A few days later, Father and Sevs found themselves walking to a place on the end of a strip mall. The sun was just setting as the season started to change, but it was still early in the evening. The kids' class began at 5 PM. Which was a really awkward time, Sevs thought. The session lasted an hour, then the open session was for another hour afterward. The hard part was if you wanted to eat dinner, when would you do it? If you ate before 5 PM, you would have to work out on a full stomach. Or you could wait till 7 PM and have to be hungry. He knew his body did not do well without food at this age. Father had stopped to grab them a snack Sevs just hoped it would be enough.

The building was rather unremarkable. There was a temporary sign hung with some ropes above the door. The wall facing the walkway was covered by tinted windows. But as the lights were on and it was dark outside, Sevs could easily see inside. The room was very stark. There was a large open area covered in rubber mats. Matts pretty much took up the whole room. The only part not covered was a small tiled area in the entryway. There were some bookshelf-like cubbies and what looked like a bathroom door. The only other things in the room were a couple of heavy bags hanging at the far side and an old analog clock on the wall. They were a few minutes early but were not the first ones here. A couple women were inside chatting while their kids ran in circles on the mats. Shrieking and laughing all the way. As they finished a lap, one kid tackled the other into the matt-covered wall. This caught the attention of one of the parents, who shouted something at the kids. The kids popped back on their feet and returned to running in circles.

Apprehensive, Sevs looked up at Father. This was not something that he was entirely comfortable with. Rather than the mature thing Markus had made it would like, this seemed more like a playground for children. Father looked passively down at Sevs. Sevs hoped he would say something like, "If you don’t feel comfortable, you don’t have to do it."

Instead, Father said. “We said we would give it a shot. If it doesn’t turn out well... Then we don’t have to come back.”

This was quite a different approach than Sevs had lived his life so far. Not having much choice, Sevs followed Father into the building. One of the ladies talking by themselves peeled away from the conversation and came over to greet them. “Hey! I am Susan.”

Father introduced them, and she recognized their names. “Oh! Y'all must be Markus’s friends. I am so glad you could make it. We don’t start for about ten minutes. Why don’t you go warm up, and we'll hopefully get a few more people to show up!”

The last bit was directed to Sevs, and she kind of tugged Father away to introduce him. Sevs was just left standing there for a second. What should he do? Did she say to warm up for weights Sevs knew how to warm up but was it different for this? Sevs looked at the kids that were still running around. Maybe he would just do that.

***

As Sevs started to run pointlessly in circles, Father was introduced to the mother of the other children. A personal friend of Susan. They settled down to watch the kids. It was a bit awkward; after a couple half-hearted attempts to bring him into their conversation, the other two left him alone as he clearly wasn’t interested in the topic. They continued to talk about something to do with the local school. A couple other people showed up. A father with a young girl and boy around the same age as Sevs. Susan greeted them and had the kids take off their shoes before sending them running off after the others. The father came over and introduced himself. They shook hands and started to talk about their kids.

***

Sevs had run around for a bit till he started to feel warm. He wasn’t sure if that was what he was looking for or if he was taking the phrase ‘warm up’ too literally. He didn’t feel more supple or anything… Tired of running, he sat down in the center of the mats and began to stretch in the way Markus had shown him during lifting. He understood how this worked. It would prevent him from getting injured. Also, becoming more flexible took a while, and it was best to start young.

As he was warming up, a few more families had come. So now, more than half a dozen kids were running around. Most were boys, but a couple girls were running around as well. Most joined the brothers that were there before Sevs. They joined in the running and screaming. Occasionally, the kids would randomly attack each other. Just pushing someone over, the parents would yell at the kids and make sure no one was hurt. Then the parents would go back to talking amongst themselves.

Sevs noticed that Father had struck up a conversation with one of the dads. He seemed to be chatting amiably. Sevs was envious. He would much rather be over there in conversation with strangers, not something he particularly enjoyed. But that would still be lightyears ahead of being surrounded by these barbarians. Not sure why, but Sevs had been left alone for the most part; the kids avoided running into him. The one time someone had tripped over him, they had apologized profusely. This was really odd behavior. Sevs knew kids were not known for being very self-aware. From his many previous experiences, kids would usually give you no respect. Unless you scared them, he had never been able to do that.

As he was watching Father, someone sat down next to him. “Hello”

Sevs looked over to see a girl around his age sit next to him and imitate his stretch. He nodded in greeting and switched to the other leg. She tried again. “So, why are you here?”

Something in her tone caught Sevs attention. She still had the voice of a pre-kindergarten kid but didn’t have the same frivolousness that most have. This made him think a bit more before responding. “I am Sevs. What is your name?”

She gave him a small smile. “My name is Lily.”

“Hello, Lily”