Lets all go swimming [Gale]

[lovelylittlemind]

Joanna heard the ding of the door as she and Gale entered the rec center. When he suggested that they went here to hang out, her mind never even registered that the Rec was a membership only type of place- a membership that she didn't have. Of course, she had always meant to come down here and get one for herself, but she had never rolled around to getting to do it. She could get one now, but what was the point of that? Its not like she came here often enough. If it became a regular thing coming here to hang out with Gale, she'd probably consider getting one, but as of now, she had a more fun way of getting to do this.

She looked behind her at Gale, flashed him a wide smile, and then crouched underneath the front desk as the person who ran it looked away. She must of looked funny, waddling to the other edge of the desk near the pool hallway. She kept an eye on the manager, and when he turned away, she booked for it. Scooting down the hallway, you could hear her footsteps echoing through out it. Joanna skidded to a stop when she reached the door marked Pool, and went to open it. She hadn't realized that the doors could be the type that only open when you slide your membership cards into them. And they were.

She looked behind her to see what Gale was doing. Had he actually done it the proper way? She was sure he had a membership. Or had he decided to through caution to the wind and follow in her fun and risky suit?

[robbie]

Gale hadn't ever really been the type to cause trouble. Not unless - he recently found out - he was drunk. Pranking people was different though. That was something he really enjoyed. Pranks where just something that made the world go round. Nothing more, nothing less. Piss of a few fire students and have the thunders wanting to shock you to oblivion all the time. No big deal, just another days work. He had dulled down the pranking a bit since he became the leader of his element, though. It was more like he was always cleaning up after the pranks done in the common room. That was always fun.

However, today, he was going to use his membership card at the rec center for more reasons than just to tell people that he worked out in a gym - and had proof. Which, he really didn't. He came to the gym like twice and worked out, and then realized it was much effort. He didn't think he needed to work out. Sure, he wasn't ripped like Jesus, but he wasn't too horrible. Swimming kept him in good enough shape for his fast food diet not to catch up with him. Once realizing that Joanna didn't have a membership - he too encouraged her to sneak in. However, he did go in and check in at the desk. It would at least put his name on the sign in sheet - so if people questioned if he worked out, their questions would be answered.

He smirked at Joanna a little as he walked up to her, and slid his card in the door to open it up. "Sneaky one, are we?" He raised an eyebrow at her before walking into the pool room. The smell of chlorine filled the air, and it was kind of steamy in there. "So? Up for swimming today then?" He said, raising an eyebrow at her again, before pulling his shirt off over his head and tossing it onto a chair in the room. He was already wearing his swim trunks so he didn't need to do anything there. He slipped his shoes off and put them with his shirt. There was a few other people in the pool. Luckily no little kids. He glanced back at Joanna before breaking into a small jog - and just like typical Gale, jumping up and diving head first into the pool. He lingered under the water for a minute before surfacing and brushing his bangs out of his face. He was thinking about cutting his hair short again soon. "Well, come on!" He said, turning over to float on his back, and crossing his arms behind his head as he kicked his legs lightly.

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[lovelylittlemind]

"I'm good at sneaking. It's fun," she smiled, following him into the swimming pool room. The aura of chlorine wafted into her nose. She preferred the smell of the lake, and the site of the outdoors, but she was okay with the pool too. She had been on her city's local swim team before she came here, so she was used to the pools.

When he took off his shirt, Joanna knew her sight lingered on his shirtless body for a maybe a moment too long before he threw himself into the water. He wasn't extremely buff, but Joanna would admit he was a good looking boy. It changed nothing though.

She laughed, "I'm coming!" As she struggled to get out of her shorts, and then peeled off her tank top, throwing them onto the chair next to Gale's. She had already been in her bikini underneath her clothes. She plunged into the water, coming up with her her hair strung together with chlorine and stuck in her face.

"Oh, I do love when my hair does this. It makes me feel like a beautiful mermaid," she joked.

[robbie]

Gale didn't really like swimming in pools. He prefered lakes and oceans. The natural smell was much better. The smell of sand, and seaweed, and dead fish.. okay the dead fish maybe not so much, but it was still better than chlorine. Except for the oceans where salty, and stung your eyes. Chlorine did too, but not as bad. When he was little, he remembered trying to swim with his eyes open all the time. It was something he imagined all kids did. Until one of his friends got something stuck in his eye and ended up in the hospital. That was pretty much the end of his desire to see underwater that bad.

