Jacob was your slightly average young male. He didn’t really stand out in anything in life thus far. At the age of 14, he was in the locker room after gym class. The jocks were coming in and he did his best to not be noticed. But, as usual, he always was.

“Well if it isn’t little Jacob. How’s the smallest kid in the world doing?” came from his tormentor, Dustin.

Dustin was 16 and built like a bull. He had excellent genes and he used them to his full advantage. His father was a jock when he was young and trained his son to act just like he did. So, Dustin did a lot of lifting when he was young which showed off now, and picked on kids that were smaller than him. Unfortunately for Jacob, he was always smaller than everyone. He never knew who his father was and his mother was overprotective, never letting him try out for any sports or do anything physical. Plus, Jacob had not went through puberty yet, so he was even more underdeveloped than the other kids around him.

“Hey Dustin,” Jacob muttered.

Dustin swaggered over to his locker next to Jacob and stripped naked. Dustin knew this, above all else, got under Jacob’s skin. Jacob never admitted it, but he always envied muscle and had what professionals would call sthenolagnia or sexual attraction to the display of muscles. Jacob would do his best not to look at Dustin, but Dustin knew that Jacob was into his hard body and he would make sure Jacob knew how good he was.

“Man, I sure did get a good pump from today. My calves and quads are burning from all that running. I did at least 6 laps today. How much did you do Jacob?”

“2,” Jacob muttered.

“2? Man, you’re so pathetic. I mean look at you, you’re so small and weak. Nothing like me. Look at these legs.” Dustin walked over to Jacob naked and started flexing his quads. “These legs are probably stronger than your whole body and let me run faster and longer than you can imagine.”

Jacob turned and tried to ignore Dustin but Dustin kept coming closer. “How ‘bout these guns. Look at these bad boys.” Dustin flexed right in Jacob’s face and Jacob stifled a moan. Dustin slowly relaxed and flexed repeatedly. “Betcha wish you had these guns, don’t you. But you can’t. You’re always going to be a little weakling. Isn’t that right fellas? What’s this?”

Jacob didn’t notice but his briefs were tenting up. “Jacob’s got a little hard on! Even his cock is tiny,” Dustin roared.

The locker room burst into laughter as Jacob’s secret was revealed. The bell rang and Jacob raced to get dressed and ran home, haunted by the laughter of his classmates and the massive peak of Dustin.

He got home and went straight to his room and cried into his pillow. His mother heard his sobbing and came in.

“What’s wrong honey?” she gently asked.

“Why can’t I be big mom? Why won’t you let me play sports? I want to be a jock.”

“Aww honey, I just don’t want anything to happen to you. I never told you how your father died, but it was because of the concussions he got while playing sports when he was young.”

“But mom, I hate not being big and I want to be more athletic. I hate how they treat me at school.”

She stood up and turned to leave the room. “I don’t know Jacob. I’ll think about it.”

She left the room quickly and Jacob returned to his crying. She thought of a way to help him out, but she really didn’t want him going out for sports. What she failed to tell Jacob was that his father was amazing at sports and his death came from an accident in a boxing fight.

“Maybe I’ll get him a toy. That’ll cheer him up.”

Jacob spent his Saturday in his room. He slept and stared at the walls and then decided to watch some TV. ESPN 2 had the World’s Strongest Man competition on and he watched a little of it, but turned it to cartoons soon after. His mom came home around dinner time and said, “Jacob dear, I bought you a present.”

Jacob didn’t move. He was still feeling horrible, confused, humiliated and ashamed at the incident from yesterday. Then he felt his mother place a small plushy on his shoulder. He turned his head to see a bear. It was a very cute bear, little black eyes and nose against a dark blue fur. It had a police department shield embroidered to its chest and “NYPD” under the shield. Its arms were held out as if it wanted to hug Jacob and its head cocked slightly as if it were expecting it.

Jacob smiled and nuzzled the bear’s nose with his. His mother smiled and went to the kitchen and began to prepare dinner. Jacob let the bear sit on his shoulder as he looked back toward the TV. But for some strange reason, the cartoons that he was so enthralled with just didn’t seem interesting anymore. He felt like watching the sports channel and turned it back to ESPN 2 where the strongman competition was still going. He watched it more intently this time, staring at the huge guys and the various competitions and feats of strength. Something inside him told him that he could be like that one day, but if he wanted to, he would have to change his life right now.

“Mom, I’m going to start lifting weights,” Jacob bluntly said.

“What was that?”

“I’m going to start lifting. Every day after school.”

“No, I can’t let you do that Jacob.”

“Mom, I will be lifting. I have to do this.”

His mother walked into the room and was about to argue with him, but she saw a determination in his face and finally realized that he was really serious. “Ok honey, but promise me you’ll be careful.”

“Don’t worry mom. I need to do this.”

She didn’t understand what he meant by that and neither did he, but from that day, Jacob’s life was different. •