Briarfeather and Cinderblaze - Complete 2017

Secrets and Lazy Competition

Cinderblaze 

Cynthia froze as she turned the corner to enter the gym where Leon had asked her to meet him for helping him practice some new drills. Her blue eyes widened at the sight of her best friend and friend with benefits, Leon kissing Isabella one of the other girl basketball players on the team. The golden blonde boy's back against the wall. The main thought in her mind was, 'Good grief. That's disgusting... But, of course, he got impatient.' She inwardly sighed and forced herself to keep going. "Leon?" She called his name patiently, guessing he wasn't going to respond. Sure enough, he only made a muffled noise. "Whatever. Anyway, I'm here like you asked, I'll wait outside while you finish this," She gestured to what he and Isa were doing, "Come get me when you're done." She slipped her bag off her shoulder and put it down on the floor, tempted to hit Isa in the back of the head with her basketball but forced it away, instead of leaving the gym and leaning back against one of the walls, ignoring other student's staring at her. 'So... that's mildly disturbing.' Startled she felt tears prickling at her eyes, staring out the window she waited for Leon, forcing the tears back and staying calm about the whole thing despite how much she wanted to smack from sense into Leon and hit Isa.

"Oh, hey Cynthia." Cynthia turned her head as the gym doors opened and Isa left the gym, a wide grin on her face. Cynthia rolled her eyes at the tousled hair before replying.

"Are you done defiling our captain? I'm supposed to be working with him on drills," She suddenly noticed that Isa wasn't dressed in her basketball gear or even anything meant to exercise in. Mentally grinning she responded in a cool but blunt tone, "Or did you just come by and interrupt him? I mean, a skirt and a half sleeve aren't particularly good for basketball."

"At least I'm being modest," Isa replied scathingly, "Tank top and shorts aren't."

"Maybe not, but I'm not here for impressing people," Cynthia replied with a shrug of her lightly tanned shoulders, "I don't need to impress anyone, for example, Leon. I don't need to impress him with my clothing, I can already do that with my skills in basketball, which he is focused on. Course," She let a small smile slip, "I'm also the star player and co-captain, so no impressing for me did that many years ago." Isa's face went slightly red with anger. Cynthia had always been better at sports than her and it annoyed her to no end, that and since Cynthia's mother had disowned her she literally lived with Leon and his siblings, meaning she was around him twenty-four seven while Isa herself only got to see him in a few classes and when he was over at her house with Fin, but usually Cynthia was there with Leon who took his best friend everywhere, not letting her sit in her room and do something or other.

Cynthia went into the gym and pulled a bright blue basketball from her bag before dribbling it a few times and shooting it into the basketball which swished as she made it in while Isa fumed outside.

"Warming up?" Leon asked, emerging from the boy's locker room, looking cross and disgusted, swiping his hand over her mouth a bunch of times.

"Yup seems that you did you warmups with Isa attached to you by the face." She replied simply before running a few laps around the gym, sprinting each one to her blood pumping.

"No, and I have no idea what's up with her." He replies, joining her and sprinting at her pace.

"She has a crush on you like I've told you seven thousand times." She told him with a roll of her eyes.

"Blegh." He replied and they finished the laps in silence before silently shooting a few baskets. Leon spoke up after a few more minutes, "Ok, so this is the idea I had..."

After roughly an hour later both were slightly fatigued and out of breath, poring over Leon's notebook with the strategies that worked.

"Those'll be in the next game," Leon says, talking about a counter strategy for the Whirlpools and other counter strategies, his breathing a bit labored

"You might want to modify a few things but yeah, it's a good counter for their playing style," Cynthia responded, her breathing also a bit heavy.

"You'll be the star of a few of these, seeing how only you and I can do a few moves that are essential to the strategy itself. I'm sure you'll do it perfectly." Leon says still looking at his notebook.

Cynthia grinned at Isa to where she was warming up after Leon had solidified the strategies he had called the entire team in for a practice, but only Isa was here at the moment. The rest of the team had reported they'd all come together and be there in ten minutes, "Thanks, Leon." Cynthia smiled at him. Leon locked eyes with her and smiled back, before leaning forward and gently pecking her on the lips. Cynthia made a face and Leon leaned back and laughed as she wiped her mouth. He leaned forward and whispered,

"I promise I cleaned my face after she kissed me." He then repeated his previous action and she didn't wipe her mouth, instead of laughing and taking a step back as the team filtered into the gym. Isa looked angry and upset, she sulked throughout the entire game and got a reprimanding from Leon for it.