this is what you do with your days
Fandom: Stick It
Rating: PG
Spoilers: A few, mostly for the middle of the film.
Disclaimers: Not mine, never happened.
Archiving: Want. Ask. Receive.
Feedback: I thrive on it and don't get nearly enough.
Pairing: None. The tiniest hints of Haley/Mina, Haley/Joanne.
Comments: This could become a thing. And by thing, I mean series of drabbles based on what Haley may or may not have done with her days outside of what's portrayed in the movie which may or may not connected. I have had a grand total of 0 hours of sleep last night, so if there's any glaring errors I missed feel free to tell me so.
One weekend after you decide you wise up and quit acting like an ass, but before you almost murder him and then elope with his star gymnasts, Vic decides you take you all out to the nearest swimming pool. It's a nice gesture on a hot day after a long, hard, bloodsweatandtears kind of week of training and you all jump at the opportunity. It's a nice place too. It all looks new and shiny, with cool, clean tiles which look enough like marble to pass without scrutiny. It's all shades of white and blue and when you walk out of the locker room the water sparkles under the vast, windowed ceiling. You take a moment to appreciate the fact that Vic decided not to grace you with his presence in trunks and to spot the water slide in the corner before the others flood out of the locker room behind you and you're racing Mina and Wei Wei for the first trip while Joanne rolls her eyes at your childish antics. You take six trips down it, in all manner of positions, while wrestling with Mina for your next go on more than one occasion, before your attention is brought to the diving board that you had somehow miraculously missed. Wei Wei has the bright idea of suggesting you all throw yourself off it and it looks like fun, so you agree to her prodding. You let her and Mina and Lacey and Kate go ahead of you before Joanne orders you to go if you're going and climbs up the ladder behind you.
It's at this point you come to a stark realisation. You can swim like a fish, but for someone who spends a hefty portion of her time running full tilt at a decidedly stationary object and then launching yourself from it, you're terrified of heights. It seems childish in comparison and you create lists of laughable phobias for when people ask what you're afraid of, instead of telling the truth. Now you're stuck on a diving board with Joanne fidgeting behind you and barely restraining the urge to shove you head first into the pool below. In your defence, it seemed like a good idea at the time. But so did putting that skate punk in his place and it landed you here. It looked like fun from down below, but your stomach clenches every time you near the edge and you've decided it wasn't as good an idea as you thought it would be. It's like that summer after you walked out of worlds and you decided it would be a wonderful idea to get drunk at a party because you couldn't work up the courage to make with a guy, a cute guy, who was interested in you and funny and nice, and then got very, very drunk and realised you just didn't like guys and thankfully Poot didn't hold it against you and talked Frank into letting you crash at his place. Joanne's expression softens as she appears to notice your reluctance, while you wander off on a mental tangent. "Still afraid of heights, Graham?" She asks, less sharp than you expected.
"No?" You reply, but your voice cracks and it comes out like a question. She scrunches her nose and lifts herself with the hand rails bordering the first half of the board, leaning forward slightly to whisper in your ear. You're almost nose to nose, a disconcerting position to be in with your almost-archenemy, but the only way to go is down.
"It's not so bad, really." She says, like she's telling you a secret. "Unless you're a hydraphobic now too or something." She seems somewhat less magnanimous now and more like herself. You resist the urge to mock or correct her however. "The way I got over it in the beginning?" Took a running jump right in. But…" And she pauses to look over the side and then gives you a look. "You might not want to do that. Considering we're, like, 10 feet up or whatever. And I'm standing here."
"Technically, you're hanging there." You point out, indicating the fact that she's still hoisted up on the guard rail.
"Technically, you're stalling." She also points out. You think it's a very good point and then close your eyes and jump, before she can point out how high up you are again and you freak out and fall off and die, or something equally embarrassing. There's a split second when you feel like you're going to die and then, when you come back up, it's just like cannonballing into the pool. Only from a great and terrifying height that involves coming face to face with the enemy. You swim over to the edge, where Mina and Wei Wei are waiting for you two to finish your dive, all cool, like you do it every day of the week. Wei Wei's preoccupied with the strap on her bikini, but Mina's smiling, a half smile, like she knows you weren't just having a friendly chat with Joanne on the diving board, but she doesn't say anything except, "Nice dive." with a little nod and then talks you into playing Marco Polo once Wei Wei gets her top untangled.