Gym

Behind the main school building just before the sports field were two halls, one for events like assemblies and the morning tithes. The other hall was a fully-equipped school gym, a few sports codes practiced here while the rest had their own clubrooms. Schools like these were one of the reasons why no one even thought of overthrowing the government.

Deep into the corner of the gym was Joao and Monke, Joao was wearing shorts with tights underneath and a long-sleeved shirt. As always he had on his black gloves but unlike most of his gloves, these ones covered his whole hand.

Monke was wearing the school tracksuit, the blue and white suit him very well and complimented his golden-brown eyes. He was lying on a bench and he had Joao try his best with a punching bag, he told him that if he could make it swing with a punch he would teach him a move which shot him up the ranks quickly.

Thirty minutes had already passed since then and Joao was barely able to make the bag move at all. Voices in his head started to curse at Monke who had been asleep for the whole thirty minutes, after every few punches Joao would look at Monke and imagine kicking him for tricking him.

But then he will suddenly try and channel that rage into the punching bag, wasn't as much of a success as he thought it would be. After what felt like an eternity of throwing endless punch after punch Joao collapsed onto his knees his breathing rapid and his face dripping a waterfall. He almost slipped from where he was standing because of it.

"Monkey, Monkey, Monkey." He lazily called over and again. He then stood up and struggled over to Monke. "I SAID MONKEY!" He screamed as he kicked him on the sides over and over again until Monke finally woke up.

"I'm up I'm up.NO! I wasn't sleeping I was becoming one with the world." He said as he straightened up on the bench. He yawned and didn't hear Joao threatening to make him one with the earth for real.

"So did you move it?" Monke said as he stood up.

Joao smiled and looked up to Monke, "yes I made it swing and I was so excited to tell you I had to, unfortunately, wake you up from what seemed like a peaceful rest."

"I wasn't sleeping. I was imagining the move which I'm going to show you." Monke bent over and grabbed a pair of boxing gloves. "So anyway, this move is very complicated, and therefore I need all your focus here."

Monke went on explaining the technical stuff Joao stared at him in disappointment. He slapped his own face and sighed. Before his hand could slide down his face it flew off, when Joao opened his found Monke trying to take his gloves off.

He quickly pulled his hand away from Monke who wasn't holding on tightly.

"Whoa calm down, I was trying to check if you had injured yourself."

"No, I am okay.

"But you punched that." He pointed at the punching bag, "with that." He pointed at his hand. "Without any proper gear, for someone as fragile as you it could be very bad."

Joao gave him a long stare while rubbing his hand over the glove. "Don't worry I am…"

"Are you sure? Don't force yourself to do something you don't need, everyone is strong in their own…"

"I want to be strong this way. Only then can I get some proper respect."

"From who?"

…

"You don't…"

"I want it from you."'

…

"I'm sorry about that, maybe this was a bad idea. I should leave." Joao said as he turned to walk away.

"You won't get any respect from me by running away."

"I'm not running away. I just realized that this was a bad idea and I'm strategically putting it aside I will still deliver on my promise and get you that Collin's root."

"You are running away, I know that you didn't manage to make that sandbag move. But that is no reason why you should give up. In truth, I've been watching you this whole time and I've been waiting for you to ask me to make you stronger."

Joao turned around slowly and tried to release his voice normally but it lowered and cut off some words, "you have? But… but why you didn't even pay attention to me when I said I wanted to join you guys?"

"It's just like when we first met I told you that you had a lot of potential to become strong. I didn't want to force you into doing anything you might not like because that can stunt your growth."

…

"What?" Monke asked after noticing that Joao now looked uninterested.

"Is that it?"

"Should there be more?"

"Never mind, give me the gloves then. I'll try one more time." Joao reached out to grab one of the boxing gloves from Monke and had the last one handed to him. After strapping them on, Joao put all of his focus on the sandbag and started to think.

'There should be a solution to this, secret of some kind. Monkey wouldn't ask me to do something impossible, yes. He did this to test me. He believes in me so I can't let him down, no matter what I find the answer.' Joao thought to himself, he closed his eyes and focused his hardest. An image of the sandbag appeared in his head and he broke it down mathematically looking for the best place to strike.

"HERE!" He screamed as he threw a very fast punch which landed dead on the center of the punch bag, it moved it slightly but it didn't swing. He turned his head to face Monke, Monke shrugged his shoulders.

Joao lowered his head and chuckled a few times, he raised it again and removed his punch from the bag. "It's impossible to do this isn't it?"

Monke clapped his hand, "hurray." He cheered with a lazy and tired tone in his voice.

"DON'T MAKE FOOL OF ME IDIOT!"