Everyman—Chapter 5 (Patreon)

AN: Busy, busy, busy. This week should be better, though. As before, find the MP3 below.

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Fifteen minutes had passed and the middle-group was halfway around the school.

Giovanni’s breaths were long and slow. This much wasn’t enough to tire him. Since he was little, he got into the habit of exercising regularly. Mainly, by playing sports, but over the holidays, when practice was suspended, he worked out on his own.

Since he was starting cross-country, he decided to quit his morning jog. However, he’d keep up his upper-body exercises. He wasn’t obsessive about aesthetics, but he had to admit, he wasn’t too fond of the runner’s figure.

Unconsciously, his eyes darted toward Anna, running at the front of the pack.

'Well, at least not on guys.'

Glancing at her toned legs and firm butt, he amended his thinking.

Even so, it was only a moment before he looked away. While he appreciated what Anna had to offer, the girl was too lacking in the chest area. However, that was only now. She still had time to grow.

Absentmindedly, Giovanni looked over his shoulder. The fifth-graders were lagging behind. It wasn’t strange, given their short legs.

As the run continued, he mused about this and that. Lost in thought, he didn’t notice Ms. Streisand coming up behind him. When her hand suddenly clamped onto his shoulder, he almost stumbled.

“What…?”

Startled, he glared angrily at the female coach, only to fix his expression when he saw who it was.

The woman smiled at him.

“Did you come here to run, Johnson, or to stare at girls?”

The look in her eyes was mischievous.

Caught in the act, Giovanni made an unintelligible sound. His football coach always called him Johnson, for reasons only he knew. She must’ve heard it from him.

“Uh, no…”

On instinct, he denied it.

Ms. Streisand raised an eyebrow.

“Which question are you answering ‘no’ to?”

Despite talking while running, she wasn’t even slightly out of breath.

Giovanni didn’t know what to say. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Ms. Streisand continued, not waiting for a reply.

“This isn’t a place for coasting, Mr. Rossouw. I want you at the front of the group, or else.”

Her tone shifted from relaxed to scolding.

It wasn’t strange she knew his surname. Before the year’s start, students needed to fill out a form, applying for their sport of choice. Having interacted previously, his name probably caught her eye.

Giovanni swallowed a sigh. In retrospect, he realized a slavedriver like her wouldn’t let him be. He wasn’t a glutton for punishment, so he could only pick up speed, heading for the front.

Given his lax pace until now, catching up wasn’t hard. It only took a minute or two for him to reach the next group.

His eyes scanned the other athletes—notably, the thin, dark-skinned girl and pale, curly-haired boy from earlier were both absent. Most likely, they were the star athletes of the cross-country team and were far ahead of the rest.

Having left Ms. Streisand behind, Giovanni slowed down. He had no desire to push himself, nor to compete with the other students. While he didn’t dislike cross-country, he was only here because after-school sports were mandatory.

‘It’s really too bad—the view from earlier was much better.’

He glanced at the boy ahead of him with distaste. The kid’s tight pants and running posture made Giovanni wonder if he batted for the other team.

Sighing inwardly, he headed for the middle of the pack. He didn’t want to spend the next thirty minutes watching the twink’s buns move up and down.

The rest of the run passed uneventfully. Giovanni rounded the school like a tourist, admiring the scenery. Football was all about strength and speed, so most of their training happened on the field or in the gym. Given Trivandrum’s expansive grounds, it wasn’t strange there were parts he hadn’t seen.

Unknowingly, he ended up near the front. Most of the other athletes couldn’t keep pace, while he maintained the same sixty-five-percent tempo from start to finish.

With five-to-ten minutes left, Giovanni re-entered through the rear gates. His breaths came fast and he was soaked from sweat, but his tank wasn’t nearly empty.

He immediately spotted the handful of first-arrivals. Expectedly, the tall, pale boy and tanned girl were among them. Giovanni’s eyes scanned the lot, coming to rest on the latter.

The girl looked a year older than him and was attractive. She was a bit skinny, but given her sport of choice, it wasn’t strange. Her face showed it the most, having a sharp nose and high cheekbones. He reckoned that, if she gained a few pounds, she’d easily be an eight-and-a-half-out-of-ten.

Arriving by himself and not being a regular, Giovanni attracted some attention. However, not being familiar with any of the other athletes, he didn’t socialize. Instead, he headed for a tree on the field’s edge, planning to wait until Ms. Streisand showed up. He remembered his ex-football coach wanting to see him, but Giovanni wasn’t sure if he could leave.

Putting his back against the trunk, he sat down. From here, he had a clear view of the rear-gates. To his surprise, right when he looked up, he saw the tanned girl approaching him.

