It didn't take long for the two acquaintances to find their way to the life sized Gymnasium, especially since all you needed to do was walk or run towards the direction where English was, take a right, and be confronted by two huge doors standing in the way. As the two Who's paced towards the doors, silence remained between the two. Although Cora was used to being quiet herself, she wished that there was at least some conversation that could erupt from Jojo besides his usual pattern of shrugs and sighs. Yet he was probably thinking about his own stuff, his own life. He also probably wasn't interested in talking during the moment, and she was correct; he was trying to focus on getting to GYM, even though his train of though kept him thinking about when his dad would tell the city council that he had other ideas on his own future. And who wouldn't? How would you feel if a whole entire group of authority figures were counting on you to fulfill one of the most important jobs in the whole town, whether of not you were even interested in leading in leading it or not? As he continued his calm pace to the doors, he kept trying to push it aside, yet it always stuck to him like mangled pieces of tape that he just couldn't get off of his fingers.
With in less than a minute, the unlikely duo stood right in front of two, monstrous doors, just waiting to swallow them.
"You go first." Cora offered. With a shrug, Jojo waited patently as Cora opened one of the larger-than-life door flaps. There was no point in arguing, if she wants to open it, then she can open it. He doesn't need to go with the common excuse "ladies first" all of the time. As Cora heaved one of the giant Gym doors, light started to shine through the crack. The small crack of light from between the doorways kept illuminating the end of the hallway until that small formal hint of brightness covered the small Jojo like a sturdy homemade quilt. Jojo started to walk in casually, like the enormous size of this one gymnasium was nothing to gawk about. Cora however, after she peeked out from behind one of the doors, was shocked.
"Whoa..." She said to herself. Who knew that a gymnasium could be THIS big! It had just about everything; at least five climbing ropes, a big rock wall for climbing that took at least half of the space of one of the walls, 9 basket ball hoops, there was even a small tennis court on the upper left hand corner. Cora walked away from behind one of the doors and walked near where Jojo was. It was strange though, how he didn't particularly care about the quality of the GYM. Not that he should, but still. To Jojo it was just another normal irregularity in life, just like himself, at least compared to the "average" Who.
"Gym class ain't as pretty as it looks," Cora heard suddenly. She jumped from her spot before the unexpected voice found it's owner. With one look to the left, Kiwi was standing right next to her.
"Enter the locker rooms; you'll know what I mean." She then finished off with a face that looked as if she had seen a giant wad of ABC gum under an old wooden desk.
"You really don't need to creep me out like that..." Cora commented while getting over the sudden jolt of shock. With that, the talkative Kiwi started rambling on about the horrors of "the dreaded locker rooms of DOOM!" as Cora started asking simple occasional question for Kiwi. Jojo listened for a bit, Kiwi being completely oblivious to Jojo's existence as he watched the two as if he were looking inside of a sealed window. It was how he usually felt when he saw people around him just talking up a storm, ignoring him like that time when he was paired up with two particularly popular Whos during some in school science project. With nothing to contribute to the conversation, he walked away from them and continued on to the boy's locker room, feeling, as always, that he was just a mere outsider looking inward
Cora noticed from the corner of her eye what the small Who was doing. A small sigh appeared from his half frowned mouth; he seemed to show signs of melancholy, and also seemed to feel excluded from something, but what? She was starting to have a train of thought when-
"Cora, Cora? CORA!" Kiwi's voice erased it entirely
"Huh?"
"C'mon, we've gotta head in the locker's before have to run 10 laps for Mr. Meat Head over there!" Kiwi said urgently as she pointed to a muscular Who with a whistle around his neck.
"GO GO GO! 5 more laps, don't be a wimp, just RUN!" He shouted at a scrawny looking Who that was running with all of the limited energy he had left. Cora winced at the powerful. Demanding voice, but before she could do anything else, Kiwi grabbed her hand and ran rapidly to the girl's locker room.
