Logs:Physical Education

Physical Education
Dramatis Personae Avi, Lael, Naomi
In Absentia	2021-09-17 "Go Titans!"
Location <XAV> Playground - Xs Grounds
Set on the still-expansive grounds around the side of the school, this area is to the outdoors rather what the rec room is to the indoors. There's a large basketball court out here; a fenced-off tennis court adjacent. Further distant there are setups for other sports -- a large track, a soccer field. Closer in to the school, though, in its own large enclosure adjacent to the basketball and tennis courts, is the playground, a huge expanse of equipment set up on alternating plots of slightly squishy flooring and mulch. Centrally there is a large sprinkler-fountain, not always on but it can be turned on with a push of a button; spreading out around this is the actual playground equipment, sturdy and varied. A huge dome constructed in honeycombed interlocked poles and rope netting rises hiiiigh for climbing; a large swingset holds four pairs of swings. A large roundabout in bright colours stands in one corner near a long see-saw. The huge bridge-and-tunnel castle structure at one end has many routes of entry, from poles to climb up (or slide down) to a small climbing wall. Monkeybars. Four different slides of varying lengths and spiraling. For the adventurous, between things to climb on and jump between and bounce across it is probably possible to skirt one end of the playground and back without touching the ground, though it might take a particularly adept feat of balance and agility. Or possibly wings. The sky has been gray and low all day with broken promises of rain, but as dreary as it looks the temperature is perfectly balmy. Students recently freed from their classes has scattered across the grounds and beyond, eager to get a start on what promises to be a glorious not-quite-autumn weekend. Lael may be incurably studious, but even he's left his homework aside for the time being, perched on a bar in the lower reaches of the impressive climbing structure. "Not why most kids wanna join a team, I s'pose." He has a chunk of wood and his trusty pocket knife in hand, idly shaving off thin slices of wood to join the mulch below, though it is too early in the game to tell what he means to whittle it into. "But I got better things to do with my class time, and you can get credit for extracurricular sports. Too bad I ain't no good at--any of 'em." "That's what practice is for," says Avi, bright and encouraging from where he's dangling upside-down from his knees quite a bit higher up than Lael, already dressed and changed for practice himself. "... besides," this is a bit less bright, "it'd be hard for you to suck enough to make any of our teams, uh, worse. I'm not sure any of us were, like, born last time our football team won a game." << Varsity hiking, >> thinks a familiar mind, loud over a softer hum of background housekeeping thoughts. << We’d be great at varsity hiking. >> Naomi loops around the other side of the structure, dropping her book bag without ceremony at the base of structure. She gives both boys a little wave. “Avi’s right, we suck. So it’s probably chill if you do, too.” She’s scrambling the structure now, the zipper of her light grey Xaviers hoodie clanking against the metal bars. “Which one did you try out for? Basketball too?” Finding a suitable bar, Naomi seats herself on it, a little higher than Lael, lower than Avi, and to both of their left sides. “That would be easy. Cheer for both o’ y’all at once.” "You ain't seen me try to throw a ball yet." Lael tips his head back to look up at his roommate. "They gon' expect me to be as good as you are, for mystery reasons. Might be I could help by strikin' terror into the hearts of our foes." His smile widens at Naomi's question, oddly tense with his effort to suppress a laugh, his locs twisting and untwisting from each other. "Ain't the season for basketball yet, though m'sure I can suck at that, too, when the time come." He turns his whittling over and starts on another side of the wood block. "Think it's down to cross country or football, bein' the only two I know how to do. Cross country's a bit like hikin'. Speed-hikin'." "'Mystery' reasons, what, like we don't all just come straight out the womb good at this shit? Anyway you don't hafta know how to do anything for cross-country," Avi assures Lael, "they can't stop you if you wanna walk the whole course." For all his cheery exterior there's a definite internal grumbling that at least some members of their cross country team do just that. He gives Naomi a bright wave, wriggling himself into half-a-situp as he reaches up for a bar to right himself. "You want to learn to throw a basketball I'll totally teach you!" << please not basketball please not basketball, >> he's thinking despite himself, some determined part of his mind still hopeful he can lead the team to a not-entirely-losing streak next season. "Did you get any of the magic negro baller genes or you gon' disappoint these nice white folk?" He's asking this lightly to Naomi, brows lifted with amusement. << ... swear being good at ball felt like a whole 'nother thing with my boys in Harlem but here -- >> Naomis not quite laughing yet but there is a light smile on her face, a quick