The face of success

In the next few days something interesting caught my attention.
Val the new guy, had basically suceeded in becoming what I was trying to become earlier in the school year.
He could vibe with anyone. His humor...He was able to adapt it towards each different group.
Its like he knew at least a little bit about the things each person liked.
And a few different girls were coming on to him. Sitting in his lap, slapping his ass, even asking him to get a feel on them…
I never got much of those reactions, only a few slaps at the start, but that was it.
As to why...let me think.
He’s tall, with soft blue eyes, a short well put together haircut, his body seems kinda fit, no excess mass, some veins pop out a bit, small muscles and even some tendons visible when he moves around. A clean and somewhat innocent face.
He often stretches his hands up. That pulls his t’shirt up just enough to showcase his well defined abs.
I have brown eyes. A short and messy haircut which grows out too much sometimes. I only have more fat on my ass and stomach, its concentrated so that makes it noticeable. I have no muscles or veins popping out. I have boring brown eyes. My nose is often stuffy. My face has been getting worse and worse. The teenage acne hasn’t been kind to me...Not that I was a looker before it.
I haven’t really shown off with anything in months. People thought I was smart when I spewed facts, but when I stopped, they just saw me as another dumb dumb.
“*Hah* I get it. He simply outclasses me.” My mind finally put two and two together.
Not that I really care that is. I don’t want to talk to the others anymore.
And it’s obvious these girls aren’t my type anyway, I would just be wasting time with them.
In the next week something else became clear. The stagnation that had set upon our class was somewhat dissipating.
It doesn’t seem like Val is the only cause. The teachers and some of the classmates are acting differently as well.
One day Miss Bon decided for us to play a random game. The only catch was that we should communicate in English whenever we could.
What we chose to do was an arm wrestling tournament!
The girls did well, but ultimately they could only beat one boy.
I beat manage to win against one girl and then two boys.
But I fell short compared to my group.
As expected, Pavel and Tsetso were extremely strong at this.
I could only hold them for two three seconds.
They were solid candidates to win the whole thing. However, it seems Val was good at this too.
He won his matches quickly and faced both of them in the final.
We made a circle around them to watch their matches.
Pavel and Val locked hands and started to push hard from the start.
The desk under their elbows was shaking, and it wasn’t even a small desk, it was a two person one.
The match ended in fifteen seconds.
The winner was Val.
It was then Tsetso’s turn. He sat down and locked hands with Val.
Val might have been a lot taller, maybe twenty centimeters taller, but Tsetso’s back was a lot wider.
The two went full throttle from the start.
Both were pushing, but neither person’s arm moved.
They kept at it for a while and then started to make breaks to breath and push again.
Val pushed Tsetso’s arm close to the table. Tsetso took a deep breath and started screeshing from overexertion...But he couldn’t hold for long. Val pushed him down and won the match.
Cheers started up from the class.
No one expected the outcome. Both of them started shaking their arms out and winding their shoulders.
“That was tough’ exclaimed Tsetso with a heavy breath.
He was drenched in sweat.
“You’ve got that right.” Replied Val who had some sweat on his forehead.
I was surprised about the result too. But something else surprised me more.
Why did it look like...Val was kinda pretending to struggle?
Tsetso walked towards me.
“Good job’ I greeted him and gave him a first bump.
“Yeah. I got gassed out. Maybe I should go to the gym or something.”
“How do you think he beat you? He’s skinnier than you.”
“Did you see his tendons? I managed to feel them out during the match. Their like steel cables.”
“Huh, interesting.” I reply in surprise.
Val then approaches us.
“Good match Tsetso. I don’t know how I won that!” He greeted us both with fist bumps.
“Hey, do you workout or something Val?” I questioned.
“No. I just help out at our family farm. Lifting and throwing bails of hey. Building stuff. Carrying some slabs of stone. Etc.”
“Guess that explains it.” Replied Tsetso.
“I’m glad I got to face you in the final. You were the first person I introduced myself to in this class. So it was only fitting.”
“Really?” Me and Tsetso replied in one voice
“Huh, you didn’t know either!?” I shouted out to Tsetso.
“Yeah...You sure?”
“No problem. You must have forgot. You even mixed my name up the next time we met again.”
“I don’t remember any of that.” Tsetso scratches his head.
“The school days can be so stagnant and similar..no wonder you mix some things up” Val retorted.
“By the way, we did you start school so late?” I questioned.
“Remember that farm work I mentioned? We had a barn and some other stuff to build. So I was helping with that and getting home schooled.” Val explained.
“You know what? That sounds like a fun way to workout. Can I join in?” Questioned Tsetso.
“I mean...Sure, if you want. We can see the animals. Eat some good homemade food. And I wouldn’t refuse the help either.” Responded Val.
“Great! Take me along next time then.” Exclaimed Tsetso.
“Kito, what about you? Wanna join me and Tsetso? Its gonna be more fun and less work if more people come.”
“I”...
As I stutter to respond tenticles suddenly erupt from my chest. They smutter my face and proceed to squeeze my neck.
“I uuh”.
I try to utter my words despite the squueze.
“Are you good? Your zoning out.” Val says as he waves his hand in front of my face.
The tentacles dissapate.
“Sure, sure. I’m fine. Sorry, I don’t think I’ll be coming. Maybe some other time.” I reply hastily then turn around and go to my seat.
I put my headphones on and lean my chair back against the wall.
Val and Tsetso just stare for a bit.
“Was he always like this?” Val broke the silence.
“He’s been like this for the past months. He zones out kinda often.”
“I see. Is there a reason for it?”
“I don’t know. Whenever we ask him he just says its nothing and that he’s OK. Can’t really do much about that.”
“Right.” Val responds as he stares at Kito.
The school day ends. Summer break approaches ever closer.