| It's the last class of the day, and for Lizzy, that meant weight lifting. Truthfully, it was her favorite class of the day, because it was what she did as her sport of choice. The tall girl had gotten dressed for the elective in a pair of grey gym shorts and a blue tanktop. The class was dominated by males, for the most part, though there were a few girls in the class. Lizzy was used to it though, and was just finishing up a stretching routine as a warm-up before the lifting began. They'd all had the basics of how to lift, and the teacher had pretty much turned them loose, telling them each to find a partner to lift with.
As a result, Lizzy found herself looking around while she was stretching, trying to figure out who to ask to partner up with. Some of the people in this class took it as an easy A and didn't put forth a lot of effort into the class. The young girl was trying to figure out who was going to likely be willing to put in a bit more effort as she looked around the room for a partner.
Now that the basic instructions were given and they were free to choose a partner and get on with things, Jena busies herself with finishing her stretching while looking around for someone who hasn't already partnered up. She's wearing the school colors, black shorts, red spaghetti strap tank top. Her hair is pulled back in a quick ponytail, a little messy, a little crooked. Her shoes and socks are all white, much like she wears for cheerleading. When she notices one of the other girls looking around, she offers a tentative wave. She'd seen the girl around, but they'd never actually exchanged much by way of conversation.
Ahh, there was someone. A new girl, it seemed like. Lizzy walks over towards Jena. "Hey there. Partners? I'm Elizabeth, but everyone just calls me Lizzy," the girl says by way of introduction. "Show these guys we're not here just to watch them lift?" the teen jokes. She'd seen the new girl around a little bit, too. Cheerleader maybe? Lizzy wasn't one, but she hung around enough to have some idea who the new kids were, even if she didn't know all their names.
"You play any sports?" Lizzy asks. "I want to say I've seen you out practicing with the cheer squad?" Lizzy sounds unsure of that, like she's verifying that she's remembering properly.
Watching as the fellow junior approaches, Jena wears a warm smile. "Hi, sure!" She straightens, her smile widening. "Jena. It's cool to meet someone else into sports." The other teen is much taller than her own height of about five-four. The mention of the guys has her scan the others briefly before laughing. "Definitely not here for the guys." Buff as they were.
"I play any sports they let me play." She grins at the question. "Cheerleader yes. Basketball, softball. I may look into volleyball if I can fit it in my schedule since I work part time at the sandwich place."
"Cool, I'm a basketball player too, so good to have you aboard," Lizzy responds with a smile as she starts to lead Jena over towards the free weights. "Upper or lower body?" she asks, giving Jena the choice of what they wanted to do. "I've not decided what I want to do in the Spring. Maybe I'll try softball; I haven't actually decided yet. I actually do powerlifting outside of school though, so that eats up my time pretty well," Lizzy explains to Jena.
"Though I have thought about trying out for the football team. Just to see what happens," Lizzy suggests with a mischieveous grin. "So, where do you come from? I've been here pretty much my whole life".
"Oh that's great! I look forward to practices with you and stuff. Thanks for the welcome." Jena walks over with her to the free weights, weaving through the other equipment to get there. "Lower body." She needed to work on her legs for sure. "Softball is fun, where I used to live in Oklahoma just won state in slow pitch." Answering the question of her whereabouts before at the same time. "But really I've lived all over. My parents make us move every year or two. I'm a perpetual new kid." Her head tilts to the side and she looks contemplative. "You should play football. It'd be fun to cheer for you."
The girl nods and heads over to the squat rack. "What do you want for warm-up?" Lizzy asks as she waits for Jena to let her know where to set the weight at. "Congrats on the title. Hopefully you bring some of that to the teams here," Lizzy responds with a friendly smile. "Maybe I'll try to convince the coach to give me a shot on the line then. Probably too late to learn anything like running back or wide receiver. All the route and stuff. But the line is a bit easier to figure out". She refused to accept kicker, that was her only condition.
"I can't imagine moving that often. It'd drive me nuts. I'm perfectly happy staying in one spot, with the occassional trip somewhere else for vacation of course," Lizzy adds with a smile.
"Thanks, I like fast pitch better, but slow is something to do." Jena looks at the squat rack and smirks. "I'll just start at 75." Says the hundred and twelve pound cheerleader. "What position would be your favorite to play? You could do it, I bet. Any position you set your mind to." Bending down, she ties her shoelace that had become loose before standing again and grinning. "Yeah I'm tired of moving, this place here is really cool, better than I've been since my Freshman year."
