The social dynamic is in chaos! Nerd becomes popular! Jock nowhere to be seen! Details at eleven!

John never really expected Springfield to have this many dojos. Like, sure, a few he could understand. Maybe upwards of like… 5.

But FIFTEEN?!

The Warrior’s Path Dojo, Strike Lab Martial Arts, Unbreakable Self Defense, Future Leaders Martial Arts, Springfield Combat Club, The Bear Clan Dojo, Springfield Muay Thai Gym, The Empty Cup, The Human Weapon Project, Stevenson & Sons Martial Arts. Red Dragon Dojo, GREEN Dragon Dojo (not to be confused with Red Dragon Dojo), Ascend Martial Arts, Precision Striking Academy, and Dan’s School for Kicking Asses and Taking Names. All within Springfield, all looking for new students, and all of them just screaming “dumb as fuck.”

John figured one would jump out at him as he browsed their web pages. But most of them were either all new levels of lame, with some of them being laughably bad. Based on comments on both Facebook and Google Maps, the owners of Red Dragon and Green Dragon were locked in a constant war with one another, constantly trying to steal students from one another and one up each other.

None of them really felt like they catered to adults and John felt like he would be so out of place if he went to any of these.

He sighed, leaning back in his gaming chair. “Maybe I'll just stick to Moira teaching me. That’s worked so far. Then again, she was just giving me basics, and she said she’s not the best unarmed fighter out there.”

“Jooohn!” Brenda called from downstairs. “Could you take the trash out?”

“Sure thing, Mom!” John shouted back, taking off his headphones and pausing his lo-fi beats. As he climbed down the stairs, he did wonder if there was some form of a magical dojo he could train in. Or maybe Moira’s teacher could help him. She did mention that he taught her in her youth but maybe he could give John some pointers on how to be a better unarmed combatant.

John was so lost in thought that he barely registered what he was doing, but seeing as taking out the trash was his chore, it wasn’t exactly something he could mess up that badly. Just grab the bag, tie it up, take it out to the bin, move the orange paper off the bin’s lid, put the trash in the bin an-

Orange paper?

John looked down at his hand, dropping the trash into the bin as he did so. It was a flyer of some sort, and judging by the random mud stains and water damage, it had been flying for a hot minute. Must have blown in and landed on the can.

After uncrumpling it a bit and flipping it over, his eyes went wide. It was a flyer for a dojo. Not only that, but it was one that he hadn’t seen in his searching.

“Looking to become a better fighter? Dojos in the area basically kindergartens? Wanna kick enough ass to make Gaia notice you? Contact Erik Castellan, best fighter in all of America! For the low-low price of-”

From there the rest of the flyer was ripped apart, but it all seemed to be at least semi legit. Sure, it was a bit of a shitty looking flyer all things considered, with a couple of badly cropped JPEGS on there in addition to the address that had managed to survive the tearing of the flyer. But the flyer expressly mentioned Gaia. As in the goddess giving John all his quests. Not only that, but this flyer somehow found him despite all of his searching not turning this one up at all.

It had to be fate.

John smirked, nodding in approval as he took a quick picture of the flyer just in case it got any more damaged. As he did, a pop up appeared at his side.

It looked like that solidified it. John ran back into the house, eager to tell his mom he found a proper teacher to learn from.

_____________________________________

The next day rolled around like so many had before. Although unlike the previous day, John was not burdened with the sudden revelation that magic existed and would now affect his everyday life. No, instead he woke up excited and ready to start the second day of his magical life.

His first one had been a pretty eventful one, after all. One could only wonder how great day two would be.

Although John did notice something a bit odd as he stepped out of the shower and toweled off. When he looked in the mirror, the face and body that greeted him were not the ones he had come to know over the past several years.

It was clearly still him, with that same tousled dark brown hair and hazel eyes. But his cheekbones looked just a bit sharper, his chin just a bit more defined, and his stubble looking just a bit cleaner. He still looked like a dork, at least in his opinion, but he looked… better.

And his body was still skinny and pale, nothing had changed there. But he did have a bit more meat on his bones. Now his arms and chest looked less sickly skinny and more intentionally skinny. Like someone who was just a bit underweight but strong. Hell, as he flexed he could see his biceps pop up a bit.

THAT was certainly new.

Now, he knew why this was. Obviously it was because of all the stat points he had been investing in himself. He had gone from an eight in strength to a twelve, a six in endurance to an eleven, and over doubled his charisma from five to eleven! Of course he would look different from such a change.

Still, it was… surprising.

John looked down at the sink, seeing all the various self cleaning products that his mom had gotten for him when he turned 15. Proper razors, shaving cream, combs, brushes, and even a bit of hair gel and cologne.

Maybe it was time he took pride in his appearance. Maybe he should put a bit more effort forward into looking better.

So John took an extra few minutes in the bathroom. Not anything too crazy, he wasn’t cutting his own hair or anything. But he did take some time to shave and clean himself up a bit, making sure his side burns were trimmed up and his hair was properly combed and brushed to look a bit more stylish. It wasn’t much, but it was just that little bit of effort to feel a bit better.

John gave a small smirk. It seemed that hard work was not only its own reward, but would be given rewards too. Nice to know.

He dismissed the pop up with a wave and clambered downstairs to go have breakfast and say goodbye to mom. He had a full day of school to look forward to!

_____________________________________

Frank wasn’t on the bus today, which was odd. Unless Vanessa suddenly decided to give her beat-up boyfriend a ride, that would mean that Frank was skipping. Which wasn’t really out of character for him back in high school, so maybe it was less odd than John thought. Part of him was glad that Frank had turned tail and ran from confronting John again, but part of him was also glad he wouldn’t have to deal with Frank and his ilk for the rest of the school day.