‘Did she notice me looking?’

Having been caught once, Giovanni couldn’t help thinking such. They never interacted, so he couldn’t think of another reason. He wasn’t the only one curious—behind her, he could see the others looking in their direction.

It wasn’t far, so the girl arrived shortly. Schooling his expression to neutrality, Giovanni waited for her to say something.

“Hey.”

The girl gave a simple greeting, shoving her hands in her pockets.

The movement drew Giovanni’s attention to her gym-shorts, which were rather tight. Unable to help himself, his eyes swept her from the bottom up, lingering on her pronounced chest. She wasn’t huge, but they were bigger than most girls on the cross-country team.

‘What is with me today?’

Noticing his abnormality, he wondered if something was wrong. He already started puberty last year, so this sudden surge in hormones seemed strange. Still, his leering only lasted a moment.

Forcing himself to meet her eyes, he answered.

“Hey.”

Not knowing what else to say, he mirrored her.

Looking down, the girl dragged her studs over the grass, seeming a bit awkward.

“So, John, you’re doing this instead of football?”

Hearing her question, Giovanni felt a frown coming on. Yet, not wanting her to misunderstand, he supressed it.

‘What the hell? When did my choice of sport suddenly become everyone’s business?’

His thoughts spontaneously turned to Justin, a high-school sophomore he’d known for a few years. The guy used to be one of Margaret’s friends, his ex-babysitter. They met up over winter vacation and Giovanni leaving the football team was similarly brought up.

‘Dude, you should keep playing. I always watched your games, you know.’

Those were Justin’s words, at that time.

Returning to the present, Giovanni nodded.

“Uh, yeah.”

Unconsciously, his tone became a bit weird. According to his memory, they were strangers. However, given her knowing his nickname and the somewhat personal question, that apparently wasn’t the case.

Her brown eyes darted to Giovanni’s before returning to her shoes.

“Well, I’ve been running since primary school, so…”

The girl started talking, but trailed off in the middle of her sentence. Either, she felt too awkward or didn’t know what to say next.

Nonetheless, he caught on to her meaning.

“Then, if there’s anything, I’ll have to ask you for help.”

Making sure to catch her eye, he gave a lopsided smile.

She returned it, flashing sharp canines. Her teeth were nice, yet she wore braces. Giovanni thought they’d probably come off soon.

The conversation lulled and he thought she’d re-join her friends, but strangely, she didn’t.

“Can I sit there?”

After a second or two, the girl withdrew a hand from its pocket and pointed toward the stump.

Caught off guard, Giovanni didn’t respond immediately.

Misunderstanding his silence, the girl’s eyebrows creased into a frown. However, before she said anything, he continued.

“Uh, feel free. I was just wondering how you knew me. We’re not in the same year, right?”

His expression was somewhat apologetic. He didn’t have much of a reputation, so it was likely they met at some point, but he forgot.

Her expression shifted from discomfort to realization.

“Pierre is my brother. We’re one year apart.”

After dropping that statement, she looked at Giovanni with something resembling expectation.

The boy’s expression brightened, but then dimmed. He and Pierre were both in the football team, but although Giovanni knew him, he still didn’t know his sister.

‘Did he tell her about me? No way. Aside from playing together, Pierre and I weren’t friends.’

He felt consternated. Clearly, the girl assumed his doubts were resolved, but that wasn’t the case.

For a moment, neither of them said anything. Giovanni just sat there, visibly embarrassed. He felt his face heating up, but fortunately, his complexion was dark, so it probably didn’t show much.

Glancing at the girl, he saw her standing with one hand on her hip and the other in her pocket. One eyebrow was slightly raised—coupled with her shoulder-length hair, it painted a tomboyish picture. The image was only slightly compromised by her generous chest, straining against her shirt.

This time, his gaze didn’t escape her notice. Frowning minutely, the girl crossed her arms in front of her chest and set her feet apart.

“Don’t you remember me?”

Her tone was clearly dissatisfied.

Rubbing his forehead, Giovanni smiled ruefully. He really didn’t.

“Can you tell me your name?”

He asked the question in a placating tone. Weirdly, he felt like a henpecked husband, having forgotten an important date or event.

Rolling her eyes, the girl sighed.

“It’s Luci.”

Her voice was disappointed, like Giovanni failed some kind of test.

At first, the name didn’t provoke a reaction, but as he studied the girl’s face, a suspicion started forming somewhere in his mind. Thinking of something, but not believing it, Giovanni tossed a feeler question.

“No way, Lucrezia…?”

When she heard his words, the girl tilted her head, giving him a strange smile.

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