Chapter 11

Packing Up and Heading Out to the gym

After she finished packing all of Samuel's stuff, Samantha left the apartment unit and locked it up. She walked Emma home, then said her goodbyes to Sophia.

"Don't forget to call me, okay, Sis?" Samantha said.

"Yeah, definitely," Sophia replied with a smile.

"Bye-bye, big sis!" Emma chirped, waving her hand.

"Bye-bye! We'll see each other again soon, okay?" Samantha replied to Emma.

Samantha then headed toward the elevator, lugging Samuel's big suitcase and her backpack with the laptop. In front of her own unit's door, she paused for a moment, looking at it and smiling at her apartment, the place she'd lived for the past five years. Samantha got into the elevator and immediately opened her dimensional storage to put the suitcase and backpack inside. "Ding," the elevator doors opened. Samantha stepped out without her luggage, zipped up her jacket, and walked to the motorcycle parking area.

"Okay, where to now... Oh, right, the gym first."

Samantha put on her helmet, started her motorcycle, and took off straight for the gym where she usually trained. The gym wasn't far from her old apartment, and she arrived in a flash. After parking her motorcycle, she went inside. A guy in a tight t-shirt, super muscular and bald with a short black beard, stood behind the counter, reading a magazine.

"Trek," Samantha stood in front of him and put her motorcycle keys on the counter. The guy looked up, and his eyes bugged out, seeing a pretty blue-eyed woman standing there.

"Can I help you, ma'am?" the guy asked.

"Hey, it's me, Oscar. I wanna renew my membership here 'cause I wanna start training again," Samantha said casually.

Oscar, the guy behind the counter, looked super confused. He checked Samantha out from head to toe, then his eyes went back to her face.

"Do... do I know you?" Oscar asked carefully.

"What? It's me! How could you forget? I was just here two days ago," Samantha replied.

"Huh... really? All our gym members are guys because we focus on training for MMA athletes who'll be competing. No women sign up here," Oscar explained.

"Oh," Samantha looked down and realized she wasn't Samuel anymore. "A-aah... right, I mean, the one who was here two days ago was my twin brother, Samuel, hahaha... sorry," Samantha said, rubbing the back of her head.

"Wait, you're saying you're Samuel's twin?" Oscar asked.

"Um... yep," Samantha replied, her face turning red with embarrassment.

Oscar leaned forward, staring hard at Samantha's face. He really paid close attention.

"Hmm... you really do look a lot like Samuel. But of course, you already know what happened to him yesterday, right? We're all still grieving here, hearing the news, because to us, he was like family," Oscar said.

"Yeah, that's why I'm here. I want to renew my membership because from now on, I'm the one who'll be training here," Samantha replied.

"Huh... if you're just here for fitness or aerobic, you'd better find another gym. Like I said, we focus on MMA here, and no women train h—"

"Swoooosh," before Oscar could finish, a strong gust of wind hit his face as Samantha's fist stopped dead right in front of him. Oscar looked at Samantha, who was grinning widely.

"Okay... okay... but there are no women here. Is that really not a problem?" Oscar asked.

"No problem at all. I'll be the first woman here," Samantha replied, still holding her fist in place.

Oscar looked down, then picked up a tablet from his drawer. He opened it and swiped the screen, then showed Samuel's membership profile to Samantha.

"Samuel's membership is still good for three more months. I'll make you a new membership card under Samuel's name and give it to you. If you want to train here, just use Samuel's member card. Then, when it expires, we'll make a new one for you. How about that?" Oscar asked.

"No problem, it's all the same. Samuel's my twin brother anyway," Samantha said, pulling back her fist.

"Okay, just wait over there for a bit," Oscar said, pointing to the waiting chairs right in front of his counter.

Oscar walked into the back. Samantha looked into the gym, which was still empty since it wasn't training hours yet. She walked closer to the glass partition and looked in more closely, seeing cardio equipment, bench presses, and other fitness machines inside. Then she turned to look at the entrance to the martial arts training room and walked towards it, peeking inside through the window to see a ring, several punching bags on the other side of the room, and much more.

After that, she calmly went back to her seat, crossed her legs, picked up a magazine, and started reading it. "Click," the door opened, and two men wearing tank tops with towels draped around their necks entered the gym. They turned to look at the counter but didn't see Oscar there.

"Hey, where's Oscar?" asked a man with short blond hair who looked very muscular.

"Hmm... maybe he's out getting food. Let's just wait, Jeff," said the other man, who was dark-skinned and and muscular.

Samantha lowered her magazine, watching the two men leaning against the counter, chatting casually.

"Jeff, Mason," Samantha called out.

Both men immediately turned and spun around, their eyes wide as they saw a beautiful, blue-eyed, sexy woman standing in front of them with a magazine.

"Um... do we know each other?" Jeff asked.

"Thump," suddenly Samantha gently punched Jeff in his right chest and smiled widely. Then she turned to Mason and raised her fist, but Mason just stared blankly and didn't bump his fist against Samantha's like usual. Instead, he turned to look at Jeff, who also turned to look at him.

"Hey, you guys are here. She's Sam's twin sister," Oscar said, now behind them both.

"Huh?!" Jeff and Mason yelled in unison, turning to stare at Oscar, who was writing something on Samuel's freshly made membership card. After that, they both turned back to look at Samantha and examined her.

"Seriously?" Mason asked.

"She... she looks like Samuel, but... how do I say it... she's beautiful," Jeff mumbled.

"Yeah, I can't deny that," Mason added.

Both men immediately turned away, their faces looking sad, which made Samantha confused.

"My condolences, you must really miss him," Jeff said, extending his hand.

"Yeah, Sam was both a friend and our rival. We often hung out together, and we even went to his place a few times to play games or watch sports," Mason added, extending his hand.

"That's right. For me and Mason, Sam was like our brother. He had this weird illness that no one understood, that's why we wanted to help him. Can't believe he's gone now," Jeff said sadly.

Seeing Jeff and Mason's somber faces, Samantha instinctively stepped forward and put her arms around both their necks. Of course, they were both startled and became flustered.

"You guys were his brothers. I've heard a lot about you two from him," Samantha said.

"Oh... okay," Jeff and Mason replied in unison, looking a bit flustered now. Meanwhile, Oscar behind them simply smiled, watching the three.