Tweetie

28

"...Gym?"

"You look terrified."

"I am."

Hazel stood at her locker, her head resting against the cold metal as she stood between Oscar and Fox who watched her curiously. She arrived early once again, spending time in the empty school to catch up on homework but, half an hour before the first lesson began, she found herself groaning into the metal of the blue locker.

Two days had passed since her first day in the school and in truth, she was enjoying her time more than she cared to admit. It was like a holiday away from her real job. Sure, it was stressful, but she could forget about work for a while and that was something she didn't realise her brain was desperate for.

"If it makes you feel any better, we'll be in the same class for gym." Fox leaned against the locker beside her own, and slowly, she turned to him, a pout on her lips as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"It'll make me feel even better if I didn't have to do it at all."

"You need to exercise."

"I'll take your place, Tweetie," Oscar beamed, jumping into the conversation with a little too much energy for the early morning.

It seemed he had been turning up to school a lot more in recent days, he had been in three days in a row, which was surprising considering he was in for barely half a day last week.

"You do that and I'll throw both of you into the school's pool." Fox threatened, causing Hazel to turn, her eyes widened in both fear and surprise.

"Uhm... There's a pool?" She tilted her head, watching as the boys nodded.

"Why?" Oscar patted her head playfully, "d'you like swimming?"

"No." She was quick to answer, shaking her head. "I hate it. If I have to go anywhere near that water I will start crying, I'm not kidding."

"Fox!" Oscar jumped up, turning to the taller boy who continued to lean, seemingly very relaxed. "We need to go fence off the pool right now!"

"Alright," Fox nodded, standing himself up. "Do we want to throw Tweetie in before or after we fence it?"

"Hey!" Hazel turned, watching as the boy let a chuckle escape him. "Mean."

"Why don't you like swimming?" Oscar tilted his head, clearly confused.

"Because..." Hazel stopped, realising that she didn't actually want to talk about the incident that left her more on edge than anything else she had experienced. "I had a bad experience."

"What happened?"

Fox stood himself up, straightened his posture and stretched his arms over his head.

"Doesn't matter," Fox said, grabbing onto Hazel's cardigan sleeve and the back of Oscar's collar as he began to walk down the corridor, dragging the two behind him. "We're gonna be late."

They continued, both Oscar and Hazel carelessly allowing Fox to pull the two with each hand, both passing by the parting crowd of students with sheepish smiles on their faces until eventually, they were outside the building and walking towards the gym hall through the cold weather which only seemed to be worsening. Hazel hummed, feeling comfortable with the two boys after spending a decent amount of time with them. Sure, she didn't know if she was fully considered their friend yet, but she did feel like she could be.

She turned, watching as Fox stopped walking and they were suddenly in the centre of an empty sports hall. Clearly he had lied about being late.

"Fox, you liar," Oscar said Hazel's thoughts.