Disclaimer: I do not own Ice Age.
AN: Ok, I'm REALLY sorry, but this story's gotta go on hold for a while while I try and finish the story and get ahead of this by a few chapters. Currently my main priority, but will probably be a few weeks before I update. Hope you enjoy, and BIG thank you to those who reviewed, really appreciate it, made my day! :)
Chapter 3:
PE was Manny's least favourite class considering Half-Peak's coach had been their supervising teacher and had promptly took over the PE classes upon sitting in on only one class. Something about it being too weak and too fun, and not building enough character.
Regardless, Manny couldn't help but notice how Diego was the first in and out the changing rooms for PE, jogging on the spot by the time the bell rung. Everyone came in, the Valley students straggling a little with apprehension written all over their faces.
The coach stands at the front, a grim-faced, no-nonsense teacher who glared at almost everyone.
Only the smaller or less athletically inclined ones cringed and tried to make themselves smaller. Manny can practically feel Sid shivering next to him, and resists the urge to glare at his friend for letting this man bully him into submission.
Interestingly, Manny can see Diego and Soto out of the corner of his eyes, both looking equally fierce and glaring back at the teacher.
An interesting dynamic to note, considering from what Manny had heard, this teacher was also their football coach.
"So," the coach says in a loud voice that reverberates around the field. Manny glances at Ellie, who smiles nervously as she tucks a strand of hair behind ear. They were undoubtedly thinking the same thing: this coach clearly meant business, and as a teacher of a special sports school, just how terrifying was his idea of 'business' and 'sports'? "The first thing we're starting is the endurance and relay programme."
Is there such a program? Manny wondered silently.
The coach points at Soto and Diego, then gestures behind him, where Manny notes with a startled jolt lies an array of gym equipment, neatly organised into what could be considered an obstacle course. Manny has never seen so much high-quality equipment, and notes that the gym teacher probably brought it over with him.
What a strange teacher.
"Williams, White, you first!" The coach barks.
The obstacle course starts as a 100 metre sprint, a long-jump, then a wall climb, then climbing up a pole and grabbing one of the many cloths tied to the top, then getting back down, leaping over several objects, then finishing with the coach recording the scores. This actually explained the clipboard that the coach now picks up, a timer attached to it.
Soto and Diego stretch for a couple of seconds before the coach blows his whistle once in warning. The two straighten and then crouch down, ready to go. The coach blows his whistle a second time.
"GO!"
Soto and Diego break into a spring, trying to get ahead of the other. Diego, clearly faster and more agile, jumps without breaking a sweat while the coach examines the sand print. Soto is right on his heels, leaping pretty far as well before he reaches the wall. Being bigger and stronger, Soto easily heaves himself over the wall while Diego is still half-way there.
Even so, seeing his captain reach the ground causes Diego to scramble up faster and jump down mere seconds after Soto. Again, Diego gets the lead as he reaches the pole, scaling it with relative ease.
Soto follows close behind; he manages to grab a piece of cloth the same time Diego did, and they both scramble back down. Diego is just that much faster, but Soto's jump, while less graceful, is far enough that he gets an advantage as they dash to the finish.
The coach blows on his whistle as both cross the finish line. "Diego, 39 seconds, Soto, 39.8 seconds. Good."
As both nod at the praises and bend over, catching their breath, the coach gestures for everyone to line up in two lines, assigning two students a stopwatch and clipboard with sharp orders to keep track of everyone's record.
Manny loiters near the back, observing Diego and Soto jogging over to the lines to help out at the wall. While Soto shouts and scolds, scowling as he bodily handles them into moving over the wall and hurrying up. Diego remains more silent, exasperated as he snaps constructive advice, arms crossed as he watches them climb over while taking his advice.
As the line moves on, Manny notices more Valley students trying to stay in the line with Diego instead of Soto. And, to be fair, while Manny doesn't like Soto's methods all that much, his instinctive deterrence against Diego has him praying he gets Soto's brusque anger rather than Diego's exasperated commentary.
But. Naturally, with his luck, he gets paired with Diego.
Diego looks him over, which makes Manny bristle with indignity. Where the hell does this guy get off judging h-
"Are you going to go?" Diego asks, and Manny realises he's been standing there for a couple of seconds.
The coach is turning towards him suspiciously, so Manny quickly yanks the rope and starts to clamber upwards.
