Mucking Around

[Fionn Paquet]

Finn was all but bouncing on the balls of his feet as he stood in the lunch line. By the time he got to the front of the line, all he picked up was a ham and egg sandwich, along with an apple and a banana. After he swiped his card through the machine, he looked around the cafeteria and decided that he'd eat elsewhere.

It didn't take him long to get to the sports' field and sitting on the bleachers, he ate the sandwich and tucked the fruit in his bag until later. Finn knew that he should eat more in the middle of the day, but he'd always been like this; big breakfast and dinner, after training, at lunch, he just snacked.

Walking down the steps, he placed his bag on the bottom seat and toed his shoes off, he then shrugged his leather jacket off and dropped it on top of the bag. He knew that jeans weren't the best thing to be wearing while doing gymnastics, but this wasn't proper training, and right now he just wanted to have some fun.

After tugging his socks off, and shoving them into his shoes, he jogged forward onto the grass, testing the soft springiness and then bounced on the spot before he jogged forward again. He then got to work; he bounced forward into a forward walk over, followed by a cartwheel, an aerial, another walkover and then a handspring that finished in a double layout. He landed on his back, not quite getting the height he had needed for the double, and then coughed as his lungs started working again. With a groan, he rolled over onto his side.

[Deleted]

Amber was one of the first people in the lunch line.  It was a nice day out, so she sat down at a table outside.  She ate quickly and, having plenty of time before her next class started, decided to go for a walk around campus.  She headed out and soon glanced at the sport's stadium.  She hadn't been there yet, and she wondered what the view looked like from the top of the bleachers.

When Amber and her family lived in Ohio, the elementary school and junior high were only a few blocks away from their home and the junior high had a big sports stadium.  Amber and her brother would often play there.  At the top of the bleachers, which was usually either a castle, a ship or a mountain, there was a great view of the neighborhood, also known as the kingdom, the sea, the grasslands or the wilderness.  That had been the only stadium that Amber had ever been in and she had been there many times, but not for years.

Amber walked in and instantly looked under the bleachers.  She recalled underneath bleachers being a stable, a blacksmith shop, a dungeon, a lower deck, a restaurant, a bakery or a cottage.  She couldn't picture the space underneath these bleachers as any of those things.  Then she looked up at the bleachers and they just looked like bleachers.  Amber was sad upon realizing that this stadium held no imagination for her, but she probably shouldn't have expected it too.  Before heading up the bleacher steps to see what the view looked like, she glanced at the field.  

The field didn't look like anything other then what it was supposed too, either, but there was someone there, although she couldn't tell who it was, doing impressive tricks.  She stood and watched, until the person landed on their back, coughed and rolled over.  Amber paused a few seconds before walked toward them.  "Hey are you ok?" she asked, realizing that he looked familiar.

[Fionn Paquet]

Finn coughed again, wincing at a pain in his chest as he coughed. He glanced up at the sound of a voice and couldn't help but laugh, which hurt even more than coughing had, and forced himself to sit up, drawing in a hiss of a breath. "Other than my pride, I think I'm still in one piece. I need to work on that landing though." He replied with a grin as he started doing the press test on his ribs. "Nope, nothing's broken." Which he was very pleased about, as broken ribs would have seriously got in the way of his training, which meant the pain in his chest would just be from the landing.

He stood up and smiled at Amber. "I'm guessing you saw all of that?" He could have been embarrassed, which he would have been if it had been his father that had seen the epic fail, but he wasn't since Amber was just another student.

He drew in a deep breath, filling his lungs to full capacity and then released it again, pleased that it hurt a little less that time and he folded at the hips to stretch out his back, which was already stiffening up. "At least I had the grass to cushion my... fall." He laughed. He was curious to know what the girl was doing in the field, but he didn't want to ask.

[Deleted]

Amber was a little nervous when she saw that it was Finn.  She was still creeped out by the time that he had greeted her as love.

Amber nodded in agreement.  "Yeah, um... it was impressive, until that um... last part" told him.  She looked toward the top to the bleachers, still wondering what that view was like.  She hoped that it wouldn't disappoint her as much as the rest of this place had, as long as she expected it to be the real view and not anything that she had ever imagined it being.  She looked back at Finn, as he talked about the grass cushioning his fall, and nodded.  "Well um... see you later" she said, turning around and quickly walked away.  

