indifferent before was slowly standing up straight, grabbing Frank’s wrist and pushing it off his shoulder. He looked at Frank with a chilly gaze; he was boiling with anger inside, but he decided to keep his cool, for now. “No deal,” was all he said, brushing past Frank and walking to the door that led into the gymnasium.

As John walked past, Frank couldn’t contain himself, “Then, we are going to enjoy this. Let’s see if that slut will like the look of you after we are done with you…”

“You just signed your **** warrant, enjoy your boasting while it lasts. Today is the last day of this reign of terror,” John mumbled to himself, stepping into the large hall where Coach Conroy was already hanging up some pre-made teams, the balls thrown about the hall after a full day of dodgeball already, the lazy man obviously not having bothered to gather them up only to be thrown about by the next class.

After John found out that, surprise surprise, he was assigned to the team with the geeks and the alternative crowd while the opposite team was composed of mainly jocks, of course including Frank, the others soon joined them in the gymnasium.

“Okay you lot. Rules are simple. Dodgeball, Team A vs Team B. You get hit, you are out, you will start running laps around the match area until the class finishes. Catching a ball means the one that threw it is out.”

One of the guys on John’s side asked in a timid voice, “But coach, isn’t running laps around an active dodgeball match dangerous?”

“Maybe that will teach you how to actually dodge balls. Now, get to it!” The coach blew his whistle and the match began.

John kept to the back of their field for now, repeating the mantra that Arnold had taught him the day before as Frank and his cronies rushed for the balls and started the slaughter, throwing out three of his team in the first seconds.

“Plan, be quick, be deadly. Plan, be quick, be deadly,” he muttered to himself as slowly but steadily the members of his team were whittled down. John dodged some balls that flew his way, others just went wide by a large margin as it seemed not ALL members of Frank’s team were as great at hitting people.

It was at the moment that John and two others were the only ones remaining that the thing John had planned for happened. Frank’s side had run out of balls. The two other team mates each picked up a ball while John walked up to a set of them, watching how the last remaining teammates threw their balls and promptly went out because their balls got caught.

One of Frank’s biggest friends had one of the balls and taunted, “Frank, five bucks I hit him in the dick.”

John’s lips curled up into a sinister grin. “Funny, you stole my line.” His voice able to be heard throughout the room.

“You little!” the guy growled as he raised his arm to throw the ball, only to collapse to his knees the next moment, his hands desperately going to his groin as tears streamed down his face.

John was casually throwing and catching the other ball as his eyes narrowed, locking with Frank’s who looked from his friend to John.

“There is one way you and your group of morons can get out of the trashing you are about to get,” John’s icy voice spoke out as Frank could swear John’s eyes looked at him like he was nothing but prey. “If you promise to run through the school in nothing but your underwear, I will let you off right now. I promise you won’t enjoy it…. But hey, that’s part of the fun, right?”

The other guy that caught the ball, one from the basketball team, didn’t laugh at the joke. “Shut up, you nerd. You don’t scare us!” he yelled as he threw the ball straight at John’s face.

To everyone’s growing amazement, John’s hand whipped out and threw his ball straight at the one coming at him. The balls connected in mid air, both bouncing off each other as John caught his own ball, and the one thrown by the jock? That one was firmly planted in his face, the sickening crunch of a nose being broken ringing out through the room.

“What the fuck?” Frank cursed as he had gotten angry by now. As coach Conroy was seemingly missing ever since the start of the match, two teammates helped their now incapacitated teammates off the field.

“Frank. You inbred motherfucker. For years I have had to endure your bullying, Vanessa’s fucking about and ruining people’s lives. It. Ends. Today.” John was almost yelling at this point. Could John have done this before while he still had teammates? Yes, he could have, but John wanted to make a statement today. John wanted to shake the foundation of Frank and Vanessa’s powerbase. And, most of all, after suffering year after year of humiliation, John wanted to humiliate Frank back. John never claimed to be a saint, this was all just about ****.

“You shouldn’t have mentioned Cynthia, you moron,” John growled as he ran for the next ball, the ball whizzing through the air seconds later and striking one of the football members in the stomach. The guy coughed heavily as he seemingly couldn’t breathe. The points John put into strength over the past week had clearly not gone to waste.

Frank took the ball out of his crony’s hands, yelling back at him “Shut up, you fucking nobody!” The ball was fast, but, after a clear rule discussion with Gaia, John used Wildrun and dodged out of the way with grace, not bothering to catch the ball as he wanted to save Frank for last.

The people running laps around the track looked baffled as John over the next few minutes took down the members of Frank’s team one by one, dodging the balls they threw back as if it was the easiest thing in the world. Since when was John this limber? Was this really the John Newman that got pushed around so easily?

And now, it was only Frank and John left. John held two balls in his hands as he stared right at the face of the bully he had hated so much for his entire life and realized… That he was nothing. What the last minutes proved to him, of all people, was that, now that he had his powers, people like Frank would never be able to touch him again. That didn’t stop John from drilling that lesson into the thick skull of Frank though.

John threw a ball high into the air, Frank’s eyes following it as the next moment the world went dark. A dodgeball had planted itself firmly in Frank’s face, sending him falling over backwards, taking down the last member of Team A.

Coach Conroy walked into the gym a few minutes later to see the carnage that John had wrought. On one side, John Newman stood holding on to a dodgeball, while on the other side, his precious sports team members were battered and bruised.

“Newman! My office! Now!” he thundered at him. “The rest of you, go change and get the fuck out of here. What are all of you waiting for? A written invitation? Fuck off!”

One scolding later

John walked towards the changing room, not bothered at all that Coach Conroy had threatened him with expulsion. The man backed down just as quickly as John raised the point that all of this happened during the time that he was responsible, and that, had he been there, it might not have happened at all. That had gotten the coach to back off, even if he didn’t like it.

As John pushed the door open, a fist came swinging at his face, one he barely avoided as he had somewhat expected this. As Frank’s meaty fist hit the door, John saw him: his lip was swollen to double it's size and his face was redder than Marx. The fist made quite the indent in the door, showing that Frank was not holding back in the slightest.

“You don’t learn, do you?” John asked as he walked through the door, Frank having to retreat slightly as his ambush had failed. John had thought it would have been enough to humiliate Frank in his own domain, now he realized that was an overestimation of Frank’s thinking ability.

“Fuck you, Newman, no one humiliateth me and geth away wif ith,” Frank spat at him, his words slurred due to his extra large lip getting in the way as he came charging at John again.

John sidestepped the bully once more, Wildrun showing its second use of the day in school. John’s forte was not in melee at all, that had shown itself during his fight against the nightmare, but Frank, Frank he could take. John’s elbow hit Frank in the back, sending him tumbling against the wall. John didn’t let up though as he wanted to end it right now. His hand grabbed the hem of Frank’s shirt and lifted him up against the wall.

“Frank, it’s over,” was all he said, staring into the bruised face as Frank tried to push John’s arm away, but John’s hand had him in an iron grip.

“You are done. Vanessa, is done. If either of you or your cronies bother me ever again, I promise that I will fucking kill you.” As John spoke, Frank’s eyes went wider and wider. The bully could swear that John’s teeth became pointier by the second and that his eyes showed a vertical slit, resembling those of a cat. From sheer fright, Frank pissed his pants right before his mind decided to shut down and he fainted.

John dropped Frank to the ground, letting him sit in a puddle of his own urine as John started to change his clothes, looking over his shoulder at Frank one last time a few moments later, then he walked out the door and into someone.