A loud, piercing whistle served as a reminder to everyone out on the school field that it was time for their daily warm-up, meaning they had to run two big laps around the school field.

Lessons might have ended, but that didn’t mean it was the end of the school day.

Staring off into the distance, Gary watched the large clock on the front of the school building. He was squinting hard, trying to make out where the two hands were on the dial, not because the clock was too small but because his eyesight had gotten terrible.

Still, Gary had always refused to wear glasses. He felt like if he did, it was only admitting to himself that he had bad eyesight. He was afraid that it would only deteriorate quicker if he gave in, and it would prove that he had bad genes—something an Altered did not have.

After placing his hands on the sides of his head, he pulled slightly, narrowing his field of vision, allowing him to focus—a technique he had learned when trying to see the screen from the back of the class.

“Three-thirty. I still have a lot of time left.”

“Get a move on, broccoli head, unless you want my size-twelve shoe in your backside!” Mr. Root shouted. He was a large man who towered over not only the students but also all the other adults.

His last name was very fitting. If Gary didn’t know any better, he would have sworn that his teacher’s genes must have been mixed with some giant, ancient tree. He was that large and sturdy.

Not wanting to anger his teacher further, Gary joined the rest of the students trotting along at the back of the pack. There, he ran side by side with his friend Tom, who was huffing and panting away.

“Why… do… they… want… to… kill… me?” Each time Tom uttered a word, he had to take a deep breath before being able to say the next.

“Did you know that it’s easier to breathe if you don’t speak and run at the same time?” Gary pointed out. He was doing just fine and could have passed his friend, yet he still chose to stay at the back.

It was the same every day, and this didn’t go unnoticed by Tom. He was aware that Gary was staying behind because of him.

In the end, Tom decided to give up on keeping up with the rest of the class and started to slow his pace. “That’s better. According to the internet, when you’re jogging, you should jog at a pace where you can still talk.”

“Yeah… but I don’t think they meant this.” The two of them were now moving so slowly that they were practically walking. Trying to make their loss of tempo less obvious, they were swinging their arms backward and forward, imitating those running ahead of them.

Unfortunately, this didn’t get past Mr. Root, and the rest of the students were now busy waiting for them.

“Just get over here, you vegetables!” he commanded.

Once the students were all lined up, Mr. Root placed a rugby ball on the ground right in front of him. Out of the lineup, he selected the largest student, a boy named Blake.

Blake was the pride of their class, the type who was too good to be true and usually only appeared in movies as the main character. However, this wasn’t a movie, and he was right in front of his fellow students.

Blake had golden-tanned skin with wavy brown hair that had just the right amount of curls. To top it off, his body was that of a naturally lean muscle builder, seemingly designed to excel in sports.

“You know, they say ten percent of the boys match with ninety percent of the girls,” Tom whispered to Gary while looking at Blake. “On Binder, I mean. Not that I’ve used it myself. Seriously, what’s the point when I know nobody would swipe on me? That’s why I go on the app, just to swipe in the other direction. That way, I’ve rejected all of them before they could ever reject me.”

“I thought you just said you didn’t use the app?”

Looking at his buddy and then looking at himself, Gary was a little disheartened. It wasn’t because someone like Blake must have girls lining up to be his girlfriend. No, it was because people like Blake were the perfect candidates to be chosen to become Altereds. As long as there were people like Blake in the world, how would he ever get selected?

“I won’t mince words. We all know that Blake here is the best on our team. Too bad for you all that there are hundreds of Blakes out there on other teams as well,” Mr. Root said, giving a very “motivating” pep talk. “What this team lacks is a good defensive line. People who can tackle. We’re here to find our tacklers.”

The aim of today’s training was to try to either (a) get the ball off Blake while he was running toward you, stopping him from reaching the white try line, or (b) tackle him to the ground.

After everyone watched the first few students attempt and fail, it became clear that it was an impossible task. Eventually, it was time for Gary to have his go at it.

Mr. Root clearly didn’t have high hopes for Gary, but everyone deserved an equal chance according to school regulations. He blew the whistle, and Blake started bulldozing his way toward Gary, gripping the ball tightly, as if it were a newborn baby.

Hey, hey, can’t you go easy on me? Gary thought. My weak little hands aren’t ever going to be able to rip the ball off him. The only thing I can do is go for a tackle.

Charging forward, Gary summoned the will to face Blake. If there was one strong point making Gary stand out from the rest, it would be his lack of fear, something even Mr. Root had to admire.

When they were closing in on each other, Gary bent his knees slightly to get into a lower position. Although it might have looked like he hadn’t been paying attention to the others, Gary had picked up on multiple details and habits.

Whenever Blake feints, he does so with his right foot first. You can see his extra weight shifting to that side. The field is soft today, and his feet are sinking deeper than usual. That helps him push himself forward, spinning his body over to the right side.

Knowing all of this, Gary went along with his feint, aiming to go in for the tackle, but stopped at the last second and went to his own right. Just like he had predicted, Blake’s plan was to spin around to avoid the tackle, but Gary knew where he would end up.

Going low, he saw Blake’s legs and was ready… only to see Blake’s colossal knee slam toward his face and whack him right on the nose, followed by a loud crack that even the onlookers probably heard.

Blood started to pour down in an instant, and Gary lay there on the cold grass field.

Shit. So what if I figured out where he would go? It’s not like I have the body to do anything about it.

From his years of watching Altered fights, Gary was great at seeing how people’s bodies moved before they did. He could see patterns that maybe even the person themself didn’t realize they had.

Alas, it was all useless.

“Hey, man, I’m so sorry. Are you all right? Let me take you to the doctor,” Blake said as he helped Gary off the ground to see if his nose was okay.

As Gary touched his nose lightly, blood started to gush down even more. “I think it’s broken,” Gary said, more to himself.

