Formula 1: The GOAT

Despite his attempts to start a conversation with Seraphina, he couldn’t, as she was too shy to even make eye contact. Fatih wondered if she had turned her head to the left even once since taking a seat next to him.

Knowing that forcing it would make things more difficult, he decided to let the situation take its course. However, that didn’t stop him from talking to others. He used every break to go around the class, introducing himself and getting to know everyone. By lunch, he had already learned the basics about everyone and made a positive impression on most of them, barring a few who felt superior or didn’t respond kindly. He immediately ignored them and moved on.

When lunch came, he headed to the dining hall. Having finished earlier than everyone else, he decided to return to the classroom to enjoy the quiet atmosphere.

Just as he was about to open the door, he stopped when he heard people talking inside.

“I said I like you! Why aren’t you saying anything? Are you ignoring me?” Fatih immediately recognized the voice. It belonged to one of the kids who hadn’t responded kindly to him earlier.

Just as Fatih was about to leave, not planning to enter, he heard a small voice he hadn’t heard all day. “I don’t like you.”

He paused, immediately connecting the dots. It was Seraphina.

“What? What did you say? You don’t like me…”

Seeing where this was going, Fatih couldn’t leave with a clear conscience. He opened the door and said, “Why don’t you leave her alone? I’m sure she said she doesn’t like you. You aren’t really planning on forcing her to go out with you, are you?”

“Why are you butting your head into matters that are none of your business?” the boy, named Tommy, asked, his face slowly turning red from the embarrassment of being caught and rejected.

But his words went in one of Fatih’s ears and out the other as he finally saw Seraphina’s full face. She, too, was looking at him in surprise.

“Hey, why are you not answering? Are you scared?” Tommy asked again, this time louder, wanting to vent his anger.

“Not really. I was just looking at her face, since this is the first time I’ve seen it fully. But to answer your question, I can’t ignore her. She’s my deskmate and my friend,” Fatih said as he walked over and sat at his desk, maintaining eye contact.

Tommy, not expecting that response and seeing that his raised voice hadn’t put any pressure on Fatih, simply left, walking faster and faster until he was running by the time he reached the door.

Once they were the only ones left in the class, Fatih didn’t say anything. He picked up one of the books provided to him and started reading, planning to finish the syllabus as soon as possible so he wouldn’t have to study for the rest of the year.

“Thanks,” Seraphina said in a low voice, finally speaking to Fatih for the first time since morning.

“You’re welcome. I’m Fatih Yıldırım,” Fatih said, extending his hand for a handshake, finally having the opportunity to talk to her on her own terms.

“I’m Seraphina Everson,” she responded, briefly shaking his hand before turning her head away again. It wasn’t a problem for Fatih; he was someone who could take things one step at a time.

The silence between them continued all the way to the end of the school day at 3:30 PM. But for Fatih and many others, it wasn’t the end of their time at school. As a school with many sports facilities, after-school club activities were quite active. For Fatih, this was one of the saving graces of going to school, as he finally had the opportunity to complete his daily missions in the school’s new, state-of-the-art gym, where he could do better exercises than the rudimentary ones he did at home.

….

Upon arriving at the gym, he immediately went to the changing room and put on his gym clothes before entering the gym, which was still empty.

“Okay, Apollo, please take the stand,” Fatih said, finally asking for Apollo’s coaching, since he was the one who made all of his training regimens and knew Fatih’s body better than Fatih himself.

“First, let’s start with you running,” Apollo said, appearing in a puff of smoke. His small, childlike body circled the brand-new treadmill, his expression no different from a Warhammer 40k fan looking at his newly painted troops.

“Okay, coach,” Fatih said and powered the machine on, starting his jog. He watched the system constantly uploading distance with each step he took. When he tried to correlate the counted distance with the one shown by the treadmill, he couldn’t help but realize there was a disparity that continued to increase with each step. It was clear the treadmill wasn’t perfectly accurate, but he didn’t care. At the end of the five-kilometer run, he got off and took a five-minute break before moving on to the next exercise: neck training.

With professional equipment filling the gym, he had no trouble finding a neck harness. Following Apollo’s suggestion, he started with a 3kg weight, as it was his first time using it, and slowly began his exercises.

Unknown to him, he was being monitored by one of the PE teachers, who was watching from the window. The teacher wanted to make sure the kid in the gym alone didn’t end up injuring himself, as that would spell doom for the new gym.

But to his surprise, the kid did everything correctly, in a way that maximized gains for the effort he was putting in. He worked moderately and never pushed himself too far past his limits. After watching for more than twenty minutes and seeing no problems, the teacher finally left, but only after memorizing Fatih’s face, planning to look for him later.

[Daily Mission Completed. +5SP]

After a full hour of exercise with moderate rest between each set, and finishing with another five-kilometer run, he finally completed his daily mission. Only then did he go to the bathroom to clean himself up, but not before calling his grandmother to let her know he was done and to come pick him up. He planned to use the fifteen minutes it would take for her to arrive to finish his cleanup and change of clothes, finally bringing an end to his first school day.