As Jojo predicted, the boy's locker room was a mess. Uncapped deodorant sticks everywhere, random traces of visible fur were stuck in many of the tiny puke yellow lockers and shower drains, and a few pieces of ABC gum were haphazardly inside the locker room sinks. As much as the small Who had a pet peeve for sloppiness, he still stuck to his usual activities for getting ready for yet another uneventful day of GYM. First he would have to take a shower in one of the grime covered stalls, brush his fur so he'll at least look suitable for GYM and of course, deodorant. To help complete his first task, he twisted his fingers along with the dial of his GYM locker to reach for his towel. Yet right when he was opening it, someone just HAD to blurt out a comment about Jojo and his "girlfriend."
"Dude, you've got no respect for your girl..." It was a familiar who, his name was Devon to be precise. An annoying, smooth-talking, double-timing Who that would pretend that he was a "lady's man" just so he could cover the fact that he pretty much treated girls like they were hunks of meat. Ignoring him, he attempted to make his way to the stalls, at least until Devon, as usual, got in his way again.
"Jojo, Jojo, Jojo. if you really want your relationship to last, then maybe you should hold the door up for her." Devon "suggested." As much as Devon wasn't exactly on the scrawny side, the most he'd ever do to Jojo would be to say something embarrassing to him publicly in front of his face. Actually, that's probably the most that anyone would do to him if not less. In Whoville High, bullying tends to be more subtle to an extent, so it's not the common thing to see someone being stuffed into a locker even. Annoyed, Jojo continued on to the stalls, knowing that this was only the beginning to the annoying boyfriend-girlfriend comments.
"Behold, the locker room HORROR!" Kiwi said loudly at the very moment they entered the girl's locker room. The other girls that were opening their GYM lockers suddenly looked at the two Whos strangely, ceasing any conversation that was spiraling around the room. "Um, never mind." Kiwi squeaked silently to the other girls before they could continue their ongoing chatting.
"It's not that bad," Cora commented. Sure, it was a little...grimy, but still. It wasn't as "horrible" as Kiwi described it.
"Well that's because we've just entered. Wait until we get to the more finer details." Kiwi told her while leaving a few questions in her mind. "So, which one is it?"
"Which one's what?" Cora asked with confusion.
"The locker you're taking! Which locker were you givin'?
"Oh! #23, letter P."
"Coming right up!"
Kiwi grabbed a hold of Cora's arm again while leading her to the right locker. When the two got there with ease, Kiwi gestured to Cora's locker.
"Right here, you need help with opening it?" Kiwi asked.
"Don't think so." Cora said, just looking at it's yellow paleness.
"You sure? Cause the seniors jam the empty ones all the time."
"Um, I'll just get you if I need help."
"You really need to stop saying 'um,'" Kiwi critiqued.
"Um, okay- I mean- alright, um- oops! Never mind..." Cora told her while trying unsuccessfully to not saying 'um'.
"Eh, you'll stop saying it eventually. But if ya need me, just find locker #32, letter C." With that, Kiwi left with a small salute as she quested to find her locker. With luck, Cora managed to open up her locker without any help, but only to find that a few living creatures were crawling in it.
"Mold?" Cora blurted curiously yet grossed out. It looked as if it hadn't been cleaned out for years. I'm not using that... she thought. She zipped open her backpack and pulled out a currently clean towel. Then she carefully closed the mold covered locker with a hint of disgust and headed to one of the unused stalls, yet only to realize that someone forgot to clean the drain of their fur.
"If you think that's disgusting, then you should hear the rumors about how bad the boys locker room is." Kiwi said yet again while suddenly standing next to the blue Who.
"Yeah, people should clean up a bit..." Cora said slowly while she was unsure if the locker rooms were even close to sanitary. She picked up the soggy piece of hair, placed in the nearest trash can and headed into the stall. This is ridiculous... the Who girl though as she noticed the hint of grime that covered the stall.