He let his eyes linger on her for a minute before she dived into the water. He was a guy - he was going to look at any girl who was walking around half naked. But he wasn't going to act on it. He wasn't a pig. At least he didn't consider himself to be. "You're so slow!" He said, laughing a little as she dived into the water. He continued to back stroke around a little bit, turning his head slightly to look at her - but so that his face was still out of the water. It was rather hard to breathe underwater. "I remember when I was a beautiful mermaid." He said, closing his eyes briefly and running his hands through his hair. It was getting longer than he liked. "So." He started, rolling over and facing her again. "Wanna race? Or do you not want to lose to the master? Of course, master was a bit of an ego charge. But hey.

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[lovelylittlemind]

"You remember when you were a beautiful mermaid?" She laughed. "So how high we're you then?"

She laughed at the memories of them hanging out when he was high. He was enjoyable to be around when he was...not all there...but she also liked being around him when he was. They had a lot in common, swimming just happening to be a big one. They were both sort of silly, and when two people who can make the most fun of anything are put together- shannanagins go on.

She liked his cockiness, and how he referred to himself as the master. "Well, master," she smiled. "I think I'll have to take you up on that offer. I'm not afraid of being beaten, but that's if you were to beat me. I'm pretty fast myself." And with that, she took off into the water, swimming expertly to the other side. "Swim fast fast, fast as you can. You can't beat me, I'm the great Joanne!"

[robbie]

He couldn't help but laugh at her comment, trying not to get water in his mouth at the same time. "Not high. It's the truth, bro." Another habit he had was calling everybody bro. Yes, even girls. But he didn't see anything wrong with it. Bro was just a mutual term for a friend, a sign of respect. Right? Though Gale only faintly remembered hanging out with her while he was high. Only a few things, that was. Eating the goldfish off the floor he certainly remembered, but he would do that while sober too so it really didn't make any difference. Food was food, didn't matter if it was on the floor or on a plate the way he looked it. Well some food anyways. Not like he would eat like.. mashed potato's off the floor. That was just gross. He wasn't that unmannerly.

Gale had always been sort of cocky. Well, sort of really cocky. Even if he didn't believe anything he said, he would say it. Because it made him look good, he thought. He listened to what she said, before she took off into the water. He too took off swimming , and with his latent start reached the other side at about the same time as her. He flashed her a quick smile before going under the water and turning, pushing off the wall like an olympic swimmer might, and going even faster back towards the other side. He was a good swimmer, a fast swimmer, but diving was actually what he really liked. Despite his fear of heights, he was slowly getting over it. But diving into the water, that rush, that actual sense of fear, he enjoyed it. He had no idea why. Once he reached the other end, he placed his hand on the wall and resurfaced, blowing the water off his face, and brushing his hair back. "Well well, Great Joanne, you're not so bad." He said, laughing a little bit. After that, he rolled onto his back and just let himself float there, closing his eyes. "Swimming is so relaxing." He mused outloud.

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[lovelylittlemind]

Gale had caught up to her, and in the end had probably beat her, but she was on his tale the entire time that she wasn't going to let it slide. "Oh," she laughed, after she reached the end and started leisure swimming circles around the floating Gale. "I let you win. I hope you know that. And I only let you win because I was scared that if you were beaten by me, someone two years younger than you and a girl, you would have been intimidated by me and not wanted to hang out with me again." She flashed him a big toothy grin. She was fully aware that she was lying, and she knew that Gale would also be fully aware, but it just seemed like the right thing to say. "You were good though. I didn't have to slow down to much for you."

She laughed, her laugh bouncing off the walls of the room and echoing back to them. She loved to laugh, it was one of her most favorite things to do. That's why she would do anything that seemed like fun to her. The most important things to her; have fun and laugh while you're doing it. Joanna liked to consider that her motto, and thought the world be better if everyone lived off of it. She wasn't sure how to enforce it though. Smiling would be the best, she always guessed. A smile and a giggle are contagious, and they can always go a long way.

Joanna stopped paddling circles around Gale and let herself drift onto her back and float next to him. "It's my third favorite thing in the world to do."

[robbie]

Gale had a few favorite hobbies, as he expected most people did. Swimming, eating, and shopping where among his top three though. That, and making people laugh was pretty high up on the list. He loved that, and made it feel like he was doing his job right. Even if it wasn't actually his job to make people laugh, he felt like it was. As the water leader, too, he felt it would be good for him to actually get to know most of his element. He only had one semester left of being the leader, since, well, he was going to be graduating. After two years of being the water leader he couldn't help but wonder how different it was going to be. "Oh, I'm sure you did. I thank you for that. Not sure how I would have lived with myself otherwise." He was joking, of course. It wouldn't really have made much of a difference to him. He was so dedicated to his swimming though. When he was younger, he imagined himself someday being in the olympics, but we all know that wasn't going to happen.

