Lockers and Love

Chapter Six

Tony made his way into the gym and saw Ziva in the corner. She was alone and many people were whispering about what happened in the locker room. He didn't care. He made his way over to Ziva and smiled at her. She returned his smile and looked around the gym. Everybody was staring and them, most glaring and sending looks of hate towards her. A blonde girl made her way over to Tony. It was one of the four that seemingly had it out for her. She moved slowly up to him and put her hand on his shoulder, pulling him to look at her.

Tony turned and immediately felt disturbed as she batted her eyelashes and somehow managed to push the gym dress code to its limit. She wore the shortest shorts and her v-neck was almost down to the bottom of her chest. How she got away with that was a mystery to him.

"Hey, Tony. Wanna grab a bite after school? Make a repeat of that one night after junior prom." She was baiting him, of that he was sure. Ziva's eyes narrowed at the girl. Tony had slept with this girl. Apparently he was the player everybody had told her he was. He was probably just trying to get into her pants. Bastard. Ziva huffed and moved to the other side of the gym, waiting for class to start. Tony tried to go to her and explain, but EJ grabbed his arm and pulled him back to her. He ripped his arm from hers.

"Don't touch me." EJ huffed and crossed her arms.

"What has she done to you, Tony?"

'I don't know what. I think I'm falling in love with her.'

"I've changed EJ. Deal with it." With that, he walked to try and talk to Ziva. He was halfway to her when Coach Fornell entered the gym and blew on his whistle. He stopped in his tracks and had to move to where he could stretch. He looked over at Ziva who was already on the floor stretching her legs. He looked for an open area near her when he found none, he frowned. He really wanted to fix this. He didn't want her to think he was the playboy he used to be. Didn't want her to think that he only talked to her for sex. He wasn't. He loved spending time with her and loved helping her around and just loved getting to know her. He would make this right as soon as possible.

For gym, they did the mile run. 4 laps around the track. Most people would walk the four laps but Fornell expected his players to run, all four. He was in pretty good shape and could run the mile with no problems. When he finished, he noticed he wasn't the first one done as usual. Ziva was leaning against a tree in the shade and was drinking some water. He figured this was his chance. He needed to fix this. Fast. He walked over to her and she made eye contact with him, her face not revealing anything to him about how she was feeling.

"Ziva." She looked away and focused on the others still running. There were still most people doing their laps.

"Leave me alone, Tony." Tony's eyes lowered, something Ziva saw. Her heart clenched as she saw his look. She was starting to like him, but now that she knew his reputation, she didn't know if she wanted to be around him.

"Please let me explain." He pleaded.

"What is there to explain, Tony? Clearly you have just been trying to sleep with me this entire time. I thought you would actually want to be my friend. Just leave, Tony."

"Please, Ziva. It's not what you think. You have to believe me." Ziva huffed.

"Do I? I have only known you for two days. You have shown me around and made me laugh with your jokes." At that, Tony smiled.

"And now I find out about your...conquests. Many people warned me to stay away from you and I did not listen. Maybe I should." Tony's smile dropped. No. She had it all wrong. Ziva walked back into the gym leaving him to his own misery.

'I need to do something good. Prove to her I'm not using her.'  Yeah, that's exactly what he would do. He wanted to prove he was the kind of man to respect a woman, that treated them with kindness. He wanted to show her what he was really like. He needed to do it fast.

Around 25 minutes later, everybody had finished running their laps and were now headed back into the gym. As he walked inside the door, he saw Ziva sitting on the bleachers playing with her shoes. He smiled as she looked cute. Beautiful. His heart ached to talk to her, but he knew she would just push him away again. He needed a plan on how to talk to her and make things right again. It was her first day and she was already mad at him.

The rest of the class went by quickly and they both made their way to opposite locker rooms. Ziva got in and got out faster than anyone could blink. She didn't want to talk to anyone. She wanted to be alone.

'Shit. I have lost my guide.' She looked back down at her schedule, trying to figure out even the slightest idea of where her next class was. She looked up and saw Tim walking out of his class with his books in his hands. She called out to him and he smiled at her and walked over.

"Hey, Ziva. How was gym?" Ziva put on her best "fake" face and smiled gently.

"It was good. I just might need your help." Tim nodded.

"Okay, what's up?" She looked back to her schedule, reading the number to the room again, trying to memorize it.

"Would you mind showing me to my next class? I am having a bit of trouble."

"Sure. What is it?"

"Movie Critique." Tim smiled. Movie Critique was Tony's favorite class. Sometimes he would come after school (and practice) and start rambling about what they did that day. Almost like a kid in kindergarten.

"Oh yeah. But Tony has this class next too, wouldn't he like to show you?" Ziva grimaced. She really didn't want to tell Tim about their earlier encounter and tried her best to make an excuse.

"Yes. He is with his other friends at the moment. I want to be early so that I can introduce myself to the teacher." Tim seemed to believe her and they started walking towards her fourth and final class of the day. They laughed and got to know one another a little bit better. Ziva thought that Tim was really nice and was a genius (along with Abby) and could easily picture herself becoming friends with him. He walked her to the door and said good luck and goodbye and went off to his next class as well.

Tony walked out of the locker room to see Ziva talking to Tim. They walked away together and he could see them talking and laughing. Jealousy sprung through him along with anger. Why had he been so stupid as to try and get popular? Why hadn't he kept his pants on? He needed to fix this. Immediately.