good natured roll of her green eyes. There’s a small twinge of disquiet when Lael mentions football — fear of concussions and crumpled up snake-locs. “Speed hiking sounds good enough,” she says out loud, looping her arm around a more vertical pipe. She does laugh at Avi’s question, her cheeks drinking into the lower layer of scales on the side of her face. “Ain’t as bad as Lael,” she admits. “Ain’t that good neither.” <<better than some of the team, I bet>>. She lowers her voice conspiratorially. “Don’t tell your coach I can ball, though — I’m tryna just do Yoga for PE whole way through.” "Cross country's probably the ticket for me," Lael agrees. "I ain't opposed to some running, an' getting credit to spend some leisurely time out in the woods away from a lotta brains do sound like a pretty nice deal." His smile turns indulgent. "Naomi got all the athletic prowess and all the good looks in the family. Don't worry, friend, if I ask for basketball lessons it'll be strictly for personal improvement." He shifts on his perch so he can see both of hte others. "Just so as I don't embarrass myself too bad in front of cool city slickin' Black folks." "I'll keep it on the low," Avi promises. "Damn though, how you deal with that hippie chick they got teaching the yoga class? I swear if she started namasteing at me I could not keep a straight face on." His head shakes, one leg swinging absently below him. "Please the both of you got --" He hesitates, eyes flicking between the Winterses << style? don't lie ain't quite that -- >> "Got a poise to you you gotta just own, you'd make your own brand of cool here. My friends would love you." He pauses a beat, then frowns, shoulders sagging slightly. "... some of 'em. Some of 'em haven't dealt so good with all the, uh. Everything." Satisfied with Lael's pick, Naomi leans back, legs kicking out into the air to balance her. "Oh, she don't mess with me -- I think she thinks all o' this --" she taps one fingernail against a jet-black scale, "-- is bad karma." She sticks up her fingers in mocking air quotes for the last two words. "I just kinda vibe, take a nap during meditation. Stretch out. It's chill." Her cheeks darken a little at Lael's compliments, then a little more when Avi pauses. << nice lie, i guess >> she thinks, smile only faltering a touch at the corners of her lips. Turns into a whole frown at the end of Avi's sentence. "Flatscans," she says, her tone a touch sympathetic, a few more touches angry. "What, they think you scary now? Maybe you should introduce us to 'em." << he got disney powers and they scared? babies. >> Lael's locs shrink down against his head, wriggling in an even more uncomfortable fashion than usual. "M'not sure any amount of poise gonna make this cool--" He gestures vaguely at his head. "--not here, nohow. 'Preciate the vote of confidence, though." His unblinking gaze shifts to Naomi, unreadable, then back to Avi. "I suspect if you introduced us to the friends been dealin' with it good, you'd find a few more who ain't actually dealin' all that good. If that's a risk you're willin' to take, I'd love to meet 'em." 'Bad karma,' Avi mouths. "You get credit for nappin'? How have I missed this trick?" He's starting to open his moth to protest but then looks a liiitle longer at Lael's squirming hair and bites it back with a duck of his head and a fleeting frown, memories of abruptly cancelled plans and halfhearted excuses flashing through his mind. "... probably right. You up for it, you're welcome to come in the city with me, though. 'sides," he's perking up considerably with this thought, "bet if we put our minds to it we could find plenty other mutant niggas in New York. I bet that guy down at Evolve knows where we oughtta be hanging out." His mind has summoned up an image of Taylor with only a mild internal shiver. Naomi shrugs. "You ain't asked me 'bout sports before, so." Her eyes meet Lael's briefly, << they cool cool, hush >> then shift back to Avi in time with her brother. (It's not quite as creepty-twin vibes as it could be -- Naomi, for one, blinks.) Shakes her head slightly as Avi continues, but perks up when he does. "Oh, Taylor? He prob'ly do. He's great." Her mental image of Taylor comes into focus with no shivers. The corner of Lael's mouth tugs into just the sliver of a smile at Naomi's silent compliment, and the writhing of his hair eases a touch. "I surely am up for it. 'Bout to go full crazy cooped up with all these here white folks." He brightens, too, and his "Oh, Taylor!" comes in time with his sister's, only without the questioning intonation as he nods his eager agreement to her assessment. "That's a mighty fine idea, plus we can score some free food while we at it." "Alright. Weekend comes, we'll make a day of it." Avi's head bobs, eager. He starts to swing his way down towards the ground, dropping heavily the rest of the way once he's halfway down. "Best get to practice, for all the good it'll do. Save me a place at dinner, yeah?" And off he jogs toward the football field. Naomi glances at Lael, amused by the simultaneous exclamations. << jinx, you owe me a coke.>> "Yeah, 'course," she says, watching Avi go, legs swinging. He's a few meters away when the thought occurs to her to raise a fist in a lazy cheer. "Go Titans!"