Sunday mornings in the gym were an old and familiar part of my weekly routine. There was a certain comfort to being surrounded by weights, treadmills, and grunting people who were pushing their bodies as hard as they could. At that moment, I felt more like my old self than I had since waking up in this body.

After the paintball match yesterday, I’d wanted a better idea of my new physical abilities, and just what I could do. I figured that there was no better place to figure that out, than at the gym. Of course, I wasn’t the only one who needed to test out some new physical limits either. Teri had been eager to come and see what she could do now too.

Teri had finished growing yesterday, and now stood at a height of five foot ten, which made her five inches taller than me. She’d also developed some nice feminine curves, and more importantly, some impressive muscle tone. Teri now had the look of a serious fitness model, one who was just edging into the female bodybuilder range.

I glanced at Teri and felt the stirring jealousy. It wasn’t fair that I’d lost all my height and hard-earned muscle, while she just had it all handed to her in the blink of an eye. Of course, there were a lot of other things that weren’t fair either, and if I let myself dwell on them too much, I’d end up getting pissed off and bitter. So with a little effort, I tried to squash that jealousy and focus on why I was there.

I held up a weight, which I curled with one arm…barely. Just last week, this weight would have been almost nothing to me. It had been too small for me to have any use for. But now, it was about the most I could lift one handed. With a grunt, I set it down on the ground.

“That settles it,” I said with a grimace. “A seven in strength, ain’t all that impressive.”

My time in the gym had proven that I only had the strength of an average girl of my age and build, who didn’t engage in a lot of exercise. I was kind of disgusted by that, as well as disappointed, though I wasn’t surprised. That matched with everything else I’d noticed about my new physical abilities.

“And how the hell did Nadine get so strong?” I grumbled to myself. Now THAT was REALLY not fair.

“I never thought that I’d be stronger than you,” Matt said, giving me a wry look.

Matt had come along, but more to keep Teri and I company than to do any lifting himself. Instead, he’d designated himself as our ‘coach’, which meant that he stood back and watched, and took notes about how much weight we were able to lift. That was actually important information, because you couldn’t improve if you didn’t know your starting point.

“And I never thought I’d be stronger than you,” Teri added with a broad grin. She picked up the weight that I’d been working with and exclaimed, “Wow, this feels so light…” Matt and I both gave her jealous looks.

“You need to use the proper form,” I reminded Teri. “If you don’t lift with the right form, you won’t get the best benefits, and you can injure yourself…”

Teri smirked. “You’re just jealous because I’m stronger than you now.”

“Yeah,” I admitted with a scowl. “But I’m still telling you the truth.”

After having spent the last hour in the gym, a few things had become clear. I was a lot weaker than before, and my stamina had dropped too. However, I was a lot more flexible than I used to be, and was able to maneuver my body around more easily. Of course, my agility was listed as being 11, which made me think that I should probably try some gymnastics or something, just to see what I could do there.

Teri was stronger, tougher, and had a lot more stamina than ever before. I’d worn myself out on the treadmill, but she’d continued going with lots more energy to spend. She wasn’t quite as strong as I used to be, though she was a lot closer than I would have expected. From where she was at now, with a strength of 11, I guessed that my old rating probably would have been a 12, or maybe even a 13.

Matt watched his sister lift some more weights and shook his head, obviously stunned at her new strength. He still wasn’t happy about the fact that his little sister, was now taller and stronger than him. Having her actually prove it in front of him was like rubbing salt in the wound.

I was pretty disgusted by my own performance and had decided that I was going to keep coming to the gym. With my new body, there was no chance that I’d ever get anywhere close to where I used to be, but at least, I’d be able to get in better shape. And the truth was, at this point, any improvement would help.

When Matt excused himself to go to the bathroom, Teri cautiously asked, “Have you thought about…you know?”

“About what?” I asked, a little confused. “Mind reading isn’t one of my abilities…”

“Have you thought about making Matt into your other companion?” Teri asked. She looked a little guilty. “I mean, if you made him better too, he might not feel so bad…”

“I’ve…thought about it,” I admitted.

Teri seemed to brighten up again. “You have?”

“Yeah,” I responded, brushing a couple strands of my hair out of my face as I thought about how to answer. “The truth is, I didn’t really want to make you into a companion, because I didn’t know much about that ability or what it would do to you…”

“But now you know,” Teri pointed out with a smirk.

“Yeah,” I agreed, though I met her smirk with a scowl. “But now, I’ve accidentally pulled you into this game with me. I don’t really know what that’s going to mean for you, and I don’t want to drag Matt into it too… At least not any further than he already is, and not until I know a little more…”

Teri nodded at that. “I guess that makes sense.” Then she brightened up again. “But this is totally awesome…” She gestured down at her body, grinning as she did so.

“Yeah, I guess it is,” I responded with a faint chuckle. From her point of view, that was probably the best thing that had ever happened to her. I just hoped that she was able to keep thinking that.

“So,” Teri said, abruptly changing the subject. “I need to go get some new clothes this afternoon. You wanna come with?”

I groaned at that. My first impulse was to give an emphatic ‘NO’, since I’d always hated shopping, but the truth was, I did need new clothes. For the last couple days, the only clothes I’d had to wear were the ones that I’d woken up in, or that Teri had found for me.

“Sure,” I reluctantly agreed. However, seeing the gleam in her eyes, I quickly added, “But no getting carried away. I don’t have enough money to buy a lot, and I don’t want to spend half the day shopping…”

“Fine,” Teri responded with a roll of her eyes. I had a feeling that she was going to try dragging our trip out anyway.