As he does, he scowls again at Diego's monotone, the clear lack of interest in his eyes as he…doesn't even watch Manny make it over before moving on to the next person. Manny's scowl deepens, and when he glances back to the finish line, he doesn't notice Diego's troubled gaze landing on him for a split second before moving on.
Manny reaches the finish line and grabs his water bottle, chugging down water as he sees Diego rushing over to help a mousy looking girl get down from the wall. Soto's snarl is clear to see, while Diego's expression is slightly gentler.
With Diego's presence, the girl seems to gain more confidence and slowly makes her way down the wall.
Manny glances up to see where the coach is, only to notice that he was missing.
What the-?
What kind of teacher was this, leaving students on their own, in PE no less?
When he turns to Diego again, he can't help the spike of anger that shoots up in him, and hastily tries to shove that feeling down.
What was wrong with him?
Diego is the last one out of the changing room. Manny stands with the other five, not processing their complaints about the coach as he absent-mindedly nods at any questions directed at him.
He jumps as a warm hand lands on his shoulder, and turns to meet Ellie's concerned face. "Are you okay?"
Manny nods stiffly and glances at his timetable. "We have English next. Let's go."
Gutt can't help but cock his head to the side upon seeing Manny's odd overreaction to Diego. To be fair, he himself had felt a certain amount of anger at the Half-Peak students, daring to mock Valley and his crew despite their obviously superior station.
Still, this would play out interestingly, and he'd stay to watch as long as he could.
"Gutt?"
Gutt turns. Shira is standing there, eyes alert and ready.
"Go ahead, Shira. I've got something I need to do."
Ellie isn't as obtuse as people seem to think she is. She knows something is wrong. At the very least, something is up. If it were anyone else, they wouldn't notice. But being Manny's girlfriend has allowed her to notice some of the small nuances that make up Manny's feelings, and it is clear as daylight that he doesn't like Diego.
Whenever the boy looks at Manny, Manny's face shuts down. When Diego looks away, Manny starts to glare. When Diego accidentally brushed his arm against Manny as he was heading out of the changing rooms, Ellie had felt the irrational urge to stop Manny before he tried to murder the smaller boy.
She herself felt animosity towards the boy, though clearly not on the scale Manny was feeling. After all, Diego hadn't exactly done anything to her, and he seemed nice enough.
Ellie shudders. Not like that monster, Soto, who she had been stuck with helping her during the obstacle course. Still, she'll keep a sharp eye out, and maybe raise it with Manny when he wasn't in such a bad mood.
The next week went on similarly. Ellie and Manny don't seem to be the only ones to find something wrong about Diego, even with their limited interactions.
In music, Diego is assigned to their group of five, to make a group of six. Ellie is a little peeved at the fact Diego managed to get the Tartini song before they did, but she forces that feeling down. It's not his fault he got something none of them did.
Though she does wonder where he learnt it.
Now that he's part of their group, he couldn't get away with much. Within a few minutes, Ellie learns that Diego had learnt about Tartini - a quite complete learning about Tartini, if his knowledge and facts was to be believed - and that the Trill was one of his favourite pieces.
Still, there is a shared feeling of frustration at Diego's refusal to either answer questions or elaborate, and the group project starts to feel more like a Valley project rather than one which Diego is involved in as well.
Ellie's attempts to diffuse the tensions are largely unsuccessful with Diego's indifference towards then and Manny's constant attempts to antagonise them. The latter has not gone unnoticed, and if anything, Diego seems even more annoyed with them as Manny continuously goes out of his way to ignore Diego.
This might have been the safest course, Ellie thinks, considering her boyfriend's temper, but it clearly wins him no favour with Diego, who seems to favour a more direct approach.
After a few days of this, however, Ellie unwittingly gets used to this treatment, and the nagging little voice in her head telling her not to get too close to Diego soon fades into background noise. Likewise Diego seems to accustom himself to the odd behaviour of the group, going from sharp warnings to exasperated eye-rolling as the days went by. Still, he's usually the first to leave the room no matter what day it is.
Ellie frowns, musing the work they did. Compared to the other groups, they had done quite well. She glances over at where Diego is packing up his bags, putting his stack of books down for a second, then barely dodging out of the way as Shira purposefully swipes a music stand at him.
Diego and Shira growl and then turn away from one another, Diego rubbing his neck as he glares after the silver-haired girl angrily.
As his shirt slips, Ellie can't help but notice a black mark or something poking out of the shirt, something on Diego's back. Almost like a tattoo, or a mark of some kind.
She doesn't get a clear look before Diego adjusts his collar again.
What was what?