The two are in a class made up largely of guys, but they have partnered up and are at a squat rack debating over what to lift. Jena is wearing black shorts and red spaghetti strap top while Lizzy wears gray shorts and a blue tank top.
Setting the bar up to seventy five pounds, Lizzy nods to the girl and steps behind the bar to spot her. Not that she thinks Jena needs spotting with a warm-up, but she was ready to just in case it was needed due to some freak accident. "Well, playing one of the offensive skill positions would be fun. Receiver or Running Back or something like that. Just takes a bit of playbook memorizing to do". Not that high school football was ultra-complicated, not compared to college and the pros.
"Well, hopefully you can stick around for a couple years and finish out school here," Lizzy suggests to Jena. "Stop the moving cycle. Moving junior year is rought, but I bet senior would be even worse". Last year and all.
Once the bar is set, Jena moves beneath with the bar and smiles at Lizzy. "Do you run fast and catch well?" The smile turns more teasing. "If so, that already puts you over most of the team." Lifting her hands, she wraps them around the bar and takes a few breaths. Seventy-five was nothing, really, so when she lifts it's with no real strain. It was still a good portion if her one-twelve weight, but she was pretty athletic.
As she begins the repetitions, she continues the conversation. "Either way, I'm working now and stuff, I don't want to leave. I already like it here better than anywhere else." She pauses a moment before asking thoughtfully. "Do you have a boyfriend or a girlfriend or anything?"
Nodding, Lizzy will wait for Jena to finish the set before setting the weight to whatever Jena wanted for her first non-warmup set. Lizzy looks impressed, but doesn't say anything about it yet. "I'm not super fast, but I can catch pretty well. Basketball helps with that," Lizzy tells Jena with a knowing nod. You have to be able to catch reasonably well to play basketball.
"Sandwich place is where you're working, right?" Lizzy comments. "Which one was that?" There are a couple in town, after all. "No, no. I'm single still," Lizzy adds. "Haven't found that One True Love yet," the teen admits, though she doesn't sound too worried about it.
"She doesn't want to leave, because she'll never find another neighbor as cool as I am." Enter Kelly, and true to character he's looming near by. What he wears is far less appealing than the girls. Well built or not, he just can't strut the spaghetti straps and micro-short look. You'll have to make due with typical black pants and a gray t-shirt..because ya know, he doesn't WEAR other colors. He lowers his eyes as he nears the bench, watching Jena for a moment before his eyes lift toward Lizzy. "Don't break her..She has a date this weekend."
Jena waits while the setting is made, then goes back into her reps, talking a little less this time, since it's more work. "Yeah," she gives a quick grin. "Basketball helps a lot." Her heart rate increases, but she doesn't let up yet, wanting to get in a good workout. Bending her knees, straightening them, bending, raising the bar with each lift.
"New Leaf Deli," Jena replies, puffing out a breath of air through her mouth, breathing in another through her nose. The mention of the one true love, she wrinkles her nose playfully. "Love?" Another puff of air. And that's when she hears Kelly and laughs, needing to rack the weights. She reaches for her towel and wipes her face, slinging it over the back of her neck and moving out of the way, this time to offer to spot the taller girl. "Hey Kelly, how are you today?" The mention of the date only makes her smile widen.
Stepping into the rack, Lizzy will warm-up with the weight already on the bar. It seemed sufficient to her. "Hey there," Lizzy greets Kelly before she starts her warm-ups, squatting up and down fairly easily. "You two, huh? Well, that was quick," the teen says to the duo with an amused smile on her face. It was good to see, though. And it was a logical assumption to make, give Kelly's warning. "And you don't have to worry about me breaking her," she adds. "She might break me if I try to push her too much".
The woman finishes the warm-up set and re-racks the weights before speaking again. "How're you doing, anyway?" she asks, gesturing over at one of the plates for Jena to add on.
"Yeah well.." Kelly shrugs, not seeming willing to go into an explanation. Instead he reaches to give Jena's hip a small pinch as he passes, "It's not like I purposed marriage. I figure one date with me and she'll be fed up and over it." He grins, but for the moment he seems more interested in bugging the two girls than returning to his own workout. "Anyway, she's prettier than Don. I'd rather look at her this weekend than watch him hit on El."