No, instead John had to deal with an altogether new problem: Everyone was watching him.

Well, not the bus driver, obviously. But as John walked onto the bus, every student had their eyes planted on him, following him as he took the first available seat. When he turned to stare down the people they would look away, but he could feel every eye on him. And then the whispers. John couldn’t make out most of them, but he could hear the words “fight”, “Frank”, and “kicked his ass”.

Part of John wanted to confront it right then and there. But he had to admit that the attention… was a bit nice. Plus, it let him just chill on the bus ride.

But when he made it to school? The problem exacerbated itself tenfold.

What had been a couple dozen students on his bus was now a couple hundred students in the halls. Whispers and rumors flooded his ears, and what words he could make out didn’t establish whether what they were saying was good or bad. He was given a wide berth, but did notice that any of the students who were members of the football team would give him a **** glare while other jocks seemed to give more of a look of acknowledgement. Like they respected him.

“Hey. Loser.”

John turned, and came face to face with probably the hottest and meanest bitch in the entire school. With blonde hair that flowed like molten gold, blue eyes like pure ice, and a tan that could only be gotten through money and dedication, she was the wet dream of many students at Ashcroft. Not to mention she had hourglass curves and was head cheerleader, basically making her the personification of “sexy schoolgirl”. Course she had a chronic case of being a huge and total bitch, and was probably half the reason that Frank was as bad as he was.

“Vanessa Hawthorn. To what do I owe the… well, I was going to say pleasure, but-”

“Shut up,” she interrupted, her voice as cold as her ice-blue eyes. “Listen to me good, cause I’m not going to repeat this ever. I saw the video. I saw the fight you and my ex-boyfriend had.”

“Wait, ex-”

“And I saw that while you were clearly winning, Frank had to cheat in order to take you down.” Vanessa rolled her eyes. “Obviously you should have been smarter and not fallen for one of those dumbass tricks. And you're still a shifty little loser who would probably be best kept in the dregs of some IT basement than trying to play with the actually important people. But… you did impress me, Newman. You took on something way outside your league and did well, for a loser.” Vanessa smirked, though her smile did not reach her eyes. “I’m going to be keeping an eye on you, Newman. Feel lucky that I am bothering to do that.”

And with that, Vanessa turned and walked away, though John could swear her hips had a bit more sway to them than was necessary. John, meanwhile, was left flabbergasted. Did Vanessa just compliment him? In the most backhanded way possible with layers of insults on top of it but still. Plus, she said she was going to keep an eye on him?

Why?

John turned and walked towards his locker, his mind putting the puzzle together. Vanessa saw the video of him and Frank fighting. She saw that John was doing pretty well against Frank, and that one of Frank’s friends had to help him out in the fight.

She probably now saw Frank as weak. Or if she didn’t, the rest of the student body would. John had been a pretty small fish in Ashcroft before yesterday. And all of a sudden he goes off and kicks the ass of one of the strongest and most popular bullies in the school? That was a classic rags-to-riches story that got people talking.

So then Vanessa must be hedging her bets. If it was a fluke and John was still a hapless loser, he could be dropped. But if John was the new popular guy in school and actually could back up what he did to Frank, Vanessa would probably want to manipulate him to her advantage.

All from a single fight and a video of said fight.

Then again, this was all just a hypothesis. For all John knew, Vanessa just had a fetish for guys punching each other and John happened to scratch that perverse itch. Or maybe she had a secret good side and actually liked John for who he was and DAMN IT! John slapped himself in the face. “I keep forgetting to use fuckin’ Observe. Goddamn it…”

He really needed to get better about remembering the powers he had. Sure, it was only day two but c’mon, Newman! He had to do better!

Well, whatever. He still had time and it was only day two. Surely he would run into Vanessa again and he could do it then.

___________________________________

The day passed by with relative ease, all things considered.

No bullies demanding John fight them, no attacks from Frank’s fellows in retribution for what had happened to the meat head, and no real confrontations about what had happened yesterday.

But the staring was getting on John’s nerves.

Every hour, every class, every moment he walked the halls, he could feel eyes on him. He knew why this was such a big deal. Everyone knew what a menace Frank was and how strong he was when fighting. And the fact that John, a nobody, beat him was impressive. But seriously, could they not give him a moment's peace? The only time he managed to get anything resembling normalcy was when he went with Moira to the gym to practice more. Moira had agreed to do so, unsure how much she could offer but figuring John could use the upkeep in his skills if Frank sought ****. And this time around, since Alex and Cho knew where he was going to be heading off to, they were able to join him and Moira in the gym. Cho, much like John had done yesterday, spent most of the time ogling Moira and trying to keep his jaw off the floor while he watched her move. Alex was her normal self, both cheering and jeering at John. He didn’t dare check her Observe profile again, unsure if he should violate her privacy again. If she did actually have a crush on him, she would tell him. Right?

Besides, John was sure yesterday’s score was a fluke. Why would Alex like him like that? No, no, it was just because John kicked Frank’s ass. That had to be it.

After a suitable workout and a quick shower in the old locker rooms, John went with Alex and Cho only to immediately regret it. The same problem persisted, with whispers and stares following John like the plague. He should have liked it. He was popular and talked about! It was what every kid wanted growing up, to be popular and stuff.

But John really was starting to hate it. He liked being a fly on the wall, being unnoticed and able to enjoy his time with his friends.

He sighed, eating his food as whispers echoed around him. At least he would get freedom from this while learning from this “Erik” guy.