With a shake of my head, I moved to the leg press machine. If I was doing a real workout, I’d focus on one area of my body rather than doing a bit of everything, but I wasn’t trying to do a real workout. I was just trying to get a better idea of what I could do. The real workouts would start another day.

I was settling down into the machine when a popup suddenly appeared in the air in front of me. For a moment, this caught me by surprise, since I hadn’t activated my game screen. Then, I actually read the message.

THE NEXT OFFICIAL CONTEST BEGINS IN 24 HOURS. TRANSPORT WILL BE PROVIDED.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Teri asked from beside me. From her expression, I assumed that she still couldn’t see my screen, even if she was my companion now.

“The game,” I answered quietly, closing the message as I did so. I opened my main screen and saw that there was now a timer in the corner, counting down from twenty-four hours. “I start playing tomorrow.”

--------------------

It was late at night and I was sitting on the edge of my bed, unable to sleep. Everyone else had gone to bed an hour ago, except for Teri. I could hear her moving around and making noise in her room, though I had no idea what she was doing, except perhaps for testing out her body with some pushups, crunches, and the like. If I were in her position, that’s what I probably would have done.

I was completely exhausted, but my thoughts wouldn’t stop racing. I thought about my death, my rebirth, and my new body. I thought about this game and my own position in it. Could I even survive playing? Heather couldn’t, and she’d been using her own body and powers she was familiar with. If she couldn’t survive, how could I do any better?

With a deep scowl, I told myself, “I’ve never been a quitter before, and I’m not about to just give up now.”

Then I let out a long sigh, thinking that it had been such a long day and I was ready for it to end. Now, if only my brain would cooperate and give my body the sleep it craved.

This morning, I’d worked myself to near exhaustion in the gym, as I tried getting a better idea of what my physical capabilities and limits were. The whole experience had been educational but disappointing. After I’d spent all those years exercising and pushing myself, becoming bigger and stronger, I’d lost it all. I was probably weaker than I would have been if I’d never lifted a single weight in my life.

Once I’d recovered from the exercise, Teri had taken me shopping, and as I’d expected, she broke her promise not to get carried away. Armed with her parents’ credit card, she’d been on a mission to get a new wardrobe, and she’d insisted on dragging me through every step of it along with her. I’d tried on more clothes than I’d even had in my old closet, and she’d talked me into buying a few more pieces than I’d intended.

“If I ever have to buy another bra, it will be too soon,” I muttered with a shudder of dread.

During our trip, Teri had acted as though she was having the time of her life. She’d been delighted to try out all those clothes, especially the ones that showed off her new body. And of course, she’d also been overjoyed by all the attention people now paid her.

Admittedly, I’d taken advantage of the opportunity to flirt with a few boys and even charm a couple clerks into giving me discounts. Mostly, I did this because I was bored, and had wanted to experiment a little more with my new abilities. Since charisma was now my highest stat, I figured that I should at least take advantage of it a little.

Teri had been completely tireless. With her new stamina, she’d still been ready and eager to keep going, long after I’d been completely wiped out. After today, I was NOT going to ever let her drag me on another shopping trip again. The next time I needed new clothes, I’d go in, grab what I wanted, and get right back out again, just like I always had before.

Of course, today had also been filled with more than just the physical activity. There had also been the notification about tomorrow’s contest. I didn’t know what the contest would entail, only that it would be dangerous, with high stakes for everyone involved.

I’d wanted to look for a new apartment today, a job, and anything I could find about Heather. Unfortunately, I’d been too busy to do any of that, and I had absolutely no idea if I’d even survive tomorrow, so all of that could be pointless anyway.

I let out a long sigh of exhaustion and pulled up my screen. The timer was still counting down in the corner. However, that wasn’t what I was looking at. A short time after I’d received the popup about the contest, I’d also received another message, one that seemed to come directly from Maelyne. I clicked on the new ‘message’ tab that had appeared on my screen and brought up the message.

A BRIEF REMINDER OF THE CONTEST RULES

Beneath this header were two pages, which answered a lot of my questions about the games, though not in as much detail as I would have liked. This had some useful information, but clearly wasn’t designed to be a player’s guide, merely a ‘reminder’ of how things worked. I’d already read it three times today and wasn’t going to bother reading it again.

According to this, there was a group of neutral gods called Arbiters, who oversaw the game, enforced the rules, and resolved disputes between the players. These Arbiters also had their own champions, ones who were very powerful, but instead of competing in the game, their jobs were to help organize the various competitions on Earth.

The actual competitions, which seemed to be what the official part of the game focused on, were the things I was most interested in since I was supposed to compete in one tomorrow. From what I could tell, each contest was different, with its own goals, rules, and challenges. Of course, I also got the impression that there weren’t a lot of rules, and that attacking your opponents was not only allowed, but encouraged.

Unfortunately, even after reading this message, I still didn’t have much idea of what I’d be facing tomorrow. This ‘reminder’ left out a lot of important details. However, there were a few things that were never said directly, but were hinted at.

One thing that caught my attention earlier, after the third time reading through, was that it mentioned that the Arbiters oversaw the system, though it didn’t explain what that meant. Did that mean the Arbiters were the ones who controlled this whole screen thing? Could they look at my character sheet? And if so, could they also read any of the messages or popups that appeared? If that was the case, it could explain why Maelyne had called this a ‘reminder’, and why she hadn’t given me any more information about what was going on. Maybe, she didn’t want these Arbiters to know about the little switcharoo she’d pulled.

“Maybe I’ll ask her,” I muttered as I closed out of my screen. “If I ever get to talk to her again…”

I let out a long sigh, then pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. I was so tired, and not just physically. Everything that had happened over the last few days had really taken a toll on me. At that moment, it felt as though all of my emotional barriers had been worn down, and the tears began to flow all on their own.