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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Oct 10, 2011 15:58:57 GMT -5
  Nell flipped her hair over, gathering the strands up into a high bun, bangs hanging around her face as she clamped her knees around a racket. Usually, she kept her long brown hair in a clip, but during physical activity the clip could fall out. Standing straight, she pushed her Carreras further up the bridge of her nose—over one-hundred bucks of her father’s money well spent. The weather in autumn, she found, always seemed pleasant. It was really her first fall of freedom, her first time experiencing it in all its glory. Before, she’d just caught fleeting glimpses when she hurried down the fire escape and darted off to the park or the library, socks darned and little scraps of paper tucked into her underwear. Now she didn’t need to gulp in the fresh air while she could, because whenever she wanted, she could go outside and experience it.
She bounced the tennis ball against the court as she thought about the weather, early afternoon sun beating down on her dark head of hair, sweat not yet a concern. But it didn’t really matter whether she sweat or not—her tank and sports bra could handle it, as well as her shorts. Besides, she had quite a bit of stamina. Tennis was an outlet for all the energy she had, and she wasn’t too good at it. She bet Arabella was quite pleased with that one. Every sport she knew how to play now she didn’t really do as well as others. Save for basketball, really, because she would watch neighborhood kids play it all around. One couldn’t walk through the streets of her neighborhood in the South Bronx wiithout finding at least one basketball net. But unlike most, Nell never played sports as a child. She didn’t do much of anything as a child, simply practiced her powers and hid out in libraries so as to escape her mother’s wrath for one more night.
The Earth girl looked up at her opponent and said, ”Ready Arabella?” She knew her friends called her ‘Ara’ or some variation, but the two weren’t friends. Not that Nell could bring herself to hate anyone—even though Jane came close—but the Thunder chick brought out a sort of competitive edge in her that usually hid beneath simply having fun in a game. She wondered if it was a good thing. In any case, the girl reminded her of her father’s side of the family, the Thunder Fuentes family. In all their bluntness and vindictiveness—things the friendly Earth girl fears she may have inherited—Arabella seemed to have that wrapped up in one finely-tuned, pretty painted packaged. All long hair and legs, a part of Nell was reminded of Cynthia. She’d been one of her first ‘enemies’ at the Academy—and by enemies, Cyn snarked at her and Nell snarked back. Unaffected by any insults, the Thunder leader hadn’t been able to get to her. Until the war, when she was framed for her murder. In retrospect, Nell believed that may have been the start of her crumbling life. Her father had come back a little before the war, actually, and it had just gotten worse from there.
She tossed the ball in the air and hit it into the box diagonally across, smiling a bit as she did so. Even playing with Arabella was enough to relieve stress for her now. Life had not been very kind to her—especially now with Jane making sure it wasn’t. She was a woman possessed, it seemed, and Nell was now even more wary of her knowing that Donovan had found out about the trial through her aunt, and now Josh was suffering because of it. Nell was pretty sure she’d be able to deal with problems if it was just her. But she had her boyfriend now, and he was affected by a past she’d rather forget about and a future that was very uncertain. In activities like these, however, she could keep her mind off it. She guessed she could thank Arabella for that, strangely enough. They’d probably need a break soon, considering that they’d been at it for a little bit. And currently, Arabella was in the lead.
[Put Ara in the lead because I'm evil like that. >D And Nell's not the greatest at tennis. xD]
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Post by arabella on Oct 10, 2011 16:57:06 GMT -5
 
It was funny how Arabella didn't really hate Nell. A tiny -Tiny!- part of her respected the midget Earth girl, despite her dismal taste in boyfriends. The girl might have been the cause of Cynthia's demise but at least she'd been on her side of the War and doing what she thought was right. No treachery in that one, though obviously there was a rather well hidden vein of ruthlessness the girl didn't want to admit to. She was also good on the sports front ... well she was a decent opponent at any rate. Despite the fact that she was deplorable at tennis as evidenced by the rather large difference in scores at the moment.