While trailing behind the annoying Devon, Jojo ended up being the last boy to exit the locker room. Not that he really cared, he didn't really mind another five more laps from Mr. Heron, or otherwise known as "Mr. Meat Head". Jojo's fur, just like everyone else that had finished getting ready, was combed to look as if hr were wearing furry GYM shorts and a baggy T-shirt. He headed out to where a few other boys were taking their laps and started running.
"Stop your running and get in a line! We're five minutes late and I DON'T want to waste time!" Mr. Heron shouted at everyone who was running their laps. Some of the Whos that had already finished them were lining up in a row near the right side of the GYM. With a shrug, he joined in with the other Whos, expecting another painful dodge ball game. By then, some of the Who girls were hurrying out of the girls locker room including Kiwi and Cora. Rather than Kiwi's unusually big pig tails and Cora's half pony, their hair were tied up in pony tails. The two Whos stood next to Jojo in the row of kids.
"ALRIGHT YOU LITTLE MIDGETS! I'm expecting all of you to take part in here. You're not the only ones who'd rather not spend time with a bunch of whiny little kids. We're playing a simple game of dodge ball, but this time, their will be a little twist..." The teacher started. All of a sudden, two massive objects that looked like giant colored mechanical cannons hauled in by what looked like two adult Whos in hugely proportioned bicycles going through the larger-than-life GYM doors.
"THOSE are dodge ball canons. They serve as a more, recreational element to the usual dodge ball game." The two machines were each attached to a small conveyor belt where the dodge balls would be put in. The conveyor belt was also connected to a dodge ball sized hole in the bottom of the cannon. Jojo assumed that the conveyor somehow brought the dodge balls near the dodge ball opening and shot it out of the canon. But how? Maybe the conveyor belt brought the dodge ball to a slot with a spring behind it, and that would shoot it up into the air. However the contraption worked, it was pretty interesting to Jojo even though he wasn't saying his "oohs" and "awes" like everyone else was. Who invented this? What other inventions did this Who make? Whoever is was, he must be some kind of recreational genius.
"JOJO! You man the blue one while, uh..."The Gym teacher interrupted his train of thought while having no clue what so ever to Cora's name.
"Cora," She finished with a small nervous voice.
"Right! Cora, Jojo, man the dodge ball cannons, NOW!" His voice demanded. Cora raced up to the purple colored dodge ball since the GYM teacher had already said that Jojo was to manning the blue one. It looked like the teams were separated between girl and boy Whos. Cora climbed up the machine to where the controls were. But I don't even no how to use this, Cora though in a panic. As she got up into a hard cushioned seat, she scanned the cannon to see if there was some sort of instruction manual that went with the large machine. With her eyes giving her no sign whatsoever to it could be, she searched to controls and her seat to find it. C'mon, I know it's here somewhere... She thought. Yet even her attempts to find any sign of a white piece of paper couldn't help her any. C'mon, you have to be here! She though frantically as she was hoping to find the instructions before the game started.
On the other side of the GYM, Jojo knew exactly how to control the amazing machine in seconds. It looked as easy as remembering his own first name. Although the distance between the two seemed far away in the large spaced Gymnasium, he could somehow see that Cora was...nervous, or panicky. Did she understand the directions? Was she thinking that manning the dodge ball cannon was too much? Who knew? Little did Jojo know, Cora was having a bit of a struggle with finding her instructions.
"On the count of three, I want at least HALF of you to put the dodge balls onto the conveyor belt. Alright!?" Mr. Heron shouted while everyone was separated into their two teams. In Cora's mind, this was the last thing that she wanted to happen. She'd rather have her cannon be struck by lighting and then stop working than yet again make an idiot out of herself just because she couldn't find the manual that went with strange new device. She was already considered a noob at Whoville High, and didn't want another slice of bad karma to fit in her already tainted Whoville High reputation.