Jena watches as Lizzy warms up with her workout amount, amazed and impressed. "Nice," she says quietly, moving to set the heavier weight for her when it's gestured to. She steps nearer in case she needs assistance, though Jen doesn't really expect her to need to rescue the taller teen.
Like Kelly, she doesn't elaborate on them being an item or anything except to say almost the exact same. "It's just a date." Heat does steal into her cheeks, but it could be blamed on her workout too. When she's pinched, she jumps and gives him a mock punch to the shoulder. "Hey you. Of course I won't." She wears a lopsided smile when he calls her pretty, but doesn't say much else.
Lizzy is a little bit amused at the interplay, but she focuses for the moment on the weight, going slowly up and down, only speaking once. "Thanks," she says to Jena. She finishes out the set and racks the weight before speaking up again. "Well, I hope the date goes well". Lizzy does hope so. Maybe it'll give the slacker a little bit of motivation. "And I agree, she's certainly prettier than Don, and I'm straight," Lizzy jokes. She doesn't mean anything horrible, of course, just playing into Kelly's joke.
"You want to join us?" Lizzy asks before she resets the weight to Jena's previous weight and gestures the girl over to do her next set. They might be having a conversation, but they were still getting their workout in.
Kelly chuckles toward the reddened Jena, though he offers them both a small shake of his head. "Na..I'm supposed to be spotting McAlister..but I figure we'll know if he needs me.." he pauses long enough to lean back, glancing farther down the way before he chuckles. "Maybe." Slacker or not, at the very least he pulls an A in this class.
Jena remains at her side, spotting her just in case. When she steps away, Jena takes her position back, she smiles between the two. "I think it'll go fine." Whether reassuring Lizzy, Kelly or herself, she's not exactly sure yet, but she does seem fairly confident. The joke about Don brings laughter as she begins her next set, this time with a little more added weight than the last. Following the direction of Kelly's look, she notices the lone guy working out and smirks. "He looks strong enough."
Moving back to spot Jena, Lizzy nods. "Yeah, he seems fairly strong," the girl agrees. "You get up to anything interesting this summer, Kelly?" Lizzy asks. She pauses in thought while she spots, however, considering a couple things in her mind before she continues, letting the topic of the date drop. No sense in teasing about that too long. "One more heavy set after this, then lunges," Lizzy tells Jena as they continue to lift. "Gonna need that leg strength for dunking this year," she jokes lightly to the other girl.
"Dunking," Jena smirks, no way is she going to be able to dunk, but she's amused all the same. "I bet you can dunk, you're so tall. How tall are you, Lizzy?" She finishes hers fairly quickly before stepping back again so that the other teen can take her turn as McAlister struggles a minute and Kelly saunters over to rescue him, leaving the girls alone for the moment. She watches him go before looking back to Lizzy with a sigh. "We moved in right next door to him and his mom. He's great, yeah?"
"Haven't tried dunking in a game. I usually play center though," Lizzy admits. "I'm just a little bit under six feet," Lizzy adds as she goes and resets the weight so that it's a little more than what she was lifting previously. She then sets herself up and begins squatting, not talking while she pushes through the repetitions. Once she finishes, she sets the bar back and goes to adjust the weight to whatever Jena asks for.
"Not a bad guy at all," Lizzy agrees as Kelly goes over to work on spotting the other guy. "Good bit of luck moving in next to him," she adds. "Where are you two going on your date anyway?" Lizzy asks out of curiosity.
Spotting, Jena doesn't say a lot of anything for the moment, except to nod at her height. "I bet you could do it." Once Lizzy finishes her reps, she moves back to it, but doesn't start immediately. "I don't know where we're going yet, we talked about it but I just said to surprise me." Finally she starts and finishes her reps before talking again. "School is about over, what are you doing after?"
Moving to set the weight up a fair bit now, Lizzy nods. "Maybe. Requires the right circumstance, and I wouldn't want to try it without practicing it a bunch. Good way to hurt your hand if you mess it up," the girl says. She sets herself up under the bar and straightens up to perform her set, going slowly down and up. This was pretty close to her limit, and the effort can be seen on the girl's face as she moves the weight. She does complete the set, however, and sets the bar back as she exhales.
"That's possibly the best kind," Lizzy tells Jena regarding the date. "Hope it goes well". The girl shrugs a little bit at mention of the school day closing. "Got a bit of homework I should probably deal with, but probably just planning on heading home for a bit. Not the most exciting day, I suppose, but I hadn't made any plans for tonight". Which was a little bit of a rarity for her, but there it was.