Ara pulled her ponytail tighter, ignoring the sweat dampened tank top as she bent forward, watching Shepherd bounce the green ball. She was poised, ready to bounce in any direction the moment the other girls' racket hit the green felt and sent it her way. Arabella loved to be in motion, to be active. Sports, dancing, sex it was all the same to her and she reveled in the feeling of empowerment she got when she was pushing herself to her limits, sweating and panting and exhausted. Of course she wasn't exhausted right now, but she was sweaty and her muscles had that nice worked-out feeling to them and really that was what mattered.
"Get on with it Earth Girl." Arabella half snarled, wanting to get on with the game. She never called her opponent by her first name. Nell was insipid and boring and Arabella quite hated it, Shepherd wasn't all that great either and a Doe was a deer so really the other girls parents obviously hadn't cared enough to give her a name with some meaning behind it. Generally Arabella referred to her as Earth Girl and variations of that, it made things more interesting and they weren't insulting for the most part so that was positive.
Shepherd finally hit the ball, sending it arcing into the opposite corner. It had taken the girl a bit of practice to get that far and Arabella was not a teacher, she didn't have the patience to pause and guide her step-by step. She also didn't want to do that. She came to play a game and she was ruthless within the rules. She wanted the exorcize and to show off her new tennis outfit, that was all. She wasn't out to make new friends and have great times that she would remember forever and always!
Arabella slammed the tennis ball back at the other girl and the game was on. Earth Girl might not be an amazing player but she was good and she learned fast. Arabella had the advantage of having played for years though and refused to lose. She needed to win, needed to smash her racket in the ball and pretend it was Felicity's face and that the woman's pretty little nose was breaking every time it hit the strings.
The blond didn't share her troubles with outsiders. She didn't really share her troubles with the so-called insiders either really. Her problems were her own and the war she was carrying out against her step-mother wasn't something she felt like waving about at the Academy. She slammed the racket into the ball once more and watched it bounce past Earth Girl with a satisfied grin. She decided to take pity on the shorter young woman and call a break. "Match 1 to me. Water break." She was panting a little bit as she walked over to where her sports bag was laying beside a bench and grabbed her water bottle. "You're bollocks at tennis Earth Girl." She offered after she poured water down her parched throat.
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Oct 10, 2011 20:14:59 GMT -5
Nell simply smiled at Ara’s angry retort, making sure to take her time now as she bounced the tennis ball. Earth girl? It was one of the reasons why insults from people didn’t bother her—she’d heard worse. She wore worse around under her naval, carried it around in the volumes of dusty memories that she never opened to think about. So what if Ara didn’t call her by her name? To each their own. Nell was extremely passive anyway, even when in confrontation. Taking her time with the serve was just an example of it. Even now it was more in a playful manner than anything. Because it wasn’t like she hated Arabella.
Even though Nell didn’t mind losing usually, the fact that she knew Ara to be so cocky bothered a bit. But it was easily shrugged off. At least she didn’t have as much Thunder vindictiveness as she’d first thought. Only the people who knew about her actually got to her—people like Jane and León. They knew the most about her and they knew exactly which buttons to push. Her father had the parental instinctiveness going on, of course, and Jane knew what parts of her psyche to attack. Ara knew nothing about her, no one did save for her family and Josh and…his family. Oh, just stop that. In any case, she’d like to keep her secrets, and hated the fact that her family was so privvy to them thanks to the fact she’d been too trusting in the past. Her personal life was just that. Personal. So why was it America’s human interest story? Her biggest secret was something the media had sunk its teeth into.
She didn’t feel too exhausted when they finished, and went to go pick up the ball so it didn’t roll too far away. Nell took out her own water from her duffel bag and leaned against the fence as she took deep gulps. Smiling over at Ara, she said, ”Yeah,” with cheerful tones. The good thing about not being super-competetive was that she didn’t get sore about losing. ”But I can whip you in basketball or football.” Nell was confident in certain aspects, but it wasn’t a dominant trait. Sure, she was outgoing and friendly but it wasn’t like she even thought about herself enough to make it matter. But she knew from experience that even though she was small, she was fast, and that helped in certain sports. ”You wanna try me?” she said as a friendly challenge. They weren’t friends, but that didn’t mean Nell wasn’t going to be polite. And she had energy abounds to play as many sports as possible in one day.