Gale couldn't help but laugh when she did. Hell, everybody said laughter was contageous and they where right. Gale was usually always laughing though. Laughing and smiling at something. It was a very rare thing to find this boy upset about well - pretty much anything. It was damn near impossible. Even if he was upset, he rarely ever showed it. He never let that side of him show to just anybody. He didn't have a whole lot of super close friends, but he was friends with just about everybody. Sandra was his best friend. She was the only one who had probably seen any side of him besides the side he showed everybody. Happy go lucky Gale. Well, lately, Nell had seen a bit of his other side. As had Josh. And Yeager. But that didn't count he liked to think because he wasn't sober. "Third favorite? What are your first two, then?" He questioned, looking over at her. Not everybody was him. Not everybody lived in the water. And the mall.

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[lovelylittlemind]

"Laughing and having fun," she smiled at him, then dived into the water and did a flip. When she came back up, her wet hair clung oto the front of her face. She did the flunky flip thing with her head, making the hair whip off her face and go behind her and cling to her neck instead. In the process water had flung off the tips of her hair and splattered Gale in the face. She looked at the water droplets running down his nose and forhead, and she just laughed at that. "Except I dont know if laughing and having fun are things, but more of feelings. I guess I could say that those are my favorite feelings and my most favorite things are singing and swimming. But sunglasses and fashion comes in a tight third with them."

Joanna went back to floating on her back and looking up at the celing. The ceiling wasnt the most pleasant of sights to look at. It was full of rafters holding the ceiling up, and it was a pretty crappy paint job too. So instead she closed her eyes, and let her mind think of another image to look up at. When she theoratically opened her eyes, she was starring at the night sky, the time probably being closeo to midnight or one in the morning, and the moon, full as can be, was shining bright and giving everything a natural glow. The stars also around the moon shone, and some even flew by in the sky. Joanna made some wishes on the shooting stars in her head, one of the being that the moment lasted. Or at least the friendship. She had to admit she liked hanging out with Gale, whether he was high or not, because he was a pretty cool kid. Granted, he was probably closer to her brother's age instead of hers, she didn't really believe that ages should make a difference in friendships. If you're friends, you're friends, and thats just the way it should be. Part of her wanted to think of something else instead of just friends, but Joanna would not let her mind get carried away on that. He was cute and all, and he had an amazing personality, but she couldn't bring herself to be that dependent on someone, could she? She didnt like the idea of it, and if anyone it could be Gale...but she had to stop. And then she realized that she had been drifted off in her thoughts for too long, that she had completely thought that Gale was there.

'I'm sorry, what were we talking about?" She blinked out of her mind made starry night back drop, and came back to the reality of the very badly painted ceiling rafters, and th boy floating in the water next to her. "Did you say something?"

[robbie]

Gale smiled and nodded a little at her comment. "Well that's always good." He commented, before she went under the water. He watched her for a moment before glancing around. When she came back up and splashed him, he just squinted his nose a little, letting the water run off him. There was no need to wipe it off or anything - since he was in a pool anyways and already soaking wet. That just wouldn't make sense. He would just get the water from his arms on his face after that anyways - so all in all, it wouldn't even be worth while. "Well those are all good favorite things. Sunglasses are pretty cool if I do say so myself." Fashion he wasn't really that into. He didn't understand why so many girls where, either. He thought girls looked just as good in clothes from walmart than in something from Victorias secret or some fancy expensive brand of clothing from the mall. But maybe that was just the kind of guy he was. He looked more into the personality of the girl than the looks. The way he looked at it, looks captured your eyes, but it was the attitude and whats inside that captures your heart.

Not that he was the expert in love, relationships, or girls, but he still had his thoughts about it. He was sort of just floating and dozing off when he heard Joanna's voice again, and looked over at her. "I don't think we where really talking about anything." He said, laughing a little bit. "What do you want to talk about?" He said, smiling over at her. What a gentlemen, always letting the lady chose. He liked to think he was a gentlemen, even if he really wasn't. He could be, he had the potential to be, just not always the desire. He was a bit of a romantic at heart though, he just hadn't ever had anybody to show that to quite yet.

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[lovelylittlemind]

Joanna thought it was cute, when guys try to act all gentlemanly. Most of the time she hated to admit it, because she was cynical when it came to relationships and love and of the such matter, but she loved all the cliche things. Everything you saw in the movies, like the guys taking the girls to the fair and winning them a big giant stuffed animal, or cuddling up next to the fire underneath a big blanket with hot coco, any of those things, she found them adorable. She would never really tell anyone that though, because those things weren't for her.

But she was feeling passive that day, and didn't really care about what they talked about, because he was nice company to be around, and if she opened her mouth at the wrong time and said the wrong thing, then she might scare him off. It was better for him to pick a topic. "Nothing in particular comes to my head. How about you?"