“Sure, mom,” Chrissy put down the textbook she was studying in the den and hurried toward the stairs. She loved the smell of a home-cooked meal. They were having lamb tonight and she knew that was one of Nick’s favorite dishes. Plus, she thought, its high in protein; that’s good for a growing boy like him.

As Chrissy neared the top of the stairs, she became aware of the loud music coming from Nick’s room. She smiled. The boy had been doing that a lot lately, playing his rock music at obnoxious levels. And it seemed the older he got, the louder it got.

In fact, Nick had been changing so fast, Chrissy could hardly keep up. Not only was he starting to grow up physically, but his attitude had evolved from a bubbly, charismatic kid to a reserved, sometimes sullen pre-teen. He wouldn’t even hug his sister in public like he used to; it embarrassed him, he said. The only thing that he would really get excited about anymore was wrestling.

“Nick,” she called, “it’s time for dinner.” But there was no reply from behind his closed door save the thumping beats of music. Chrissy sighed and shook her head as she headed down the hall. She knocked on the door. “May I come in?” she asked, knowing how much he liked his privacy nowadays. Still no answer. Never mind, she thought, and turned the doorknob. The door swung open and Chrissy practically burst out laughing at the sight she saw in front of her.

There was her little brother Nick standing in front of his closet mirror, wearing shorts and the wrestling singlet from last summer’s camp, flexing his muscles as hard as he could. But it was the look on his face that nearly made Chrissy lose it. He was actually growling at himself, his head bouncing in time to the music that was pouring loudly from his stereo system on his desk. She stood in the doorway silently, watching the display, Nick still oblivious to her presence.

“Hey, little brother,” she finally yelled over the din. Nick looked up at her startled and immediately lunged to the stereo to turn it off, almost tripping over his own feet as he did.

“Um, hey Chrissy,” he answered awkwardly once the room was quiet. It was obvious that he had never expected her to barge in on him, but he didn’t seem angry…just a tad humiliated. At first, he just stood there, not knowing exactly what to do.

“That uniform looks good on you,” Chrissy complimented, making Nick squirm his shoulders uneasily. “No, seriously,” she continued. “You look the way JP used to look a couple of years ago.”

Nick’s face brightened up. “Really?” he exclaimed.

“Yeah,” Chrissy went on, “when he first started wrestling, he was actually skinnier than you.” Nick was looking at himself in the mirror again and smiling broadly. Chrissy could just imagine her brother’s mind racing with the thought of his teenage hero having come from the same place he did.

Chrissy couldn’t help but feel pride as she watched Nick in that uniform, the same uniform she had seen JP in so many times. The kid really did look good! He filled out the straps well – it looked like his shoulders had broadened at bit recently – and he looked like a little Greek version of JP…not a single ounce of fat was on his body.

“Nick, are you getting muscles?” she wondered aloud.

Nick looked back up at her and grinned. “I think I am,” he beamed. He was no longer the stoic adolescent, but outwardly proud of what he was becoming. “Check out this bicep!” He held up his right arm and flexed it as hard as he could. Chrissy squeezed it gently.

Wow, she thought, he really does have muscle! His arm was already pretty firm and there was a tiny bulge that she had never seen before. “That’s impressive,” she stated with genuine amazement. She looked down at her brother. “Have you been growing again?” Chrissy shook her head in disbelief. Nick bit his lip excitedly. “Dang, we’re gonna have to measure you again. You might be pushing 5’3”now!”

Nick shrugged his shoulders and casually crossed his arms. Chrissy did a double take as she watched her brother. “Whoa, Nick!” she exclaimed in a more serious tone. “Do that again!”

“Do what again?”

“The thing you just did with your arms!” Puzzled, Nick crossed his arms again. Sure enough, Chrissy hadn’t been seeing things. A shallow, but visible crease had formed between his pecs and a series of tightly stretched muscle fibers showed through his skin on either side. “Nick, look at your chest!”

Nick instantly turned toward the mirror again and searched for what his sister was talking about. His eyes widened hysterically as he saw his pec muscles for the first time. “I have pecs! I have pecs!” he cheered, his voice cracking humorously the second time. “Just like JP!” Chrissy laughed softly.

He frantically slipped the straps over his shoulders so he could see his chest even better. Chrissy blinked as she saw the 12-year-old torso of her brother. He was starting to get ripped! When he flexed his abs, they condensed like a little washboard and – holy shit – she could actually see obliques! But the kid had never worked out in his life, except perhaps a few push-ups and sit-ups!

