Victorious

“Flactoid Magnus Delterior 360... That sounds fun.” Victoria sat on the weight machine and did what seemed like a million preparations just to pull on some bars. Strap your feet. Adjust the seat. Crank your neck. Straighten your back. All to work an unheard of muscle deep in between the scapulas.

“Four…five…six.” As she was focused straight ahead and counting her repetitions, Victoria’s eyes settled on the two barbell sets in front of her. “seven…eight…nine.” One was empty and shining. “nine…nine…nine.” It was freshly cleaned. “nine…nine…nine” The second was occupied…by a girl. “Nine… am I really only on nine?” Victoria continued until she finished twenty five Flactoid Magnus Delterior things and sat quietly on the seat, still focused ahead, eyeing the girl doing push presses.

“Mamma told me not to come,” she sighed, still staring at the push presser. “ but I just needed to get out of the basement for once.”

Victoria’s mom encouraged her to stay away from the gym and other fitness centers for a few main reasons: One being that the family didn’t have enough hundred dollar bills to spend every month on Flactoid builders, and two being that she knew her daughter wouldn’t be able to handle the other people, because to Victoria they weren’t people, they were competition. Victoria lifted weights in their basement for a good amount of her spare time. The other good amount of spare time was spent sailing on the lake behind her house in the small, seven foot sailboat she’d saved her lawn mowing money to buy when she was sixteen.

So, there she was being silently challenged by this girl doing countless push presses- wait no, she had finished. Now she was adding plate after plate, loading up the barbell. The girl glanced in the mirror in front of her and caught the reflection of Victoria. The two made awkward mirror eye contact. She gave Victoria a smug “beat this” smile and what looked like a mild flex of her bicep as she scrunched her t-shirt sleeves higher onto her shoulder to expose more finely toned arm and lifted the last plate to put on the barbell.

“I can’t take this anymore.” Thought Victoria, and she strolled on over to the shiny barbell. For effect, she also hiked up her sleeves. She didn’t technically look at the nameless competition to her right, but from her peripheral vision she gathered that the current competition was the overhead lift. She focused on sliding plates onto her own barbell. She loved the heavy, metallic sound they made. Victoria naturally put on much more weight than she’d ever overhead squatted before because this was no day to skimp out on lifting.
“I’ll start with ten and then see how many reps I want to do,” she thought. “One, two…nine, ten.” The girl on the right was still squatting away. “Oh, what the heck,” she thought “eleven, twelve…nineteen, twenty.” Then it happened. The nameless competition met the eyes of Victoria as they both dipped down with the barbell held overhead…and smiled. It sparked just enough disgust in Victoria to get to squat number thirty. “Good thing I had my Breakfast of …Champions this …morning,” thought Victoria. She was breathing so hard that even the voice in her head was having trouble finishing sentences. She bounced a glance off the mirror and saw Nameless’s strong form and calm face. “I’m done for” thought Victoria.

But, at the same moment as this weak thought entered her mind, she heard the inspiring intro to her favorite pumpup song “Eye of the Tiger” come over the radio. Her energy returned as she remembered scenes from Rocky IV where Rocky beats Ivan Drago. She hit forty five overhead squats with who knows how many pounds towering above her.
 Nameless’s elbows weakened.
Forty Six squats.
 Nameless’s serene face broke into a grimace.
 Forty seven squats.
 Nameless let out a groan.
Forty eight squats.
Victoria thought about how much she liked Rocky’s sweatshirt in the beginning of Apollo Creed’s match. “I should get myself a half-zip sweatshirt,” she thought.
 Forty nine squats.
 Nameless’s barbell met the ground.
 Fifty squats.
Victoria’s barbell hit the ground. Nameless was sitting on the ground. Victoria silently put her plates away, grabbed her jacket, and headed for the door. She never entered a gym again. “Living up to my name is so demanding,” she thought as she walked out the door.


Note: the name Victoria means winner or conqueror.

I read A& P by John Updike and Stillwater.  I also read the beginnings of a few others.  Both stories were pretty entertaining.  I don't know if either of them heavily influenced my writing, but I wouldn't be surprised if they did and I am just unaware of it.  My story wasn't really an imitation of any of the stories I read, but they definitely inspired me to be creative.