Flipping her hair over, Nell tightened the bun in her hair. She might have asked things like how Ara was doing and friendly questions like that, but she knew that Ara wouldn’t really care. She certainly wasn’t friendly with Nell, and she wasn’t about to try and push her way into anything with the Thunder girl. Nell may have been naïve and friendly, but she was far from stupid. ”Or we can just keep at tennis,” she added a bit thoughtfully, looking over at the court. She did want to get better, after all. Because once she started something, she didn’t stop. She was determined enough to see anything through, including sports.
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Post by arabella on Oct 12, 2011 14:26:51 GMT -5
Arabella liked to be active and the ridiculously competitive part of her adored being active in a sports setting. She was made for sports, despite her mothers rather open distaste for a woman sweating. Arabella could suspend her pretty-needs for a few hours in order to trounce someone at whatever she chose to play. Besides, every male she'd encountered seemed to like it when she was wearing her tiny workout shorts so what did that say? Every now and then she wondered why she went to such trouble when men could be so very easy. There was that basketball player who had been more turned on by her slipping on his jersey than by her rather expensive negligee. It had been extremely amusing.
Ara raked dark eyes over the other girl for a moment and and smirked. They could change games if she wanted. Ara had dated a basketball player for a few months and she might not be the best but she had enough inches on Nell that she felt confidant in her abilities. As for Football, well that was practically a national sport! She loved Beckham, even if he was playing for the Yanks now. She played with her brothers and some neighbors back home during break and she was pretty certain she'd kick Nell's tiny little bum.
"Don't be so sure, football is a national pass time in England. We can do that later if you want. I'd need to get my cleats though." Arabella would always choose the game she was more likely to win at. It's the way her mind worked. She needed to Win. It was the way she was hard wired. She grinned a bit and drank some more water. Nell wasn't so bad, even if her name was insipid and she was an Earth worm. Not that Ara was ever going to tell her that. Best not to let her head get too big.
"We can keep at Tennis for a bit. Come one. Now that I've thoroughly trounced you I'll give you some pointers. You're decent enough that with some work I'd be willing to play doubles with you as my partner, given we can get your arse in shape," Ara set down her water bottle and bounced the green felted ball a few times. She was a task master when it came to coaching. She'd helped out with a primary football team back home and the girls had learned to fear her smiling face.
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Post by NELL DOE DALE on Oct 12, 2011 17:34:18 GMT -5
Nell tilted her head, and then opened her mouth in a silent ‘ah’. She had a few British friends and liked asking them about their homeland if they felt comfortable with it. Always interested in people, she was slowly learning things about other nations and the world in general. She needed that. ”Oh no, I mean de fútbol americano. American football is quite different than soccer.” She liked to play both games, any sport actually. Just for the activity. She liked the freedom of just running around on a field. She thought of her powerpuff name, El Torro. Let her out into the field and she really is like a bull. The tennis court…well, she’d just have to work on that. She believed that one can do anything they set their mind to. At least, she hoped so—her optimism couldn’t be crushed too easily. "So we'll just have to see about that, won't we?" she said airily.
Tilting her head to look up at the taller girl, Nell said, ”All right, then. Practice makes perfect.” She was willing to admit her faults because she knew she had a lot of them, and so she had no qualms with saying that she understood she wasn’t very good at tennis. Because she knew that with enough focus, she could get better. ”I really just need to work on coordination and all that.” She ran her painted fingernails along the racket, tugging the strings into place. ”Have any tips?” Nell sent Arabella a bright smile. She was mostly just humoring the girl—Nell didn’t like to ask for help, and she didn’t know how. Independence was something she embraced, and she didn’t know how to reach out. Perhaps that was her downfall. If she had reached out, things wouldn’t have gone as wrong as they did. ”I think all I need is that, really. You don’t have to coach me or anything.”
In spite of the fact that she wasn’t on too-friendly terms with Arabella, she didn’t want the girl to have to go out of her way to do anything. Self-reliant to a T. ”In the future so you don’t feel obligated to teach me, we could play a sport we both know.” She smirked, acknowledging the fact that Arabella probably liked tennis because she could whip her at it. Wait till I get better, she thought, though she wasn’t smug or anything bitter. She was in friendly spirits most of the time, even when the person she was conversing with wasn’t friendly herself.
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