“Wow, you’re a little muscleman,” she gulped. She knew he had grown up a bit in the last few months, but not like this. Nick continued flexing in the mirror, giving himself and his sister a little show. The look on his face was priceless; he was proud of his body. “Come on, Hercules!” she grinned. “It’s time for dinner.”

“Great,” Nick gushed, “I’m starving.” And he quickly pushed past his sister, eager to feed his growing muscles.

“Uh, Nick,” she called after him. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Blushing, Nick ran back into his room and grabbed his shirt.

“FUUUUUCK, YEAH!” Ryan screamed as he completed his tenth rep squatting 405 pounds. That may not seem heavy – his max was a lot more – but try three quick sets of ten with that weight. He racked the bar with a clang and wiped the sweat off his forehead.

“Dude, you’re a beast!” Luke exclaimed, almost more out of breath than his best friend. “You were never like this in high school!”

“I’m a lot bigger than I was in high school,” Ryan boasted, lifting his gym shorts to view his massive thighs in the mirror. Damn, they were getting ripped! They were gonna bust through every defensive line on the field…once the coach would let him play.

“How much you weighing now?” Luke asked.

“239” Ryan instantly rattled off. He glared at his reflection. He knew exactly how much he weighed; he had missed the coach’s cutoff point by one measly pound. But that was going to change real soon. He whipped off his tanktop and flexed his heavy torso for all in the gym to see. Shit, he was gorgeous! Between his eyes and his body, no girl could resist him. His arms were gigantic and his lats flared out like wings.

“Jesus Christ!” Luke gasped, blown away by Ryan’s size. “How do you stay so cut?”

But Ryan was too busy admiring himself to answer. Yeah, he was chiseled…but the abs could be better, he thought. Jansen had been on his ass about keeping his body fat down – and he had – but the old man wanted more. Between bulking for football and cutting for modeling, Ryan was constantly obsessing over his weight. It seemed like if he wasn’t partying – and screwing girls – he was either eating or working out.

“I’m getting hungry,” Luke spoke up. “What’s a good place to eat around here?” Luke was actually at Tech visiting – and skipping a day of classes in the process. He had heard that the chicks there were hot and frankly, he was getting tired of JMU.

Ryan felt his stomach rumble. He was starving, too. “There’s a Chinese buffet down the street,” he hissed. “I sometimes go there after a workout.”

“Sounds good to me.”

So minutes later, the two hunks entered the restaurant. The hostess eyed Ryan suspiciously, eliciting a smirk from the mammoth teen. Yep, they remembered him from last time.

Immediately after they sat down, Ryan began stuffing his face with everything he could get his hands on – beef, chicken, pork, vegetables, spare ribs, dumplings. He must have made six or seven trips back to the buffet, each time coming back with a plate heaped high with food. Luke looked at him in awe. They obviously don’t have athletes at JMU like me who need to eat, Ryan said to himself

Finally, after nearly two hours, he leaned back in his chair and let out a satisfying burp. Yeah, that was good, he thought, as he patted his bloated stomach.

“When did you learn to eat so much?” Luke wide-eyed. He had barely completed three plates.

“When coach told me to bulk up,” he sneered. That would show him! I’m the best high school football player in the state and he doesn’t even put me on the line.

Back at his dorm, Ryan began undressing. There was huge party in Cochrane tonight and he knew some of the hottest girls on campus were going to be there. As he decided what to wear, he checked himself out in the mirror – his huge cock promptly standing on end as he did. Fuck, I look big enough to take on an entire football team myself, he thought. I must’ve gotten bigger.

Ryan stepped on a scale. Sure enough, it registered 244. Five whole fucking pounds in one day! Damn, he was a god! But after looking down at himself again, he glanced once more at his reflection, this time noticing his abs. Shit, they were hard to see…and he had to get rid of those love handles. He had a photo shoot tomorrow and Jansen would let him have it if he knew he had put on that much weight. Fuck it, if he had just gained five pounds in one day, he could surely gain it back by the next football practice. But there was that party tonight – he didn’t have time to jog. There had to be some way to lose the weight quickly. An idea popped into Ryan’s head. No, he hadn’t done that since high school…but it worked then, didn’t it?

Looking at his mid-section one more time, he turned and headed toward the bathroom. After making sure no one was in there, he locked the door and kneeled down in front of the toilet. Then, with a deep breath, he shoved his fingers down his throat and proceeded to throw up all he had eaten only a couple of hours earlier.

