Forever Young
Arizona's head snapped up when she heard the large metal door of the gymnasium slam shut. She was sitting on the basketball courts smooth wooden floor in a circle with some of her friends who didn't seem to notice the disturbance. She watched as Callie Torres, who was also a junior and 20 minutes late for class, walked up to the P.E. coach in an annoyed fashion. Although the conversation was inaudible from Arizona's distance, she could see that Callie was angry. She was making big sweeping motions with her hands and shaking her head. Coach Kenner stood with his feet shoulder distance apart and his arms folded squarely across his chest. He looked equally annoyed with the brunette and was looking back at her with a stern facial expression. After a few more moments of the conversation, Callie turned on her heel and marched in the direction of the bleachers that was adjacent to Arizona's' groups position on the floor.
When Callie reached the bleachers she dumped her heavy book bag on the floor with a thud that echoed through the gym. She slumped down on the bench and buried her face in her hands, sighing loudly. Shortly after, a thin red headed girl came walking out of the locker room towards her. Arizona noticed her rolled gym shorts and that the issued baby blue gym shirt seemed especially tight around her chest. As she walked she flipped back her long auburn hair and glanced over at Arizona who quickly averted her gaze.
"What did he say, Cal?" the red headed girl said as she plopped down next to Callie.
"Basically, I'm screwed. He said that I missed too many classes to make up the participation part of the grade and that my only saving grace was that I did well on that nutrition essay. But that's still not enough because I have a 68% in this stupid class." Callie exhaled loudly which caused the tips of her straight across bangs to flutter upwards.
"Well there's still three weeks left in this semester, right? We have that presentation that's due Friday that is worth 100 points. If you do well on that it will help your grade. And then we have the 2 mile run and you know how he says if you can run it in under 15 minutes you get all this extra credit, and then there's the final. I'm sure you can get squeeze a B afterall!" Addison gave Callie a goofy smile to try to cheer her up.
"Addison tell me again why we took fucking P.E. as an elective?" Callie asked with a groan.
"Because we thought it would be an easy A. And it would have been, if you didn't screw it up by always skipping." The red head responded.
"You're right. Fuck Coach Kenner. I hate how he always has a stick up his ass." She shot the P.E. coach a nasty look followed by the middle finger that luckily he didn't see because he was busy yelling at a group of boys who were pegging basketballs at the freshmen.
"Fuck high school!" Callie said as she stood up and grabbed her bag off the floor.
"Fuck P.E.!" Addison said back as she stood too.
"Come with me to the locker room, I gotta put on that stupid gym uniform before I lose even more points." Both of the girls walked the length of the court back to the locker room with a smile on their faces, laughing and joking.
Arizona watched from her position on the floor as they turned the corner and vanished from her view. Although having quite a few classes with Callie over the past 3 years, Arizona wouldn't consider them friends. They never really talked and were a part of two different social groups. Arizona's friends were nice, but she often found herself wanting to be alone and to separate herself from them. She wouldn't say she was particularly close with them but she knew that high school was a lot easier when you had people there.
"Yeah, fuck high school." She quietly mumbled under her breath, agreeing with Callie's earlier statements. Her thoughts were soon interrupted as Coach Kenner called the entire class back together to play a game of volleyball. All thoughts of Callie disappeared from Arizona's mind when she tried to balance playing a good game of volleyball without looking like she was trying too hard.
Instead of getting involved in the game, Callie stood around the sidelines and watched it. There were way too many people on each side of the net and it was nearly broken into boys versus girls, the only exception was her exceptionally sluttly friend Addison who was bending over and flipping her long red hair way more times than necessary at the front of the boys team. With a short laugh to herself, Callie continued to survey the class. She noticed the short blonde in the middle of the girl's side who was nervously looking around, obviously self-conscience of how her classmates perceived her, but Callie knew she was probably the only one watching her at that moment. She knew that Arizona Robbins seemed like a cool person, but didn't really stick out in any way.
She thought back to her freshman orientation and how she was seated directly behind her in the bleachers. Callie remembered curiously peeking over her shoulder to read the text message she was typing and joking with Addison when she realized she was texting her mom. After that, there were only a few short conversations in class between the two.
As Callie made her way to sit on the bleachers, Arizona slipped out of the game and went over to her backpack, which was right next to the brunette. Callie watched her walk over and kneeled in front of her bag, digging out her cell phone. Arizona stared at the screen from a few moments and pressed a few buttons. Callie watched her with a smirk and leaned forward, closer to Arizona.
"Who are you texting? Your mom?" Callie said with a heavy tone of sarcasm in her voice.
Arizona's head bobbed up and looked at Callie for a moment, not knowing if she imagined what she heard. When her blue eyes met Callie's brown ones, she noticed the arched eyebrows raised, waiting for a response.
Instantly, a deep blush rose from Arizona's neck and she smiled awkwardly.
"Actually no, I was checking my email." She said quickly and in a defensive tone.
"Oh it was just a joke, didn't mean to scare you, Zonie." Callie said with a smile and laugh.
"No, no, no! You didn't scare me. Did you just call me Zonie?" Arizona asked, tilting her head slightly to the side and eyeing the brunette.
"Yup. Is that a problem? I don't like Arizona. No offense, but all I can think about is cactus… and… tumbleweeds….?" Callie said with a confused but playful tone.
"Cactus and tumbleweeds? Hm. I think you need to get out more often if that's all you can think of when you think of Arizona. Plus, I wasn't even named after the state." Arizona shot back in their playful banter in a matter-of-fact way.
"Oh, then what are you named after?" Callie questioned with genuine curiosity.
But before Arizona could answer, the bell rang signaling the end of class. With that, Callie jumped up, eager to go to lunch.
"Maybe some other time then, Zonie." Callie said with a smile. She stepped over Arizona's book bags and patted her on the head, adding a little shove that made Arizona tilt to her side.
"Hey watch it, asshole!" Arizona yelled at Callie with a smile on her face, but the brunette was already a few paces away. Arizona watched Addison fall into step next to Callie as the pair walked back to the locker room. Arizona felt the smile slowly fade from her face and just before she got up herself to go change, she saw Callie turn around with a big cheeky grin on her face and flash Arizona her middle finger before laughing and turning around. This made Arizona's smile recharge as she laughed at Callie's joking gesture. Both girls changed back into their regular clothes and filed out of the gym to go to lunch, each with their friends but both of their minds still lingering on each other.