“Come on one more Dan one more!”

Slamming his right hook into the heavy bag Daniel Wolff could feel sweat gushing down his face. Dripping off the tip of his nose and onto his athletic clothes. Swinging with a controlled force Daniel threw one more left cross before finally stepping away. His feet hopping almost uncontrollably as he finally felt his lungs getting air. The Westside MMA Training Grounds was fairly empty, as most of the other regulars came in after work or school. Daniel though was different. He wanted the adrenaline rush to course through his veins before anything else. Some people drank coffee to get through the morning, he practiced double leg takedowns and kimura locks. It helped that every morning when he left the house the last thing he would see would be one of his brothers, overweight gorging on some horrible sugary cereal. Or even worse, his mom, who was beginning to scare Daniel with how much weight she has. ‘Someday’ was the only thing he could feel his brain tell him whenever he saw her, ‘someday...’.

As he finished up, getting his training gear off and showering before getting dressed for school. He never looked forward to it, even if he was one of the popular kids. School always felt the pressure bearing down on him. He didn’t want to come off as some meathead who didn’t know anything. Plus his MMA instructors made it clear, at least a C in all your classes, or you aren’t training. Even though his grades were at a comfortable B- average, Daniel wanted better, and knew he could get better.

As Daniel got to his locker at Angel Grove High School, the rest of school getting through their breakfast and getting their last second homework done. Daniel casually went through his things before coming across a single gold coin that he had found the night before and left in there. On it was the image of a mammoth. He figured it was probably from the science museum, and also couldn’t help but wonder if it was real gold… but probably not. Mindlessly stuffing it into his pocket Daniel shut his locker behind himself. Sighing as another boring day of school began.