“On Mat 2, Jason Worthington of Herndon and JP Maloney of Central,” the PA system rang through the gym. Nick instantly jumped up and cheered his hero, watching him walk confidently toward the center of the mat.

“Relax,” Chrissy laughed, instinctively grabbing her brother’s arm to prevent him from falling off the bleachers. But the kid was just too excited.

This was Nick’s first time at a wrestling tournament – the Spartans’ first of the season – and so far, it was everything he had dreamt it to be. The team was dominant, having won 9 bouts thus far, including Danny’s, and now it was time for JP’s match. Nick hadn’t taken his eyes off of him the whole time, amazed at how he filled out the blue-and-white singlet with all that muscle. He looked fantastic! It was no wonder all the girls at school talked about him all the time; he was a stud! That’s going to be me someday, Nick said to himself.

As JP shook hands with his opponent – who frankly, looked scared out of his mind – Nick could already feel his heart pounding with anticipation. He knew JP would win, but he wanted to see him actually do it. He wanted to see how a real wrestler won.

The referee blew his whistle to signal the start of the match and immediately, JP was on top of the other guy, forcing him into a defensive mode. Nick jumped, completely blown away by his idol’s speed and power. Imagine, all that muscle being propelled at someone with breakneck speed. Obviously, it was too much for this guy to bear. Before Nick knew it, the referee blew his whistle again and JP stood up.

Puzzled, Nick wondered what was going on. Then, JP’s arm was raised in victory. Oh my God, he had won! Nick looked up at the scoreboard – 15 seconds! JP was a god!

“Is it over already?” Chrissy asked, her mouth agape in shock.

“I think so,” Matt, sitting on her other side, replied. The look on his face was of sheer awe, his soft eyes glazed over as he looked down at JP. “I’ve never seen anything like that before. He’s amazing!”

“Wow,” Nick beamed, “that was so awesome!” Suddenly getting an idea, he leaned over to his sister and grabbed her shirt. “Can I go down and meet him? Can I? Can I?”

“Ok, fine,” Chrissy smiled. Nick began to get up, but she pulled him back. “But we should wait until the whole tournament is over first.” Nick frowned a little. He didn’t want to wait that long, but he figured he probably wouldn’t be able to get to JP on the floor anyway, so he agreed to wait.

Minutes after the last match – a win for Tyler – Nick waited impatiently outside the hallway to the locker room with Chrissy and Matt. He was practically vibrating with excitement. What would he say to JP? What would JP say to him? Would he let him meet the other wrestlers? It was almost too much to take.

Suddenly, a glowing figure rounded the corner. “There he is!” Nick burst out, his body becoming airborne as he pointed toward JP. By now, he had changed out of his uniform and was wearing shorts and a Spartans Wrestling T-shirt that did little to hide his tremendous musculature. It was stretched tightly across his broad chest and his huge biceps seemed ready to bust out of the sleeves.

“Hey, Nick,” JP greeted his biggest fan, reaching down to give him a high-five. Nick almost didn’t know what to say next.

“You were so awesome! I wanna be like you when I grow up!”

JP grinned and squatted down so that he was face-to-face with Nick. Gosh, his eyes were so beautiful. Nick felt a tinge of wonder spread through him. “Well, you have to work really, really hard,” he said, “just like you learned at wrestling camp. If you workout a lot and train a lot and practice all your moves a lot, you’ll probably be even better than I am someday.”

Nick took in every single word and he smiled broadly. “Really?” He couldn’t imagine being a better wrestler than the great JP Maloney, but something inside of him said that it was possible if he took those words to heart.

“Listen,” JP went on, “how would you like it if I brought you in to see the team?” Nick almost fell over as he nodded fervently. Wow, all his dreams were coming true!

Eagerly, Nick followed right behind JP as he led him into the locker room. As soon as they walked through the door, the smell of teenage sweat and testosterone met Nick’s nose. At first, it shocked him, but then he began to like it. Somehow, something told him he belonged there.

“Hey, guys!” JP yelled over the chatter of his teammates, excited that they had dominated the season’s first tournament. “For those of you who haven’t met him, this is Nick Angelakis.”

Nick looked up at the high school guys, many of them still in their singlets or half-dressed, as they turned toward him. All of them looked so big and strong, but Tyler, standing in the back and guzzling from a huge water jug, outsized them all. He had just finished a hard-fought match and was sweating profusely.