“Oh, man, I’m so sorry. Let me take you to my family’s clinic. I’m gonna tell them what happened so that they won’t charge you.”

The worst thing about Blake in Gary and Tom’s collective minds was that, despite being so popular and seemingly having been handed everything in life, he was actually a nice guy. At least in movies or TV shows, someone who was that perfect would have a bad side. They’d act arrogant or probably even bully the geek in class, but in real life, that wasn’t the case at all.

No one hated Blake; everyone loved his gentle, soft side, including Gary and Tom, who were merely jealous.

“Don’t worry about it. It wasn’t your fault,” Gary muttered under his breath as he walked toward Tom on the sideline. “It was my fault for trying anyway.”

Blake heard Gary’s words. Out of everyone who had tried to tackle him today, Gary was the only one who had managed to predict where he would be going. His classmate obviously had talent, and Blake wanted to tell him that, but he had already gone off with Tom, who was accompanying him to the nurse’s office.

“You should have seen your head fly back!” Tom teased, all excited. “You know, when I first saw you after the summer break, with your hair all dyed green like that, I thought you had changed, but it turns out you’re just the same idiot as always.”

Usually, the two would laugh about something like this, but it seemed like today, Gary wasn’t in the mood to joke around. He didn’t respond.

“Why do they even make us do this sport, anyway? Oh, that’s right, because our country has an obesity crisis, so they made it mandatory for every student to take part in a sports club every day so we don’t turn into pigs like most of the adults who came up with that stupid idea,” Tom continued, yet this didn’t get a response out of Gary, either.

“Hey, so how’s your sister doing?” Tom asked, trying to change the subject.

“You can’t date her,” Gary replied instantly, still holding pieces of tissue up his nose.

“What? I didn’t mean it like that. Although truth be told, she is growing up to be quite the beauty. I can already picture it; in a couple of years, she’ll be embarrassed to be hanging around her big brother. She won’t be like she is now. You should treasure these days.”

A picture started to form in Tom’s mind of a slim-waisted but curvy girl with short brown hair and perfectly shaped large eyes. Only his vision was slightly altered in a particular area. Instead of mere melons, they were the size of watermelons.

“I know.” Gary sighed in defeat, aware that soon enough, he might have to fight off his sister’s suitors.

After he arrived at the nurse’s office to have his nose looked at, she told him what he had already guessed himself. His nose was indeed broken. The nurse recommended that he visit the hospital if he didn’t want it to remain crooked. It was possible to do surgery to fix it later on, but it would be easier to do it before it healed out of place.

That was when he noticed the time, and Gary rushed out of the room.

“Thank you. I promise I’ll have it looked at!” he called back.

But he wasn’t rushing off to the hospital. Instead, he was running back home.

Leaving school, he rushed outside the gate. It was a small town, so it was quicker for him to run than to take the bus. Not to mention, there was another reason why he wanted to avoid using the bus. He didn’t really want to spend any money, especially since he could be back home within ten minutes if he hurried.

Litter filled the streets of his neighborhood, and there were patches of graffiti near the apartment buildings. He was aware that their area wasn’t the greatest compared to others.

It was by no means the worst place to live, but it certainly wasn’t the best either. Eventually, he reached his own apartment building. The buzzer lock attached to the side of the door had been broken a long time ago and had never been fixed, allowing anyone to come in as they pleased.

The only thing left was the grueling task of walking up five flights of stairs. The building had no elevator, and Gary’s family was “lucky” enough to live on the top floor.

When he finally made it to the top, he felt like someone was reaching into his stomach and trying to pull out all his organs. He was huffing and puffing louder than Tom had been out on the field.

He waited a minute to catch his breath before entering apartment 604.

“Welcome back, darling. You’re just in time for dinner, although I’m gonna need a couple of minutes. Do you want me to leave it out for you tonight as well?” his mom shouted from the kitchen.

“Yes, Mom. I’ll be going out with Tom tonight too,” he shouted back, rushing into his bedroom.

Their apartment was relatively small, consisting of only two bedrooms and a kitchen that was simultaneously the dining area and the living room when not in use. It was all his family could afford, and since there were only two bedrooms, it meant…

“Gary, what the hell happened to your nose?” His sister, who had been lying on her bed, was still in her school uniform and listening to music on her phone. Just moments before, she had been singing away until a certain someone had bulldozed into the room.

“Amy, don’t worry about it. I’ve got to go,” Gary replied as he quickly changed out of his school uniform. “And please don’t tell Mom.”

That was right, the two of them shared a room, even though he was sixteen and she was fifteen, only a year younger. Of course, both of them kept this a secret from their friends. If people found out, they might spread rumors about them being in some sort of a freakish family who got up to some strange things.

But it wasn’t like they had much choice. Their family situation wasn’t the best, and they both knew it. They had never once complained about their situation to their mother, since the poor woman was raising her teenage children to the best of her ability while working multiple jobs.

After changing clothes, Gary left the apartment. Along his way, he constantly looked at his phone to check the time, and it was now almost five thirty.

I made it, and with time to spare.

He had arrived outside a well-known nightclub. Above him, a sign read “Basement.” It was in the town center, and he wasn’t there to meet Tom. He had lied about that part.

I promise I will make our lives better, Gary thought as he walked through the doors.

Inside, a group of men in suits greeted him. Sitting on one of the sofas was a man with a cigar in his hand. Two more men stood close to him, obviously acting as his personal bodyguards.

“I’ve been waiting for you, kid,” the man said with a smile as he let out a puff of smoke.

Gary had a deep, dark secret that he had been hiding from everybody—not just his family, but his closest friends too. There was a reason for the sudden change in his appearance over the summer.

Unbeknownst to them all, he had joined a gang.