Unstoppable, Immovable

"The asexual has spoken,"

Giles
    The next day I got to school, early as usual, and was met by Julia staring defeated at the stairs. "Hey," I walked up to her, "Why are we just watching the stairs?"
"I worked out with Valkyrie yesterday... I tried to keep up even when she told me I could do something lighter," she groaned, "Now I can't move,"
"Oh," I laughed, "Here, I'll help," I tossed our bags to the top of the stairs and then proceeded to pick her up. She knew I could hold a girl over my head, so she just let me do my thing.
"You are a blessing, thank you so much," she smiled gratefully once I put her down again. Just as I was giving her, her bag, Julia called out, "Oh hey! Val!"
    Valkyrie Queen did a double take and then smiled warmly, "Hey guys,"
"Are we still on for today?" Julia asked.
Val smirked, "Yeah, I have your routine on my phone if you want to give it a look,"
"Please," she begged. Val handed her phone over and let my friend read through their workout regimen.
"Are you feeling better today?" Val asked me.
"Sorry?"
"Are you feeling better?" she asked again. It suddenly dawned on me that we had to keep up a story that I was sick and Ms. Navas was just walking up the stairs.
"Oh, yeah, much better. Thanks," I smiled. The school doctor passed by and said nothing.
"It looks brutal," Julia finally gave Val her phone back.
She shrugged, "It's bad if you try to do it all straight through. We'll do breaks and stuff," They kept talking about the workout, but my head was going over and over what Val had told me at the park the day before. She essentially told me that she wasn't good for me. As cliché as it sounded.
"Well, Paige's texting to see where I am. I better be off," she waved as she walked away, "See you guys,"
After Val had left, Julia punched my arm. "Ow!" I glared at her, "Why'd you do that?"
"You've got it bad," she giggled, "Did you guys go and just make out all day by the pool?"
"What?! No!" I hissed, "What are you going on about?"
Julia rolled her eyes, "You totally have a thing for her. She must think you're cute at least. Did you say something yesterday? Did you ask her out?"
"No, we just talked," I looked at the ground, "and she said she didn't want to ruin things for me by being close,"
"She means York," Julia nodded, "What if we take her into the group? York can't get mad at you, and you can make your move!" She suddenly got really excited.
"She has friends too," I pointed out.
"Yeah, Paige and Frida," she waved it off, "They're both really cool,"
"Do your thing," I put my hands up.
    I could tell she'd already decided that Val was joining our group. She tried to celebrate, but her sore legs didn't cooperate. We made our way to homeroom and met up with Adam on the way there. He was angrily texting on his phone. "What happened?" I asked.
"My girlfriend is going batshit crazy, and she just dumped me through text," he frowned.
"Why?" Julia asked, her frown as deep as his.
He sighed, "She said she had a revelation that she's meant to save the environment. She dropped out of school and she's on a train to Mexico,"
"That's fun," I muttered.
Adam put his phone away and sighed once more, "Oh well, that happened,"
"You seem really torn up," Julia snorted.
He just shrugged, "It was going to happen anyway,"
    York joined us and things suddenly got quieter. Conversation went to school; the test we had for Trig, the assembly this afternoon, the rumors that Ms. Navas and Mr. Brewster were a thing... boring stuff. We were in the midst of a conversation about how unfair the Trig test was when Valkyrie walked up to our group Paige was with her. Val nodded to York and smiled at us briefly, "Hi Adam, fight's this Friday at eight. Wanna join? My brother and I will be there at around half past seven if you want to chill with us inside,"
"Um, yeah, I'm there," he grinned, "Text me the address?"
"I don't think I have your number," she passed him her phone. He typed it in and gave back to be added to her contacts. She smiled, "Ok, just texted you so you know it's not a crazy person luring you to your death," I noticed for the first time that Julia and Paige were in deep conversation. Go Julia.
"Hey Val," Paige gently tossed her hair over her shoulder, "Wanna sit with these guys for lunch? Since Frida isn't here and hoarding a table for just us is stupid,"
"Sounds good to me," Val smirked, "Did York offer?"
"No, I did," Julia laughed, "It'll be fun,"
"I can't say no to you, you stuck with me through a solid workout," Val chuckled.
Paige looked impressed, "Did you? You're tougher than you look,"
"Thanks," Julia blushed. The two girls left for their class. Paige sent Julia a quick wink as she turned to walk with her friend.
"What was that?" York demanded.
I shrugged, "I think Paige was flirting,"
"I meant them joining us," York huffed.
"Oh," Julia smiled, "There's just two of them, and we have enough space at our table,"
"They're going to make lunch suck so much..." York groaned as she walked away.
"Petty much?" I raised one eyebrow.
Adam scoffed, "Try bitchy,"
"I don't get why she doesn't like Val," I muttered.
"Easy," Julia shrugged, "Val's a threat,"
I frowned, Adam made an inhuman sound to express confusion. She rolled her eyes as if it should be obvious, "Val is smart, athletic, she sings, she draws, and she's stunning. She hit right off with all of us. York... she can be an asshole, sure she's our asshole, but she thinks Val's going to walk in and sweep all her friends away,"
"Ohhh..." Adam nodded, "I mean, she's not wrong,"
"Adam!" I hissed.
He apologized, but shrugged, "I just mean that York's been distancing herself lately. I've had better conversations with Val in two days than with York in three years of friendship,"
"He has a point," Julia played with her necklace, "Yesterday I was dying, but I was having so much fun. And she gave me a hoodie without even knowing me,"
"Let's just get to class," I muttered. I didn't want to think about her too much. Or the theater, when I felt she fit perfectly against me. I refused to remember the car ride to Jane's house, or how we sat on the couch and she let me into her life for a moment. Thinking about lunch, and how she'd teased me, smiled at me, laughed with me, was plain stupid. I was developing a crush on a girl that could easily beat me up. And yet, that exotic blend of volatile strength and gentle vulnerability was what intrigued me (ok, attracted me) most. I liked her.

Valkyrie
    Paige played with her box braids as we waited for the rest of our class to come in, "He's cute," she muttered.
I smiled sadly at my friend, "I told him being around me would ruin his reputation,"
"I mean yeah," she laughed, "but let me say, you are so worth it,"
"It's senior year, why bother with new people?" I leaned my head back.
"Because," Paige fixed her skirt, "Not all new people look like they came out of an Instagram modeling page, and even less are as sweet as that one,"
"He doesn't—"
"Have you seen the guy!" her eyes widened, "Val, if you don't go for it, I will. And I'm not even into dudes,"
"The asexual has spoken," I bowed as well as I could in my seat.
"And aromantic," she added.
I snorted, "Anything else we're not into?"
"The capitalist patriarchy, the lack of gun control laws, and the faulty justice system," Paige smiled sweetly.
"Amen sister," I beamed at her, "A vote for you is a vote for a less bitchy USA," A girl a few seats behind us cracked up. We both turned to look at her.
"Sorry," she covered her mouth, "I didn't mean to listen in,"
"Nah, it's good," I shrugged, "Want to join the rant against our male dominated society?" She did join, and Paige and I found out that the tiny redhead was an absolute beast when she was roasting the instituted government. It was great. She earned our protection.