“Nick! What’s up little man,” he thundered as he made his way across the room. Nick had never seen anything like him. The heavyweight wrestler was so massive, he almost needed a whole zip code. But it wasn’t all fat; you could see his huge muscles moving around underneath. His gigantic pecs heaved as he shifted his weight, as if they had a mind of their own, and his arms were bigger than Nick had ever imagined arms to be. “Welcome, dude!” he said as he shook the boy’s hand, Nick’s completely enveloped by Tyler’s giant paw.

“Yo, Nick!” Danny yelled, bounding athletically toward him. He had his shirt off, too, and his slim pecs bounced up and down as he jogged, his shredded abs tightening and loosening impressively as he breathed. He could tell why his sister thought he was hot; he was. “Haven’t seen you in a while. You lookin’ taller! You been growing?”

Nick nodded, totally overwhelmed by the three wrestling gods that now stood before him – a colossal heavyweight, a shredded lightweight and a heavily-muscle-packed middleweight – greeting him like they were his best friends. He looked over at JP with wide eyes.

“Nick,” he laughed, “why don’t we check out the weight room?” Nick’s face brightened up even more. The weight room!?! JP led him through a door at the far side of the locker room and turned on the light.

Holy crap! Nick had never seen a sight more amazing – well, maybe except for JP himself. The high school’s weight room had every machine Nick had ever heard of…and a bunch more that he hadn’t. He felt a tinge of reverence down his back, knowing that this is where his teen heroes worked out, getting bigger and stronger.

“This is where it all happens,” JP commented, pride filling his voice. Nick suddenly became overcome with excitement. He couldn’t wait to get to high school. He couldn’t wait to be able to train in a place like this, watching – no, feeling – himself become like JP. “If you work really hard between now and high school,” JP went on, kneeling down next to Nick, “you could have guns like these.” With that, he raised the left sleeve of his T-shirt and flexed his huge bicep right in front of Nick’s face.

Nick almost wet his pants as he stared at the mountain of muscle. He couldn’t imagine having a bicep that big, but it had to be possible; he was looking right at it. Every fiber was clearly visible, every tendon perfectly etched. Nick raised his hands to it and touched it, gasping at its hardness. He had never felt skin this solid before. It couldn’t be human. And he couldn’t get both his hands around it, no matter how hard he tried. JP was smiling at him brilliantly, his blue eyes twinkling, his white teeth gleaming. That’s when Nick knew exactly what he was going to be.

“I can’t wait to be like you,” he exclaimed breathlessly. He said it with such conviction, that JP almost looked surprised.

“I’m sure you will,” he replied. Then, he placed his hand on Nick’s shoulder, his touch feeling warm and energizing to his new young protégé. “Let’s see how you’re coming along. Show me your bicep.” He said it, not with authority, but with camaraderie, as if they were just two buddies comparing biceps – sort of how Nick had done so many times in the past with Ian.

Earnestly, Nick rolled up his shirt sleeve and flexed his right arm as hard as he could. JP raised his eyebrows in genuine astonishment. “Wow,” he said, “you’ve already got quite a muscle there, buddy!” Nick beamed with pride as JP squeezed it appreciatively.

“Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?” Tyler’s booming voice echoed from behind Nick. He turned to see the behemoth towering over him and grinning. Wow, even he was impressed! “Looks like you’ve been doing your homework,” he went on. “Keep it up and you’ll be giving my brother a run for his money!”

Nick could hardly believe what he was hearing. Kyle Backton – Tyler’s little brother – was the 103-pounder that season. He was a freshman and a big promise for the future of the team.

“Kyle, get in here!” Tyler yelled back into the locker room. A thin, wiry boy not much taller than Nick came jogging into the weight room. He was like a spitting image of his brother…just a lot smaller. “Check out this kid’s bicep – Nick, show it to him.” Nick was only too eager to show off again.

“Whoa!” Kyle instantly gasped. “Please tell me you’re just a young-looking freshman,” he joked.

“Nope,” JP chimed, “he’s still in seventh grade.”

“You’re shittin’ me!” Kyle's eyes grew wide. “His bicep looks almost the size of mine!” With that, he rolled up his sleeve and flexed his own arm, holding it up right next to Nick’s. Sure enough, the high-schooler’s bicep peaked only a fraction of an inch higher than his. Nick felt a sense of extreme pride, being able to compare himself to a true athlete. Ok, so Kyle’s bicep was more defined and shredded, but he had to admit that Nick’s had some real size.

“There’s no way you’re only two years younger than me,” he grinned. “Hell, I think JP will have to watch his back by the time you get to high school, kid!”

You bet he will, Nick thought to himself. •