Amber hoped that she wasn't coming off as rude, but he was making her nervous, and she had only so much time before her next class.  She rushed up the bleacher steps, listening to the familiar clanking sound.  She stopped about halfway and took a few deep breath.  She looked down at the steps for a few seconds, not wanting to look behind her, before looking back up and heading up the steps again, more slowly this time.  

  

[Fionn Paquet]

Finn felt his cheeks heat in a slight embarrassment, but then again, he was out here mucking around, so it wasn't like he had been expecting an audience, even if that audience had only been a solo female, one who he could easily see he made feel uncomfortable, which made him feel even worse, because he tried to make friends with everyone.

His eyebrows shot up as she was already dismissing herself, but rather than trying to talk her into remaining, he lifted a hand in a wave. "See you around, Amber." He remembered how she had seemed to have frozen the last time he had called her love, so he wouldn't make that mistake again.

Once he was alone on the field again, he bounced up and down a few times, doing jumping jacks and things like that to warm himself up again, ignore the slight twinge in his chest. He then gave a wolfish grin and got to work; he bounced forward into a forward walk over, followed by a cartwheel, an aerial, another walkover and then a handspring that finished in a double layout. He still didn't quite get the height that was needed, which really wasn't surprising due to the fact that it was grass and it had been years since he had practised outside the gym, but this time he managed to land on his feet and turned an almost face-plant into another walkover. He shook his head as he ran forward as fast as he could, as one would for the vault, did a handspring and then tried the double again. "Woo!" He cheered as he did a victory dance as he managed to stick the landing that time.

[Deleted]

Amber got to the top of the bleachers and looked out.  It was a good view.  She could even see horses in it and, when she looked more closely, she could recognize Rapunzel, in the paddock.  That made her smile.  She wished that Rapunzel could see her, but she knew that she could not.  She looked out for a few minutes, before turning around and looking the other way.  

The view from this side was not as good, and she found her eyes looking down, at Finn.  He was doing some sort of dance and he was clearly excited about something.  She wondered if he had tried doing that flip again and succeeded.  If he had, she wished that she hadn't missed it.  She could not understand why she even cared, but she couldn't help it.  She did.

Amber knew that she was not supposed to care about anything related to other people that did not affect her or her family, but that had always been difficult.  Since coming to Blue Ridge, it had become even harder then before.  It was very frustrating.  She had wanted to make friends here, so maybe she should stop trying to refrain from caring about others, but she also couldn't help but remember her brothers warnings.

[Fionn Paquet]

The pain in his chest was there, so Finn knew that he should really quit while he was ahead and loped back over to where he had ditched his shoes and socks. He sat on the ground and pulled his socks on, thinking about the differences between male and female floor routines. The female routines were all about glimmer and grace (yeah, and the athleticism), where the male routines were all about power. He would never envy the girls about how much dance practice they had to do and then learn how to choreograph a routine that showed all their strengths, but the moves all had to blend with the music, where all he had to was flip around the mat for seventy seconds, making sure to remain inbounds, compared to their ninety.

He pulled his shoes on and tied the laces before he rose to his feet and looked around the field, pulling his jacket on , and grabbed the banana out of his bag. Shouldering the bag, he peeled the banana - from the bottom - and ate it while he thought about what equestrian classes he would be attending before practice that afternoon. He raised his hand to his chest and pressed against his sternum, pleased that that wasn't where the pain seemed to be radiating from, and hoped that he could shrug it off before practice, as the last thing he needed was for the coach to bench him from a small bit of pain - though chest pain was generally always serious and shouldn't be brushed off, as he was doing. With a shrug, he left the area and made his way to his dorm to get changed into his riding clothes and make sure he had everything he needed in his gym bag.

[Deleted]

Amber waited until he left before heading down the bleacher steps.  She felt bad for having dismissed Finn so quickly, but it was too late now.  She told herself that she should not feel bad, but that didn't work.  It never did and she sometimes felt like there was something wrong with her.  

She wondered what her brother would say if she told him about this, but she would not dare.  He would probably get angry at her and her loving big brother angry at her was the last thing that she needed.  He did not get angry with her very often but, when he did, he was very frightening.  Amber knew that all she had to do to calm him down was too cry until he felt bad, but it was still really scary while it lasted, and it never worked right away.  It usually took awhile because he sometimes wouldn't allow himself to notice until he started to calm down himself.  He was always so nice, apologetic and comforting when he did, but that didn't completely make up for it and Amber would always feel bad for making him feel bad.

Amber glanced her her watch and saw that it was almost time for her next class.  She rushed off to go and get ready.