"You know.. I'm not sure how effective of a spotter I would be if you faltered." The amount of the weights is beyond what Jena herself could possibly lift. "Maybe you need one of the stronger guys to spot when you do the heavier work." Jena remains at her side though, not abandoning her post, a little awed at the amount of weight the other girl can lift.
"I think it'll go well," Jena says with a kind of shy smile. "I'm really looking forward to it. I asked my parents last night about it and they said yeah but I have to be in by midnight. I was amazed. Midnight. They never let me stay out that late." She nods about the plans. "I got my homework done while at lunch out on the court."
"Wow.. .and you told them it was with me?" Color Kelly surprised! He sends Jena a wide grin, though he does eye the weight lifted by the taller girl with a small arch of his brow. It's impressive enough. "Me and Ellis thought about going to the boardwalk after school. You're free to come. We're still trying to get Eti to loosen up a little. Maybe was some of the euro-poisoning off of him." He stops, allowing himself a glance back toward the very grumpy friend.
"Don't worry. They're new in town, Kelly," Lizzy remarks with a grin. She's about to say something when one of the other guys comes over and asks Lizzy for a spot. "I'll be back in a few," the girl says. And she'll leave the two to their own devices while she helps out one of the guys who is needed a hand.
"Yeah I told them who with and they were cool with it." She smiles at the invitation. "Aww, I would like to go with you, Kelly, but I have to work for a couple of hours later tonight. I have to close, but it'll be a little later." Jena is finished and makes sure the area is all cleaned up and like she found it. "Do you think you can get him to? Loosen up I mean?"
Kelly shrugs, "It's cool. I like food." Which means he's going to follow her more than likely. "As for Eti? I dunno. He's pretty damn French for an American." This causes a small laugh, though it's lazy and lacking in any real amusement. "So you talking about me, Cruz?" yeah, he heard. Not details, but his name he's sure came up at least twice. "You trying to get out of this weekend? Cause ya know..I did carry you. Up a cliff even. If we lived in the older days you'd be indebted to me. Technically I saved your life." Welcome to Kelly Reasoning.
"Or I could call in," Jena suggests with a grin, not wanting to make him have to come to her work with her. Laughing at the idea of him being so French for an American, she murmurs, "Maybe he kisses good then?" Course she's teasing, but hey, it's a teen joke. "Yeah, I was talkin' about you, but definitely not to get out of going out with you. I'm counting the days." It's a confession she shouldn't be making, but she's always honest. "I just told her that you were great."
"Oh." Well, okay then. He even manages to look smug for a moment before a small yelp from the nearby McAlister causes him to roll his eyes back toward his friend. Luckily another athlete moves to his aid, allowing Kelly the luxury of ignoring him. "I can't say I'm that great, but I'm pretty sexy..ya know, needing a shower and all." He grins, but he's being honest at least. About the shower that is. "I'm going to warn you though. This trip to the boardwalk, it's a rated G trip. All those alcoholic tendencies you got have ta stay below the table. Can't be out there makin me look like I take tiny blond girls and turn them into wild cats."
Jena just barely misses his smug look, distracted by McAlister. She laughs as she looks back at Kelly. "Sexy? Maybe.. but if you already know that, then there's no need in me telling you, is there?" Her eyes drift down over her own body and steps back a little, not wanting to turn him off. "I need a shower too." Sure, it may be hot on a guy, but for a girl after weight class? Not attractive. Wiping her face with her towel, she lowers it and gives him a sheepish smile. "Rated G." Mental facepalm. "I made an idiot out of myself, didn't I?"
"Na. It was cute." He admits with a casual enough shrug. "Tell you what though. You go get showered up..and I'll go disinfect myself and then I'll meet you out front, yeah?" He narrows his eyes back once more at his friend before he sighs. Really, he needs better people! "I'll buy you a..whatever it is that girls drink. And then in return you can wear your cheer outfit one night and bounce around in your bedroom." Ahem. It was bound to happen eventually. "You can even use your pompoms."
Cute... Blue eyes look up at him and Jena can't help but to smile at him. "Sure, I'll go get showered, but you know, if you want, we could go to the boardwalk and I could buy us some food or something." She heads off to the shower, but turns and walks backwards a minute, so she could tease him while she was still near enough for no one else to hear. "And if you want to see me in my uniform, you should come to the game too. All of us use our pompoms."
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